Despite being one of the newer Pokemon of Sun and Moon, the Pikachu imposter Pokemon Mimikyu has quickly risen in popularity within the fanbase. Mimikyu wears a little Pikachu costume to hide its true form. This shy ghost and fairy-type Pokemon wears the costume to be less frightening as the Pokemon lore states that a scholar who saw Mimikyu’s true form died from fright. This fearsome lore is interesting considering its rather tame design. This guide will show you just about everything to know about Mimikyu.
About Mimikyu
Mimikyu looks rather tame, but under the Pikachu disguise, Mimikyu is quite fearsome. While it seems small, its true form is so frightening it could shock you into death! Occasionally, you may see Mimikyu reach out from its disguise with a large block appendage. It is unknown what Mimikyu’s official true form looks like, befitting the ghost archetype. It seems to not want to reveal itself to anyone. Mimikyu cares a great deal about its disguise, oftentimes aggressively attacking anything that would damage its costume.
| First appearance in anime | Loading the Dex! |
| First appearance in game | Pokemon Sun and Moon |
| Region | Alola |
| Evolution | Not known to evolve into or from any Pokemon |
| 1st Evo level | N/A |
| 2nd Evo level | N/A |
| Pokedex Entry | Its actual appearance is unknown. A scholar who saw what was under its rag was overwhelmed by terror and died from the shock. |
Mimikyu Base Stats
| HP | 55 |
| ATTACK | 90 |
| DEFENCE | 80 |
| SP. ATTACK | 50 |
| SP. DEFENCE | 105 |
| SPEED | 96 |
| TOTAL | 476 |
Appearance of Mimikyu
While what is under the costume is never officially revealed, the costume itself depicts a Pikachu. The costume has what looks like a crayon drawing of a face and two eyes. The tips of the costume have two ears with black tips. To complete the disguise and make it look more like a Pikachu, Mimikyu takes a lightning bolt-shaped stick to act as the tail. When Mimikyu is hit by an attack, its costume crumbles a little bit and it's head droops slightly. You may also see a large black appendage sneak out of the costume to help orient itself or grab items for it to store in the disguise’s head.
Behavior of Mimikyu
Like most ghost Pokemon, Mimikyu tends to stick to itself. A rather lonely attitude coupled with its desire to hide its true form from the rest of the world. It becomes rather frustrated by anyone attempting to look beyond its disguise. Despite its lonely nature, it chose the Pikachu disguise because of the popularity of Pikachu, with hopes that it would help make friends. Since battle is common in nature for Pokemon, it frequently has to repair its costume. Since this can be difficult without revealing itself, it can often be heard crying on the inside. Mimikyu is very particular about its costume and will spend entire nights repairing the costume if necessary.
Strengths and Weaknesses
While Mimikyu’s statline is better suited for tanking abilities, its abysmal health values prevent it from being a good strategy. Luckily it comes with the ability to disguise, which makes it take 0 damage on the first hit. This can give you valuable time for set up moves and enables Mimikyu to function as a sweeper. In competitive Pokemon battles, moves like swords dance, shadow claw, play rough, and shadow sneak is favorites for getting Mimikyu to deal decent damage. Using swords dance to increase its physical damage while it still has disguise up and using life orb as a way to make its hits stronger, Mimikyu quickly gets out of hand if not dealt with quickly.
Shiny Mimikyu
Shiny Mimikyu gets a ghostlier color palette than regular Mimikyu. The costume stays the same for shiny Mimikyu, but all of the colors become grayer and almost all of the disguise follows suits. The red dots on normal Mimikyu become black for shiny Mimikyu. Other than changing the color of the costume from yellow to gray, shiny Mimikyu does not change much from its regular form to its shiny form. Of course, shiny Mimikyu also comes with a dazzling star entrance.
Mimikyu Unmasked
Mimikyu Unmasked is episode 38 of season 20 of the Pokemon anime. Mimikyu’s true form has never been officially revealed, but a silhouette of Mimikyu unmasked can be seen. However, in the episode Mimikyu Unmasked when Jessie attempts to get Mimikyu a new costume, Mimikyu refuses. Instead, Jessie agrees to mend its original costume which gets Mimikyu to actually obey Jessie’s commands. While this was not enough for the Team Rocket trio, Mimikyu Unmasked raised a lot of questions within the community regarding Mimikyu’s true form. Unfortunately, we still have yet to see what Mimikyu’s true form appears to be.
Best Movesets
Since Mimikyu is a ghost/fairy type Pokemon, you ought to consider moves that will give you STAB, or Same Type Attack Bonus, so moves that are ghost or fairy will pack a bigger punch. With moves like swords dance, you can abuse Mimikyu’s disguise ability to get a free turn of setup. Shadow claw gives you a strong physical ghost move, play rough will hit harder, and has a 10% chance to lower the target’s attack by 1 stage. Finally, shadow sneak will give you a priority move to outspeed an opponent’s Pokemon.
| Swords Dance | Shadow Claw |
| Play Rough | Shadow Sneak |
How to Catch Mimikyu in Pokemon Go
Unfortunately, Mimikyu is not available for capture in Pokemon Go quite yet. Since Sylveon was released recently in May 2021, you can expect Mimikyu to be coming soon. Especially since Mimikyu was in the top 3 of the Pokemon of the Year popularity poll. As it stands for May 2021, you cannot catch Mimikyu in Pokemon Go at this point in time. Since it is such a popular Pokemon, you can expect an event with Mimikyu spawning at a higher rate or even a research task that grants you a chance to catch a Mimikyu. In the Halloween 2019 Pokemon Go event, you could catch a Pikachu in a Mimikyu costume. This shows us that Niantic is certainly keeping Mimikyu in mind for the release.
Video Guide
Trivia
- Mimikyu placed 3rd in the popularity poll of Pokemon of the Year 2020.
- Mimikyu is the only Pokemon with the type combination of ghost/fairy.
- The lore behind Mimikyu’s true form can be traced back to H.P Lovecraft monsters, where if you saw their true form, you could be driven to madness.
FAQs
Q. What is Inside Mimikyu?
Apparently, something so horrifying you may die from shock. The Pokedex entry states that a Pokemon scholar saw what was under its disguise and died from the horror. This may explain why it goes through great lengths to keep its disguise on at all times and fully repaired. Ghost-type Pokemon tend to have sad backstories, and Mimikyu is no exception.
Q. Why does Mimikyu hate Pikachu?
Mimikyu hates Pikachu because it wants to have friends. Mimikyu sees that Pikachu is a popular Pokemon, and emulates its appearance through its disguise. Since it is jealous of Pikachu’s ability to make friends easily, Mimikyu dislikes Pikachu.
Q. Is Mimikyu a dead Pikachu?
Mimikyu is not a dead Pikachu. It is a ghost-type Pokemon that wants to make friends so it designs its costume to look like the popular Pikachu. Dead Pikachus do not become Mimikyu, Mimikyu just wants friends so it emulates a popular Pokemon.
Conclusion
Congratulations, you now know what makes Mimikyu so popular among the fanbase. Mimikyu being lonely and wanting to copycat a popular Pokemon is a theme that a lot of players may resonate with. Being lonely is difficult, and we often go through great troubles to ensure that we can surround ourselves with friends. Mimikyu may be one of the newer Pokemon, but it has quickly risen the ranks in popularity, outranking even Charizard in popularity. There is a lot that Mimikyu has to offer in terms of battle, design, and backstory.
