Worst Shiny Pokemon of all time

Following our recent list of the best Shiny Pokemon of all time, we’ve put together a list of the absolute worst Shiny Pokemon of all time. When you look at a big list of every Shiny Pokemon, you’ll notice that there are many more average or poor ones than good ones. This is especially prevalent in some of the earlier generations. It’s rumored that Shiny Pokemon colors were originally determined via an algorithm, but we couldn’t actually find any confirmation of this – maybe the developers just got better at picking colors as the years went by. In any case, we’ve looked through every single Shiny Pokemon and included some of the very worst ones here.

The worst Shiny Pokemon of all time

Garchomp

We’re starting off with the obvious ones here, but Garchomp is infamous for being one of the worst Shiny Pokemon ever. Its baby form, Gible, has a solid color palette featuring cobalt blue among a striking yellow. Gabite retains this color too, but it’s all thrown out the window once it evolves into Garchomp. You technically can notice that it’s Shiny, but the difference is so subtle that it’s barely there. In Pokemon X and Y, Mega Garchomp’s Shiny colors are bright pink. Even though this is kind of unfitting on a Pokemon like Garchomp, we’d much rather have it be pink than turning down the saturation a little bit.

Gengar

Continuing the trend of obvious picks, Gengar is another infamous worst Shiny Pokemon. Just like Garchomp, it barely changes. Its signature purple turns into a washed-out gray, which doesn’t even look that cool. Fortunately, both Mega Gengar and Gigantamax Gengar have white Shiny colors instead. We’d absolutely love to see normal Gengar’s Shiny color change to white to match, but we don’t think it’s terribly likely that the Pokemon Company makes such a significant change. Oh well!

Zapdos

Another example of a Pokemon that barely changes color. Zapdos’ yellow feathers become just a little bit more intense, making it incredibly difficult to tell if it’s Shiny at a glance. We distinctly remember hunting for this Pokemon in Ultra Sun and having to do double and triple takes to confirm if it was actually Shiny or not (it wasn’t). A dark gray color palette for the wings and yellow for the beak and the legs sounds much better, while carrying the theme of a thunder cloud. Instead, we get something that’s hardly different at all, cementing Zapdos as one of the worst Shiny Pokemon.

Togetic

Togetic is kind of like the ultimate “is this actually Shiny?” Pokemon out there. Its white colors become the tiniest bit pink, and the colors of its red and blue triangles swap. Togepi at least has much pinker skin, making it more obvious when it’s actually Shiny. Unfortunately, Togekiss retains Togetic’s hardly-different color swap, though its body does turn more of a yellowish-white than blueish-white. Still, Togetic is definitely the worst Shiny Pokemon in this evolutionary line. If you’re playing Dynamax Adventures on Sword and Shield, make sure to double-check any Togetic you’ve caught!

Espeon

This is the first Pokemon on the list whose Shiny form actually is radically different from its normal form. Shiny Espeon is a deep, overpowering bright green, which as you might expect is very noticeably different. That being said – why green? Normal Espeon is purple, so something like white, light pink, or light blue would certainly fit its Psychic-type better, right? Some of you might like Shiny Espeon, and that’s totally fine! We’re just a bit confused on why they went with green but Umbreon got an awesome black and blue color palette.

Slugma

This seems like a random inclusion, but we’re actually including Shiny Slugma due to an unfortunate fun fact. In Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, you can Shiny hunt for Slugma in Kitakami on Oni Mountain. Normal Slugma is red, so it stands out amongst the terrain. Shiny Slugma, however, is gray – and Oni Mountain is the exact same shade of gray. If you decide to Shiny hunt Slugma, the Shiny will blend in extremely well with its surroundings and you might not even see it. Shiny Slugma isn’t one of the worst Shiny Pokemon of all time, but we figured it’s a good time to mention that unfortunate fact. If you do decide to hunt for it, keep a sharp eye!

Stantler

Stantler already isn’t earning many points in the looks department, and its Shiny form isn’t doing it any favors, either. A good amount of Kanto and Johto Pokemon inexplicably turn a bright green for their Shiny form, and this is the case for Stantler as well. Some people might like this color palette since it stands out so much, but we think it’s a little bit unfitting for Stantler. Maybe not the absolute worst Shiny Pokemon, then, but certainly not one of the best.

Elekid

Elekid, on the other hand, is absolutely a contender for worst Shiny Pokemon of all time. It’s barely different when it’s Shiny – the yellow becomes the smallest bit more intense, making it nearly unnoticeable unless you happen to catch the Shiny sparkles when it appears in the wild. Fortunately, the coloration becomes more noticeable when you evolve Elekid into Electabuzz and especially Electivire. At least this Shiny Pokemon gets better as you evolve it!

Regice

There aren’t a ton of egregiously bad Shiny Pokemon in the third generation, but Regice is absolutely one of them. Its blue ice becomes a bit more blue, and that’s it. The problem is, you can only Shiny hunt Regice via soft resetting. And a lot of the areas where you can catch it have strange lighting – namely in Sword and Shield in the Crown Tundra temples, where Shiny Regice is absolutely impossible to notice unless you caught the Shiny sparkles. We would accept literally any other color palette for Regice instead of its current one – it’s as identical to the original as it gets.

