Nincada

Using Nincada in a Playthrough

Nincada has the most unusual evolution mechanic in Hoenn: at level 20 it evolves normally into Ninjask, while a Shedinja can simultaneously appear if the party has an empty slot and the game's additional Poke Ball requirements are met. Ninjask is built around extraordinary Speed - base 160, one of the highest in the series - and Speed Boost raises that stat again at the end of each turn, while base 90 Attack supports physical Bug and Flying moves, Swords Dance, and later utility such as U-turn. Its Bug/Flying typing gives a Ground immunity and useful Fighting and Grass resistances, but poor defenses and a quadruple Rock weakness make it highly vulnerable if it fails to win through speed. Shedinja is entirely different: it always has exactly 1 HP, but Wonder Guard prevents direct damage from attacks that are not super effective, allowing it to completely wall opponents that lack Fire-, Flying-, Rock-, Ghost-, or Dark-type attacks. That protection does not stop indirect damage such as poison, burn, weather, Leech Seed, or entry hazards, so Shedinja can either trivialize a carefully researched story battle or disappear instantly to a mechanic the player overlooked.

Nincada in Competitive Pokémon

Ninjask and Shedinja have both developed memorable competitive identities from mechanics that no ordinary Pokemon can closely imitate. Ninjask's base 160 Speed and Speed Boost made it a famous component of Baton Pass strategies, using Protect or Substitute to accumulate Speed boosts and passing them - often alongside Swords Dance - to a stronger teammate; restrictions on Baton Pass eventually reduced or eliminated much of that historical role in standard formats. Outside Baton Pass, Ninjask has occasionally functioned as an extremely fast Swords Dance attacker or revenge killer, but its frailty and quadruple Rock weakness make entry hazards particularly punishing. Shedinja is one of the most matchup-dependent competitive Pokemon ever designed: Wonder Guard can completely invalidate powerful attackers that lack a super-effective move or indirect damage, and it has even found specialized niches in Ubers environments against otherwise terrifying threats. At the same time, Stealth Rock, Spikes, sand, damaging status, Leech Seed, and any super-effective attack immediately remove its single HP, making team support and exact knowledge of opposing movesets mandatory rather than optional.

Nincada in Nuzlockes

The Nincada line offers both a useful fast attacker and one of the highest-risk defensive tools possible in a Nuzlocke. Ninjask's extreme Speed and Speed Boost allow it to move first almost automatically after a turn in battle, but its low defenses and quadruple Rock weakness mean an unexpected priority or coverage move can still end the run for it immediately. Shedinja can be astonishingly safe against an opponent known to have no way around Wonder Guard, creating genuine zero-damage matchups that few other Pokemon can reproduce. The cost is absolute fragility: a single damaging status condition, weather effect, entry hazard, Leech Seed, confusion self-hit in relevant generations, or super-effective attack can remove its lone HP. A Nuzlocke player using Shedinja should therefore inspect boss movesets and battlefield conditions carefully; when those are known it can be one of the safest Pokemon imaginable, but blind use is among the riskiest.

Nincada is a subterranean cicada-like Pokemon that can remain underground for years - and in some accounts for more than a decade - while waiting for the right time to evolve. It digs nests among the roots of large trees and uses its powerful front claws to cut into those roots, absorbing moisture and nutrients directly from the plant. Life in complete darkness has left Nincada nearly blind, so its whisker-like antennae are used to probe the surrounding soil and sense obstacles instead of relying primarily on vision. Bright sunlight is uncomfortable enough that the species deliberately avoids the surface until evolution approaches. Its long underground development ends in one of Pokemon's strangest metamorphoses, producing not only the airborne Ninjask but potentially leaving behind a second living Pokemon in the form of Shedinja.