Darkrai was officially revealed in February 2007. It and Cresselia are often collectively referred to as the lunar duo by fans, and it is the last Pokémon in the Hisui Pokédex. Darkrai plays a central role in Mega Dimension, serving as one of the key figures in its storyline.
Darkrai is a black, shadow-like Pokémon. It has a small head with a white fog-like ghostly plume billowing from its head covering one of its bright blue eyes, with the portion on its face resembling hair. It also has a red spiky growth around its neck. It has skinny arms and long black tatters hanging from its shoulders. It also has black, claw-like hands. It has the slight appearance of an hourglass figure and appears to be wearing an old, ripped cloak. Darkrai generally stays afloat in the air and does not have any sort of legs, but it is able to extend stilt-like appendages similar to legs and stand on the ground. In self-defense, Darkrai can retract its head and white "plume" into the pit atop its torso fringed by the aforementioned red growth.
Darkrai resides in Newmoon Island, where it is active during the new moon or moonless nights. Its main ability is to lull people to sleep and make them experience horrible nightmares. However, it is not intentionally malicious and only does this to as an act of self-defense or to chase people and Pokémon away from its territory. One time, Darkrai caused an entire village to experience nightmares, with the villagers having reported seeing it in their dreams. It is capable of speech while inside dreams. As seen in Sleepless In Pre-Battle!, Darkrai not only creates nightmares, but is also attracted to them. Only Darkrai's counterpart, the Legendary PokémonCresselia, or one of its Lunar Feathers, can cure those afflicted by its power. It's also possible to fend off Darkrai's nightmares by combining Snorlax's Drowsy Power with Cresselia's own. As mentioned in Pokémon Sleep, it has attempted to use Dark Void while it is asleep, perhaps because it cannot contain its overflowing power.[1] The relationship between Darkrai and Cresselia can vary between different individuals and canons, with some depicting it as antagonistic (Sleepless In Pre-Battle! and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon), while others portray it as cooperative (Nightfall? Nightmares! and A Midsummer Night's Light!).
In The Rise of Darkrai, Darkrai was shown to be capable of speech through telepathy. In the same movie, it is revealed to be capable of flying at high speeds and becoming a shadow in order to escape danger or avoid humans. In Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, Darkrai can use an ability called Dark Power, in which it opens a large black portal on the ground to either trap people and Pokémon in a world of total darkness (referred to as Dark Void) or teleport them somewhere else. Darkrai's capacity to cause nightmares can be enhanced by absorbing tons of Mega Power, creating a mélange of subconscious thoughts and memories from people and Pokémon, as seen with Hyperspace Lumiose. If this isn't stopped, however, it will expand and cause distortions to appear in the real world. This also makes it lose control of itself and harms it to the point of triggering Rogue Mega Evolution. The Eureka Seed can bring out the full power of Darkrai.
When Mega-Evolved, Darkrai's entire body doubles in length and becomes almost five times heavier. Its upper body grows larger and more spherical, while its arms transform into long tentacles that gyrate. Six similar, wispy, swirling tatters protrude from it: five extend from the back, and one appears on the chest. From the longer, tattered skirt, two long, swirling legs emerge. Darkrai's ghostly plume lengthens, becoming pointier, with two locks on each side. The left eye is obscured by this "hair", revealing the right eye, which has an eerie hot pink hue. The previously red growth around its neck has turned black and now features eight new triangular shapes—three small triangles on two parallel sides and one large triangle on the opposite sides. In between these shapes, eight thin, white, vein-like lines appear. Darkrai can now open and close the neck growth when it retracts its head. When exposed, the growth appears dark gray and glows in shades from magenta to dark red as the head is retracted. Mega Darkrai hovers horizontally with its head pointing forward. From this angle, the new appendages, triangles, and lines resemble a vile eye with twisting spikes. When the head disappears, Mega Darkrai's neck reveals a white pupil and blue iris, which, combined with the magenta color change, creates an unsettling resemblance to a demonic eye.
Thanks to Mega Evolution, Darkrai's nightmare powers have significantly increased, to the point where it can block out the Sun and cast the entire area into total darkness. This allows it to seamlessly blend into its surroundings and disappear into the shadows. It is said that no one can escape the gaze of Mega Darkrai's large, menacing eye, which it can use for attacks. Mega Darkrai can create copies of itself to surround foes before attacking them with dark energy.
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness: Darkrai is revealed to be the main antagonist of the game in the post-game story. He wants to cover the world in darkness, and was behind the collapse of the Temporal Tower and Dialga's corruption into Primal Dialga in the main storyline of the game. His interference is also the reason the player was separated from Grovyle and turned into a Pokémon. In the post-game story, he turns his attention to distorting the fabric of space to cover the world in darkness.
PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond: Darkrai is the main antagonist in the game. He resided in Wish Park and wants to merge the Wish Park with PokéPark. When the Dark Vortex threatens to destroy both dimensions, Darkrai sacrifices himself to stop it, but is later brought back by Reshiram and Zekrom during the post-game.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A: Mega Dimension: Darkrai is the main antagonist and the final boss of the DLC. About 6 months before the events of the game, Darkrai wandered into Lumiose and settled on top of Prism Tower to stay away from everyone down below. As a result, however, it got exposed to all the Mega Power leaking from Ange, causing its nightmare powers to be enhanced and go out of control. This created a dimension composed of the subconcious thoughts and memories of the people and Pokémon of Lumiose, which came to be known as Hyperspace Lumiose. After the creation of hyperspace, Darkrai hid one of its pockets, one that takes the form of Newmoon Island, Hyperspace Newmoon Nightmare, accessable through the giant distortion above Prism Tower.
