Pokémon Sword and Shield: 5 Terrifying Non-Ghost Type Pokédex Entries

Recently, I sang a cursed song of Ghost-type Pokémon from the most recent Pokémon generations that may not have received the attention they need. I didn’t want to explore waters many have already, but also Gen 8’s Sword & Shield didn’t really introduce that many Ghost-types despite taking place in the region based on the history-rich UK.

But considering that a main theme of the games is climate change and its effects on the creatures of the world, you can bet you don’t need terrible ghosties for things to become frightening. The transformations some Pokémon go under, whether it be Dynamaxing or otherwise, can really cause some jarring effects to their more traditional values. It may be even worse that these aren’t Ghost-types because that means these horrors are living and organic, walking beside you as a trainer every day.

And that’s a key thing to consider when taking these terrors into account – place yourself in this magical world, one that invites nothing but fantasy and imagination and is aimed at children. Only to be greeted by things like three-headed dragons that love to swoop down from the sky on unsuspecting people and devour them or creatures that blow up in your face and steal your soul for funsies.

So here’s a look at some more horrid creatures before they potentially get pushed further into the background with the arrival of even more Pokémon in the games come October 22nd.
Honorable mention goes to both of Eternatus’ entries, but it won’t be on this list because using a god-tier, cosmos-warping, energy drunk, monstrous personification of pollution feels like cheating.

 

5. Morpeko (Hangry Mode)

Kicking off with this gen’s homage to Pikachu, Morpeko is an incredibly adorable creature that’s just as cute as it is charming. Sure, it is just as filled with electricity as its progenitor, but how can you not want to just pinch the cheeks of a hamster/guinea pig that looks like it was dipped in Neapolitan ice cream?

But woe, Morpeko isn’t called the Two-Sided Pokémon just for its aesthetic. While precious in its regular form, when Morpeko gets hungry, it transforms into its “Hangry Mode,” complete with its fur turning an ominous black and purple. According to Pokémon Sword, intense hunger drives it to extreme violence and changes the electricity in its body to pure Dark energy. The Shield entry compliments it, saying that until its hunger goes away, it will get up to all sorts of evil deeds.

This may not be the most terrifying thing just in text, but to anyone who has owned a pet, you know said pet can get rather prickish when they get peckish. Turn that energy up to eleven and when they think it’s food time, your best fur friend won’t just be being loud or biting things around the house, but actively conducting evil and possibly even abusing you.

But you know what makes it worse? Its looks. You know who Pikachu is overwhelmingly popular with? Kids. This equally-cute rodent is in the same mold, meaning it will more than likely become a companion to a child, perhaps to even teach them how to take care of something. If not fed on time or even if Morpeko just wants some noms, that child runs the risk of being a victim of an Electric/Dark terrorist that they’re supposed to love. Yikes.

 

4. Orbeetle

In my previous article, I made a point that I’ll gladly reiterate here – Bug-type Pokémon are nightmare fuel incarnate. Not only are they creepy crawlies that are on average three or four feet tall, but they usually have overwhelming strength or terrifying bug-like powers. Just imagine living in a world where Beedrill nests, which house a horde of three foot tall hornets with stingers for hands, can exist in every garage.

So while Orbeetle is not as visually threatening as that, it is a powerful Psychic-type Pokémon, which somehow makes it worse. Passive horror is often more intense than the visual or tangible kind, and it doesn’t help that Orbeetle evolves from the somewhat cute Dottler and looks like some kind of evil robot. This thing looks like that and invades your mind.

According to Pokémon Shield, it can use psychic energy to observe everything within a six-mile/9.7 kilometer range. Being watched and studied by a malicious bugbot is a paranoia inducing idea to begin with, but wait until Orbeetle becomes drunk with power through the phenomenon known as ‘Gigantamax,’ where certain Pokémon grow to kaiju-size and adapt new forms and powers. Its Gigantamax form Pokémon Shield entry tells us that, if it wants to, it can flat-out mind control everything in its vicinity, which as we’ve confirmed, is at least six miles. Don’t know about you, but any loss of autonomy is maximum horror in my book.

Oh, and the cherry on top is that this form looks like an ominous UFO. Have fun with that.

 

3. Centiskorch

Very much in line with the points raised in the previous entry, Centiskorch is a nine foot long centipede that is actively on fire and uses its blazing body as both a whip and a coil. This was a Pokémon whose top notch design I instantly fell in love with. However, I am not stupid. As a video game character, I love it, but if I lived in the same world as it, I’d be scared as hell of the thing.

