Is it Better to Purify or Shadow Regice in Pokémon GO?
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The question of whether to purify or keep Shadow Regice in Pokémon GO is a complex one, with no single right answer. The optimal choice depends heavily on your personal playstyle, resource availability, and what you prioritize in your Pokémon. The short answer is: It’s generally better to keep Shadow Regice if you are looking for offensive power, but purify if you need more survivability and don’t want to invest as much to power it up. Ultimately, you should decide if the damage bonus outweighs the costs.
Let’s delve deeper into this conundrum.
Shadow Regice: The Powerhouse
The Allure of Shadow Form
Shadow Pokémon, including Regice, receive a significant 20% attack boost, making them hit significantly harder than their regular counterparts. This additional damage output can make a dramatic difference in raids, gym battles, and even some PvP situations, where the extra damage can secure wins that would otherwise be losses. Shadow Regice, with its already respectable base stats, becomes a real force to be reckoned with in this form.
The Downside of Shadow Form
However, this power comes at a cost. Shadow Pokémon are more vulnerable, taking 20% more damage. This can significantly reduce their survivability, particularly in longer battles. Additionally, powering up, evolving, and teaching new charged moves to Shadow Pokémon requires 20% more Candy and Stardust than their purified counterparts. This can be a considerable hurdle, especially for legendary Pokémon like Regice, which are already resource-intensive to power up.
When to Keep Shadow Regice
- Prioritizing Offensive Power: If your main goal is to deal as much damage as possible, and you’re comfortable with its reduced survivability, then keeping Shadow Regice is the better choice.
- Resource Abundance: If you’re not concerned about the increased cost of powering up and have ample Stardust and Candy, the 20% damage increase can make a difference.
- Niche Use Cases: In some specific scenarios in raids, the extra damage can push you over the edge in DPS, even if survivability is lower.
Purified Regice: The Sturdy Option
The Benefits of Purification
Purifying a Shadow Pokémon removes the 20% attack bonus and 20% damage vulnerability, thus bringing it back to being a normal Pokémon. Furthermore, it increases its IVs by 2 points in each stat. If you have a low-IV Shadow Regice, this can potentially boost it into a more competitive 3-star Pokémon. Also, Purification reduces the cost of powering up, evolving, and teaching new charge moves by 20%. Finally, Purified Pokémon are granted the move Return.
The Drawbacks of Purification
While purified Regice can become a more well-rounded and easier to manage Pokémon, it loses the 20% damage boost, making it less potent offensively than the Shadow form. The 2 IV points added by purification are often eclipsed by the significant damage gain of shadow form, particularly in raids.
When to Purify Regice
- Prioritizing Survivability: If you want your Regice to last longer in battles without worrying too much about its decreased offensive capability, purifying it can be a good option.
- Resource Limitations: If you’re on a tight budget for Stardust and Candy, then purifying Regice will save you resources to power it up.
- IV Stat Boost: If your Shadow Regice has very low IVs, the purification boost could bring it to a higher appraisal tier.
- Collection Purposes: If you are looking to collect Hundos, then purifying will help boost your IVs.
Regice: An Overview of Its Strengths and Weaknesses
Overall Strengths
Regice is a sturdy Ice-type legendary Pokémon with a decent defense. It’s also known for its high Max CP, reaching 3530 at Level 50, making it a potentially powerful Pokémon, especially if powered up.
Overall Weaknesses
Regice has no significant resistances and a limited movepool. This hinders its survivability compared to other Pokémon.
Conclusion: Understanding Your Priorities
Ultimately, the choice between Shadow and purified Regice in Pokémon GO depends on your priorities and resources. Shadow Regice is undeniably the better option for players who prioritize maximizing damage output and are comfortable with its increased fragility, whereas Purified Regice is a good fit for those who want a more reliable tank that will be less resource intensive to power up. Before you decide, take stock of your current Pokémon and what roles each will play in your team.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Is a 0-star Shadow Pokémon good?
Yes, a 0-star Shadow Pokémon can be powerful due to its 20% damage boost, outperforming even a 100% IV regular Pokémon. If it has a good attack and decent CP, it’s often better to keep it as a shadow.
2. Should I purify a 1-star Shadow Pokémon?
No, it is generally better to keep a 1-star Shadow Pokémon, as the 20% attack bonus is more valuable than a slight increase in IVs from purification.
3. Is it better to keep Shadow Pokémon or purify them?
In most cases, it is better to keep Shadow Pokémon due to their damage bonus. However, some situations might favor purifying, like if you need a more durable option or you are severely resource constrained.
4. Should I purify my shadow Legendaries?
Generally, no. Shadow Legendaries benefit the most from their damage bonus. However, if you need to save resources, purification can be useful.
5. What happens if you purify a 4* Shadow Pokémon?
If you purify a 4* shadow Pokémon (also known as a perfect shadow or Shundo), it will turn into a non-shadow perfect Pokemon, and will learn the move Return.
6. Should I purify or evolve first?
Purifying a Shadow Pokémon before evolving it will reduce the candy cost for evolution. However, you can still purify a shadow Pokemon even if you already evolved it.
7. Is it worth purifying Regirock?
The same principles apply to Regirock as to Regice. Shadow Regirock is better offensively, while purified Regirock is more sturdy and less resource-intensive to power up.
8. Is Shadow Regice better than normal Regice?
Yes, Shadow Regice is better offensively, due to the damage boost, but regular Regice is more durable.
9. What is the max CP for Regice?
The max CP for Regice at Level 50 is 3530.
10. Is it better to purify a perfect Shadow Pokémon?
It’s not necessary to purify a perfect Shadow Pokemon as it will lose its 20% damage boost. It only becomes a non-shadow perfect pokemon that has the move return.
11. Are Shadow Pokémon better than 100 IV non-shadow Pokemon?
Yes, in terms of raw damage output, a 0 IV Shadow Pokémon will generally have a higher damage per second (DPS) than a 100% IV non-shadow Pokémon.
12. Should I purify a shiny Shadow Pokémon?
Purifying a shiny Shadow Pokémon is a matter of personal preference. If you care about using its offensive power, keep it as a shadow. If you are just collecting them, and want it to be stronger, purifying might be useful.
13. What are the downsides to purification?
Purification removes the 20% damage bonus, which is a significant loss, but provides a 2 IV point increase.
14. Is Shadow Tyranitar worth it?
Yes, Shadow Tyranitar is one of the most powerful Dark-type attackers and is highly valuable. The 20% damage boost outweighs the increased vulnerability.
15. What is the strongest Shadow Pokémon?
Shadow Mewtwo is widely considered one of the strongest Shadow Pokémon in the game due to its high attack stats and strong move set.