What's the benefit of keeping a Shadow Pokemon?

Question

Since the Update that gave us Team Rocket encounters, Shadow Pokémon have become a thing.

Aside from looking cool, and the option to "Purify" them (which leads to a badge, making the capture encounters easier?), and the excessive costs to buy a "new attack", what is the point of keeping a Shadow Pokémon?

aytimothy · Accepted Answer

There isn't one, unless it fits one of the typical min-max desired attributes:

Has high IVs
Has desired moves

Other than that, there's no point in keeping them as they are also fodder Pokemon, or if you intend to at some point mass-purify them.

Just a note: Fodder shadow is more valuable than regular fodder Pokemon as they have lower costs when upgraded using candy (like Lucky Pokemon) once you purify them, so if moves and IVs aren't your goal: That's a reason to keep them (ie. a shadow Bulbasaur with bad IVs versus a regular Bulbasaur with also bad IVs)

MBorg · Answer

UPDATED for Shadow Pokemon gaining +20% Atk and -20% Def
The benefits from capturing Shadow Pokemon:

Shadow Pokemon have their Attack increased by 20% and their Defence decreased by 20%. This is a big buff for raids - clearing the boss as quickly as possible is more desirable than survivability, both increasing the chance of winning before the timer runs out and increasing the chance that you get better rewards. This makes Shadow Pokemon that are high performers in raids very desirable. Even a 0/0/0 Shadow Pokemon will deal more damage to a raid boss than a 15/15/15 Purified Pokemon! For PvP, this may also be desirable depending on breakpoints and bulkpoints, which is Pokemon specific. The changes to raids and PvP are described in more detail on Game Press.
Purified Pokemon require less stardust and candy to level up.
The move Return, only available upon purifying. It is a good normal-type move offensively in PvE, being the charge move with the highest damage based on time and energy for Snorlax in PvE. In PvP, the move is undesirable. It can provide useful additional neutral coverage, but currently no relevant PvP Pokemon would prefer it over their additional moves - Wobbuffet benefits from it, but it's not PvP relevant.
Rewards obtained from beating Team Go Rocket such as Stardust, items against leaders and Giovanni, and clearing research tasks.
Badges as per the OP
Collection. In a similar vein as to how people enjoy having different forms of other Pokemon, including all the Pikachus, one can have a collection of all the different Shadow Pokemon and/or their purified variants. The Pokedex shows the number of purified Pokemon for a given Dex entry. Shadow and Purified status are also shown in Pokemon deposited in gyms, and the 2/2/2 IV boost to Purified Pokemon can assist with collecting perfect IV Pokemon.

I'm ignoring Frustation as a reason since that move is terrible both in PvE and PvP.

What's the benefit of keeping a Shadow Pokemon?

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