Giratina is No. 487 in the National Pokédex, a Ghost and Dragon type Legendary Pokémon introduced in Generation IV. Altered Forme stands 4.5 m and weighs 750 kg; Origin Forme reaches 6.9 m for 650 kg. Both share a base stat total of 680. It rules the Distortion World, the dimension Arceus banished it to.
Giratina comes back into the conversation with every new TCG set and every Sinnoh remake. It is also the Legendary customers ask us about most, usually to request an engraving we do not carry yet. Here is the full picture, with every number cross-checked against Bulbapedia and Pokémon Database, and the forum myths flagged as myths.
Who is Giratina in Pokémon?
Giratina is the Renegade Pokémon, National Dex No. 487, introduced in 2006 with Pokémon Diamond and Pearl on Nintendo DS. It is Ghost and Dragon, the first Pokémon ever to carry that pairing. It completes the Sinnoh creation trio alongside Dialga, who governs time, and Palkia, who governs space.
Dialga and Palkia guard their domains out in the open. Giratina does not. It has no shrine in the living world. Its dimension, the Distortion World, works as a negative of ours: platforms hang at impossible angles, you walk along walls, you Surf up vertical faces. The design brief was clearly Escher, and it shows in every screen of Platinum's final act.
The name Giratina is identical in Japanese, English, French, Spanish, German and Korean, which is unusual for a Legendary of this stature. Japanese writes it ギラティナ.
Why was Giratina banished to the Distortion World?
The Sinnoh creation myth, readable in the Canalave Library, opens on nothing but churning chaos. An Egg appears in it, hatches, and out comes Arceus, the Original One. Arceus creates Dialga and Palkia at the peak of Mt. Coronet, then the lake guardians Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf, whose job is to calm the first two if either one rages. Giratina is born at the same moment. Its violent nature gets it thrown out.
Platinum's Pokédex entry says it plainly: "It was banished for its violence. It silently gazed upon the old world from the Distortion World." In the version Cynthia reads out, the third Pokémon is the one whose name was never to be spoken, lurking on the opposite side of ours.
Punishment or posting? Both worlds have to balance each other to keep existing, so without the Distortion World nothing holds time and space in check. Giratina may not be a prisoner at all. It may be on duty. The games never settle it, and that silence is why the argument has run for twenty years.
One word about antimatter, because it is everywhere. Bulbapedia states outright that Giratina and the Distortion World are personifications of antimatter, mirroring Dialga for time and Palkia for space. That is the standard reading. Worth knowing, though: the games themselves never use the word. They talk about the opposite side of our world. The antimatter framing comes from the encyclopedia, not from a line of dialogue.
Where does the name Giratina come from?
Bulbapedia offers several roots and hedges every one of them. Platina, Spanish for platinum, ties the trio to the Diamond, Pearl and Platinum titles. A corruption of Gila monster, the venomous lizard. The Japanese onomatopoeia ギラリ (girari), the metallic glint that catches the eye. Guilty, guillotine and girasol, a variety of opal, also circulate. None has ever been confirmed by the designers.
The design is on firmer ground. The starting concept is the fallen angel, the celestial being cast down for rebelling, with Samael named specifically. Altered Forme blends a European dragon, a sauropod, bat wings and sphinx moth caterpillar markings. Origin Forme draws on the Chinese dragon, the amphiptere, a seraph, and above all the Ōmukade, the giant centipede yōkai. The Yamata no Orochi link you see quoted on forums appears nowhere in the sources. It is fan theory.
Altered Forme vs Origin Forme: what is the difference?
Both formes total 680, but they trade their numbers. Altered is the defensive build, Origin the offensive one. Four stats move, and so does the Ability.
Altered Forme is what you meet outside the Distortion World: a heavy six legged body, black wings tipped in red, 4.5 m for 750 kg. Its Ability is Pressure, which makes every move used against it cost 2 PP instead of 1. Against 150 base HP and 120 in both defences, that is a slow but methodical way to empty an opposing moveset.
Origin Forme drops the legs and stretches into a floating serpent 6.9 m long. Longer, yet lighter: 650 kg against 750. Its Ability becomes Levitate, and that is the only Ability this forme has, with no hidden slot. Its 120 Attack and 120 Special Attack make it the battle shape. It is also the reason Giratina shows up in the ranking of the biggest and heaviest Pokémon in the Pokédex.
