What Are The Best Shadow Pokmon To Use
There are plenty of choices for great Shadow Pokémon, and the best to use depends on the situation. That being said, the best Shadow Pokémon tend to be those that already have a high attack stat in their base form, as the Shadow boost makes their attack stat skyrocket. The best Shadow Pokémon also tend to have a decent defense stat, as even with the reduction, they can withstand a bit of damage.
An example of this is the difference between Weavile and Sharpedo. The former is better than the latter in general, but their Shadow versions make the gap between them much larger. Shadow Weavile, one of the best glass cannons in the Pokémon series, is one of the better non-Legendary Shadow Pokémon, and Shadow Sharpedo, on the other hand, is much less viable. Both share the same attack stat, but while neither has an exceptional defense stat, Weavile’s is high enough to allow it to survive for a bit during a raid battle. Sharpedo’s, however, leaves it being knocked out very quickly.
Team Rocket: Why You Want To Purify Your Shadow Pokmon In ‘pokmon Go’
Pokemon GO
Team Rocket is here in Pokémon GO, for good this time. After a brief appearance in what appeared to be a limited technical test, everyone’s favorite anime villains are now invading the world, darkening Pokéstops with their evil but charming visage and challenging trainers with surprisingly challenging fights against their evil-looking shadow Pokémon. But fear not! The Pokémon are not actually evil. They are merely misunderstood, as is often the way with Pokémon.
Shadow Pokémon are the newest Pokémon type here in Pokémon GO, joining lucky and shiny as one more set of carrots on sticks to keep us all outside and walking. But unlike lucky and shiny, “shadow” can be more appropriately understood as a state rather than a definition: a shadow Pokémon is not doomed to be a shadow Pokémon forever. Once you catch them you can spend some stardust to “purify” them, turning them back to a regular Pokémon with a special identifier commemorating their journey. But is it worth it?
There is the obvious fictional reason to purify them: we are told that these are gentle creatures who are twisted with pain, and it is on us trainers to help them out. So if that matters to you, that might be reason enough. But this is a video game and we are concerned with success: there are reasons to purify there, too.
The reason not to purify them is mostly down to your collecting impulses. Do you want all the stuff? Shadow Pokémon constitute some of the stuff.
The Data: How Shadow Perform Compared To Non
As we delve into how the Shadow Bonus affects individual Pokémon, we will be using the data collected below. Heres a brief explanation of how to read this data:
Shadows in the Toxic Cup
Take a look at the data compiled of the top five ranked Shadow Pokémon in the Toxic Cup below.
The summary stats, such as number of wins, show an overall minimal difference in Shadow Pokémon performance in the Toxic Cup. However, as the data below indicates, individual matchups can be significantly impacted.
Shadows in Great League
We see similar data in the open Great League meta.
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Removing Frustration And Gaining Elite Moves
Shadow Pokemon are sort of indirectly time-gated in terms of their usefulness. Unless you want to unlock a second move slot to circumnavigate it, Frustration is the single biggest block to the utility of Shadow Pokemon in the game. In order to remove it without purification, youre going to need to wait for another special Team Rocket event, and were not sure how frequently they will show up currently. As of the writing of this article, we’ve had a total of one and it’s already been months. Beyond this, many Shadow Pokemon such as Salamence and Metagross genuinely want their Elite moves to reach maximum potential, forcing players to either wait for the next Community Day revisit in December or invest an Elite TM.
How To Get A Shadow Pokemon
To catch a Shadow Pokemon, you have to visit a Pokestop that has been raided by a Team Rocket grunt. Now, you have to defend the Pokestop from them to take back its control. Once a Team Rocket grunt would leave, you can see a shadow Pokemon nearby. Later, you can catch this Pokemon just like you catch any other Pokemon.
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How To Purify Shadow Pokmon In Pokmon Go
Now that you’ve rescued a Shadow Pokémon from Team Go Rocket, it’s time to purify it.
First, you’ll want to find your chosen Shadow Pokémon in your Pokémon storage. Shadow Pokémon have a purple flame next to their picture, like how Shiny Pokémon have a set of silver stars.
Once you’ve picked a Shadow Pokémon, you’ll discover that there is a new option available above ‘Power Up’ and ‘Evolve’ – Purify.
Purifying a Shadow Pokémon will cost a specific amount of Stardust and Candy depending on which Pokémon you want to Purify and how strong it is. A Squirtle, for example, will need 2,000 Stardust and 2 Squirtle Candy to be purified, while a Blastoise will require 5,000 Stardust and 5 Squirtle Candy.
Select ‘Purify’ and then ‘Yes’ on the confirmation window to watch a cutscene of your Pokémon being cleansed of the evil that has invaded its heart, leaving you with a newly purified Pokémon.
