Gengar

Gengar (Japanese: ゲンガー Gangar) is a dual-type  introduced in Generation I.

It evolves from when traded. It is the final form of. It can Mega Evolve into Mega Gengar using the Gengarite.

Biology
Gengar is a dark purple, bipedal Pokémon with a roundish body. It has red eyes and a wide mouth that is usually curled into a sinister grin. Multiple spikes cover its back, and it has large pointed ears. Its arms and legs are short with three digits on both its hands and feet. It also has a stubby tail.

As Mega Gengar, a portion of its body sinks into the ground. The lower portions turn a more reddish purple, and a third eye appears on its forehead. This new unblinking eye is oval, yellow, and allows it to see into other dimensions. The spikes on Mega Gengar's back are more numerous and pointed. Additionally, spikes appear on its hands and tail. Its ears are now considerably longer and project backward.

Gengar has the ability to hide perfectly in the shadow of any object, granting it exceptional stealth. However, Gengar's body acts as a. Its presence cools the temperature of the surrounding area by nearly 10 °F (5 °C), because it absorbs the warmth. In addition, Gengar possesses the ability to fly through the air and possess people and other Pokémon, as demonstrated in the anime.

Gengar is very mischievous, and at times, malicious. It enjoys playing practical jokes and casting curses, such as pretending to be one's shadow, then behaving erratically. When the quarry notices, the Gengar takes delight in its victim's terror. However, Gengar has been known to be loyal to a who treats it well. Gengar lives in shadows of rooms,, and dark places where shadows form. It is especially fond of urban areas such as cities and back alleys, but only during the night.

Morty's Gengar
Gengar appeared under the ownership of Ecruteak City Gym Leader Morty in A Ghost Of A Chance, From Ghost to Ghost, and For Ho-Oh the Bells Toll!. It was seen outside of its Poké Ball.

Agatha's Gengar
Agatha used a Gengar to battle Ash's Pikachu in The Scheme Team. The Ghost Pokémon defeated Pikachu with a combination of and.

Team Meanies
Gengar was the leader of Team Meanies in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters out of the Gate!.

Other
first saw a Gengar in person in Lavender Town in The Tower of Terror while searching for a Pokémon to fight Sabrina with. Due to a close call, Ash got to spend some unexpected time with the ghostly trio,, , and Gengar. It, along with Haunter, seemed to have a fondness for, and unsuccessfully attempted to amuse Ash by acting as a pair of performers. It reappeared in a flashback in the following episode.

In The Ancient Puzzle of Pokémopolis, a Gengar was awakened near the ancient city of Pokémopolis, where it battled an equally large.

, the Orange Crew Supreme Gym Leader, used a Gengar in his battle with Ash in Hello, Pummelo! and Enter The Dragonite. His Gengar managed to  before Ash recalled it and instead tried with. In the collision between and, both Lapras and Gengar fainted.

A group of Gengar appeared in Illusion Confusion!, along with a group of. They were causing trouble for Ash and while they were wandering through a deep forest, by creating a number of illusions that impeded their progress.

A Gengar appeared in PK15. It was one of the residents of a spooky house.

A Gengar appeared in a flashback in Playing the Leveling Field!, under the ownership of Fantina. Gengar physically reappeared in A Shield with a Twist, where it was used in the Gym against ; it was defeated by.

Three Gengar appeared in Celebrating the Hero's Comet! as some of the episode's antagonists. They were residents of an in the Decolore Islands.

A Gengar appeared in Scary Hospitality!, under the ownership of Lon. It was used alongside Lon's and  to scare visitors of the "Scary House". This included Ash, his friends, and later Team Rocket.

Three Gengar were used by the ninjas that attacked the Ninja Village in A Festival of Decisions!.

A Gengar that can Mega Evolve appeared in Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel, under the ownership of Alva. It was his main battling Pokémon. However, it eventually abandoned Alva immediately after the destruction of the Mega Wave crystal that controlled it.

