Eternatus is a gigantic, draconic alien Pokémon. Its body has a vaguely draconic shape and skeletal appearance, and it is largely dark violet with red highlights. Its main body and tail are long and thin and resemble a spinal column, and it has four small, thin limbs ending in claws formed from spindly appendages attached at right angles. Its torso is formed from a cage of appendages resembling ribs, and inside is a glowing pink core that serves as Eternatus's energy source, absorbing energy to sustain it. Its head is triangular and has a pair of white, eye-like markings in the form of three connected circles, as well as a spindly lower jaw with several diamond-shaped teeth. Over its head is a translucent red film held between five long spikes extending toward its body's rear. It also has a pair of thin tendrils extending from its back, formed from numerous triangular segments. Eternatus's gigantic size makes it the tallest known Pokémon with the exception of Dynamax and Gigantamax Pokémon.
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
Eternatus is an extraterrestrial Pokémon that came to the Pokémon world inside an asteroid around 20,000 years ago. It's implied by Peonia that Eternatus's asteroid (referred to as a massive Wishing Star) landed at the Crown Tundra, specifically in Slippery Slope, creating a cavern now known as the Max Lair.[1] It serves as the source of the Dynamax phenomenon in Galar due to its power leaking out in the form of Galar particles following its defeat 3000 years ago by Zacian, Zamazenta, and two human youths. Pieces of its body imbued with its power rained down throughout Galar in the form of Wishing Pieces and Wishing Stars. After it reawakened in the present day, Eternatus's core needed to reabsorb the Galar particles in order to remain active, apparently due to its past defeat weakening it. In Pokémon Masters EX, it can replace Galar particles by absorbing sync stone energy in massive amounts instead. Its core can project its absorbed energy into massive blasts fired directly from its center, which cause more damage to Dynamax and Gigantamax Pokémon. It can also keep other Pokémon from Dynamaxing in its presence. Despite this connection to the phenomenon, it cannot Dynamax itself, as its Eternamax form replaces that effect. Eternatus' power is so great that Rose attempted to use it to solve the imminent energy crisis that would befall Galar in a thousand years.
As depicted in the Pokémon Journeys: The Series episode Sword and Shield: "From Here to Eternatus!", Eternatus can use its core to force Pokémon to Dynamax or Gigantamax. Conversely, it can prevent Dynamaxing by absorbing the Galar particles around it to make them unavailable to use, forcibly reverting any Dynamax or Gigantamax Pokémon back to normal in the process. Rose was the one to coin Eternatus's name, but in the past, it was known as the Darkest Day, as referred to by the people of Galar who feared it 3000 years ago. The animated series shows that Eternatus is not an inherently malicious Pokémon, with its triggering of the Darkest Day being in part due to its inability to fully control its power. After mastering it, it is even shown to become docile and a protector of Galar, much like the legendary heroes who defeated it. As seen in chapter Oh My!! The Disappearance of Henry of the Pokémon Adventuresmanga, Eternatus's poison has the capability of altering people's behavior and making them violent and selfish, which is demonstrated with Henry Sword after he touched it.
When Eternatus absorbs all the energy in the Galar region or uses Eternabeam, it transforms into its original form, Eternamax Eternatus. Its larger size makes it the tallest known Pokémon in existence, dwarfing even Gigantamax Pokémon. In this form, Eternatus's shape drastically changes. Its body becomes incredibly long and serpentine, with most of its body forming a massive coil. Its entire body glows red, and at regular intervals across its length are black rings with spikes extending outward. Its back tendrils now curl around its main body. Its energy core rests at the center of the coil inside a cage of violet spikes. Eternatus's head takes on the form of a giant hand, with its "fingers" covered in black armor with spikes extending from the back of each segment. At the tip of each finger there's a mouth-like opening on its armor revealing pink insides. According to Casey Shield, Eternatus's five fingers are actually heads.
Eternamax Eternatus's power grows so immense that it causes a great storm of Dynamax energy around it, ripping holes in spacetime amid the storm as it releases an infinite amount of energy. It is responsible for the Darkest Day, in which the massive quantities of Dynamax energy it unleashes cause Pokémon to Dynamax and rampage uncontrollably. In addition to Max Moves, it can use its most most powerful attack, a large beam which is shoots from the white spot in its "palm" and several smaller ones from its "fingers" or from all over its immense body. Thanks to a mysterious power, Eternatus can prevent opposing Pokémon from using any moves as it stores its energy. This power, however, can be countered by both Zacian and Zamazenta in their Crowned forms.
