Shine bright like a diamond
Ever since the second generation of Pokémon games, players have highly sought after shiny Pokémon for their personal collections. They’ve always been incredibly rare and difficult to find, but the new sandwich mechanic in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet makes the hunt a little bit easier. Here’s how to make a shiny sandwich for each type in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Best Scarlet & Violet Sparkling Power sandwich recipes
There are a few different Sparkling Power sandwich recipes in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. It generally depends on which shiny Pokémon type you wish to find in the wild. For example, if you want a shiny Charcadet, you’ll want to use a Fire Pokémon-based recipe. Thankfully, you can at least use the same base formula for sandwiches and change one or two ingredients depending on the typing you want.
Here’s the base Sparkling Power Lv. 3 shiny sandwich recipe. Add all these to a sandwich, and you’ll get a Sparkling Power Lv. 3 sandwich:
- 1 cucumber
- 1 pickle
- 3 of the same typing ingredients (there’s a list for each type below)
- 2 Herba Mystica items
To get the right Sparkling Power Lv. 3 sandwich, pick the right food when you’re placing the 3 ingredients of the same type:
- Normal types: 3 tofu
- Fire: 3 red peppers
- Water: 3 cucumbers
- Electric: 3 yellow peppers
- Grass: 3 lettuces
- Ice: 3 Klawf sticks
- Fighting: 3 pickles
- Poison: 3 green peppers
- Ground: 3 ham
- Flying: 3 prosciutto
- Psychic: 3 onions
- Bug: 3 cherry tomatoes
- Rock: 3 bacon slices
- Ghost: 3 red onions
- Dragon: 3 avocado slices
- Dark: 3 smoked fillets
- Steel: 3 hamburgers
- Fairy: 3 tomatoes
Indigo Disk‘s Academy Special all-type shiny sandwich
If you’ve purchased Pokémon Scarlet and Violet‘s The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC and have unlocked access to The Indigo Disk, you’ll eventually get the option to purchase an Academy Special all-type shiny sandwich from Blueberry Academy’s cafeteria. One of its effects is Sparkling Power Lv. 1, but it applies to all types instead of just a single one. While you don’t need to go through the trouble of making it, one Academy Special all-type shiny sandwich does cost 150 BP.
How to earn BP in the Indigo Disk DLC
BP, or Blueberry Points, can be easily acquired by completing Blueberry Quests, or BBQs for short. These are tasks you can only undertake while at Blueberry Academy, and can range from catching a certain type of Pokémon to hatching eggs. Some quests reward more BP than others so, if you want 150 BP immediately, try battling wild Tera Pokémon, winning Tera Raid Battles, or making specific types of sandwich.
Herba Mystica problem, explained
The other problem with making the shiny sandwiches is the Herba Mystica items. You need two of them each time you use this recipe to hunt for shiny Pokémon. That said, there are five of them as follows: bitter, spicy, sweet, salty, and sour.
The problem is that some Pokémon typings don’t mix well with certain Herba Mystica. In general, if you want to have no problem whatsoever with your recipes, avoid mixing these two Herba Mystica ingredients together:
- Never mix together a sweet and sour Herba Mystica
- Never use two sweet herbs if you are hunting for these typings: Dragon, Fairy, Fighting, Bug, Water, and Normal
- Be sure not to use two sour herbs if you are hunting for these typings: Dragon, Fairy, Ghost, Bug, Ice, and Normal
In these situations, you might think you are better off avoiding sour and sweet herbs in general, which is true. However, acquiring these Herba Mystica ingredients are easier said than done, so that may not always be an option.
Where to get Herba Mystica
The issue with Herba Mystica is that they are only available in 5-star and 6-star Tera Raid Battles. These are among the most challenging raid battles you’ll find in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. Unfortunately, you don’t have access to them until you progress far enough in the games, either.
For the 5-star battles, you’ll need to complete the main story for Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. If you want access to the more challenging 6-star battles, you’ll need to also complete the postgame storyline.
Complete either of these types of raid battles and you will have the chance of obtaining Herba Mystica. Unfortunately, this isn’t guaranteed each time you do complete them. There is only a slim chance of them being rewards for these battles.
Anyone who wishes to use the Sparkling Power shiny sandwich recipes method should be prepared to grind these raid battles repeatedly for as many Herba Mystica as possible. Because of this, I recommend finding a group of friends to run them as quick as possible with to make the situation easier.
How do Sparkling Power sandwiches work?
Sparkling Power is one of the many buffs you can get through the new picnic system in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. During picnic sequences, players can make sandwiches using various ingredients to eat with their Pokémon.
Depending on the ingredients used in the sandwiches, it can boost the type of Pokémon players encounter, the size of them, and even if they are more likely to have shiny forms. That last bit is what Sparkling Power does. There are three possible levels of Sparkling Power, each further increasing the the chances of encountering a shiny Pokémon. Here are the odds for each level, excluding additional assistance like the Shiny Charm:
- Sparkling Power Lv. 1: 1/2048 chances of encountering a shiny
- Sparkling Power Lv. 2: 1/1365 chances
- Sparkling Power Lv. 3: 1/1024
As you can see, the optimal solution would be to make the Sparkling Power Lv. 3 sandwiches. These offer the best possible chance of finding a shiny Pokémon using this method without any additional help.
