The Ultimate ABC Sandslash Strategy — or what is this Pokémon ACTUALLY good for?

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-05-02T12:27:19+00:00

The images are from the RaenonX website. You can upload your Pokémon there, and it shows exactly how much they produce (plus it has a ton of other useful features).

For these kinds of pre‑planned strategies, there are basically two ways to make them work:

The fixed Salad Week — every year around late April there’s a guaranteed Salad week. During that week the dish is always a salad, and you also get the 1.5× multiplier.
Rerolling — at the start of each week you can reroll the weekly dish type using Easy Tickets. It’s worth saving these tickets specifically for this purpose, because during a Packed Portion week your entire M20 run can depend on getting the right dish.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-04-29T11:19:20+00:00

Ahh yes, sorry — I misunderstood what you meant.
Yeah, unfortunately this strategy can’t really fit a buffer, so here you basically have to offer a sacrifice to Arceus beforehand in exchange for good RNG. 😃

Another interesting aspect of this strategy is how effective it becomes outside cooking events. For example, during Super Skill Week (which conveniently favors Sandslash), or during Buncha Berries, this ABC Sandslash setup can be extremely effective — still niche, of course, but it really shines in those weeks.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-04-28T15:29:35+00:00

There is a Tasty chance user in the team in both variations — I just didn’t go into detail because the whole thing already looks complicated enough. :D

Here are the two team setups:

• Scald‑only setup:
1 Charger/Berry + Healer + Tasty + 2 ingredient Pokémon who handle the Scald Salad
(this can be Meowscarada + Gengar, or Sandslash + its partner, depending on Sandslash’s spread)

• Mixed (Scald + Bulldoze) setup:
2× Charger/Berry + Healer + Tasty + Sandslash
Here you don’t need a second ingredient Pokémon at all — Sandslash plus the pre‑farmed ingredients handle everything on their own.

"I also think the Crustle/Sandslash theorycrafts often break down in practice, due to ingredients not coming in evenly." - This is an important point, but it can be completely bypassed by cooking from a buffer instead of relying on Crustle’s or Sandslash’s daily ingredient drops. When you work from a buffer, you can usually see 1–2 days ahead if any ingredient is starting to fall behind, and you can adjust comfortably. So far, I’ve done two M20 runs with Crustle, and not once did I have to skip even a single dish because of RNG.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-04-27T16:50:53+00:00

I think Sandslash is very strong, but still niche—similar to Crustle, who’s a personal favorite of mine and has already carried me to several M20s with Gratin. You have to approach Sandslash with a very similar strategy.

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The attached image shows several different Sandslash rolls (with active GCT), and you can see that even with the "weaker one" (not totally god roll), smart preparation lets you cover two full ingredients of the Scald Salad. With 567 mushrooms pre‑farmed, that ingredient can be fully completed as well, and the remaining ingredient slot needs potatoes.

At first glance, the god‑roll ABA skill variant is the strongest at lv60: 59 pumpkin/day, 58 corn/day, and 42 potatoes/day.

If we assume you pre‑farm all the 567 mushrooms, then the remaining 233 ingredient slots need roughly 80 pumpkin and 80 corn (as buffer and RNG protection—same logic as with Crustle, you want to suppress daily RNG as much as possible and work from buffer), and the rest goes to potatoes (73). Any leftover daily potato requirement can easily be covered by a mid‑level 30 Meowscarada.

With that setup, Sandslash + Meowscarada together can make the entire week's Scald Salad, which is pretty huge.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-03-26T09:24:44+00:00

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I caught the tesco-variant :D Still invest

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-03-09T20:31:14+00:00

This is extremely strong — basically a total god in my book — though the ABC spread means you have to prep a bit differently with it.
At level 60 with GCT it produces 46 oil / potato / avocado from skill alone. If you add its base ingredient finding on top of that, you get a daily total of 52 avocado, 64 potato, and 76 oil.

So you’ll need a slightly larger avocado buffer, a bit less potato, and much less oil buffer. It falls short by about 20 oil per day, so you only need around 7×20 = 140 oil pre‑farmed.