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
Pokémon Sword and Shield: Eternatus is a main character and a boss encounter in the games. It crashlanded 20,000 years ago in the Galar region within a giant asteroid. Around 3,000 years ago, Eternatus awakened for the very first time and caused a catastrophic event known as the Darkest Day, which caused Pokémon all over the region to Dynamax and go berserk. However, the legendary heroesZacian and Zamazenta allied themselves with two youths and managed to take Eternatus down, forcing it back into its slumber.
In the present day, Chairman Rose awakened Eternatus to use its infinite energy to save Galar from an energy crisis a thousand years into the future. Leon attempted to stop it but failed to catch the Gigantic Pokémon and was defeated by it, leaving it up to the player and Hop to battle it. During the fight, Eternatus entered its Eternamax state, which only caused the situation to become more dire. Using the Rusted Sword and Rusted Shield, the player and Hop summoned Zacian and Zamazenta to fight by their side and managed to defeat Eternatus. The player then catches it to prevent it from causing any further damage.
Spoilers end here.
Pokédex entries
This Pokémon was unavailable prior to Generation VIII.
In Pokémon GO, Eternamax Eternatus appears in Max Battles, but cannot be obtained by the player. Instead, defeating Eternamax Eternatus in a Max Battle rewards large quantities of Eternatus Candy and Eternatus Candy XL.
This form is unobtainable, but briefly appears in the move animation for Eternabeam. The move is not treated as a form change internally, and Eternatus's stats and form index value remain unchanged. If Eternatus uses this move, Eternamax Eternatus will not be registered in the player's Pokédex, making it impossible to legitimately register Shiny Eternamax Eternatus. However, a Shiny Eternamax Eternatus can be registered in Pokémon HOME's Pokédex by depositing Shiny Eternatus into HOME's storage, as it automatically registers both forms. If a Pokémon using Transform or with Imposter, fights Eternamax Eternatus, it will instead transform into Eternatus's regular form.
Eternamax Eternatus's cry and base stats are different to those of its regular form (with it having the highest base stats of any Pokémon to date).
Eternatus debuted in Flash of the Titans!, where it passed by the Galar-bound plane that Ash Ketchum and Goh boarded, causing interference to it in the process. It later played a notable role during the Darkest Day arc, before being ultimately caught by Goh, who gave it to Professor Magnolia for safekeeping. In Just a Scone's Throw From Here!, he entrusted Eternatus's ownership to Leon. During Ash and Leon's Masters Eight Tournamentbattle, Eternatus broke out of its confinement and flew to Wyndon to stabilize the immense energy created by the battle, before returning to the wild as Galar's protector.
Minor appearances
Eternatus in Pokémon EvolutionsEternamax Eternatus in Pokémon Evolutions
Pokémon Evolutions
Eternatus appeared in a flashback in The Champion, where it was battled against by Victor and Hop during the Darkest Day and subsequently caught by the former.
Eternatus is the heaviestPoison-type and Dragon-type Pokémon, and also the heaviest Pokémon overall introduced in Generation VIII.
Eternatus has several similarities to Terapagos. Both are LegendaryPokémon that are responsible for the special type of transformation (Dynamax/Gigantamax and Terastallization) found within their respective origin regions (Galar and Paldea). They also both have transformations exclusive to them related to these phenomena increasing their stats (Eternatus's Eternamax form and Terapagos's Stellar Form, though the former is unobtainable) and can absorb the energy needed to use these transformations from other Pokémon, thereby rendering them unavailable. Both of them were also introduced in a game which would receive DLC and whose game mascots comprise a Legendary duo.
Pokémon transformed into Zacian, Zamazenta, or Eternatus will also be unable to Dynamax.
Despite this, Eternatus is still capable of using Max Moves in its Eternamax form. This makes it the only non-Dynamax Pokémon that can use Max Moves in the core series (though its normal form, Crowned Sword Zacian, and Crowned Shield Zamazenta can use Max Move versions of their signature moves in Pokémon GO).
