The Pokémon Company came up with an utterly brilliant concept in 1999 when it first introduced shiny Pokémon for Gold and Silver. How could they get gamers to want to keep playing when they’ve done all there is to do? How can they give players a rush beyond the excitement of winning a battle and catching a Pokémon, both of which get old fairly quickly? By introducing an exceptionally rare, often beautiful variant of a Pokémon.

It’s the quintessential carrot on a stick, and it works so well. Players have spent countless hours searching for that off-color Pokémon. A lot of them are incredibly wonderful alternate colors. Some, however, are not. These are the best and worst shiny Pokémon in the franchise’s history.

The 19 Best Shiny Pokémon

19. Charizard

Charizard is an excellent shiny Pokémon. Going all-black is a wise decision for most shiny Pokémon that go down that route, and Charizard was among the first. The orange is iconic, but orange isn’t exactly a pretty color, so swapping it for black is really smart.

18. Palossand

In a similar vein, Palossand is a beautiful shiny, too. It’s also black, but it makes a lot of sense. Black sand is a rare alternative to regular sand in the real world, so mirroring that in the games is brilliant. It also looks cool as a black sandcastle, which really helps.

17. Beedrill

Green shinies can be hit or miss, but this one really shines, pun intended. Beedrill’s green is vibrant and fun, unlike that of Nidoqueen or Sandshrew. It doesn’t really tie in to the Pokémon itself, but it’s just a really good-looking alternative to the standard and perhaps boring yellow and black.

16. Bishard

Bisharp pulls a reverse Gyarados, going from red to blue. The blue, however, is so crisp. It’s a sharp blue, which works so well with the actual design of the Pokémon. Pawniard’s shiny is good, too, but the bigger Pokémon gets more blue to show off.

15. Ninetales

There are far too few grey shinies in the Pokémon franchise, but the ones that do get that envious secondary color are truly special. Ninetales is perhaps the best. It is a sleek grey with blue tips at the end of its nine tails to illustrate its Fire-type status. It’s a smart design that also happens to look incredible.

14. Psyduck

Psyduck’s cool blue is absolutely gorgeous. It fits with the Water typing and just looks so much better than the plain yellow. It’s so good that players often hesitate to evolve to a shiny Golduck simply because the color is not nearly as good.

13. Blacephalon

Blacephalon’s shiny is a masterclass in colorfulness. It’s bright, vibrant, and so much fun. It’s decidedly more blue and darker than its original, but it manages to keep the same happy vibe the main design has, too.

12. Furfrou

Dog Pokémon routinely get really good shinies, like Houndoom and Zacian, but Furfrou might have the best. It’s a white dog that turns black when shiny, so it has the black advantage, and it works as a stark contrast. Being different is key, and there is almost no way to be more different.

11. Gyarados

Gyarados is a really awesome Pokémon, so it’s fitting that its shiny variant is so good. Shiny Magikarp is cool, but the royal red really stands out on its evolution. It’s one of those instances of a change in shiny color theme working well for the evolution, because that red fits Gyarados so much better than the standard blue, even if it is a Water-type.

10. Lucario

Lucario’s yellow shiny is really well-done. It’s not bright yellow that becomes painful to look at. It’s not dull enough to look ugly, either. It’s also used sparingly, so it doesn’t become overbearing. The basic blue that the regular form has is fine, but this is a really nice upgrade.

9. Rockruff

Rockruff has an adorable shiny. The light blue is a perfect changeup from the tan color it features since it’s pretty much just a dog. The blue shade gets slightly worse when it evolves (no matter the form), which only makes the base evolution stand out.

8. Moltres

Pink shinies are usually very good, and Moltres is no exception. It does have the unfortunate distinction of somewhat vaguely resembling a raw chicken, but the pink shading is pink enough to distract from that, and it pairs really well with the red flames.

7. Slugma

As mentioned, grey shinies are gorgeous. Slugma’s shiny alternate is grey but borders on white, which makes it truly exceptional. The red design of its standard form makes sense thematically, but I’m a sucker for a grey/white shiny, and this is one of the coolest.

6. Xerneas

Xerneas is one of the best shinies in Pokémon, but with a major caveat. It looks good ordinarily, but when it’s in action, it jumps to a new level. Its antlers become somewhat of a rainbow, which makes it stand out even further.