Altered Forme's hidden Ability, Telepathy, did not exist in Generation IV. It was added in Generation V. In Diamond and Pearl, Giratina had Pressure and nothing else.
Griseous Orb and Griseous Core: what actually changed
This item swapped jobs partway through the series, and it is the single most common source of bad information on Giratina.
From Generation IV to VIII, holding the Griseous Orb forces Origin Forme anywhere, including outside the Distortion World, and raises the power of Giratina's Ghost and Dragon moves by 20 percent. From Pokémon Legends: Arceus onward the Orb no longer changes forme. A second item took that role: the Griseous Core, handed out as a request reward. In Scarlet and Violet, holding the Core gives Origin Forme plus the 20 percent boost, while the Orb alone gives only the boost.
The competitive knock-on is real. Because the forme is no longer welded to the item, that item is now exposed to Knock Off, Trick and Magic Room. Teams had to account for it.
What are Giratina's base stats?
| Stat | Altered Forme | Origin Forme |
|---|---|---|
| HP | 150 | 150 |
| Attack | 100 | 120 |
| Defense | 120 | 100 |
| Sp. Atk | 100 | 120 |
| Sp. Def | 120 | 100 |
| Speed | 90 | 90 |
| Total | 680 | 680 |
150 base HP is the number to remember. Very few Pokémon beat it, and paired with 120 in both defences it gives Altered Forme staying power that most Legendaries never reach. Its catch rate of 3 is the lowest bracket in the game, level with the other major Legendaries: a standard Poké Ball thrown at a full health Giratina lands roughly 0.4 percent of the time.
What is Giratina's signature move?
Shadow Force, introduced in Generation IV. Ghost type, physical, 120 power, 100 percent accuracy, 5 PP. Both formes learn it at level 77.
The value is in the two turn structure. Giratina vanishes on turn one and becomes untouchable by almost everything, then lands the hit on turn two. More importantly, Shadow Force goes straight through Protect and Detect and breaks them for the rest of the turn, which makes it one of the few moves that punishes a stall pattern outright. A Power Herb removes the charge turn. In Generation VIII it does not get through Max Guard.
What is Giratina weak against?
Ghost and Dragon gives five weaknesses, six resistances and two immunities, with nothing extreme in either direction.
- Double damage: Ice, Ghost, Dark, Dragon and Fairy.
- Half damage: Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Poison and Bug.
- No damage: Normal and Fighting, both from the Ghost type. Origin Forme adds Ground, cancelled by Levitate.
The Fairy weakness only exists from Generation VI. Before the type was introduced, Giratina had four. Nothing hits it for 4x and nothing is cut to a quarter, which is exactly why it reads as a wall that is hard to break cleanly. For how it stacks up against other Legendaries, see the ranking of the most powerful Pokémon.
How do you get Giratina in every game?
Unlike most box Legendaries, Giratina has never been version exclusive. The route to it changes every time, and it is not catchable everywhere.
- Diamond and Pearl: deep inside Turnback Cave, after the Hall of Fame. Level 70, Altered Forme.
- Platinum: as part of the story, inside the Distortion World. Level 47, Origin Forme. Miss it there and it reappears in Turnback Cave at the same level in Altered Forme.
- HeartGold and SoulSilver: the Sinjoh Ruins, which require an event Arceus. You leave with an Egg, chosen from the trio.
- Black and White, Black 2 and White 2, X and Y: not catchable. Trade or transfer only.
- Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire: while Soaring, in the dimensional rift south of Dewford Town. Dialga and Palkia must both be in your party. Level 50.
- Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon: the Ultra Space Wilds, Cave World, again with Dialga and Palkia in the party. Level 60, and you get one attempt.
- Sword and Shield: Crown Tundra Dynamax Adventures, in the Max Lair.
- Legends: Arceus: Turnback Cave in the north west of the Cobalt Coastlands, after the Giratina request. Origin Forme, level 70. Catching it awards the Griseous Core.
- Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl: Turnback Cave after becoming Champion, level 70. Origin Forme runs through the Distortion Room in Ramanas Park with a Distortion Slate, and cannot be caught: beat it and it drops the Griseous Orb.
- Scarlet and Violet: not catchable, not in the base game and not in either DLC. Pokémon HOME transfer only.
- Pokémon GO: five star raids, both formes rotating separately, Shiny available.
