Novelty Pokémon

A novelty Pokémon, also referred to as a gimmick Pokémon, is a term for a Pokémon that possesses several of the following characteristics:

• Does not evolve into or from another Pokémon
• Has a movepool limited to very few moves
• Has a unique ability
• Has below-average base stats
• Has another unique feature.

These Pokémon are often hard to come by, and may be simply given to the player once per game.

Although nearly all Pokémon can be used in a battle effectively, novelty Pokémon appear to be more added to flesh out the Pokémon world than to be actually used or as fodder for potential evolutions later. Many of these Pokémon became viable participants in Pokémon Contests after they were introduced in Generation III, and some fans believe that the introduction of contests were to give players a reason to use these weaker Pokémon.

List of novelty Pokémon

• Farfetch'd was a novelty Pokémon in the first generation due to the fact it was only acquired by in-game trade. After Generation I, Farfetch'd has been relegated to being simply a novelty namely due to its common typing and dismal stats (none being over 65); in addition, Farfetch'd was given its own unique novelty item, the Stick.
• Ditto only has one move — Transform — which lets it copy the appearance, types, moves, and stats (excluding HP) of its opponents. Before Generation V, Ditto was not very useful in battle, but is invaluable in breeding.
• Unown's main purpose in the games is to be collected, a sidequest that consists of finding its 28 forms. Capable of learning only one move, it is nearly useless in battle and contests.
• Wobbuffet has very high HP, but is only capable of learning four moves, and a further three from its pre-evolution Wynaut. It was also the only Pokémon with the Shadow Tag ability prior to Generation V.
• Shuckle has very high Defense and Special Defense, making it extremely tough. But it has very low HP, Attack and Special Attack, and it is tied with Munchlax for the lowest Speed of any Pokémon. However, it is capable of creating valuable Rare Candies in Generation II if one has it hold an Oran Berry.
• Delibird is capable of naturally learning only a single move and is the only Pokémon who can learn it naturally. Unlike Unown, it can learn other moves via TMs and breeding, but it is largely still considered a novelty Pokémon because of its poor typing and low stats.
• Smeargle learns only one move repeatedly, but this move has the ability to permanently duplicate the moves of other Pokémon. Its stats and rarity may look dismal, but with the capability to learn every move, it is very useful in breeding egg moves to Pokémon, as well as using Baton Pass well.
• Sableye was the only Pokémon with no weaknesses until Spiritomb was introduced in Generation IV.
• Plusle and Minun were created to showcase the double battle addition to the series in Generation III. As such, they are difficult to use separately, owing to few other Pokémon possessing the ability to power them up.
• Shedinja is protected from most attacks due to Wonder Guard, but it is also the only Pokémon to have 1 HP. In addition, it has a unique evolution method.
• Spinda's main gimmick is the variable designs on its body, in a bit of an expansion of the Unown concept. However, because it has extremely low stats, and is of the ever-common Template:Type2, it is not considered to be very useful in battle.
• Castform has a unique ability to change form and type depending on the weather. It was also the only Pokémon to learn Weather Ball until Generation IV. However, the same things that make it unique also make it extremely difficult to use in battle.
• Kecleon has a unique ability that causes it to change types whenever it is hit by an attack; however, like Castform's Forecast, this ability makes it notoriously difficult to use in battles, as it can be taken advantage of for super-effective hits every time.
• Luvdisc are known to be weak and have a poor moveset, but can be caught holding Heart Scales, which can be used to teach old moves.
• Burmy and its various cloaks are considered just to be an example of the new location based evolutions, as well as the items that can be received by collecting all three.
• Chatot is relatively weak compared to others of its type, and it also has a low catch rate, but it can use Chatter to repeat back messages recorded on the DS microphone.
• Basslao is rather weak compared to others of its type, but it is the only Pokémon that has four different abilities. It also has two different forms, with the rarity of each form differing between Pokémon Black and White.

This article is a part of Project Fandom, a Bulbapedia Project that aims to write comprehensive articles on every aspect of the Pokémon Fandom.