Palkia is a light-purple, theropod-like Pokémon with stripes and markings of a darker shade and gray underarms and waist. It has round purple-striped plates on its shoulder area, where two pink pearls lie encrusted with a gray rim encircling them and fins in their back. Palkia's arms have extended formations resembling gauntlets and a purple band around each wrist. Palkia has a long neck, a pointed white crest on the top of its head that extends to its wings, two strong horn-like tusks on the sides of its jaw, and a powerful tail. It has faint cracks along its legs and tail. As seen in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness, Palkia is capable of traveling by creating a large yellow sphere from its two pearls, then using it to fly very fast.
Palkia has the ability to warp space, though it was said to create alternate realities as well. Palkia can use the power of space to travel to either faraway places or other dimensions. The space it controls can become more stable with its own breath. Palkia has the power to create a new universe by itself or with Dialga. Palkia lives in a spatial dimension, making its behavior nearly impossible to study. However, Palkia has been seen in violent conflicts with its counterpart Dialga. It is known to be very protective of its home as well. It has also been referred to as a deity in Sinnoh myths. Palkia is the only known Pokémon that can learn Spacial Rend.
The Origin Forme of Palkia is believed to be Palkia's true form. It is believed that Palkia did this to resemble Arceus in order to gain its power. Palkia can walk on all four legs while in this form and fly. In this form, it can unleash meteors, purple waves, and light blue shockwaves that can harm humans. Palkia was worshiped by the Pearl Clan who refer to Palkia as Almighty Sinnoh.
In the anime, Dialga's temporal powers posse
In the anime, Palkia's spatial powers possess the ability to connect two dimensions through several dimensional portals and also has the ability to fix everything back to normal.
A Palkia appeared in JN089 and JN090, where it was a target of Alternate World Team Rocket, along with Dialga. Using a Red Chain, Team Rocket forced the two Legendary Pokémon to fight, creating time distortions that caused Pokémon to start devolving and eventually revert into Eggs, which Team Rocket would then steal and raise to be their own. The battle was finally stopped when Ash, Dawn, Goh, Chloe, and their alternate world counterparts prayed for Arceus to do so. Freed from the Red Chain, Dialga and Palkia then undid all the devolutions their battle had caused.
Other
In The Battle Finale of Legend!, Palkia and Dialga were summoned by Cyrus on the Spear Pillar. They were put under his control through the use of the Red Chain and were tasked by him to open a portal to another dimension, wanting a world of his own. After the Red Chain's destruction and Cyrus's exit, Palkia and Dialga rampaged, creating a danger for Sinnoh. However, the two were calmed down and sent away with the help of the lake guardians.
In Hoopa and the Clash of Ages, Palkia was one of six Legendary Pokémon summoned and hypnotized by the shadow Hoopa Unbound as its reinforcements. It and its teammates engaged in a battle against the Latios, Latias, and ShinyRayquaza summoned to protect the real Hoopa in Dahara City. Eventually, after the shadow Hoopa was sealed in a Prison Bottle, the hypnosis on Palkia and the other Legendary Pokémon was lifted, and Palkia departed for its home.
In The New World, Palkia and Dialga were captured at Spear Pillar by Cyrus, who intended to use them to destroy the world and create a new one. Along with Dialga, it was freed by Giratina before they could help Cyrus succeed in his goal.
GOTCHA!
A Palkia briefly appeared as a silhouette in GOTCHA!.
Palkia debuted in The Rise of Darkrai manga adaptation, where it was fighting Dialga. In the Arceus and the Jewel of Life manga adaptation, Palkia, along with the members of its trio, were summoned by Sheena to help Ash and his friends. Palkia and the other members of its trio soon engaged Arceus in a battle.
Palkia, along with the members of its trio, appeared in PBK5 where it fought against Shin's Abomasnow and Mamoswine and defeated the latter. It fought against Yū Shirogane and lost.
Palkia first appeared in Creeping Away from Cradily. Palkia, along with Dialga, was summoned by Cyrus in order to create a new world. Cyrus used the Red Chains to force Dialga and Palkia to fight each other in order to distort time and space and create a portal that would swallow the existing world. Diamond, Pearl and Platinum worked together with their Pokémon to free Dialga and Palkia from their controlled states.
Later on, an accident with handling Charon's machine caused Dialga, Palkia and Cyrus to be dragged into the portal before it closed completely.
It was revealed that Giratina imprisoned both Dialga and Palkia in the Distortion World before setting off into the current dimension to wreak havoc. Soon, Cyrus and Diamond met in the Distortion World, and agreed to free Dialga and Palkia using their Pokémon. Dialga and Palkia later resumed their struggle against Giratina in the Distortion World. When Charon decided to escape from the Distortion World on Giratina, Pearl got on Palkia and chased after him. Giratina was eventually defeated, with Dialga and Palkia forcing it back into the Distortion World for good before both returned to the Spear Pillar.
