The Worst Pokemon in Pokemon GO

I’ve written plenty about bad Pokemon, specifically in Pokemon GO. There’s always bad or unlucky Pokemon that just can’t be used for various reasons. Some might be too niche, others might not have the attacks they need to be useful. Some Pokemon have always been useless because they’re just sentient letters of the alphabet. But there’s one particular Pokemon who really stands out, but was doomed from the start.

Let’s get straight to the point. The worst Pokemon in Pokemon GO is Shedinja. A Pokemon that has nothing at all going for it.

“But wait, doesn’t Shedninja have-“

Yes, yes, I know.

In the main series games, Shedinja is quite interesting. Obtaining it is done by evolving a Nincada into a Ninjask, while having an open slot in your party and at least one Pokeball. Basically Shedinja appears out of nowhere, essentially being the haunted shell that Ninjask evolves out of. It’s honestly a little bit creepy, and its pokedex entries about the hole in Shedinja’s back are concerning.

However, Shedinja isn’t just a normal bug type. It has a unique ability and a unique amount of health. Although Shedinja only has 1hp, its ability, Wonder Guard, stops it from being instantly killed by normal attacks. If you want to kill Shedinja, you need a move that does Super Effective Damage. You can use indirect damage too, but that’s not as cool.

Because of this, Shedinja has had, in varying parts of competitive Pokemon, a nice little niche. It can at least force someone to switch Pokemon, to one that can actually kill Shedinja, if their current Pokemon has no way to harm it. However Shedinja does have quite a few weaknesses, things like Dark, Fire, Rock and Fairy.

In Pokemon GO, it has nothing.

One of the big things Pokemon GO lacks is the humble Ability. No Pokemon in Pokemon GO have an ability, and this can cripple a lot of Pokemon, who would normally rely on an ability to have maximum effectiveness. Shedinja is one such Pokemon. Not having Wonder Guard means that Shedinja is as flimsy as ever. You can beat Shedinja with pretty much any move you want, including not very effective moves that it would have been immune to in the main series.

But Shedinja doesn’t even get its health back. You’d think that, because it doesn’t have its ability, Shedinja would be able to have normal health, right? Nope. No matter how hard you try, Shedinja, regardless of IVs and level, will always have 10hp. A level 1, 0IVS Shedinja and a level 50 100% Shedinja share the same amount of health. 10hp. That’s it.

This makes Shedinja completely useless. It doesn’t matter if Shedinja has super powerful moves (it doesn’t), because it will die almost instantly to almost any fast attack.

At the end of the day, a potentially useful or niche Pokemon has been completely gutted. It joins the pile of other useless Pokemon, like Unown, Magikarp and Wimpod. But at least Magikarp and Wimpod evolve into something cool. Maybe one day we’ll get abilities in Pokemon GO. But until then, Shedinja is nothing more than an afterthought.