How to make Pokémon Scarlet & Violet shiny sandwich recipes

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, which increase your chances of encountering shiny Pokémon. What recipe you should use 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-type Pokémon-specific recipe. Thankfully, you can at least use the same base formula for sandwiches and change one or two ingredients depending on the type of Pokémon you want.

In order to make Sparkling Power sandwiches in Scarlet and Violet, you’ll need to enter Creative Mode within the Recipe Mode window, as these recipes cannot be found on the menu. To do this, press X.

Sparkling Power Lv. 3 Sandwich base recipe

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 ingredient (see below for a list of specific ingredients)
• 2 Herba Mystica items

Type-specific sandwich ingredients in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

To make sure you encounter shiny versions of the particular type of Pokémon you’re hunting for, you’ll need to use three of the same specific ingredients. Here are the ingredients you’ll need and how to get them:

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 the effects of this sandwich 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, or purchasing the specific ingredients for a certain type of Pokémon, 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 sandwiches.

Herba Mystica explained

One huge 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
• 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 shiny Pokémon of the following types:
  • Dragon
  • Fairy
  • Fighting
  • Bug
  • Water
  • Normal
• Be sure not to use two sour herbs if you are hunting for shiny Pokémon of the following types:
  • Dragon
  • Fairy
  • Ghost
  • Bug
  • Ice
  • 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 is easier said than done, so that may not always be an option.

How to get Herba Mystica in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Herba Mystica items are a possible drop from 5-star and 6-star Tera Raid Battles. These are among the most challenging raid battles you’ll find in Pokémon Scarlet and 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 and Violet. If you want access to the more challenging 6-star battles, you’ll need to also complete the post-game storyline. For this reason, along with the fact that 5-star battles are generally easier to complete, 5-star battles are preferable.

Complete either of these types of raid battles, and you will have the chance to obtain Herba Mystica. Unfortunately, this isn’t guaranteed each time you do complete them. There is only a slim chance of them being rewarded 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 quickly as possible 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 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 chances

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.