Palkia was created in the Sinjoh Ruins, along with Dialga and Giratina, by Arceus's creation process, which was forced by Team Rocket's Four Generals. Knowing that the creation process would threaten the Johto region, Team Rocket's true leader Giovanni returned with Lance and Pryce to keep the creation trio at bay while Gold tried to calm Arceus down. Palkia was kept at bay by Lance and his Dragonite. Once Arceus was eventually becalmed, Dialga and Palkia departed from Johto and were spotted by Cynthia.
Palkia occasionally appears on the Spear Pillar stage as one of three Pokémon that controls it. It only appears on the stage when the ground on the upper level has a purple tinge to it. Unlike Dialga and Cresselia, however, it will use its powers to distort the stage in multiple ways. Some examples include tilting the stage, turning the stage completely upside down, and reversing the screen itself (the last two will cause the movement controls to be reversed temporarily). It often shoots beams in the cave below, dealing a lot of damage to the players that get caught in the blast.
Trophy information
"A Spatial Pokémon. In the Sinnoh region, this Pokémon has been revered for many generations, much like Dialga. Dialga warps time, but Palkia has control over space. It lives between parallel dimensions and is known for its power, rumored to be able to warp space. It can use Spacial Rend to rip through the very space an enemy resides in, damaging the foe at the same time. It is Pearl's mascot."
Palkia appears as a Pokémon released from a Poké Ball. It uses Spacial Rend, which flips the stage for a time, and can cause damage. Palkia also causes damage on contact.
Palkia trophy in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS
Palkia also appears as a trophy in both versions of the game.
Trophy information
NA: Stories surround this Legendary Water/ Dragon-type Pokémon, saying that it has control over all of space. Its Spacial Rend attack will tear space and flip the screen upside down. When this happens, the left and right controls of the fighters will become flipped as well.
PAL: Stories of this Legendary Pokémon say that Palkia is a god that controls all of space. When it uses its Spacial Rend attack in Super Smash Bros., it causes the screen to flip upside down. If that wasn't confusing enough, it also flips the left and right controls!
Palkia returns as a Pokémon summoned from a Poké Ball, using Spacial Rend like its appearance in For Nintendo 3DS/Wii U while also gaining a Spirit. Palkia cannot be summoned on 3D Land, Arena Ferox, Balloon Fight, Brinstar, Dream Land GB, Golden Plains, Green Hill Zone, Jungle Japes, Mushroomy Kingdom, Mute City SNES, Paper Mario, PictoChat 2, Prism Tower, Reset Bomb Forest, Spear Pillar (for obvious reasons), Suzaku Castle, Tomodachi Life, Tortimer Island, WarioWare Inc., or Yoshi's Island. Palkia's Spacial Rend will not be able to flip the stage upside down if a fighter is equipped with a spirit with Screen-Flip Immunity, though it will still remain on stage to damage any opponents who touch it. Palkia also reprises its role as a stage hazard on the returning Spear Pillar stage. Spear Pillar now allows for any of the three Legendary Pokémon to appear each time, rather than being set for the whole match.
Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia: Palkia appears as a bonus boss during one of the Ranger Net extra missions. Palkia was injured from a battle with Dialga and entered Hippowdon Temple. In its pain, it warped the space of the Almia region and caused all of the locations of Almia to be shuffled together.
Pokédex entries
This Pokémon was unavailable prior to Generation IV.
This Pokémon is feared as a deity in Hisuian legend. The birth of Palkia was what caused the walls of our world to disappear, creating a sky that spans for infinity.
It soars across the sky in a form that greatly resembles the creator of all things. Perhaps this imitation of appearance is Palkia's strategy for gaining Arceus's powers.
Game locations
This Pokémon was unavailable prior to Generation IV.
At the end of one of Palkia's roars from the Pokémon anime, a roar from Mecha King Ghidorah, a kaiju from the 1991 Toho film, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah can be heard.
Palkia, along with Dialga, may be based on the Shinto legend of Izanami and Izanagi, who is said to have created one island with a spear, erected a pillar on it, and from there created the islands of Japan. Appearance-wise, Palkia is likely based after a European dragon combined with a pearl. Its appearance may also be derived from the Plateosaurus or other bipedal dinosaurs such as the Oviraptor. Its Water type is possibly inspired by its association with pearls, or the large space that oceans are known to span. Metaphorically, it could be a reference to the ever-changing forms of physical matter in the universe, with energy and matter flowing between states and changing forms. It could also refer to the Ancient Greek astronomy depicting Earth submerged in water.
Name origin
Palkia is derived from the Japanese spelling of pearl, パール pāru, and possibly alkali, referring to its association with water, or the asteroid Planckia.
In other languages
Language
Title
Meaning
Japanese
パルキア Palkia
Derived from パール pearl and alkali or the asteroid Planckia
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.
Lustrous Orb (100%)
Gold Bottle Cap (100%)
For other sprites and images, please see Palkia images on the Bulbagarden Archives.