Before even getting to its Pokédex entries, I must repeat – it is a nine-foot long centipede on fire. Just, holy shit. Getting into the data, Pokémon Sword mentions it can heat up its body to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit/800 degrees Celsius and use it like a whip. Some additional flavor is given by its Shield entry, reminding us that Centiskorch also has giant fangs that it isn’t above using.

Oh, but let’s get to the Gigantamax form, yeah? Not only does it raise its body temperature another 300 degrees, this intense heat can destabilize entire air currents i.e. it may cause natural disasters and irreversible climate damage simply by showing up. To top this one all off, Gigantamax Centiskorch looks like a serpentine dragon with a hundred legs.

 

2. Hatterene

In concept, a Pokémon that hates people and loves the quiet just sounds like the perfect partner. But in practice, the Hatterene line is quite scary. While Hatenna and Hattrem run away from strong emotions and grow irritated in the presence of them, respectively, Hatterene actively wants to kill anything with emotions strong enough to disturb its silence. Still, I can already hear many of you saying “same, bitch” but let’s take a closer look.

Its Shield entry tells us that if you make too much noise around it, it will tear you to shreds with its hair tentacle. How do you know you’re around it? Hopefully it is somewhat apparent – Hatterene is almost seven feet tall and looks like a beautiful witch maiden trapped in a silk cocoon – but it also loves to hang out in the woods, so you may never know where it is. But its true terror, like all the previous entries on this list, lies in its transformation.

Gigantamax Hatterene’s Sword entry lets us know that it can read the emotions of everyone within 30 miles/50 km and the minute it senses hostility, it attacks. How the hell can it do that? We find out in the Shield entry, which mentions beams of lightning shooting down from its tentacles. This is a reference to its special Gigantamax move, G-Max Smite, in which it basically drops a shooting star on someone.

To sum that up: if you’re within thirty minutes from anywhere a Gigantamax Hatterene happens to materialize (which due to the unpredictable nature of Dynamax energy could be literally anytime, anywhere) and if you aren’t thinking the happiest of happy thoughts the entire time, you run the risk of being struck down from the heavens.

Given the times we live in and the amount of negative emotions abound all over the world, Hatterene could have the potential to exterminate the entire human race.

You go, girl?

 

1. Dracovish & All Its Fossil Friends

As terrifying as the potential is for Hatterene, it’s this gen’s class of fossil Pokémon that takes the horror movie cake for this one. This is maybe a tad unfair considering that I’m essentially including four different Mons in one spot, but they all share the same curse, with Dracovish getting the worst of it.

What is this curse? Well, it’s nothing spooky or spiritual or even violent. Dracovish and the rest of SwSh’s fossil Pokémon – Arctovish, Dracozolt, and Arctozolt – are suffering from the curse of merely existing.

To clarify, you have to look at what these Pokémon are based on. They have mix-and-match names because they have mix-and-match anatomy, being based on fossils constructed in the early days of paleontology, where scientists would put together skeletons and remains of multiple completely different creatures and create monstrosities that never existed because no one knew any better.

This is why none of the resurrectable fossil Mons in the most recent games make any sense. Arctovish’s head is on backwards, Dracozolt’s legs are too big for its torso, Arctozolt’s head actively freezes to death because of its own lower body, and Dracovish’s fish head is on the wrong end of its dragon-tail body.

Dracovish gets the worst of it because while powerful, according to its Shield dex entry, everything about it is oxymoronic. It can run up to 40mph/60km/h, but it can’t breathe unless it’s underwater, where running is irrelevant. What a terrifying scenario. Your very bodily functions and natural abilities actively work against one another to contribute to your somehow continued horrifying existence.

Oh wait, your existence wasn’t even your choice, as this creature was long extinct in its original form and brought back by nothing other than human error.

Unlike every other entry in this list, not only is Dracovish’s awful life entirely our fault, but it doesn’t need a transformation to get worse. No, its suffering continues on a meta level. You see, Dracovish, with the Strong Jaw ability and the right move set, is currently considered top-tier in Gen 8 competitive circles. It has a great Water/Dragon typing and tremendous potential as both a physical attacker and a defensive tank.

Most times, to get the maximum stat potential from a Pokémon, you must breed it over and over until you get a child with the natural stat spread you seek. But considering that Dracovish (thankfully) can’t have kids, the only way to get a good one is to continue collecting fossil pieces and keep resurrecting and constructing more and more of these Frankenstein’s (pocket) monsters until you get the “right” one.

Which means there could be hundreds upon thousands of scientific abominations running around across the Galar region, rejected by their creators for not being “perfect,” forced to carry out an existence where every breath they take is a nightmare. All so that you could say you were the best prizefighter at the fantasy cockfighting stadium.

Sounds like humans would have a pretty terrible Pokédex entry, yeah?

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