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Nincada is a small, whitish, insectoid Pokémon. It has a pointed snout, a thin stripe that dips in a V-shaped pattern between its eyes, and two whisker-like antennae on its face. Its eyes are black with green iris-like rings inside. As it is virtually blind, it uses its antennae to sense its surroundings. On its back is a pair of small, green wings. Its hind legs are white, but the forelegs are brown and have sharp claws.
The claws are used to carve into the roots of trees and absorb moisture and nutrients. Nincada builds underground nests at the roots of trees in tropical and temperate forests. It can occasionally live up to 10 years underground. It does not like sunlight, so it avoids it. Nincada is nearly blind due to living almost entirely underground, as such, it uses its antennae to see instead.
Evolution
Nincada evolves into Ninjask and can also evolve into Shedinja simultaneously, which appears in an empty Poké Ball.
Nincada, the Trainee Pokémon. Nincada lives most of its life inside the earth and uses its sharp claws to tap into tree roots, extracting nutrients and moisture.
Nincada lives underground for many years in complete darkness. This Pokémon absorbs nutrients from the roots of trees. It stays motionless as it waits for evolution.
Nincada lives underground. It uses its sharp claws to carve the roots of trees and absorb moisture and nutrients. This Pokémon can't withstand bright sunlight so avoids it.
Nincada lives underground for many years in complete darkness. This Pokémon absorbs nutrients from the roots of trees. It stays motionless as it waits for evolution.
Nincada lives underground. It uses its sharp claws to carve the roots of trees and absorb moisture and nutrients. This Pokémon can't withstand bright sunlight so avoids it.
Nincada evolves into Ninjask starting at level 20 and, upon evolution, Shedinja if the player has an empty slot in their party and an extra Poké Ball on hand. Note that the Poké Ball has to be a regular Poké Ball. In Generation III, an extra Poké Ball is not necessary to obtain Shedinja.
Nincada is the only Pokémon to have a higher base stat total than its evolved form, as it has 30 more base stat points than Shedinja.
Nincada is the only Pokémon to have a gender, be able to learn TM moves, but not to learn Attract or Captivate. This is possibly to prevent Shedinja from knowing these moves due to being gender unknown.
Nincada is exclusively in the BugEgg Group, but Shedinja is exclusively in the Mineral Egg Group. These two are the only evolutionarily-related Pokémon to not share identical Egg Groups, excluding those that transition in or out of the No Eggs Discovered Egg Group.
Nincada appears to be based on a cicadanymph. Its association with ninjas may be inspired by stories of ninjas using cicadas to mask their own sounds, or a reference to fabled ninja techniques: doton no jutsu (escape jutsu), a technique of sneaking into a pre-dug hole and hiding until the opponent is gone and utsusemi no jutsu (cicada skin technique), a technique using decoys to misdirect opponents.
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.