Boldore was introduced as a Roggenrola in Gotta Catch A Roggenrola! when it literally crashed into Cilan's food in distress. Ash battled it, but it managed to knock out both Oshawott and Tepig. It later met Ash again when they came to investigate a tunnel, where they found Team Rocket harvesting wild Roggenrola for their cannon. It too was collected, and Ash managed to save it, but not before Team Rocket caused a cave in with a powerful Flash Cannon created by all the Roggenrola they collected. After they escaped the tunnel, they found Team Rocket in a warehouse where Ash and Roggenrola managed to free the other Roggenrola. Once they were reunited, they sent Team Rocket blasting off with a combined Flash Cannon. After being cured at the Pokémon Center, Roggenrola challenged Ash to a rematch, where it was eventually defeated by Tepig and captured.
In the next episode, Roggenrola was used to help locate where the missing Audino were going. Cilan stated that Roggenrola had sensitive hearing similar to Audino and could pick up sounds that were inaudible to humans. Thanks to it, they were able to find out where the Audino were being kept. It also made use of its Stone Edge by destroying Team Rocket's sound wave machine that controlled the Audino, thus setting them free.
Roggenrola was used in Ash's Gym battle against Clay in Battling the King of the Mines! where it was sent out to counter his Excadrill with its defenses. After Roggenrola's Sandstorm attack fails, it was hit by several Drill Run attacks and finally a Horn Drill. However, Roggenrola's Sturdy allowed it to survive the attack. Afterwards Roggenrola evolved into Boldore, survived another Horn Drill using Sturdy and ended up head to head with Excadrill. Using the red stones on its back, Boldore was able to communicate its new power to Ash and used a new move: Rock Blast. After pushing Excadrill back Boldore revealed to its Trainer that it could use Rock Smash and clashed with Excadrill's same move. Eventually Boldore was able to overcome Excadrill and won Ash the Quake Badge.
In Evolution Exchange Excitement!, Ash used Boldore in a Tag Battle against Bianca's newly evolved Escavalier and Professor Juniper's newly evolved Accelgor, accompanied by Cilan and his Crustle. Boldore was able to hit both of its opponents with Rock Smash at the start of the battle and alongside Crustle, held back Escavalier's Fury Attack. While Escavalier was dodging Crustle's Rock Slide, Boldore was able to hit it hard with Rock Blast until Accelgor came to Escavalier's defense with Substitute. Taking advantage of a weakened Accelgor, Ash ordered Boldore to use Flash Cannon on it, but Escavalier was able to deflect the attack. Boldore was knocked back into Crustle by Escavalier's Fury Attack and, protecting its partner, was knocked out by Escavalier and Accelgor's combined Hyper Beam attacks.
In Rocking the Virbank Gym! (Part 1), Ash used Boldore as his first Pokémon during his Gym battle against Homika, sending it out to face her Koffing. At first Boldore attacked with Sandstorm, but Koffing endured it and countered with Clear Smog. Next Boldore used Rock Blast, but Koffing blocked it and attacked with Gyro Ball. The Ore Pokémon managed to endure it and overcome Koffing's following Sludge Bomb attack with Flash Cannon, but then Boldore was defeated by the Poison Gas Pokémon when it attacked again with Gyro Ball, easily penetrating Boldore's Sandstorm defense.
Personality and characteristics
Ash and Boldore
As a Roggenrola, Boldore has shown to be very resourceful, using a stand alone bowl for defense, as well as using its Flash Cannon attack to destroy falling boulders, or its Sandstorm to put out a fire. It also appears to care deeply for others and goes out of its way to ensure their safety, such as the lengths it went to save the other Roggenrola, even to go as far as to risk its life facing Team Rocket's mecha head on. It also made sure other wild Pokémon in the general area knew of the impending danger, despite the issue not involving them. This is also seen in Where Did You Go, Audino? when it sought out the missing Audino with its hearing ability.
After evolving, Boldore was shown to retain its friendly personality, even affectionately climbing on top of Ash when he hugged it after he won his match against the Driftveil City Gym LeaderClay.
