Garganacl, the Rock Salt Pokémon. Garganacl will rub its fingertips together and sprinkle injured Pokémon with salt. Even severe wounds will promptly heal afterward. Many Pokémon gather around Garganacl, hoping to lick at its mineral-rich salt.
Overview
The ninth generation’s archetypical Rock type, Garganacl’s whirlwind success is anything but typical. Its defensive stats are as expected; 100 HP and 130 Defense are excellent and expected, while 90 Special Defense ensures Garganacl can take a special attack or two. With Recover, Garganacl boasts far greater effective durability over its peers, able to endure attacks and heal them off, allowing Garganacl to stick around for extended durations. Purifying Salt just adds to Garganacl’s durability, preventing Toxic and Burns from being an easy out to it and granting a rare Ghost resistance that leaves Garganacl the lone answer to Ghost that isn’t Dark or Normal. Garganacl is terrifyingly effective at weaponizing its defense too. Body Press is a more traditional application, while Garganacl’s durability makes it great at establishing Stealth Rocks repeatedly. Salt Cure is what pushes Garganacl over the edge, providing persistent damage over time on top of the initial hit. This damage is amplified against Water and Steel types, two of the most prominent defensive types, placing such Pokémon under a pseudo-Ghost typed Curse. This forces them to either switch or waste away. Add in viable Attack and the moveset to use it, and Garganacl is a full course that offers just about everything one could ask for.
This sublime salt mound isn’t without its own flaws. Base 35 Speed is absurdly bad, leaving Garganacl outsped by all but the slowest of Pokémon, forcing it to take hits before it acts, cutting into its overall defenses. Pure Rock typing is horrible defensively with 5 prevalent weaknesses and 4 underwhelming resistances, leaving Garganacl very reliant on Terastalization to excel. Garganacl’s reliance on Salt Cure means that if its secondary effect is negated, Garganacl’s efficacy is greatly reduced. These issues have not stopped Garganacl at all, and opposing trainers must be ware lest Garganacl desiccate and rust their Water and Steel types away.
Positives
100/130/90 defenses are impressive, allowing Garganacl to take severe blows and access to reliable recovery further increases Garganacl’s longevity.
Salt Cure is an incredibly powerful STAB attack that ruins two of the best types in the game.
Purifying Salt is a fantastic ability, offering a rare Resistance and Status immunity that further increases Garganacl’s longevity.
Negatives
Base 35 Speed is pitiful leaving Garganacl outsped by all but the slowest of Pokémon.
Rock is poor defensively, with common Fighting, Water, Ground and Grass weaknesses that often force Garganacl to Terastalize to be effective.
Movesets
Super Salt Bros
-Curse
-Salt Cure
-Recover
-Body Press
Ability: Purifying Salt
Item: Leftovers
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
Due to its blend of traits, Garganacl is one of the scariest Curse sweepers in the game, finding itself at home on defensive and balanced teams as both physical bulwark and win condition. Curse is self-explanatory, sink Garganacl’s worst stat to improve its two best stats, making Garganacl even harder to remove while hitting like a truck. The way everything that comes together for Garganacl is what makes Curse so potent. Salt Cure is huge, not only as a pay off for stacking multiple curses, but as a tool that allows Garganacl to apply pressure even while setting up, accelerating the clock the opponent is on despite the glacial pace most Curse users operate at. Salt Cure turning prominent Unaware wall Dondozo into the catch of the day is also fantastic. Recover is just as vital, allowing Garganacl to shrug off damage incurred while setting up and making it that much more difficult to overwhelm. Add in Purifying Salt blocking Toxic, Toxic Spikes and Burns from placing Garganacl on a timer and blunting its power respectively. This reduces the number of answers to stop Garganacl’s setup, making it that much more reliable in setting up Curse. Body Press is the other payoff for Curse, making the most of Garganacl’s incredible Defense while boasting synergistic coverage with Salt Cure, immediately brutalizing Pokémon like Tera Normal Dragonite, Kingambit, Baxcalibur, opposing Garganacl, Hisuian Samurott, and Roaring Moon, targets who demand a more immediate threat than Salt Cure’s timer.
