Gimmighoul was confirmed to exist in Pokemon GO before it was officially revealed on the official Pokemon Twitter account. There had been rumors of a Pokemon based on a treasure chest, and here it is. The Coin Chest Pokemon is a Ghost-type, who also has a Roaming Form, in which Gimmighoul leaves its chest behind.
Typically, Gimmighoul hides inside a Treasure Chest and moves along very slowly. The chest, of course, provides Gimmighoul with a lot of defense, but at the cost of being extremely heavy and slow. According to the official Pokemon website, Chest Form Gimmighoul is often even mistaken for an antique, sometimes sold to antique stores and some sit inside people’s homes.
However, this Chest Form is greatly to Gimmighoul’s advantage. In fact, once it senses a person or Pokemon come near the chest, it uses its ethereal “ghost energy” to control their unsuspecting victim. Gimmighoul uses this control power to make that Pokemon or person collect coins to put in the chest. Of course, since Gimmighoul Chest Form is typically in out of the way places, it often keeps control of its victims without anyone else even noticing.
But, Gimmighoul doesn’t just stay at home in its Chest. It will sometimes roam free, hence the Roaming Form. This is the form that was discovered by clever Pokemon GO data-miners, and indeed, the Pokemon Company did the smart thing by simply acknowledging its existence. This form carries a single coin on its back, but they are so small and quick that they are extremely difficult to catch; in fact, according to the Pokedex on the website, no Paldean trainer has ever successfully caught one. Of course, it will be up to Scarlet and Violet’s bold Pokemon trainers to render this fact inaccurate.
Gimmighoul enjoys the Rattled ability, which increases its Speed by 50 percent (or one stage) when it’s hit by a Bug, Dark, or Ghost-type damaging move. It shares this ability with fellow Paldean Pokemon, Wiglett, along with Basculin and Toxel. However, the latter two have alternate abilities. Rattled was also a Hidden Ability on a variety of Pokemon.
The issue with the Rattled ability, while not bad per se, is that Ghost-type Pokemon are weak to Dark and Ghost type moves. However, Bug is actually weak against Ghost types, meaning there are some shenanigans trainers could do in Double Battles with a partner Pokemon using a weak Bug-type move to speed up Gimmighoul. That is, of course, if Gimmighoul is even worthy of being used in competitive double battles.
All we know about Gimmighoul even at the release of the game is that you collect 999 coins in the overworld to get its evolved form. These are hidden throughout the cities in the game, as well as are given to you by some NPCs. We also do know about the Pokemon’s stats, however.
Gimmighoul’s two forms have significantly different stats. Both have a lousy base stat total of 300, however.
Chest Form: 45 HP, 30 Attack, 70 Defense, 75 Special Attack, 70 Special Defense, 10 Speed
Roaming Form: 45 HP, 30 Attack, 25 Defense, 75 Special Attack, 45 Special Defense, 80 Speed
Essentially, this is a Pokemon that you would never use in battle even if your life depended on it. But, the good news is that once you undertake the insane task of acquiring 999 coins to give to Gimmighoul, you get the evolution in Gholdengo. We’ll have an entirely separate article on Gholdengo, but the most important part is that the evolution is worth the investment.
As for Gimmighoul himself, he can’t learn much. In fact, he only ever knows Astonish and Tackle on his own. He learns a few good Ghost-type moves such as Shadow Ball and some useful utility moves such as Substitute by TM. Your best bet for a Gimmighoul moveset is Substitute, Shadow Ball, and either Light Screen and Reflect, or Protect and Confuse Ray. He does learn Power Gem, too, which is a great move, but wasted on a Pokemon this weak.
Thankfully, whatever TM’s you do invest stay on him when he becomes Ghendengo. But, that’s for another article.
Do you think the Gimmighoul gimmick is even worth the investment? Considering that his evolution is actually a useful Ghost/Steel type Special tank, it may well be!
Updated 11/19/22
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