Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Mario Party-like sandwich making minigame is a bit of chaotic fun, especially when you’re piling on a lot of ingredients. But it’s also useful: Sandwiches grant passive boosts that impact stuff like Pokémon encounters, shiny Pokémon spawn rates, or amassing TM-building resources from Pokémon of a certain type.
There are well over a hundred sandwich recipes in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, but there are plenty more combinations to be made in the sandwich maker’s creative mode. Developer Game Freak’s pre-made sandwich recipes only go up to level two. If you want more powerful sandwiches, you’ll have to come up with the recipes yourself.
So wait, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has level 3 sandwiches?
Yes! Each passive boost for sandwiches is assigned a level from one to three. A level one sandwich offers the smallest boost, a level three one offers the greatest. Level two sandwiches are good (for instance, I got five eggs instantly after eating one with level two Egg Power). But level three sandwiches up the ante even more, which is particularly useful for players seeking out specific things, whether that’s shiny Pokémon, EV training, or breeding.
How do I make level 3 sandwiches in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet?
The answer here is Herba Mystica, a super rare ingredient that you need to grind to get. The sandwich system and its ingredients are more complicated than they look, and that’s why the community has been investigating how all the different combinations work together. A lot of the effort so far has been focused on how to get level three Sparkling Power, which increases the chance of finding shiny Pokémon.
Thankfully, users have figured out a method that works pretty well, using a cucumbers and pickles as a base, and changing up main ingredients — three of each — to determine the Sparkling Power type. That’s on top of two Herba Mystica to top things off. Here’s a handy chart created by Japanese Pokémon player and Twitter user @tak2525tak and translated into English by Twitter user @SilentDestroySR.
Other players are starting to figure out how to max out the levels for other boosts, like Title Power and Encounter Power, without increasing shiny odds. Like with shiny odds, you need at least one Herba Mystica and to load up on doubles or triples of individual ingredients.
What am I doing wrong?
If you’re making these recipes and not getting level three boosts, it’s likely that some of your ingredients are falling off the sandwich. All the ingredients need to stay on the sandwich. Nothing can tumble off, not even one slice of onion.
For a lot of folks, the trouble is with the top slice of bread — it’s heavy, and it makes sandwiches tumble over. There is good news, though: You don’t need the top slice at all. You can place it entirely off the plate, but make sure it doesn’t hit any ingredients at all. You can still make a perfect sandwich without it. I mean, who doesn’t love an open-faced sandwich?