What Exactly Are Shadow Pokmon In Pokmon Go
A mechanic originally introduced in Pokémon Colosseum, Shadow Pokémon are Pokémon who have been corrupted to be forced into criminal endeavors. It’s not hard to tell them apart from their normal counterparts as they have a purple aura around them and completely red eyes. They are in constant pain and need Pokémon trainers to rescue them and Purify them. Now that Team GO Rocket has invaded Pokémon Go, they’ve brought along armies of Shadow Pokémon.
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The Shadow Pokemon Boost
In the simplest terms possible, Shadow Pokemon now see a boost to their attack stats, and a drop to their defense to compensate. However, this does not affect their base stats or CP, instead being applied to them as a buff similar to weather.
In order to break it down, here are the exact changes that a Shadow Pokemon sees in performance:
Shadow Pokemon Stat Changes
| Defense | x5/6, or about -17% |
In practice, this generally raises a Shadow Pokemons DPS substantially while leaving their TDO roughly the same. They also dropped the 200% Stardust/Candy cost on powering up and teaching two moves to 20%. In order to add the final lair of completion to these monsters, Niantic also released a Team Rocket event with a short time-window that allowed players to make use of a normal Charged in order to remove the moveset-pariah that is Frustration. With this final ingredient, Shadow Pokemon became unbound and were truly released into the Pokemon Go metagame in full force.
Pve Defensive Moves Explanation
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Poison Jab has double the power of Bite when factoring in STAB.
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Poison Fang can be used frequently as a 3-bar move, but isn’t particularly strong.
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Stone Edge is superior for its early damage window.
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Earth Power is decent as a 2-bar option, but it has a late damage window.
- Sludge Wave and Earthquake, though both have STAB, are easily resisted or reacted to.
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Pokmon Go Purified Pokmon Benefits
Purified Pokémon have a number of perks that set them apart from other Pokémon, which include:
- The Candy cost for powering up or evolving the Pokémon will decrease by 10%.
- The Stardust cost to powering up or teaching the Pokémon a secondary move will decrease by 10%.
- The Purified Pokémon will learn Return – a 3 bar Normal type move, which is great for Normal type Pokémon.
- IVs will be increased by 2 in every stat – Attack, Defence, HP.
- Finally, a Purified Pokemon’s level will increase – the cap on this increase is level 25.
Thank you to ControvT from reddit for the help with this information.
Purified Pokémon will have a blue star next to them in your Pokémon storage.
Due to the Candy cost, it’s worth catching non-Shadow Pokémon as you play, so that you will be able to quickly purify Shadow Pokémon after you catch them. This will help you build up a strong collection of new Pokémon and level up your Purifier medal.
Below you’ll find a complete list of all the currently released Shadow Pokémon in Pokémon Go – it will help you plan out your new catching regime!
Great And Ultra Leagues
These leagues have CP-caps, giving Pokemon with low attack and higher defenses an edge due to the way that CP is calculated. However, the Shadow Boost can interact with it in interesting ways due to the fact that it changes stats without changing CP. This can greatly change many matchups and make shadow Pokemon basically entirely different from their shadow formes. In theory, the best use of a Shadow Boost is in a Pokemon that gets most of its bulk from its HP, as it will minimize the loss to Defense, though many glass-cannon Pokemon go all-in and enjoy the added wins that the boost to their high attack power can bring. A good rule of thumb is that if the shadow nerf doesnt generally reduce the number of charged attacks that a Pokemon can take in its most important matchups, then the boost is worth it. However, this isnt the whole story. Here are a few examples of the differences that shadows can bring to the table:
Another note-worthy attribute of Shadow Pokemon is the change in breakpoints and bulkpoints . Because shadow Pokemon have such a radical stat-shift, they will frequently reach new breakpoints and lose several bulk-points along the way. This can shift individual matchups quite a bit, and even farther separates shadow Pokemon from their basic versions
A player whose goal it is to have every base covered in terms of team members made may want to make both a normal and a shadow version of a given Pokemon.
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Things Beginners Should Know About Shadow Pokemon
Shadow Pokemon are a special typing within Pokemon Go. Here is everything a beginner would need to know about them.
While there are many different types of Pokémon that appear in Pokémon GO, the Shadow type Pokémon operate differently than the others. Originally appearing in Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, Shadow Pokémon are Pokémon that have been stripped of their emotions, making them into cold-hearted creatures designed specifically for battling.
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Shadow Pokémon certainly look cool, but it is important to understand how they function and what makes them different. As trainers encounter Shadow Pokémon, they are forced to make a number of decisions such as whether or not to purify the Pokémon and whether or not the Pokémon is worth powering up.