Spoilers end here.
Pokédex entries
This Pokémon was unavailable prior to Generation IV.
On a moonless night, a strange incident occurred in which every one of a village's inhabitants suffered nightmares. The villagers attested that Darkrai appeared before them in these nightmares.
Increases Snorlax's Strength by ?, but at the same time, reduces the Energy of helper Pokémon on your team that aren't Dark type by 12.
It can lull people to sleep and make them have nightmares. It has been observed trying to use Dark Void even while it sleeps, but that may be because it can't contain its own overflowing power.
Darkrai made its animated series debut in Sleepless In Pre-Battle!. Unlike the Darkrai in The Rise of Darkrai, this Darkrai was maliciously causing nightmares, much like the one in the games. According to Officer Jenny, it comes at a certain time every year. In the episode, however, it came earlier due to it being lured out by Team Rocket's machine, which was also causing nightmares. Cresselia is normally in the same place as Darkrai to stop it from giving nightmares, but due to Darkrai's early arrival, the people in Canalave City had nightmares for several days. One night, it was concealing itself when Cresselia used its abilities to reveal it from the darkness. The two then battled and Darkrai hid itself once more in the shadows.
In Dream a Little Dream from Me!, a Darkrai was the source of Pikachu, Meowth, and Squishy's nightmare. Darkrai eventually left as soon as it was spotted by Ash and his friends.
A Pitch-Black Pokémon. It becomes active on nights of the new moon. This legendary Pokémon has the power to lull people to sleep and fill their heads with dreams. Proverbs say that Darkrai will make people have terrifying dreams on moonless nights. A Dark-type Pokémon, Darkrai uses the Dark Voidmove, along with Embargo, which stops foes from using held items.
Darkrai appears as a Poké Ball Pokémon. It puts fighters to sleep and damages them by using Dark Void. It also appears as a trophy in both versions of the game.
Trophy information
NA: This Dark-type Pokémon can cause people and other Pokémon to experience nightmares. While it is floating in the air, it tucks its legs in so far, it looks like they vanish! In battle it will use a move called Dark Void, which sucks in surrounding opponents and puts them into a deep sleep.
PAl: A Pokémon shrouded in mystery, Darkrai has the ability to implant nightmares into the minds of both humans and Pokémon. It has legs, but seems to prefer to float in the air. Its favourite move in this game is Dark Void. When this attack hits something, it creates a vortex that sucks in fighters and puts them to sleep.
Darkrai is a Battle Pokémon in the arcade and Nintendo Switch versions of Pokkén Tournament. Its moves include Dark Pulse, Dark Void, Nasty Plot, Shadow Claw, Nightmare, and Dream Eater. During Synergy Burst, it can use the Burst Attack Infinite Eclipse.
Sailor Eldritch's son says "Dar... Dark... Is watching me..." in his sleep before the player cures him of his nightmare. It is assumed that he is talking about Darkrai, as it is known to give its victims horrific nightmares.
In the early Japanese versions of Diamond and Pearl, Darkrai can be caught with the Surf glitch. However, this glitch was fixed in other language versions. Another glitch has been discovered that allows players of other language releases to reach Darkrai without the Member Card.
This has been remedied in Pokémon Platinum, however, as Darkrai itself will not appear on the island without the event ticket.
Despite being a gender unknown Pokémon, the Darkrai in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky is referred to as a male.
Mega Darkrai is tied with Mega Tyranitar for having the highest base stat total of all Dark-type Pokémon, excluding Arceus while holding a Dread Plate.
Origin
Darkrai appears to be the personification of nightmares, bearing resemblance to folklore creatures such as the mare and other night hags. Similarly, some types of jinns are also associated with nightmares and sleep paralysis. It may also draw some inspiration from sleep deities and/or personifications, such as Morpheus.
Darkrai's appearance is that of a ghostlyshadow, likely inspired by some popular descriptions of bogeyman as a dark and formless figure. It may also be inspired by common hallucinations of shadowy figures during sleep paralysis episodes. In contrast to its counterpart Cresselia's association with the crescent moon, Darkrai also appears to represent the new moon.
Darkrai shares some similarities with the nocnitsa from Slavic folklore, a type of evil spirit that often torments children with nightmares, gradually draining their life energy. Its physical appearance has many distinct depictions, some of which strongly resemble Darkrai—the most notable ones being: disheveled white hair, a body made out of shadows, and the absence of legs. Furthermore, in some regions it's said the nocnitsa can be stopped if one possesses a knife or a stone with a hole, similar to how a Lunar Feather can dispel Darkrai's nightmares.
Given its fabric-like texture in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and long and stilt-like legs, Darkrai appears to be inspired by a scarecrow, forming a contrast to Cresselia's bird-like design.
The black markings around its eyes could be seen to resemble eyebags, which could be caused by a lack of sleep resulting from nightmares.
Mega Darkrai seems to take inspiration from a beholder, a fantasy creature commonly depicted as a floating sphere with a big eyeball and tendrils that may contain other, smaller eyes. Given its powers over darkness that can cover the sun, it might also be based on a solar eclipse. It is also probably inspired by Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the evil god of stars in Japanese mythology, whose name means "August Star of Heaven" or "Dread Star of Heaven", which explained its resemblance to a giant star. Its overall appearance greatly resembles a human eye, with the main body as the eye itself, the tendrils blood vessels of the conjunctiva, and the legs the optic nerve.
Name origin
Darkrai may be a combination of dark and 暗い kurai (dark).
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.
Enigma Berry (100%)
For other sprites and images, please see Darkrai images on the Bulbagarden Archives.