A Gengar appeared in I Choose You!, under the ownership of Corey. It battled Neesha's, dodging most of its attacks before ultimately being frozen by its.

A wild Gengar nicknamed "Greedy Rapooh" appeared in Why Not Give Me a Z-Ring Sometime?. When destroyed a shrine, it went on a rampage, kidnapping Acerola and stealing people's items all across Ula'ula Island. It appeared again in Securing the Future!, where it joined the rest of Alola in showering with light so it could return to its.

Minor appearances
Gengar debuted in the opening scene of the first episode, Pokémon - I Choose You!, where it and a battled in a colosseum on TV as a reference to the original  games. Thus, Gengar and Nidorino were the very first Pokémon to be seen in the anime, not counting the intro.

A Gengar appeared in the Japanese credits of Pikachu's Rescue Adventure.

A 's Gengar appeared in Wired for Battle! as an image that came up in Shingo's laptop.

A Gengar appeared in Beauty and the Breeder, under the ownership of a participating in a Pokémon breeding competition.

A Gengar appeared in 's fantasy in UnBEARable.

A Gengar appeared in a fantasy in Control Freak!.

A Trainer's Gengar appeared in Celebi: The Voice of the Forest.

A Gengar was partnered with two Team Rocket trainees in Training Daze.

A Gengar appeared in Who's Flying Now? as one of the Pokémon featured in the Fortree City Feather Festival.

A Gengar appeared in Ghoul Daze!.

A Gengar appeared in One Team, Two Team, Red Team, Blue Team!.

A Gengar that can Mega Evolve into Mega Gengar appeared in Mega Evolution Special I.

A Gengar appeared alongside a and  in Loading the Dex!, during a fantasy that  had after an encounter with a. They pretended to be a, , and.

A Trainer's Gengar appeared in Balloons, Brionne, and Belligerence!.

A Gengar appeared in a photo taken by in Alola, Kanto!.

A Trainer's Gengar appeared in A Young Royal Flame Ignites!.

A Trainer's Gengar appeared in Turning the Other Mask!.

Pokédex entries

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Agatha's Gengar
Agatha used a Gengar against 's in File 4: Charizard and lost.

Other
A Gengar appeared in File 1: Red, battling a.

's Gengar evolved from a sometime before File 4: Charizard.



Agatha's Gengar
Agatha used a Gengar against 's in The Challenger, but it lost off-screen.

Other
A Gengar appeared in the game intro-like opening sequence for The Adventure, where it was battling a.

In the Pokémon Adventures manga
Gengar first appeared in Holy Moltres, under the ownership of a. It was used to battle Blaine's Arcanine and Rapidash, and almost attacked.

In Pokémon Adventures, Agatha has two Gengar on her team, and many in her army. Her first one and her Ghost army first appeared in Lapras Lazily. One of them was used to attack and Koga from the shadows, draining the latter's life force as it possessed his shadow. Eventually, it was taken down when Koga used the tail that the old woman's bit off his own, distracting it long enough for Blue's Porygon to deal the finishing blow.

A Gengar appeared in The Last Battle XIII as one of the Pokémon sent to participate in the fight in Ilex Forest.

A Gengar was seen in Return to Pallet Town. It was used by a kid from Pallet Town in an attempt to a, thus replicating the opening sequence of the Generation I video games and their.

In Tying Trevenant, a Gengar belonging to Gurkinn appeared, stopping Celosia's from killing. He helped battle Team Flare to stop them from obtaining the tree form of and was later given to X, where he was nicknamed Garma. He can Mega Evolve into Mega Gengar.

In the Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys manga
In A Promise Given to Miltank, Morty called out Gengar to stop a from stealing the satchel that contained Berries collected by 🇬🇼.

In the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Ginji's Rescue Team manga
The Gengar from Team Meanies appears as a major character and the main antagonist.

In the Pokémon Pocket Monsters manga
's Gengar debuted in Get Rid Of The Ghost Pokémon!! as a Haunter. There it evolved while battling.

used a Gengar in the Pokémon League where it went up against Red.

