HM locations in SoulGold: where to get Surf, Fly, Strength, Waterfall, Rock Climb and Dive

Every HM in SoulGold works without teaching it to anyone. Own the HM, hold the badge for it, walk up to the water or the boulder, and you use it. Your team keeps all four move slots for the whole game.

How HMs work in SoulGold

You need two things for each field move, the HM itself and the badge that unlocks it. You don’t need an HM slave, and you never have to delete Cut off your starter.

1. Pick up the HM from the place in the table below.
2. Beat the gym that unlocks it. If nothing happens when you face the water or the rock, you’re missing the badge.
3. Walk up to the obstacle and press A.

Turn on Fast HMs in the Options menu. It skips the yes/no prompt every time you cut a tree or push a boulder. I turned it on after the third tree in a row and never went back.

The game also lets you release your only Surf ‘mon now, since you don’t need one. Box whatever you like.

Every HM in SoulGold, roughly in story order

HM	Move	Where	How you get it	Badge to use it
HM05	Flash	Sprout Tower 3F, Violet City	Gift	Falkner’s
HM06	Rock Smash	Route 36	Gift	Falkner’s
HM01	Cut	Ilex Forest	Gift	Bugsy’s
HM03	Surf	Ecruteak City Theater	Gift	Morty’s
HM04	Strength	Olivine City Café	Gift	Morty’s
HM02	Fly	Cianwood City	Gift	Chuck’s
HM10	Whirlpool	Rocket Hideout B2F, Mahogany Town	Gift	Pryce’s
HM07	Waterfall	Ice Path 1F	Item ball	Clair’s
HM09	Rock Climb	Victory Road 1F	Gift	Clair’s
HM08	Dive	Your rival’s house, New Bark Town	Gift, postgame	None, but you must be Champion

Chuck, Jasmine and Pryce can be beaten in any order, so Strength, Fly and Whirlpool may come to you in a different order than this.

Where to get Surf

HM03 Surf is a gift at the Ecruteak City Theater. Pick it up while you’re in town for the gym. You don’t need a Water type in the party to use it.

Where to get Strength (HM04)

HM04 Strength is a gift at the Olivine City Café. You’ll want it for the four-boulder puzzle on Ice Path B1F, where the boulders drop through holes to the floor below. The Psychite inside Mt. Mortar needs Strength too, so come back with it.

Where to get Fly

HM02 Fly is a gift in Cianwood City. Once you have it and the badge, open the Region Map in your Pokégear and fly from there. You don’t need anything in your party that learns Fly.

Route 50 gets its own Fly point once you’ve walked into the Battle Café in the postgame.

Where to get Waterfall (HM07)

HM07 Waterfall is an item ball on Ice Path 1F, not a gift. It sits on the far side of an ice field, so you’ll be sliding for a while. I walked past the ice puzzle the first time, got to Blackthorn, and had to go all the way back for it.

Waterfall matters most in the postgame. Ice Path B4F has a waterfall up to the Depths, and Mt. Mortar’s Depths need it too.

Where to get Rock Climb (HM09)

HM09 Rock Climb is a gift on Victory Road 1F. It only works once you have the 8th badge, so you’ll see climbable walls all game that you can’t touch yet. Make a note of them.

Rock Climb opens these spots:

• The Rock Climb cave in Blackthorn City, where the Kubfu maze is.
• Ice Path Depths, with Chien-Pao, TM14 Blizzard and Heavy-Duty Boots. It needs Waterfall too.
• Mt. Mortar Depths, where Heatran is. It also needs Waterfall.
• The Rock Climb spot in Cianwood City, which has a Gold Bottle Cap.
• The Rock Climb spot outside Mt. Mortar, which has Room Service.

The puzzle solutions guide walks through the Kubfu maze and the Heatran cave.

HM08 Dive

Dive is the last HM and the only one locked behind a questline. It’s a postgame gift from your rival.

1. Become Champion and finish your rival’s event at Mt. Silver.
2. Go to your rival’s house in New Bark Town and talk to them.
3. Catch Cresselia at the Lake of Rage. Talk to the Hidden Power guy, then head to the north-east corner of the lake.
4. Bring Cresselia back and show it to your rival.
5. Go to the Cherrygrove City inn with Cresselia in your party and beat Darkrai.
6. Go back to your rival’s house. They give you HM08 Dive there.

Dive gets you to Kyogre and Groudon. For Kyogre, surf south from Route 33 and take the first left to the dive spot. Groudon is through a dive spot on Route 50. The legendary locations list has both, plus the Darkrai inn steps.

Rock Smash, Cut, Flash and Whirlpool

These four come early and you’ll barely think about them.

• HM06 Rock Smash is a gift on Route 36. Smash every rock you pass, because they drop shards you can sell. Ice Path B4F has ten of them.
• HM01 Cut is a gift in Ilex Forest.
• HM05 Flash is a gift on Sprout Tower 3F in Violet City.
• HM10 Whirlpool is a gift on Rocket Hideout B2F in Mahogany Town.

Next, check which gym badges you’re still missing on the gym leader guide, since every HM here waits on one.