Gengar
Shadow Pokémon
Possesses potential victims' shadows in an effort to steal away the victims' lives. If your shadow begins to laugh, you must take hold of a protective charm posthaste!
Details
Abilities
Base stats
Competitive movesets
Smogon UniversityBattle-ready sets by tier, straight from Smogon. Pick a generation and format — a “/” means either option works in that slot.
Hex
RUChoice Scarf
RUSource: Smogon (via pkmn) · Data snapshot: Jul 31, 2026 · 18,880 rows
Where to find Gengar
Wild encounter locations across the games. Availability may also include trades, evolution, gifts, and events not listed here.
Evolution
Notable moves
The strongest damaging moves Gengar can learn — same-type (STAB) moves get a 1.5× power bonus in battle.
Moves
| Lv. | Move & effect | Type | Class | Power | Acc. | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Astonish Has a chance to make the target flinch. | Ghost | Physical | 30 | 100 | 15 |
| 1 | Confuse Ray Confuses the target. | Ghost | Status | — | 100 | 10 |
| 1 | Disable Disables the target’s last used move for 1-8 turns. | Normal | Status | — | 100 | 20 |
| 1 | Haze Resets all Pokémon’s stats, accuracy, and evasion. | Ice | Status | — | — | 30 |
| 1 | Lick Has a chance to paralyze the target. | Ghost | Physical | 30 | 100 | 30 |
| 1 | Mean Look Prevents the target from leaving battle. | Normal | Status | — | — | 5 |
| 1 | Night Shade Inflicts damage equal to the user’s level. | Ghost | Special | — | 100 | 15 |
| 1 | Perish Song User and target both faint after three turns. | Normal | Status | — | — | 5 |
| 1 | Reflect Type User becomes the target’s type. | Normal | Status | — | — | 15 |
| 1 | Shadow Punch Never misses. | Ghost | Physical | 60 | — | 20 |
| 1 | Smog Has a chance to poison the target. | Poison | Special | 30 | 70 | 20 |
| 6 | Poison Gas Poisons the target. | Poison | Status | — | 90 | 40 |
| 12 | Payback Power is doubled if the target has already moved this turn. | Dark | Physical | 50 | 100 | 10 |
| 14 | Will-O-Wisp Burns the target. | Fire | Status | — | 85 | 15 |
| 16 | Spite Lowers the PP of the target’s last used move by 4. | Ghost | Status | — | 100 | 10 |
| 18 | Venoshock Inflicts double damage if the target is Poisoned. | Poison | Special | 65 | 100 | 10 |
| 20 | Curse Ghosts pay half their max HP to hurt the target every turn. Others decrease Speed but raise Attack and Defense. | Ghost | Status | — | — | 10 |
| 21 | Toxic Badly poisons the target, inflicting more damage every turn. | Poison | Status | — | 90 | 10 |
| 24 | Hex Has double power if the target has a major status ailment. | Ghost | Special | 65 | 100 | 10 |
| 29 | Hypnosis Puts the target to sleep. | Psychic | Status | — | 60 | 20 |
| 36 | Sucker Punch Only works if the target is about to use a damaging move. | Dark | Physical | 70 | 100 | 5 |
| 38 | Dream Eater Only works on sleeping Pokémon. Drains half the damage inflicted to heal the user. | Psychic | Special | 100 | 100 | 15 |
| 42 | Dark Pulse Has a chance to make the target flinch. | Dark | Special | 80 | 100 | 15 |
| 48 | Shadow Ball Has a chance to lower the target’s Special Defense by one stage. | Ghost | Special | 80 | 100 | 15 |
| 54 | Destiny Bond If the user faints this turn, the target automatically will, too. | Ghost | Status | — | — | 5 |
| 61 | Nightmare Target loses 1/4 its max HP every turn as long as it’s asleep. | Ghost | Status | — | 100 | 15 |
Sprites & renders
25 sprites & renders for Gengar.






Across the games



















More Ghost-type Pokémon
Others that share this Pokémon's primary type.
Community notes
No reader notes on Gengar yet.
Cite this page
“Gengar”. Pokémonism. Retrieved [date] from pokemonism.com/pokedex/gengar.
Species data from PokéAPI.