Agatha's Gengar was shown in Panic on the Luxury Liner?!.

Morty's Gengar appeared in The Legendary Ho-Oh!!.

A Gengar was seen under the ownership of Karen in A Challenge to the Elite Four!.

In the Pokémon Zensho manga
Agatha's Gengar went up against 's and lost in Indigo Plateau.

Pokkén Tournament
Gengar is a playable character in the arcade fighting game. Moves it can use include, , , and. Upon entering Burst form, it Mega Evolves and can use the Burst Attack Shadow Drop.

NPC appearances

 * : A Gengar appears in a bonus stage accessible from the Red Table. Once the player has knocked out the three and the pair of, a Gengar then appears and must be defeated to win.
 * Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team: Gengar is the leader of Team Meanies. While often accompanied by and, Gengar will often act alone and spends much of the game causing trouble, even convincing the village to exile the hero, blaming him or her for the natural disasters. However, it is later revealed that he is the cursed human. After Rayquaza destroys the star heading for the world, Gengar will post a request, asking to visit Ninetales in the hopes of bringing back Gardevoir. While she is rescued, she has no recollection of her times with her trainer, but Gengar is still satisfied to see her safe and leaves.
 * : Gengar appears as a recruitable character and asks the player to deliver a letter to . As he is connected to Team Charm's, it is implied that he is the same aforementioned Gengar from Red and Blue Rescue Team, and that Team Charm's Gardevoir is the same one

Gengar

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Mega Gengar

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Game locations

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In side games

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In events

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Side game data





























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Trivia



 * Gengar is the favorite Pokémon of Ken Sugimori.
 * In the Pokémon Red and Blue beta, Gengar was originally known as "Phantom".
 * Gengar, along with, with whom it battles in the beginning of Pokémon Red, Blue, Green, FireRed, and LeafGreen, originate from the Capsule Monsters manga, the precursor to the Pokémon franchise.
 * Gengar and are also the very first Pokémon to appear in the.
 * In, Gengar is the only Pokémon with the Ability Levitate that is not eligible for Sky Battles.
 * No other Pokémon has the same type combination as Gengar and its evolutionary relatives.
 * Due to its unique type combination, Gengar and its evolutionary relatives are the only Poison-type Pokémon that are weak against Dark-type moves.
 * Mega Gengar has the highest base stat of all  and  Pokémon. It also has the highest base  stat of all Ghost-type Pokémon.
 * When viewing Mega Gengar's Pokédex entry, the camera's view can only be moved sideways.
 * Gengar could be seen as a counterpart to . They are both the last stage of a three-part evolutionary family, require trading to reach their final stage of evolution, and are capable of Mega Evolution. They are the same height, and both get shorter upon Mega Evolution. They share a base friendship of 70 and, since Generation VI, a base stat total of 500. Both are weak to the other's STAB, and they share weaknesses to the Ghost and Dark types. In the anime episode The Ancient Puzzle of Pokémopolis, a Gengar and an Alakazam are put against each other.
 * When being escorted through Mt. Freeze and Murky Cave in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, Gengar knows, , and , although it cannot learn those moves by any means in any generation.
 * In the core series games, Mega Gengar has small feet that can be seen by recalling it and sending it out. In Pokkén Tournament, however, Mega Gengar does not have feet. Instead, a portal appears beneath it whenever it is airborne. Its tail will disappear as well.

Origin
Gengar seems to be based on general cartoonish s, s, or the ; and possibly on a distorted shadow of a human being as well, like.

Name origin
Gengar and Gangar are possibly a shortening of , a double of a person, which is fitting for a Pokémon with a habit of pretending to be a person's shadow. The kanji 幻 maboroshi can also be read as gen and is used in words meaning phantom or illusion. There is also a striking pronunciation similarity to the Danish word , a term for ghosts found in Scandinavian folklore.

Related articles

 * Agatha's Gengar
 * Morty's Gengar
 * Team Meanies