Eternatus is the first Legendary Pokémon that can be caught with any Poké Ball without the chance of failing.
A level 100 Eternamax Eternatus could reach 655 in one of these stats, which would cause the stat to overflow to 0 due to a quirk in the coding for Pokémon Sword and Shield which affects no other Pokémon.
has the highest base stat total of all Pokémon, with 1125. This also makes it the only Pokémon with a four-digit base stat total.
is the only alternate form of a Legendary Pokémon that cannot be obtained or used by the player.
has several traits in common with Gigantamax forms despite not technically being one, including an unknown weight, the ability to use Max Moves, and a form index of 999 in its Pokédex data.
It also has a second unused set of Pokédex data which uses its correct form index of 1.
Eternatus and Regigigas have very similar category names in Japanese, with the only difference being in how they're written: Regigigas's category name is in hiragana (きょだいポケモン), while Eternatus's category name is in katakana (キョダイポケモン). In either case, the category name is pronounced the same: Kyodai Pokémon.
Unlike other Pokémon in the animated series, Eternatus is animated with 3D animation rather than 2D during the Sword and Shield arc. It is the only Pokémon in Pokémon the Series to have this distinction.
Eternatus is the first Pokémon animated with either 2D or 3D animations outside of movies.
When Eternatus was released in Pokémon GO, its Pokédex entries were erroneously swapped between its normal and Eternamax forms. This was later corrected.
In Pokémon GO, Eternatus uses the most Candy to power up, with a minimum of 60 for 1 power up.
Origin
Eternatus's extraterrestrial nature and dragon-like appearance may be inspired by Uther Pendragon, King Arthur's father, who acquired his epithet and started using dragons on his standards after witnessing a dragon-shaped comet. Its abilities may also draw inspiration from nuclear power, particularly its seemingly endless supply of energy which Rose attempted to use as a power source for Galar and which leaks out in the form of particles and is the source of the Dynamax phenomenon. In fiction, nuclear radiation is often used as a catalyst for granting superpowers or creating kaiju. It also vaguely resembles aliens from various pieces of media. This is also indicated by its association with wishing stars. Eternatus aesthetically seems to also be inspired by the concept of diaphonization, the technique used to stain animal bones and cartilage. This being shown by Eternatus remotely resembling a skeleton. The most common dyes used for this process, alcian blue and alizarin red, could be analogous to Zacian and Zamazenta respectively.
Its overall body shape resembles the skeletal remains of a European dragon, with the ribcage shaped like a cannon and the head resembling that of the common nawab or "dragonhead" caterpillar.
Eternamax Eternatus resembles a hand crossed with a serpent. It may be based on the Lernaean Hydra, a multi-headed serpentine monster from Greek mythology, known for its poisonous breath and blood, with Eternatus's "fingers" representing the Hydra's heads. It may also be based on the biblical Seven Headed Dragon that, in the Book of Revelation, throws one-third of all stars down to the Earth and is ultimately banished to Earth with the Nephilim, the Hebrew giants — an event that ultimately leads to the end of time. This account may also be the origin of the item Wishing Star and the Darkest Day. It may also be inspired by Ananta Shesha, the king of Nagas in Hindu mythology who is usually portrayed as a giant, coiled serpent with a thousand heads capable of spewing venom and fire, though some depictions simplify his appearance down to five heads, again reflected in Eternatus's five "fingers". Shesha bears the deity Vishnu on its coils, similar to how Eternamax Eternatus's core is mounted atop its coiled body.
Name origin
Eternatus may be derived from aether, eternal, eternity, aeternatus (Latin for immortalized), and Thanatus (Latin transliteration of Thanatos, the personification of death in Greek Mythology).
Mugendina may be a combination of 無限大な mugendaina (infinite), ダイマックス Daimax (Dynamax), and possibly dynamic.
In other languages
Language
Title
Meaning
Japanese
ムゲンダイナ Mugendina
From 無限大 mugendai, ダイマックス Daimax, and possibly dynamic
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.
For other sprites and images, please see Eternatus images on the Bulbagarden Archives.
60 for 1 power up.
