There are eight Hidden Moves in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, and while most of these HMs are fairly easy to locate, some are a bit trickier. Fortunately, none of the searching is too bad since, as is the case with most modern Pokémon games, BDSP goes out of its way to point the player toward their next objective, which typically applies to finding HMs as well. However, a select few might have even experienced Pokémon players looking for some outside help when it comes to their locations.
Before touching on that, it's important to give BDSP credit for how it updated its HM system. Unlike the original Pokémon Diamond & Pearl games, it is no longer necessary to have a Pokémon that knows the Hidden Move in order to use it to traverse the world. Instead, once the player finds the HM for the first time, it gets saved to their Pokétch, and assuming they have the necessary gym badge, are able to use said move when exploring at any given time.
This is a huge the original system and makes exploring the world as well as team-building much better. Now that the player only has to worry about finding the HM and not teaching it to any Pokémon, their sole roadblock to exploring all of Sinnoh is just tracking the HMs down. Again, while most of them are very easy to find (some are even given automatically) these are the hard-to-find HMs in Pokémon BDSP that might have the player scratching their head when hunting for them.
Pokémon BDSP Defog HM Is Hard To Find
The Hidden Move Defog isn't in a particularly hidden location, but it still might elude players as it forces them to travel off the beaten path just a little bit. Defog can be found in Pastoria City's Great Marsh area. The Great Marsh is Sinnoh's version of the Safari Zone, and while it contains some highly-sought after Pokémon, the player is never actually forced to enter the building during their adventure, which might cause some people to miss this one.
It costs 500 PokéDollars to enter the Great Marsh, but once the player is in the HM is fairly easy to find, as it's given by an Ace Trainer standing just to the right of the entrance. Again, while this isn't necessarily hidden, the player needs to know to speak with the Ace Trainer to receive the HM. Defog's main purpose is to do exactly as it sounds, clear fog away from some of the foggier areas in the game. The first time the player needs to use this is when they reach Route 210 on their way to Celestic Town.
Defog is a unique HM in the sense that it isn't absolutely required to get through these areas, but attempting to traverse through the game's foggy areas without it is a massive pain, which is why it's strongly recommended that all players track down the Ace Trainer in the Great Marsh before attempting to reach Celestic Town. Defog becomes useable outside of battle as soon as Gym Leader Crasher Wake of Pastoria City is defeated.
Pokémon BDSP's Strength HM Is Easy To Miss
Strength is another HM in Pokémon BDSP that forces the player to go out of their way a bit to find, as the essential Hidden Move can be found on the top floor of the Lost Tower. The Lost Tower is located on the far eastern side of Route 209, and as the name might imply, is a multi-story tower infested with Ghost and Dark-type Pokémon.
Again, while it might not sound like this is a particularly difficult HM to obtain, nothing in the main adventure prompts the player to visit the Lost Tower, so they will have to go out of their way again to secure this HM. While the Lost Tower itself isn't hidden (the player has to walk right past it to reach Solaceon Town) it can be a bit of a hassle to navigate, as it's filled with not only wild Pokémon but also multiple trainers looking to battle. This might cause impatient Pokémon trainers to turn around before reaching the top, and instead choose to proceed on their adventure, which might cause many players to this HM by and not even know it.
Strength is easily one of the most frequently used HMs in Pokémon BDSP, so it's beneficial for the player to carve out some time to explore the Lost Tower as soon as they reach Route 209. Strength becomes usable in the overworld once the player defeats Byron in Canalave City.
Hardest Pokémon BDSP HMs to Find- Rock Climb
Rock Climb is a late-game HM and might be the easiest to miss out of all the Hidden Moves. Toward the end of the adventure, the player has to traverse Route 217 to reach Snowpoint City. As the name of the neighboring city might suggest, Route 217 is covered in snow, which makes seeing anything on the route significantly more difficult than in Sinnoh's other areas. This is where the problem lies, as the Rock Climb HM can be found here, covered by a layer of snow behind a house on the western side of the route.
If the player knows where to look, this HM in Pokémon BDSP isn't too difficult to spot, however once again players trying to rush toward the next city might not find themselves anywhere near the Hidden Move. Rock Climb is needed to reach many late-game locations, so it's very possible that eager players who might have plowed through the route initially will find themselves backtracking on Route 217 at some point trying to find the Rock Climb HM that they missed. Once the player defeats Snowpoint City's Gym Leader Candice, Rock Climb becomes useable outside of battle.
The rest of the HMs in Pokémon: Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are much more straightforward and require little to no effort on the player's part to locate. Defog, Strength, and Rock Climb might be a little more challenging to find, but at least all players can rejoice in the fact that they no longer need to be taught to Pokémon to use like in the old days.