With new Pokémon GO Shadow Pokémon being added as time goes on, the meta surrounding them changes. However, the importance of these Pocket Monsters remains. Because of the nature of Shadow Pokémon GO creatures, they tend to be very useful for raid battles. While some are also viable in the GO Battle League, this is not true of all of them. One thing is certain: Shadow Pokémon were a game-changing addition to Pokémon GO, and they are here to stay.
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Thats it, really. Purification may make these Pokémon more useful and easier to power up, but if youre going for a collection, and really, who isnt, you are probably going to want to collect and keep at least one copy of every Shadow Pokémon the game introduces. Right now thats just a handful of Gen 1s, but it will no doubt expand over time. And I mean, have you seen some of these Shadows? Theyre incredibly cool.
As for me, Ill probably split between Purifying Pokémon I find from Team Rocket and keeping the best Shadow ones I see for my uh, evil Pokémon collection, I suppose I have to call it. Right now these battles are rare and tough and catches are not guaranteed, but this does not appear to be a limited time event, and it seems like this mechanic will be in the game for the long haul.
So, what are you leaning toward? Saving Pokémon or leaving them evil?
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Pokmon Go Shadow Pokmon Currently Available
On May, 18th, 2021, the following Shadow Pokémon were introduced as part of the Luminous Legends Y event:
- Tangela
- Horsea
- Snubbull
- Poochyena
- Makuhita
- Electrike
- Starly
- Skorupi
On April, 1st, 2021, the Shadow versions of Aipom and, in turn, Ambipom were introduced.
On February, 2nd, 2021, the following Shadow Pokémon were introduced:
- Swinub
- Nosepass
Shadow Pokemon And Their Place In Pokemon Go
Pokemon Go has long been a game rife with controversy. From the lack of support for rural players to event-exclusive moves, it seems like our game has always been one that had some issue standing out in one way or another. We have always had an elephant somewhere in the room, and we likely always will. Lets face it a game that had such a meteoric rise at its start was bound to out-grow itself, and were still feeling these growing pains today. However, one issue stands out on the current Pokemon Go landscape as an anomaly that most players dont seem to fully know how to approach or address the semi-recent buff to Shadow Pokemon.
The entire Gamepress Pokemon Go team agreed to largely ignore Shadow Pokemon on their release. Why? Because we believed that it would see a change in the near future. Much like the nerf to Lock-On shortly after its release, we thought that wed see a reduction in performance for the Shadow Bonus in the coming weeks after. However, we are now several months out and it seems that the buff to Shadows is here to stay. As such, its finally time to bite the proverbial bullet and examine these Penumbral Pokemon and see exactly what they are, how they perform, and what the future may hold for our Rocket-influenced friends.
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The Math Behind Shadows: A Different Approach
Why do certain Pokémon benefit more from the Shadow Bonus while others appear to take a step backwards?
The answer appears to be not as simple as a single parameter. None of the measures we looked at correlated directly with how many wins were gained in the open Great League meta. However, through the use of symbolic regression through genetic programming, we were able to extract a function of the fast move damage per turn, maximum Attack, and maximum Defense, that correlated well with the data we have collected.
That function is
Where F is the fast move damage per turn, A is the maximum Attack of the Pokémon, and D is the maximum Defense of the Pokémon. This function was not constructed to predict whether or not a Shadow Pokémon will be better than a non-shadow Pokémon, but rather to see which factors, in which capacity, influence the benefit gained from Shadow Pokémon the most. You may note that where the Defense stat is used, its always subtracted from the Attack stat. Finally, we may conclude that how well a Shadow Pokémon performs is primarily a function of its Attack and Defense stats, with some small influence from the fast move damage per turn.
Should You Purify Shadow Ho
What should you do?
Image via Pokémon Gos Twitter
Whenever you capture a shadow Pokémon in Pokémon Go, theres a small debate if you should purify it or not. A shadow Pokémon has 20% more attack power than its regular form, but it also lowers its defenses by 20%. Also, shadow Pokémon know the default charged move frustration, and they can only remove it during specific times in Pokémon Go. Beyond these time frames, theyre stuck knowing frustration. By purifying a shadow Pokémon, they return to their standard form, their attack and defense power are normal, and they can learn charged moves. Do you want to purify shadow Ho-Oh?
For most shadow Pokémon, it all comes down to if you can remove frustration. Niantic has gotten better about having more events that make it so players can remove a shadow Pokémons frustration. Shadow Ho-Oh is the same way. However, because it is a legendary Pokémon, obtaining its shadow version is much more difficult. The only way you can do that is by defeating Giovanni, and the shadow legendary Pokémon he captures rotates out pretty often. It also comes down to obtaining a Super Rocket Radar, the only way to locate Giovanni.
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