Novelty Pokémon

A novelty Pokémon, also referred to as a gimmick Pokémon, is a term for a Pokémon species without evolutions, little use in battle, and/or a limited movepool. Such Pokémon usually possess some novel quality about them that makes them unique or interesting but lack the ability to be readily shaped up for battle, causing them to be underused or overlooked. 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.

List of novelty Pokémon

• With many other Pokémon sharing its type and most of its abilities, Farfetch'd was a novelty Pokémon in the first generation due to the fact it was rare and could only be acquired by trading. Farfetch'd itself is likely a reference to trading; its habit of playing fetch is similar to trading. Farfetch'd also gets his own unique item, the Stick.
• Ditto only has one move — Transform — which lets it copy the appearance, types, and moves of its opponents. It is not very useful in battle, but invaluable in breeding.
• Capable of learning only one move, Unown's main purpose in the games is to be collected, a sidequest that consists of finding its 28 forms.
• Shuckle has ridiculously high Defense and Special Defense, making it agonizingly difficult to weaken and good for holding up many attacks. However, it has very low HP, Attack and Special Attack, and, tied with Munchlax, the lowest Speed of any other Pokémon. It is capable of creating valuable Rare Candies 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. However, unlike Unown, it can learn other moves via TMs and breeding. It is largely still considered a novelty Pokémon, though.
• Smeargle learns only one move repeatedly, but this move has the ability to permanently duplicate the moves of other Pokémon. Its stats and rarity mean it is not used as frequently as it could be though but this capability makes it very useful in breeding as well.
• Sableye was the only Pokémon with no weaknesses until Spiritomb appeared in Generation IV. In Generation IV, it still is a novelty Pokémon due to his bizarre but unique ability Stall.
• 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.
• Volbeat was the only Pokémon able to learn Tail Glow in Generation III. However in Generation IV, Manaphy could learn it as well and there is another move that has the same effect as Tail Glow.
• Spinda's main gimmick is the variable designs on its body, in a bit of an expansion of the Unown concept.
• Castform has a unique ability to change form depending on the weather. It was also the only Pokémon to learn Weather Ball until Generation IV.
• Kecleon has a unique ability unto itself; however, this ability makes it notoriously difficult to use in battles.
• Luvdisc are weak and have a poor moveset, but can be caught holding Heart Scales which can be used to teach old moves.
• Pachirisu have very low Attack Stats and none of it abilities have any effect in battle, however is one of the few Pokémon able to learn Super Fang.
• Chatot is comparatively weak 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.

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