spoiler Using Strength before Chapter 10

[TeneSicarius]

Something I noticed on my 3rd replay of Rejuvenation was that Erick is the badge that gives Strength, even though beating Flora / Florin gives you the actual HM. I wanted Prankster Whimsicott for the Rift Gardevoir fight, so I was thinking about how I could get it without boarding the train to GDC. I tried using Golden Gauntlets, but they had the Use button disabled. So I went to bulbapedia to see if anything learned Strength without a HM, and saw the only Gen 7 to do so was Machamp. So I used a Link Heart on Machoke, since Machamp learns Strength on evolution, and it worked. I got all the Strength blocked things like Reaper Cloth, Gastly, Feebas, and the Caratos Mountain vendor. There's still only 2 blast powder this early, so you have to choose between getting Abra, Prism Scale, or the Caratos Mountain vendor. I left the prism scale, obviously, but in a future playthrough I could get a Milotic without having to wait until right before Adam. 

[OmegaStellarSolare]

32 minutes ago, TeneSicarius said:

Something I noticed on my 3rd replay of Rejuvenation was that Erick is the badge that gives Strength, even though beating Flora / Florin gives you the actual HM. I wanted Prankster Whimsicott for the Rift Gardevoir fight, so I was thinking about how I could get it without boarding the train to GDC. I tried using Golden Gauntlets, but they had the Use button disabled. So I went to bulbapedia to see if anything learned Strength without a HM, and saw the only Gen 7 to do so was Machamp. So I used a Link Heart on Machoke, since Machamp learns Strength on evolution, and it worked. I got all the Strength blocked things like Reaper Cloth, Gastly, Feebas, and the Caratos Mountain vendor. There's still only 2 blast powder this early, so you have to choose between getting Abra, Prism Scale, or the Caratos Mountain vendor. I left the prism scale, obviously, but in a future playthrough I could get a Milotic without having to wait until right before Adam. 

Prankster doesn’t work against Rift Gardevoir due to having Dark type, I believe.

[TeneSicarius]

Prankster Tailwind and Misty Terrain don't target though. 

[loghorizon]

Although I also tried the Golden Gauntlet, with no success whatsoever, I never thought of  trying a Pokemon that could learn Strength via level up. Good thought, thanks for sharing!