On Powering Up Shadow Pokemon

I think we’ve all heard it, how Shadow Pokemon are stronger than normal Pokemon. We had an event over Shadow Mewtwo, one that was so highly rated that my entire Pokemon GO group decided to meet up and play. In fact, Shadow Mewtwo is probably the most powerful Pokemon in Pokemon GO, not including things like Mega Pokemon and Primal Reversion. If you’re a hardcore player, then you’ve probably got a maxed out team of Shadow Mewtwos, all pimped out with Psystrike, all ready to go.

But is that even really feasible? Is that going too far? Probably. The question is, what IS going too far? And what even are the benefits of Shadow Pokemon?

The biggest thing Shadow Pokemon have is a 20% attack bonus, while having 20% less defense compared to normal Pokemon. This bonus is constant and stacks with weather boosts. The lowered defense may seem like a harsh downside, but quite often, especially in raids, enemy Pokemon do enough damage that 20% more doesn’t really matter. If your Pokemon is about to faint after the next charge attack from a boss, that 20% less defense isn’t really noticeable.

There are definitely times when you want to use Shadow Pokemon. When it comes to doing raids with as few players as possible, a Shadow Pokemon can be the difference between success and failure, simply because that 20% extra damage. In raids, a Shadow Pokemon with 0 IVs is technically better than a normal Pokemon with perfect IVs. In the GBL though, Shadow Pokemon aren’t always better, because the most common Pokemon tend to be a lot tankier, designed for out-living an opponent rather than doing as much damage as possible. Funnily enough, sometimes a Purified Pokemon is better, thanks to Return. But this only really applies to Sableye.

But Shadow Pokemon require a huge investment of both candy and stardust. Not only do they cost more to level up, but giving a Shadow Pokemon a second move can cost a small fortune. For a Shadow Legendary Pokemon, you’re looking at 120,000 stardust for a second move, generally so you can get around Frustration, until a Team Rocket Takeover event allows you to freely TM Frustration away. For a hardcore player, that’s fine. For a normal player, that’s a small fortune. You often also want to use an Elite TM on a lot of meta Shadow Pokemon, especially for the likes of Mewtwo, starter Shadow Pokemon or Metagross.

Should you power up every useful Shadow Pokemon though? Do you need to have a team of six Shadow Pokemon for every raid? I don’t think so, unless you are trying to shortman raids, or even try to do them solo. And even then, you probably only want a team of five, because you’ll want to have a Mega Pokemon as well.

Personally, I am pretty tight when it comes to Shadow Pokemon. I only power up good Shadow Pokemon (i.e. 3-star Pokemon), and the only ones that maxed out are my 100% Shadow Pokemon. Anything else and I’d be permanently out of stardust. However, I do think it’s a good idea to have 1-2 good Shadow Pokemon that get used all the time, like Mamoswine or Tyranitar. If you’re going to be spending vast amounts of resources, you might as well spend it on good Pokemon who get used on the regular. A team of Shadow Charizard might be a bit over the top, but with how many Dragon types there are, a bunch of Shadow Mamoswine will go a long way.

However, despite that, it’s 100% worth powering up a 100% Shadow Pokemon. Assuming you get one. Because Shadow Pokemon get very random stats, just like normal, wild Pokemon.