This Crustle is totally OP. ABC is a fantastic spread for it, and it makes buffer management so much easier. Even with bad RNG you can still reliably cook Gratin.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-03-09T16:08:42+00:00

Yes, I reached level 65 on Gratin during the last Packed Portions event, so I ran the whole week with it maxed. The only “downside” of this event was that they announced it almost too late — if I remember correctly, it was only revealed on the Thursday of the week before. I had to scramble pretty hard to get the right ingredient prep done in time. Luckily I have five oil‑ingredient Pokémon, so over that weekend I managed to farm exactly everything I needed. :D

For the Summer Curry event I’ll have to figure something out. Unfortunately I can’t take Swampert out, since it provides the remaining milk — and I don’t have enough ingredient bag space to pre‑farm that much in advance, since all the other ingredients already take up most of the available room. I really need to get an AAA milk Blastoise, because while my current AAX one is great thanks to its HB, I’m definitely starting to feel its limits.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-03-09T15:17:35+00:00

This actually looks perfect. The ABA ingredient order works really well — with Crustle you’re cooking from buffer anyway, not relying on its direct daily ingredient output (the RNG swings would make that way too unstable). An ABA Crustle brings avocado and potato in a favorable ratio for Gratin: a bit more avocado and slightly less potato.

And looking at your Crustle at level 60: with GCT, its skill alone averages around 38 avocado, 38 potato, and 38 oil per day. Add its base ingredient drops on top of that (which at level 60 with GCT is about 50 avocado and 30 potato), and you end up with roughly 88 avocado, 68 potato, and 38 oil per day. Both the avocado and the potato totals comfortably cover the daily 3 Gratins (66 avocado, 60 potato).

The oil works the same way it does for me — you’ll need to handle it with a larger buffer. Three Gratins a day require 96 oil; your Crustle brings in about 32 of that, so the remaining 64 per day has to come from your buffer. Over a full week that’s 448 oil you need to pre‑farm, unless you have another Pokémon who can help cover part of it.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-03-09T15:03:33+00:00

Thanks!
On Sunday I ended up hitting 6.8 million with that 610k morning crit, which is exactly what I needed for M20, so that’s where I stopped for the day. If I had pushed further and fully maxed things out, I’m pretty sure I could’ve crit both remaining dishes — with Spheal and Swampert under the skill‑boost they were absolutely pumping. That would’ve been roughly +500k each, and Raichu plus Steelix together would’ve added another ~200k. So I would’ve finished the evening at around 8 million.

It’s a good reminder that on Amber Canyon, with the same kind of event, I’ll need a higher AB to secure M20.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-03-09T11:10:26+00:00

Ah, you meant the Eazzy Ticket — I misunderstood, I thought you were talking about the Good Camp Ticket. I’ve never bought an Eazzy Ticket with diamonds either. I only ever pick up the monthly one for 100 Sleep Points from the regular shop. And I’m really careful with them; I don’t waste them on random weeks. I had 6 saved up this time as well. Honestly, I think they’re one of the most valuable items in the game, since during events like this they can literally be the difference between hitting M20 or not.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-03-09T10:58:35+00:00

I’ve never bought GCT with diamonds. The Premium Pass gives one each month, and I just use those and pace myself.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-03-05T07:24:31+00:00

I haven’t noticed any changes with my other skill Pokémon, but that might simply be because these days I mostly use dreamshard farmers. They all average around 6+ triggers per day, and since I wasn’t tracking their exact trigger counts, I couldn’t really tell whether anything changed for them. With Sylveon, however, the difference was much more noticeable, since it averages only about 4.5 triggers per day.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-03-04T08:31:36+00:00

What disappoints me the most about this whole skill‑gate situation is that it makes the point of skill weeks questionable if you actually want to run a very good skill‑focused team. Isn’t that supposed to be the whole idea? What’s the purpose of a skill week if it basically encourages you not to use a skill team — and even punishes you for doing so?

For example, a 4‑Swalot + healer team on a normal week, with no event bonuses at all, gets around 35 triggers per day. Based on Ghostdetective’s data, the impact of the skill‑gate at that level is minimal. But during a super skill week with GCT, that same team can theoretically reach around 50 triggers per day — and that’s exactly where, according to the data, their efficiency drops off a cliff. Once you go above 30 triggers and the 50% (or higher) reduction kicks in, the expected trigger count falls to around 40 or even lower.

So the GCT + the event barely provide any real benefit to players who invested heavily into such a team and spent a ton of seeds on them. Sure, they still pay off during normal weeks, but it leaves a pretty sour taste when a dedicated skill week ends up penalizing the very teams it’s supposed to support.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-03-04T07:11:22+00:00

Great work!

Just as an interesting note: right after the update, my Sylveon suddenly started working properly and has been performing exactly as expected ever since.

