Shadow Tier¶

Shadow is the first rung of the tier ladder: Shadow, Corrupt, Void, Abyss, Eternal, Infinity. Every deeper tier starts here. There is no tier below Shadow; the step down from Shadow is a normal Pokemon.

Getting a Shadow Pokemon¶

There are four ways to end up with a Shadow-tier Pokemon:

Cloning Machine: turn one of your own Pokemon Shadow. Loading three Netherite blocks gives the maximum 99% success chance. This is the only risky step on the ladder: if the attempt fails, the Pokemon is lost forever.
Trial chamber vaults: unlocking a vault can release a catchable wild Shadow Pokemon.
Bad Omen village trainers: while you carry a Bad Omen in a village, forced trainer battles can bring a Shadow Pokemon you snag mid-battle.
Orre snags: scripted snag targets throughout the Orre story.

Wild Shadow Pokemon are caught with a normal Poke Ball. Trainer-owned Shadow Pokemon are snagged: weaken one, then throw an ordinary Poke Ball.

Level cap¶

Tier	Level cap
Shadow	100

A Shadow-tier Pokemon gains no experience at all while it is shadow. Its battle XP is banked and paid out in full the moment you purify it. Because it never gains levels, no candy works: Rare Candies and rare sodas are rejected on every tier, and Exp Candies are rejected on Shadow specifically until the Pokemon is purified.

Stat scaling¶

Shadow adds a small offensive bump over the Normal form: Attack and Special Attack go up, everything else is unchanged.

Stat	Normal Bulbasaur	Shadow Bulbasaur
HP	45	45
Attack	49	53
Defense	49	49
Sp. Atk	65	70
Sp. Def	65	65
Speed	45	45
Total	318	327

Look¶

Name color: a black to purple to black gradient.
Aura: a purple haze that pulses around the Pokemon. It turns dark red while the Pokemon is in Hyper Mode and bright red in Reverse Mode.

Tier rules¶

Shadow Moves only. A Shadow-tier Pokemon fights exclusively with Shadow Moves. It relearns some of its normal moves into blank slots only as its heart gauge drains, and it cannot learn TMs or TRs until purified.
Cannot evolve. Evolution is frozen until the Pokemon is purified.
Can Mega Evolve or Gigantamax if the base species can.
Hyper Mode and Reverse Mode. Only Shadow-tier Pokemon slip into Hyper Mode and Reverse Mode, and only when player-owned.

Purification¶

Purifying returns the Pokemon to its Normal form, swaps its Shadow Moves back to a regular moveset, and releases all the XP it banked while shadow. Do it at the Purification Shrine once the heart gauge is empty, or instantly with a Time Flute.