Turnback Cave, the maze everyone hated
It is not a corridor, it is a room generator. Twenty one fog filled rooms, three of which hold a pillar. You have to find all three pillars in under thirty rooms or you are dumped back at the entrance. Each pillar carries two numbers: the top one counts pillars found, the bottom one counts rooms crossed. That is the only navigation aid in the dungeon, and plenty of players never realised it was there.
For the catch itself: save in front of it, chip it to red with False Swipe, put it to sleep, then switch to Timer Balls past turn thirty. With a catch rate of 3, anything that drags the battle out is working for you.
Giratina in the anime and the movies
Giratina headlines the eleventh Pokémon film, Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior, released in Japan on 19 July 2008 and in the United States on 13 February 2009. The Japanese title translates as "Giratina and the Bouquet of the Frozen Sky: Shaymin". Giratina hunts Dialga in retaliation for the damage done to the Distortion World, and Shaymin debuts its Sky Forme.
It returns a year later in Arceus and the Jewel of Life, released in Japan on 18 July 2009, which closes the Sinnoh trilogy. Giratina attacks Dialga out of leftover rage, is calmed down, then fights alongside Dialga and Palkia against a newly woken Arceus.
Two quieter appearances are worth tracking down: episode 11 of Pokémon Generations shows it wrecking Cyrus's plan inside the Distortion World, and the eighteenth film puts both formes on screen, hypnotised and pressed into service.
Giratina in the Pokémon TCG
Giratina has a long card history running from the Diamond and Pearl era: Giratina LV.X in Platinum, Giratina Prism Star in Ultra Prism, Giratina-EX in Dragons Exalted, Garchomp and Giratina-GX in Unified Minds.
The reference card is still Giratina VSTAR, number 131/196 from Lost Origin, released in 2022. 280 HP, Lost Impact for 280 damage, and above all the VSTAR Power called Star Requiem: once you have ten or more cards in the Lost Zone, the opponent's Active Pokémon is Knocked Out with no damage calculation at all. The art shows Origin Forme. The set itself is covered in our article on the Lost Origin expansion.
One warning about the secondary market: the chase alternate art is Giratina V 186/196, not the VSTAR. Listings routinely mix the two up. Prices move too fast to quote here, so check a dated figure before you buy.
Giratina at a glance
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Pokédex number | 487 |
| Category | Renegade Pokémon |
| Generation | IV, Diamond and Pearl, 2006 |
| Types | Ghost and Dragon |
| Height and weight | 4.5 m / 750 kg Altered, 6.9 m / 650 kg Origin |
| Abilities | Pressure, hidden Telepathy on Altered; Levitate on Origin |
| Base stat total | 680 in both formes |
| Signature move | Shadow Force, 120 power, learned at level 77 |
| Forme items | Griseous Orb, then Griseous Core |
| Catch rate | 3, the lowest bracket |
| Status | Legendary, not Mythical |
That last line still trips people up. Giratina is Legendary, not Mythical. The difference is about how a Pokémon is distributed, not how strong it is: a Mythical is only handed out at events, a Legendary can be caught in the game.
Giratina FAQ
Is Giratina the strongest Pokémon in Sinnoh?
No. Arceus beats it, 720 base stat total against 680. Giratina is level with Dialga and Palkia, which post exactly the same 680. What separates the three is distribution across the six stats, not the sum.
Can Giratina be Shiny?
Yes, in both formes. Pokémon GO distributes the Shiny during its dedicated raid windows. In the main series it depends on the title, because several scripted encounters in recent games are Shiny locked.
Does the Distortion World exist outside Platinum?
Yes, but it is only playable in Pokémon Platinum. It is the setting for the eleventh film, for parts of Arceus and the Jewel of Life and for episode 11 of Pokémon Generations. Several later Pokédex entries still name it.
Can Giratina learn Dark type moves?
Yes, though there is little point. Its Ghost STAB already covers the same targets with a same type bonus attached. Shadow Force and Shadow Ball remain its best offensive options in that direction.
Taking it further
Pokéled engraves 29 Pokémon into crystal, and Giratina is not one of them yet. Requests for the Sinnoh Legendaries come in regularly and they are on the list. In the meantime, the crystal light up Poké Ball collection covers several other major Legendaries.
Antoine, founder of Pokéled. Game data cross-checked between Bulbapedia and Pokémon Database.
