Shedinja (Japanese: ヌケニンNukenin) is a dual-type Bug/Ghost Pokémon.
It is considered a "special" evolution of Nincada, appearing only when it evolves into Ninjask and there is an extra space in the player's party and an extra Poké Ball in their bag.
Shedinja's body is based of an insect's shed exoskeleton. Therefore, its body is completely hollow (it possesses no internal organs). The shell consists of chitin and is entirely uncapable of movement. As it is the shed shell of a fully developed Ninjask, it has a similar shape to the latter. Shedinja's entire body is brown in color; the abdomen is of a darker shade. There are four protrusions where Ninjask's limbs were growing. What appears to be its eyes are actually slits; perhaps formerly for the Ninjask the shell housed to look through. Shedinja has one pair of tattered wings on its back; each wing divides into three smaller pieces. These wings actually don't perform any function, as Shedinja's body is immobile and levitates. Between it's wings there is a hole, out of which the Ninjask escaped. Two horizontal lines circle its abdomen.
A white halo constantly floats above it's head.
Gender differences
Shedinja is a genderless Pokémon.
Special abilities
It is rumored that if a human peers into its back, the human's soul will be stolen. Shedinja is impervious to direct-damage from all attacks that its type combination isn't weak to. However, any direct-damage from attacks that Shedinja is weak to (or any form of indirect damage) will always knock it out.
Behavior
Shedinja appear to be wise and intelligent Pokémon. They are also very quiet and stealthy, like a Ninja. They are protective over Ninjask but otherwise very little is known about them.
Habitat
Shedinja probably live in forests, anywhere where there are Nincada and Ninjask and many other bug Pokémon.
Shedinja, the Shed Pokémon. Shedinja possesses a hard, powerful body, giving it strong defenses.
In the manga
Shedinja first appeared when Aqua Admin Amber, having been deprived of his Pokémon after being abandoned by Archie, borrows a Nincada from his comrade Shelly, which then immediately evolves into a Ninjask, putting Wattson in quite a pinch with the incredible speed it gained by the minute. Although the old gym leader eventually managed to defeat it, a Shedinja formed from the shell Ninjask shed and attacked him from behind, sending him sinking into the ocean.
Several more volumes down the line, both Emerald and Greta used Shedinja to exploit its Wonder Guard ability, as well as the fact that it has one base HP, requiring no items to resuscitate itself.
Shedinja's hard body doesn't move - not even a twitch. In fact, its body appears to be merely a hollow shell. It is believed that this Pokémon will steal the spirit of anyone peering into its hollow body from its back.
Shedinja is a peculiar Pokémon. It seems to appear unsought in a Poké Ball after a Nincada evolves. This bizarre Pokémon is entirely immobile - it doesn't even breathe.
In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon and its sequel, the standard A-button tackle will do one HP damage and foe Shedinja always has a maximum of 5 HP. However, as a team member, Shedinja's HP is not capped.
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Note: In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness, Shedinja will not be mentioned when evolving Nincada, but will subsequently appear in Chimecho's Assembly.
Shedinja is the only Pokémon whose HP IV cannot be determined, due to it always having the same amount of HP. To figure out a Shedinja's HP IV, one must find out the HP IV of the Ninjask that shed it.
A Poké Ball is only needed to obtain a Shedinja in the Generation IV games. In other games, Shedinja copies the ball that Nincada was in.
A Poké Ball is removed from the player's inventory when they obtain a Shedinja through evolution in Generation IV.
No other Pokémon shares the same typecombination as Shedinja.
Shedinja has the lowest base HP stat of all Pokémon.
Shedinja's base HP stat is also the lowest base stat number of any legitimate Pokémon (although it is higher than Missingno.'s base Defense stat, which is 0).
Due to the fact that its HP is always 1, in Generation IV, it cannot possibly take damage outside of battle (by poisoning), and in Generation III, it can't possibly survive any damage from it.
Shedinja has the lowest base stat total of all fully evolved Pokémon.
Shedinja is also the only fully evolved Pokémon that has lower base stat total than its pre-evolved form, largely due to its HP base stat of 1.
Shedinja is one of only three Pokémon that is not a baby Pokémon to have a different egg group than its evolutionary relatives (if Nincada and Ninjask are considered part of its evolutionary line), being in the Mineral egg group while Nincada and Ninjask are in the Bug group. It cannot breed normally with Mineral group Pokémon either way, however, as it has no gender. The other two Pokémon that share this trait are Nidorina and Nidoqueen.
Shedinja is one of three Ghost-types whose color isn't in the black or purple category. The others are Froslass (white) and Rotom (red).
A Shedinja that appears upon the evolution of a Nincada will always appear with its default name, SHEDINJA, while its Poké Ball will always be the normal kind. Its IVs and EVs are inherited by the creating Nincada, as are its OT and ID numbers. This means that it is impossible to rename a Shedinja which is generated by a traded Nincada unless the Shedinja is traded back to the original game, and thus impossible to ever rename a Shedinja which came from a Nincada transferred through Pal Park.
Due to its ability, Shedinja has the most immunities out of all Pokémon, with 12.
A Shedinja that was taught Mimic by move tutor, may mimic a type changing move (such as Conversion or Camouflage) to change its type to lower or increase its immunities. If changed to the Template:Type2, Shedinja will have 16 of 17 immunities. With only the Template:Type2 super effective.
Despite it being able to learn Rest and Substitute, they will always fail since it only has 1 HP.
Shedinja can still be under the effects of Substitute if given one through Baton Pass.
Shedinja gives 2 EVs in HP when defeated in battle despite having HP as its lowest stat. Also, the EVs it gives is higher than its maximum HP.
Shedinja is the only Pokémon that has its HP restored to max when leveled up with a Rare Candy, since it only has one hit point.
Since Shedinja has only one HP, its Defense and Special Defense stats normally have no purpose in battle.
However, if Shedinja receives a Substitute through Baton Pass, its Defense and Special Defense are factored into damage the Substitute takes.
It is based on the shed husk that cicadas leave behind when they finish their metamorphosis into adults. It may also be based off a guardian angel, due to the 'halo' floating over its head and the fact it's said to be very protective of Ninjask. Its ability Wonder Guard probably alludes to this.
Name origin
Shedinja's name is a combination of shed, casting off skin or exoskeleton, and ninja.
Nukenin is a combination of 抜け殻 nukegara, casting off skin, and 忍者 ninja. Nukenin is also a term describing ninja who have abandoned their clan and lord.
In other languages
German: Ninjatom - A combination of Ninja and Phantom.
Chinese (Taiwan): 脫殼忍者 Tuō Ké Rěn Zhě - Literally "Shedding ninja". 脫殼 can also be derived from the idiom 金蟬脫殼 Jīnchántuōqiào, figuratively "to slip away like a cicada shedding its skin".
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.
For other sprites and images, please see Shedinja images on Bulbagarden Archives.