5. Snorunt

Snorunt’s shiny is literally cool blue, which makes perfect sense since it is an Ice-type. It’s fantastic, looks good, and works with the Pokémon itself, which doesn’t usually matter but is always a nice bonus. It helps that the shiny gets significantly worse when evolved.

4. Haxorus

There’s just something about a shiny black lizard Pokémon. It works every single time, and Haxorus is an easy standout. The normal version features an interesting yellow that doesn’t really work all that well, so swapping it out for black was a stroke of genius.

3. Pumpkaboo

Pumpkaboo’s shiny swaps out the pink and brown color scheme for a purple and black alternative. The latter is so much better. Not only does it look better, but it also fits the spooky theme for one of the true Halloween Pokémon out there.

2. Incineroar

Incineroar has two things going for it. It’s a partly white shiny, and it’s a really clever design since it is a Fire-type Pokémon. The white represents white hot, and the red plays right into the fire theme. It’s excellent and a marked improvement on the normal color.

1. Lechonk

Lechonk’s shiny is better across the board. It is a Pig Pokémon, so using pink is fantastic, but it does it well. The bright pink works as a major shift from the black body it usually has, and the male and female evolutions are strong, too.

The 12 Worst Shiny Pokémon

12. Pikachu

Pikachu doesn’t sport an ugly shiny, and it’s sort of iconic. It’s just a shame because it could’ve been so good, and it honestly deserves better since this is the mascot of Pokémon we’re talking about. A slightly off orange doesn’t cut it.

11. Abra

You might notice a theme of shinies on this list that don’t make massive changes. Most of the time, that’s boring. It’s especially boring for Abra when compared to Alakazam, which is a significant improvement over the other two evolutions.

10. Onix

Onix is an ugly shade of green. That would be bad enough, but it gets worse. There are so many great colors that could’ve been used since Onix is literally a bunch of rocks. There are beautiful rocks that have great colors, but the green we got is not one of them.

9. Togetic

If not for the sparkles and sound effects, it would be incredibly easy to miss a shiny Togetic, which is the mark of a bad shiny. It’s so subtle that it makes it hard to tell, and the colors it uses are pretty boring on top of that.

8. Blissey

The entire Chansey line is pretty disappointing from a shiny standpoint, but Blissey is particularly egregious. The possibilities were endless for an originally pink Pokémon that had a sort of green shiny base, but The Pokémon Company decided just to slightly dull its color grading. Boring.

7. Slaking

Vigoroth and Slakoth both deserve a mention here. What begins as a really bright, good-looking pink shiny turns into a dull, ugly, boring shiny with one evolution, prompting a lot of regret for those who evolved theirs. It’s a shame since Slaking is actually a good Pokémon.

6. Glalie

Glalie (and Aggron because it does the same thing) is a pretty bad shiny. The change to the main color is pretty much entirely imperceptible. The change in eye color is cool, but when that’s literally all the shiny version is, it’s not a good shiny.

5. Floatzel

Floatzel is already a boring Pokémon design with mediocre colors. The orange and yellow make sense, but it’s far from fun or exciting. The shiny had the chance to remedy that, but they decided just to boringly wash it out a little.

4. Vanilluxe

The possibilities for a shiny version of the ice cream cone Pokémon were limitless. For what it’s worth, the base form, Vanillite, does well with a sort of strawberry ice cream color. The evolutions then abandon that idea and just slightly change the blue. It could’ve been a chocolate shiny!

3. Froakie

Froakie is a bad shiny. It’s just a slightly washed-out, watered-down version of the basic form. Since it is a frog Pokémon, it could’ve been green, brown, or something like that. Fortunately, Greninja is a great shiny, so it made up for the awful beginning.

2. Alolan Vulpix

Alolan Vulpix is bad because it’s incredibly difficult to tell when it’s shiny. The feet change colors to an icy blue. That part is good, but why is there virtually no other change? Make the whole thing icy or change it to a different color for the body, too.

1. Jigglypuff

Similar to Aggron and Glalie, the primary change for shiny Jigglypuff is its eyes. They do turn a really nice green, and the pink on its body changes to a slightly different shade, but that’s not enough to differentiate it from its original form.

New Pokemon Go Leak Suggests Paradox Pokemon Coming Soon