Pokemon X and Y, while not the most popular generation of games, introduced a number of new characters and Pokemon which quickly found their place as star members of the series. And none more quickly defined themself as this than the water/dark type starter evolution Greninja.
About Greninja
| First appearance in anime | In the XY Series episode ‘A Rush of Ninja Wisdom!’ |
| First appearance in game | X and Y |
| Region | Kalos |
| Evolution | Froakie-->Frogadier --> Greninja |
| 1st Evo level | 16 |
| 2nd Evo level | 36 |
| Pokedex Entry | It creates throwing stars out of compressed water. When it spins them and throws them at high speed, these stars can split metal in two. It appears and vanishes with a ninja's grace. It toys with its enemies using swift movements while slicing them with throwing stars of the sharpest water. |
Greninja’s Base Stats
| HP | 72 |
| Attack | 95 |
| Defense | 67 |
| Sp. Attack | 103 |
| Ap. Defense | 71 |
| Speed | 122 |
Appearance of Greninja
Greninja is a large frog-like Pokemon with a dark blue color scheme. Its body is slim and sleek and it has a pointed head with its fins forming a triangle shape. Its long tongue wraps around its face and neck to create the effect of it looking like a long, waving scarf.
Behavior of Greninja
Greninja has a generally stoic personality though whether it is good or bad depends on the trainer it seems. In the anime, Greninja is seen aiding a thief but at the same time, Ash’s Greninja is undoubtedly good.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Being a water/dark dual type, Greninja has a good spread of resistances, but unfortunately, it also has many weaknesses, mostly due to its water typing. It’s strong against ghost, steel, fire, water, ice, and dark moves and takes half damage from them, and is completely immune to psychic type moves. It’s weak to fighting, bug, grass, electric, and fairy moves, taking double damage from them.
Ash’s Greninja
Ash’s Greninja is a unique form for Greninja similar to Mega Evolution. Ash’s Greninja appeared in the anime evolving from Ash’s Frogadier in the episode ‘A Festival of Decisions!’ Ash’s Greninja looked different from other Greninja and also made an appearance in the games. Any Greninja with the ability ‘Battle Bond’ will take the form of Ash’s Greninja and have increased stats.
Shiny Greninja
Shiny Greninja is very similar to normal Greninja but the Shiny Greninja has its deep blue coloring replaced with a dark black-grey color. Like all shinies, Shiny Greninja is difficult to obtain but with such a sleek look Shiny Greninja is worth the effort for the clout.
Mega Greninja
While no Mega Greninja exists, we do have an idea of what it might be like. Ash’s Greninja is incredibly close to the concept of a Mega Greninja. It has a new form, as Mega Greninja would have, and has increased stats, again as a theoretical Mega Greninja would have. Ash’s Greninja has increased attack, special attack, and incredibly boosted speed so it can be assumed that a Mega Greninja would have similar stat buffs.
Best Movesets for Greninja
Choice Specs Greninja: This is a high damage set based around Greninja holding an item called the Choice Specs, which hugely boosts special attack but locks the Pokemon into using the first move they select in battle.
| Hydro Cannon | Grass Knot |
| Ice Beam | Dark Pulse |
Torrent Greninja: This set is based around purposely lowering Greninja’s health to take advantage of the Torrent ability. Torrent will boost water type moves when the Pokemon is below 33% HP so the set is all about reaching that HP value then blasting the opponent away with water type moves.
| Substitute | Hydro Cannon |
| Taunt | Work Up/Water Shuriken |
How to Catch Greninja in Pokemon Go
While very few Kalos Pokemon have made it into Pokemon Go, one of them is the Froakie line. This means Greninja can be pretty easily obtained in Pokemon Go. Currently, the only way to get Greninja is to evolve a Frogadier so you’ll need a Froakie, which hatches pretty commonly from 5Km eggs or can be found near water. Once you have enough Froakie candy, 125 in total, use 25 to evolve Froakie into Frogadier and then 100 to evolve Frogadier into Greninja.
Trivia
Greninja is categorized as the Ninja Pokemon which is the exact same category of Ninjask of all things.
Of every starter evolution, Greninja has the highest base speed stat.
Greninja was revealed as a fighter for Super Smash Brothers 3DS/Wii U before it even appeared in a Pokemon game.
Greninja won the 2020 Pokemon of the Year vote with an impressive 140,559 votes.
FAQs
Q. Why is Ash’s Greninja banned?
Ash’s Greninja was banned from the 2018 VGC tournament due to it being too powerful as well as being too exclusive, only being given out as part of an event.
Q. How do I evolve Greninja into Ash’s Greninja?
When a Greninja has the Battle Bondability, it can transform into Ash’s Greninja, similar to a Mega Evolution.
Q. What is Greninija’s Hidden Ability?
Greninja’s Hidden Ability is Protean, which changes the user’s type to that of the move it's going to use that turn. This effectively turns every move into a move with a STAB (Same Type Attack Type Bonus).
Conclusion
Greninja was popular from the beginning and it doesn’t seem like it's going to stop being popular. With its appeal towards casual players as well as competitive players of both Pokemon and Smash, Greninja is here to stay as one of the big faces of Pokemon as well as Nintendo in general.
