It was said in feudal Kalos that although there are many rare pokemon whose power benefits the nobility, pokemon battles are for everyone, for even the lowliest serf in the bleakest famine can afford to train a Helioptile. Helioptile were never the primary choice of the peasantry, for wild pokemon were if anything more common in the agrarian Kalos of that era, and it was customary for nobles to allow peasants in their service to spare a farm pokemon from the slaughterhouse if it showed sufficient promise as a combatant. (A custom which served as much to fill the nobles' levies as to entertain through sport; a well-trained pokemon was far stronger in wars of this era than a poorly equipped militiamen.)
But there is truth in this saying, for while other pokemon would be abandoned to the wild or even eaten in times of desperation, Helioptile need neither food nor soil, and have little nutritional value, so their trainers were never forced by hardship to abandon them. Indeed, these hard times saw them pressed into service as beasts of burden – for although they are far from perfect at this task, one can do a great deal with stubbornness, energy, and a powerful electric charge, and these efforts loom far larger when everyone else is starving.
Today, Helioptile are often forgotten; although few trainers would ever abandon their prized pokemon, the younger generations eschewed them as a reminder of hard times. The capture of electricity did not restore their popularity, for their electrical output, although sufficient for battle, is far too small to power modern appliances. But when faced with fierce snowstorms and power outages, Helioptile gladly serve as emergency batteries, and the people of Kalos remember why their ancestors loved these pokemon so long ago.