More of the worst Shiny Pokemon of all time

A few months back, we covered some of the worst Shiny Pokemon of all time. Most of the time, they’re considered poor because they’re barely different from the original. But we only listed about 20 Shiny Pokemon there, and today we’ve got a fresh batch of even more horrible Shiny Pokemon. This is a subjective list, of course, but we’ll try to keep it as objective as possible – especially in cases where the Shiny form looks almost identical to the original.

More of the worst Shiny Pokemon of all time

Poliwag

Shiny Poliwag’s exact colors change throughout each generation, but in Scarlet and Violet, Shiny Poliwag is one micro-shade of a lighter blue color. Pokemon HOME’s render has Shiny Poliwag look much lighter than the original, but the actual Shiny Poliwag that appears in-game is barely distinguishable from its standard colors. Only the sharpest of eyes will notice if a wild Poliwag is Shiny or not!

Slowpoke

This is another Shiny that’s barely noticeable in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Compared to the original, Slowpoke is a shade of pink lighter. But if a wild Shiny Slowpoke isn’t in a group, it’s tough to tell if it’s actually Shiny unless you encounter it. Plus, the game’s lighting can fake you out sometimes and make a normal Slowpoke look Shiny.

Dodrio

The first Shiny on our list that isn’t close to the original colors is Dodrio. For some reason, it takes on a sickly green coloration that’s common in Kanto Shinies. But it looks pretty bad on Dodrio – the color is very unnaturally bright, which helps it stick out. But not necessarily in a good way.

Goldeen

Goldeen isn’t a Pokemon that many fans care about in the modern day. Which is strange, because The Pokemon Company has given most Kanto Pokemon plenty of love – but not this one. The Shiny is more orange than the original, so it is noticeable. But it’s not enough of a change to warrant Shiny hunting such a plain Pokemon.

Tauros

Paldean Tauros made our previous list, but this time we’re talking about the Kantonian Tauros. Much like Dodrio, it’s a sickly green color. Which doesn’t make a ton of sense for a bull – at least for Shiny Paldean Tauros, it makes sense that some of them would have their fur colors swapped. But Tauros just turns into this bright highlighter yellow-green color, and it’s completely unfitting. But it’s at least noticeable!

Hoenn Water-types

These Shiny Pokemon aren’t bad on their own, but there’s just too many of them! The Hoenn region has plenty of Water-type Pokemon, and plenty more that turn purple when Shiny: Mudkip, Marshtomp, Swampert, Sharpedo, Wailmer, Wailord, Feebas, Spheal, Sealeo, Walrein, and Kyogre. That’s far too many! Carvanha’s Shiny form is green and teal, and while those colors wouldn’t be the best pick for Sharpedo, they would at least make it stand out.

Plusle

If you’re trying to hunt this in Scarlet or Violet, good luck! It’s almost indistinguishable from the original thanks to Chargestone Cavern’s lighting. Minun’s Shiny form is at least green compared to the standard blue, but Plusle is just a deeper red color. It’s barely any different!

Burmy and Wormadam

Whereas Mothim has a surprisingly great Shiny, these two barely change color compared to their original versions. Their cloaks don’t change color, but their faces do become a slightly brighter shade of blue. Other than hatching Eggs, the only way to obtain Shiny Burmy or Wormadam is by knocking them out of trees. Not a great Shiny, given the effort you need to put in to get them!

West Sea Gastrodon

This is the pink one, to be clear. For this Shiny, the pink color becomes washed-out and the brown becomes an odd yellow-ish green color. It’s noticeably different than the original, but the color combination just isn’t very pleasing to look at.

Togekiss

Togetic was featured on our previous list, and now Togetic is featured on this one. It’s another one of those Pokemon where it’s technically noticeably different from the original. Rather than a blue-ish white, Togekiss’s Shiny form becomes an eggshell white with inverted red and blue triangles. But it’s still not good enough — a significantly different color scheme would’ve been a much better choice.

Leafeon

It seems obvious to make Leafeon’s Shiny form based on autumn leaves, but that’s not the case here. Instead, it’s based on… slightly darker-colored leaves?? It’s noticeably different, but it’s laughably poor. Such a shame, too, given that Shiny Umbreon and Shiny Sylveon are among the best Shiny designs out there. Especially the former.

Dusknoir

Shiny Duskull and Dusclops are both deep red. You’d expect Dusknoir to be red as well, but instead it takes on this dark-blue color scheme that isn’t super different from the original. It’s got no cohesion with the rest of its evolutionary line and sticks out from them in a bad way.

Tranquill

Kind of in the same boat as Dusknoir, Tranquill is a completely different color than the rest of its evolutionary relatives. Pidove is mostly the same, but with a blue tint. Unfezant has more brown colors and a purple mask, whereas Tranquill is completely green for reasons unknown.

Tynamo

Eelektrik and Eelektross have decent Shiny designs, but not Tynamo. Its shade of white changes a little bit, and the little yellow line on its side turns orange. If you’re hunting this Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet, there’s almost no way you can notice if it’s Shiny in the overworld due to how small it is.

Mega Latias and Latios

These are arguably some of the weakest Mega Evolution designs in the series as-is. If they were colored like Latias and Latios, it would work – but their standard forms make them both purple for some reason, which makes Mega Latias and Mega Latios look almost identical. Maybe that was the point, but it winds up removing their individuality. Their Shiny forms turn them both into a sickly green color, which is completely different from their standard Shiny colors. If Shiny Mega Latias were yellow and white and Shiny Mega Latios were teal and white, that’d be a different story.

Solgaleo

This one is definitely a hot take! For its Shiny form, Solgaleo trades in its white for a deep red, which makes it look like it’s got bad sunburn. Lunala has the same color scheme, but this thematically works for it – it makes it look like a blood moon. That’s not true for Solgaleo, though, and it would’ve been nice to see it with maybe some blue Shiny colors to go against Lunala’s.

Gholdengo

Gholdengo is one of the most difficult Pokemon to get in Scarlet and Violet. Catching a Gimmighoul is fairly easy, but collecting the 999 Gimmighoul Coins it needs to evolve certainly isn’t! And then when you do evolve it, it looks just about identical – except the golden bands on its body are silver instead of gold. It’d be much cooler if Gholdengo’s entire body turned silver instead, or even bronze. You could say the Shiny is based on fool’s gold or something, but a more noticeable color palette would’ve made this a good one instead of a bad one.

Between this list and our last one, are there any poorly-designed Shiny Pokemon you think we missed? If so, feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments down below. If you want to see some more Shiny Pokemon compared to their normal colors, you can check out this big list on PokemonDB.