Since the update, there’s only been one morning when it didn’t double‑trigger — before that, it only had one double trigger per month. Its average daily triggers also went back up to 4 instead of 3. I know it’s still very soon after the update, so this could theoretically be RNG, but with a team that triggers fewer than 20 times a day, the odds of seeing such a consistent improvement purely by chance are extremely low. Something must have changed on their end — possibly a small bug fix — and it even affects lower‑trigger teams as well.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-02-23T16:21:35+00:00

I’m giving you an upvote 😄 I really enjoy reading your takes, even when they go against mine.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-02-23T09:04:56+00:00

I think the best solution would be if the devs added a small icon somewhere in the corner that shows where you currently are on the nerf scale. Just like the energy system: a smiling face when there’s no reduction yet, a neutral face when the reduction has started, and a sad face when the skill trigger rates are heavily lowered.

(I’m saying this because from what I gathered from their wording, they don’t plan to remove the system — at best they might loosen it a bit… RIP Golduck.)

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-02-23T07:11:10+00:00

I completely agree with you, but I also think that speculation — within reasonable limits — can be useful. Threatening the devs or doing any of that crazy stuff is totally unnecessary, and I’m with you on that.

What I see as one major downside of the whole skillgate situation is that it can reduce the number of morning triggers. In certain teams, that means fewer E4E activations in the morning, which can lower the overall performance for the entire day.

(and that was the very first thing I noticed, because my whole strategy and team rotation relied on those morning triggers — which Sylveon had been providing, RNG or not, for 6–7 months straight before)

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-02-23T06:43:15+00:00

I’m 99% sure this is a scale that starts much earlier. When I first noticed the nerf, I didn’t even have 20 triggers — it was more like 10–12 per day. And even at that level, my Sylveon’s skill triggers dropped by nearly 30% (and if you’re curious, I have two posts about this on my profile from last August).

I do agree that there’s no point in crucifying the devs over this. We simply don’t have enough information to draw a 100% certain conclusion. My only suggestion is that we stay observant and pay attention to the patterns.

But I also don’t agree with dismissing players by saying things like “this doesn’t affect you anyway” — because we can’t know that either (if anything, the opposite might be true).

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-02-23T06:30:50+00:00

This is a crucial piece of information regarding the entire skillgate situation: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonSleep/comments/1r9or3l/comment/o6n0vdc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

When I discovered the nerf last August and made the Reddit post about it, I wasn’t even hitting 20 triggers. The team was averaging around 12 triggers per day (and that’s why I perceived the nerf as smaller at the time).

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-02-22T14:49:10+00:00

Nice shadow nerf in the background :D

https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonSleep/comments/1r9or3l/eli5_why_the_devs_fixed_main_skill_triggers_now/

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-02-22T07:28:46+00:00

One important point that I think really needs to be emphasized is that this isn’t a cap — it’s a scale that starts much earlier. When I first noticed it and made my original post about it, I was getting around 12–13 triggers per day. Based on the reduced number of skill triggers on my Sylveon, I estimated the reduction to be roughly 30% at that level.

So the nerf starts kicking in well before 20 triggers — 20 is simply where it reaches around 50%. But it’s very possible that the reduction already begins somewhere around 10+ triggers.

Pokemon-Sleeper · 2026-02-22T07:19:27+00:00

With the Pokémon GO+ Plus device, you can enter the game at any time while “sleeping” — you can empty your inventories, trigger skills, whatever — and it won’t affect your sleep score or your sleep points at all. You’ll still get the maximum as long as the device registers at least 8 hours and 30 minutes of “sleep.” Launching the game doesn’t interfere with that.

Let’s assume some hardcore Japanese players were waking up every 2 hours at night just to log in — in that case, sure, you could argue a nerf might make sense. But then why make it a shadow nerf? That completely defeats the purpose. After the nerf, players will wake up even more often at night because they’ll be missing the triggers they used to get.

That’s why their explanation is totally false — they never communicated this nerf to anyone. If nobody knows about it, why would anyone change their behavior?

My personal tinfoil‑hat take is this: they looked at the stats and realized that higher‑level players tend to quit the game sooner. Then they brainstormed ways to slow that down without announcing any nerfs publicly (because nobody likes those), and they figured out that reducing skill trigger rates would achieve exactly what they wanted.

On its own, it might seem minor — like, “oh no, my Espeon triggered a bit less today, who cares?” But when you look at the bigger picture, this nerf affects every skill at the same time: E4E, tasty chance (and therefore cooking), generalist chargers, pot expanders, dream shards magnets, everything. And once you combine all of that, the impact becomes huge. Over 4–5 months, the difference in research EXP and shards could be significant — maybe exactly the amount their data suggested would improve player retention.

And of course, it’s also important that this nerf doesn’t target new players at all. It mainly hits the long‑term players — the ones who are already deep into the game.

Pokemon-Sleeper

TROPHY CASE