Palkia looks dinosaur-like, similar to Dialga, though it seems to be based on a theropod, the bipedal carnivorous dinosaurs. Palkia’s body is mainly a shade of light purple, although it has stripes and markings of a darker shade and a grayish-colored arm underside and waist. It has round purple-striped plates on its shoulder area, where two pink pearls lie encrusted with a gray rim encircling them and fins in their back. Palkia’s arms have somewhat gauntlet-like extended formations and a purple band of coloration at the wrist. Palkia has a long neck, a pointed white crest on the top of its head that extends to its wings, two strong horn-like tusks on the sides of its jaw, and a powerful tail.
Gender differences
Palkia is a genderless species.
Special abilities
Palkia has the ability to warp space. An example of this was shown in Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, in which Palkia was able to shuffle the landscape of Almia around at a whim, allowing doors to connect to places miles away and for large forests to fit inside tiny houses. In Pokémon Pearl Version, it is mentioned on the statue in Eterna City that it can create alternate realities.
Palkia's skills in battle are mostly the same as Dialga's, except that Palkia can learn a handful of Water-type moves. Palkia is also slightly faster than Dialga and has weaker defensive stats. Palkia is one of the rare species that can learn the move Aura Sphere.
Palkia's powers can be amplified with the Lustrous Orb.
Like Dialga, Palkia lives in a different dimension, making its behavior nearly impossible to study. However, Palkia has been seen in violent conflicts with Dialga. It as well has been shown to be very protective of its home.
Habitat
Legends say that it lives "in a gap in the spatial dimension parallel to ours." The twelfth movie shows Palkia living in a pink-colored dimension containing floating pearls.
Palkia is first seen in Diamond & Pearl arc having been summoned by Cyrus along with Dialga with the Red Chain. It was used to fight with Dialga and create a disturbance in the Time-Space continuum which will allow Cyrus to create a new world free of emotions and war. Palkia was eventually stopped when Diamond's words reached it and later freed from Cyrus's control and defeated him. Palkia was later pulled into another dimension by a pair of mysterious black tentacles.
Palkia is later seen in Platinum arc where Charon used his machine to cause it and the other legendary Pokemon to get into a huge fight. However, with the help of the Sinnoh trainers, the Pokemon were released from Charon's control. Giratina attempts to attack it and Dialga one last time but it was stopped with the help of Volkner and Flint.
It was shown how Palkia was brought back to life in HeartGold & SoulSilver arc. The Rocket Executives used Arceus' power to create the three dragons of Sinnoh. Remembering its past conflict in the ancient past, it and Dialga battles Giratina, starting a clash that threatened to destroy the fragile dimension that the Sinjoh Ruins were in. Knowing that the dragons must be stopped and because he had experience with manipulating space, Lance battles Palkia with his Dragonite and its powerful Hyper Beam. Palkia was at first able to change the direction of the attack but thanks to Dragonite's ability to change the directions of its moves, the Hyper Beam attack changed direction and striked Palkia's back, catching it by surprise. After taking the battle outside, Lance and his twocomrades realize that it and Dialga are calming down since they are trying to stop Giratina as well. The three men use combined attacks to subdue Giratina. Having been defeated, Giratina retreats to the Distortion World. Satisfied by Giratina's defeat and with Arceus being calmed, Palkia and Dialga are calmed and flies off to a distant region.
In the Arceus and the Jewel of Life manga
In the Arceus and the Jewel of Life manga adaptation, Palkia, along with the members of its trio, was summoned by Sheena to help Ash and his friends. Palkia soon engaged in a battle with the other members of its trio with Arceus.
Palkia occasionally appears on the Spear Pillar stage as one of three Pokémon that controls it. It only appears on the stage when the ground on the upper levels have a purple tinge to them. Unlike Dialga and Cresselia, it'll use its powers to distort the stage however possible. Some examples include tilting the stage, turning the stage completely upside down and reversing the screen itself (the last two will cause the movement controls to be reversed temporarily). It often shoot beams in the cave below, dealing a lot of damage to the players that get caught in the blast.
Trophy Information
"A Spatial Pokémon. In the Sinnoh region, this Pokémon has been revered for many generations, much like Dialga. Dialga warps time, but Palkia has control over space. It lives between parallel dimensions and is known for its power, rumored to be able to warp space. It can use Spacial Rend to rip through the very space an enemy resides in, damaging the foe at the same time. It is Pearl's mascot."
Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia: Palkia appears as a bonus boss during one of the Ranger Net extra missions. Palkia was injured from a battle with Dialga and entered Hippowdon Temple. In its pain, it warped the space of the Almia region and caused all of the locations of Almia to be shuffled together.
Pokédex entries
This Pokémon was unavailable prior to Generation IV.
Oddly, Palkia learns Aqua Tail two times: at level 24 and again at level 42.
Palkia is the only member of the creation trio not to have an immunity. (Dialga is immune to Poison, and Giratina is immune to Normal and Fighting).
Origin
Palkia, along with Dialga, may be based on the Shinto legend of Izanami and Izanagi, who are said to have created one island with a spear, erected a pillar on it, and from there created the islands of Japan. Appearance-wise, Palkia is likely based after a European dragon combined with a pearl. Its appearance may also be derived from the Plateosaurus or other bipedal dinosaurs such as Oviraptor or Gigantoraptor due to its head crest and reminiscent body form. The presence of fins in their back, the fish-like head and the pearls are possibly the reason for its Water type. Its secondary typing may also originate from the weightlessness one experiences in water, such as the fact that astronauts use water to train for space expeditions.
Name origin
Palkia is derived from the Japanese spelling of pearl, パール pāru.