Shadow Pokemon and Tiers¶
Shadow Pokemon are corrupted Pokemon with boosted stats, their own Shadow Moves, and a dark aura. Beyond Shadow, the Cloning Machine can push a Pokemon up a ladder of tiers, each stronger than the last: Shadow, Corrupt, Void, Abyss, Eternal, Infinity.
Getting a Shadow Pokemon¶
- Cloning Machine: turn one of your own Pokemon Shadow. Mew, Ditto, and ghost-palette Arceus and Silvally cannot be used (Unown can be turned Shadow, but cannot be pushed past Shadow). The machine only runs once you load three blocks, and the block type sets your success chance: three Gold Blocks give 24%, three Diamond Blocks 48%, and three Netherite Blocks the maximum 99% for the first Shadow step.
- Trial chamber vaults: unlocking a vault has a 15% chance (30% for ominous vaults) to release a catchable wild Shadow Pokemon at levels 60 to 80.
- Bad Omen villages: while you carry a Bad Omen in a village, forced trainer battles have a 30% chance to include a Shadow Pokemon you can snag mid-battle.
- Orre region: scripted snag targets throughout the story.
Wild Shadow Pokemon are caught with a normal Poke Ball. Shadow Pokemon owned by trainers are snagged instead: weaken one in battle, then throw an ordinary Poke Ball at it just like a wild catch. The ability to snag from trainers comes from the Snag Machine in the Orre story.
The tier ladder¶
You climb the ladder at the Cloning Machine, one tier at a time. Each attempt has a maximum success chance (reached by boosting with Netherite blocks), and failing has a different consequence at each step.
| Tier | Max upgrade success | On failure | Level cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow | up to 99% | the Pokemon is lost forever | 100 |
| Corrupt | up to 60% | resets to normal | 120 |
| Void | up to 36% | drops to Shadow | 150 |
| Abyss | up to 18% | keeps its tier | 200 |
| Eternal | up to 12% | keeps its tier | 400 |
| Infinity | up to 3% | keeps its tier, with a 1 in 1,000 chance the Pokemon is lost | 1000 |
Turning a normal Pokemon Shadow is the riskiest step: if it fails, the Pokemon is destroyed. Higher tiers are safer on failure but far less likely to succeed.
The shadow gauge¶
A Shadow-tier Pokemon has a heart gauge shown above it. The gauge drops as you use the Pokemon: battling with it, walking around with it in your party, and using the Call command all wear it down. Once the gauge empties, the Pokemon is ready to be purified. Corrupt and higher tiers do not have a gauge.
While a Pokemon is Shadow-tier it does not gain levels or experience. Instead its experience is stored up and paid out all at once when you purify it.
Incense¶
Give your Shadow Pokemon an incense to hold and its gauge drains faster while you walk. How fast walking drains the gauge depends on the Pokemon's nature; a held incense adds a flat bonus on top of every walking tick. Each tick spends one of the incense's charges, and when the charges run out the incense is consumed and you are notified.
| Incense | Extra gauge drain per walking tick | Charges |
|---|---|---|
 Lax Incense | +25 | 32 |
 Rose Incense | +25 | 32 |
 Odd Incense | +50 | 64 |
 Rock Incense | +50 | 64 |
 Sea Incense | +75 | 128 |
 Wave Incense | +75 | 128 |
 Full Incense | +100 | 192 |
 Pure Incense | +150 | 256 |
Hyper Mode and the Call command¶
A Shadow-tier Pokemon you own can slip into a wild state during battle (Pokemon owned by trainers never do):
- Using a Shadow Move has a 30% chance to trigger a mode, split evenly between Hyper and Reverse.
- Using an ordinary move has a 30% chance to trigger Reverse Mode directly.
- In Hyper Mode it obeys only about 30% of the time, and if left unchecked for five turns it worsens into Reverse Mode.
- In Reverse Mode it fights normally but takes about 6% of its max HP in self-damage each turn.
Snap it out of it with /call during move selection. The called Pokemon skips its move that turn, but it calms down and stays calm as long as it remains in battle. You can call each shadow Pokemon once per turn.
Shadow Moves¶
Shadow Pokemon fight with Shadow Moves. Instead of normal type matchups, Shadow Moves compare tiers: a higher-tier attacker hits a lower-tier target for extra damage, while an equal or lower tier hits for less, and Shadow Moves are never fully resisted. They include heavy hitters and disruptive effects like Shadow Mutilate, Shadow Half, Shadow Sky, Shadow Shield, and Shadow Squeeze. As a Shadow-tier Pokemon's gauge drops, it relearns some of its normal moves into empty slots. The full chart of all 38 Shadow Moves is on the Shadow Moves page.
Purifying a Shadow Pokemon¶
Purification turns a tiered Pokemon back to normal, swaps its Shadow Moves for regular ones, and releases all the experience it banked while shadow. There are two ways to do it:
- Purification Shrine: the shrine in Orre. You need to have completed the Relic Forest quest and be carrying a Shadow-tier Pokemon with an empty gauge. Step into range to begin the purification.
Time Flute: a rare reward from the Orre story. Right-click your own shadow Pokemon while it is out of battle to purify it instantly. The Time Flute works on any tier, not just an empty-gauge Shadow.
Once purified, a Pokemon can level up, evolve, gain experience, and take candies again.
What tiered Pokemon cannot do¶
- Shadow-tier Pokemon cannot learn TMs or TRs until they are purified.
- Shadow-tier Pokemon do not level up or evolve while they are shadow, because their experience is banked until purification.
- Corrupt and higher tiers level past 100 normally. They keep earning battle experience all the way to their tier's cap, and Exp Candies work too. Rare Candies and rare sodas never work on any tiered Pokemon, and Shadow-tier Pokemon gain no experience at all until purified (it is banked and released on purification).