Heartless

Shadows are the weakest and most common of all Heartless. They are Pure Heartless found almost anywhere, though their hot spots include the Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, Wonderland, End of the World, and The World That Never Was. Shadows are created when the darkness in an ordinary person's heart is unleashed. Other pure Heartless, like Darkside, can produce Shadows or at the very least, summon existing ones.

Despite their weak appearance, they are a threat to regular people as they usually have no way of defending themselves. Even Sora had no means of defeating them, until he attained the Keyblade, since without it he can't inflict any noticeable damage to them.

Darkside is a boss from Kingdom Hearts. It is a colossal pureblood Heartless that Sora encountered 3/4 times. Instances included in the mysterious Awakening, the Destiny Islands, and in the End of the World. It also has a resemblance to Twilight Thorn which could possibly be its Nobody. Sora also glimpsed a number of Darksides within the Door to Darkness before they were destroyed by King Mickey.

In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Riku fights a Darkside similar to how Sora fought him. Zexion creates this Darkside from a copy of Riku similar to how Sora faced Darkside in Dive to the Heart where it was created from Sora's shadow. Darkside's name refers to how he is often shown as a representation of the Darkness within others.

a Pureblood Heartless from all Kingdom Hearts games. It first appeared in the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts, where Roxas is shown fighting off a swarm of Neoshadows in front of the Memory's Skyscraper. They cannot be fought in the first prints of Kingdom Hearts, but several of them do appear in the last room of End of the World in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix. The Neoshadow later makes regular appearances in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II, appearing in Castle Oblivion during Chain of Memories and nearly all worlds in Kingdom Hearts II. The Neoshadow is more human-like in its body structure. It is stronger and faster than its lesser counterpart, and it is more strategic in combat. In Final Mix, the Neoshadows are among the most difficult common enemies, working together as a team to defeat Sora. In Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II, they are less rare and dangerous but are still more difficult to defeat than regular Shadows. Interestingly, Neoshadows die differently when they are killed than Shadows do. When Sora kills a regular Shadow, it vanishes into thin air. However, when Sora kills a Neoshadow, it turns into a dark liquid and disappears after a moment.

is a Pureblood Heartless from Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.
One of the few pureblood Heartless, the Darkball is an orb of darkness that teleports from one place to another, using a tactic similar to the more intelligent Invisible.

One of the Heartless that first appeared in Hollow Bastion, it was later a common sight in every other world (excluding the Awakening). Darkballs have even appeared in the memory version of Destiny Islands in Castle Oblivion.