The new season of Hidden Gems has brought a lot of content to Pokemon GO for players to enjoy. These include highly rewarding event bonuses, wild encounters with interesting beasts, appearances of featured critters and their shiny variants during Spotlight Hours, and more. It has also been speculated that Mega Rayquaza will be introduced.
Furthermore, Hidden Gems introduced two new Pokemon in the game: Sandygast, and Palossand. These creatures debuted in the Water Festival: Beach Week event, which began on June 6, 2023, at 10:00 am local time and will end on June 12, 2023, at 8:00 pm local time. There will be exclusive wild spawns of a few other critters, but Sandygast and Palossand are the ones to watch out for.
Sandygast will be available as a 1-star Raid Boss, but you can also encounter one in the wild by completing a Special Research task. You can then evolve Sandygast into Palossand for 50 candies.
Check out the current Pokemon GO raid bosses that you can encounter in-game
The most efficient movesets for Sandygast and Palossand in Pokemon GO are similar
Sandygast has a very unique Ghost and Ground type combination. It is uncommon to come across this typing in the franchise, with the likes of Golurk and Runerigas being the only other beasts to share this characteristic.
Sandygast has a base attack stat of 120 and a base defense stat of 118. It has the ability to learn the following moves in Pokemon GO:
Fast moves:
- Mud Shot- This is a Ground-type move and does a damage of 5 with a Damage Per Second (DPS) statistic of 10.
- Astonish- This is a Ghost-type move and does a damage of 8 with a DPS of 8.7.
Charged moves:
- Shadow Ball- This is a Ghost-type move that has a base damage of 100. Its DPS is 40.
- Sand Tomb- This is a Ground-type move and does a damage of 60. Its DPS is 18.
- Earth Power- This is also a Ground-type move and does a damage of 100. Its DPS is 33.3.
Judging from these stats, the best moveset for Sandygast in Pokemon GO would be:
- Astonish as a fast move
- Shadow Ball and Earth Power as charged moves
Astonish and Shadow Ball can be handy against Psychic-type beasts. Earth Power can deal with creatures of Steel and Fire typing.
Palossand, like its base form in the evolutionary chain, is also a Ghost and Ground-type beast. As mentioned earlier, you can evolve Sandygast into Palossand for 50 candies.
Palossand has a base attack and base defense stat of 178. It has the ability to learn the following moves:
Fast moves:
- Mud Shot- This is a Ground-type move and does a damage of 5 with a Damage Per Second (DPS) statistic of 10.
- Astonish- This is a Ghost-type move and does a damage of 8 with a DPS of 8.7.
Charged moves:
- Shadow Ball- This is a Ghost-type move that has a base damage of 100. Its DPS is 40.
- Sand Tomb- This is a Ground-type move and does a damage of 60. Its DPS is 18.
- Earth Power- This is also a Ground-type move and does a damage of 100. Its DPS is 33.3
From these stats, the best moveset for Palossand in Pokemon GO would be similar to its base form:
- Astonish as a fast move
- Shadow Ball and Earth Power as charged moves
While Sandygast and Palossand are unique in their own way, there are a lot of better alternatives in Pokemon GO when it comes to combat.
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