Simisear

Simisage and Simipour’s Shiny forms look different enough, but Simisear wound up as one of the worst Shiny Pokemon ever. As is the case for most Pokemon on this list, it’s barely different. Its red fur gains a small percentage of pink, but it’s not enough of a difference to notice the change even side-by-side. Since Simisage becomes a darker green and Simipour becomes a darker blue, we’d rather Simisear just turn into a darker red. At least then it would be noticeable!

Deerling

Deerling is plentiful in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, but if one of them is Shiny, you might not even notice. The key is to check the flower on its head, because that’s the only thing that changes. On the normal form, the flower is yellow. On the Shiny form, however, the flower is pink. It’s not enough of a change to notice from a distance, so if you spot a group of Deerling you have to get up close to double check. We can’t imagine how many people have accidentally run past a Shiny Deerling without realizing it, which definitely earns it a place as one of the worst Shiny Pokemon of all time.

Flabébé

Flabébé is a very difficult Shiny Pokemon to spot in Scarlet and Violet. It’s so tiny! More importantly though, all that really changes is the color of its eyes from gray to blue. This means you really have to zoom in to see if a wild Flabébé is Shiny in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Luckily, Shiny Floette and Florges are a bit more noticeable, so this isn’t a problem that plagues the entire Flabébé evolutionary line.

Minior

As our list of the worst Shiny Pokemon gets longer and longer, you’ll notice there are fewer Pokemon on here from later generations. Indeed, as the years went by the developers did generally get better at giving Pokemon more noticeable Shiny forms. Minior made the list because of its shell form. You can only encounter Minior in this form in the wild, and when it’s Shiny, the shell form is completely unchanged and 100% impossible to notice other than Shiny sparkles. This makes hunting for Minior a nightmare in Scarlet and Violet, because it’s literally impossible to tell if it’s Shiny until you encounter it and see some sparkles. The good news is that the Shiny Minior underneath is black with colorful spots. It’s a shame, because that form of Minior looks awesome – perhaps even one of the best, we’d say – but the fact that the shell form is identical holds Shiny Minior back.

Marshadow

Shiny Marshadow is currently not available in any form, but that’s okay because it barely changes. You can only notice a difference when it goes to attack. Normal Marshadow has green spots on it when it attacks, and Shiny Marshadow has purple spots. When not attacking, there is no visible difference between the two. Like we said, though, Shiny Marshadow isn’t available, so no one has experienced the disappointment of its hardly-changed color palette just yet.

Galarian Farfetch’d

Another color palette that barely changes, which makes Galarian Farfetch’d eligible for the title of worst Shiny Pokemon. Its colors become a bit brighter, but overall it’s hardly different. This is another one of those Pokemon where you really need to keep an eye out for the Shiny sparkles. Fortunately, Shiny Sirfetch’d is incredibly different, and becomes gold instead. We’d say Galarian Farfetch’d being lackluster is worth it for a really cool Shiny Sirfetch’d color palette!

Paldean Tauros

This regional form of Tauros is normally dark gray with a black mane. For the Shiny form, these two colors swap, making it extremely difficult to notice and cementing it as one of the worst Shiny Pokemon out there. It’s incredibly tough to spot a Shiny Paldean Tauros in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, especially given how fast they run around. If you’re going to hunt for this one, we’d almost recommend hatching Eggs – this one is so difficult to notice that it starts numbing your mind after even ten minutes of trying to tell which ones are Shiny and which ones aren’t!

Tandemaus

Tandemaus is a great contender for the single worst Shiny Pokemon of all time. Its little “pants” go from a very, very light blue to a very, very light tan. Tandemaus is so small that it is virtually impossible to notice if a wild one is Shiny or not. This also extends to its evolved form, Maushold, who has the exact same Shiny difference. Definitely one of the most disappointing Shiny Pokemon of all time, and a clear contender for worst Shiny in the game.

Charcadet, Armarogue, and Ceruledge

All of these guys have absolutely horrendous Shiny forms – such that we haven’t seen any positive comments on them whatsoever. You’d think that Armarogue and Ceruledge, being detailed and colorful designs, would have great potential for Shiny forms. What we got, however, was a Shiny palette that is exactly the same as the normal color scheme, except the pupils are different colors. This is an absolutely baffling decision; Ceruledge in particular is a fan favorite, and to have a Shiny form that changes absolutely nothing but its tiny eyes is unacceptable. Definite contender for worst Shiny Pokemon of all time.

Of course, the worst Shiny Pokemon is absolutely a matter of opinion. If you happen to like any of the Pokemon on our list, that’s okay! There are a few honorable mentions we didn’t list here, such as Gholdengo (which is supposedly based on fool’s gold) and the future Paradox Pokemon, which all change to the same shade of gray (but at least they’re different enough to notice). We also tried to leave out most of the unobtainable Shiny Pokemon, such as the Loyal Three and some others – but we did include Marshadow, who is unobtainable but is the worst case of a barely-different Shiny we’ve ever seen.

What do you think are the worst Shiny Pokemon in the series, and which do you think are overrated? Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments below. If you want to see some more Shiny Pokemon compared to their normal colors, you can check out this big list on PokemonDB. Special thanks to Serebii for the Shiny Pokemon images used above!