Tera Types:
Defense is the name of Garganacl’s game, and thus defensive Tera Types are prized above all else, especially given the common weaknesses its base typing boasts. Tera Water is incredibly popular, turning Garganacl into a pseudo Bulky Water type and allows Garganacl to safely Salt Cure most Water and Steel types due to now resisting their STABs. Between Tera Water and Purifying Slat, Garganacl is notable for resisting both of Gholdengo’s STABs. Tera Fairy is also excellent, being an all around wonderful defensive typing that provides Garganacl an invaluable Fighting resistance. Some Dragapult are completely stymied by Tera Fairy as a result. Tera Ghost is also popular for the Fighting immunity and general lower power of Dark and Ghost attacks on top of Purifying Salt turning Garganacl’s lone weakness into Dark, while having interesting interactions with Curse. Tera Flying and Bug are niche, but grants Fighting, Ground, and Grass resistances with no shared weaknesses to Garganacl’s base typing, though the new weaknesses can be quite detrimental.
EVs and Items:
Max HP investment is a given, as Garganacl lives and dies by its bulk, and HP investment offers the best general boost. Full Special Defense investment is highly recommended to shore up Garganacl’s weaker Special Defense, making it as hard to break as possible pre and post setup. Some Defense investment can be considered to better tank the stronger physical attackers running about. 108 Defense EVs completely avoids a 2HKO from Baxcalibur without Terastalization or Curse boosts, while 56 Defense is enough to survive Dragon Dance Roaring Moon’s Earthquake. Leftovers is the item of choice, the sheer passive recovery it provides while Garganacl is stalling out the opponent is incredible. An alternative option is Rocky Helmet, allowing Garganacl to maim Triple Axel users like Meowscarada and Weavile if correctly predicted.
Partners:
:
Flying typed allies are fantastic for Garganacl, able to soak the Grass, Ground and Fighting attacks Garganacl can struggle to do so without Terastalizing. Dragonite and Corviknight are excellent options, both being able to take advantage of Garganacl’s Salt Cure to setup Dragon Dances or Iron Defenses. Since the set is more exposed to hazards due to proclivity to run Leftovers over Heavy-Duty Boots, the fact that most such allies can Defog provides proper damage mitigation. Gliscor is a more defensive example but excels at piling on additional damage with Spikes and Toxic, placing Salt Cured Pokémoon on an even shorter timer.
Other Options:
Earthquake is a fantastic alternative to Body Press, offering the wide Rock Ground coverage with Salt Cure as well as slam Unaware Clodsire hard.
Stealth Rock is the lone hazard Garganacl gets, and it is a fantastic one, and with Garganacl’s incredible bulk it can easily re-establish Stealth Rock, though struggles to fit it on Curse Sets.
Iron Defense can be considered if going for a full Iron Defense + Body Press set, though it does leave Garganacl struggling a bit against Fairy and Ghost types./p>
Doubles and VGC Options
The power of Salt Cure spreads even into Doubles, allowing Garganacl to buck the trend that prevents most defensive Pokémon from excelling in VGC, since the timer Garganacl places on the opposition allow it to play offense while on defense, preventing your opponent from ignoring Garganacl. Salt Cure’s brutal 1/4th HP drain on Water and Steel types targets several of the best Pokémon in doubles including Archaludon, Commander Dondozo, Gholdengo, Kingambit, Pelipper and all of the Tera Water and Steel Pokémon running about more than helps Garganacl earn its keep. For a defensive Pokémon, Garganacl can be maddening to take down, between Purifying Salt and the right Terastalization, Garganacl can wall a shocking number of Pokémon while resisting disruption like Amoonguss’ Spore or Will-O-Wisp. The flexibility of whether to provide Team Support with Wide Guard or going more offensive with Iron Defense and Body Press, the only thing holding Garganacl back is its base Rock typing making it incredibly reliant on Terastlization and the popularity of Covert Cloak stopping Salt Cure in its tracks.
Salt Suffocation
-Wide Guard
-Protect
-Recover
-Salt Cure
Ability: Purifying Salt
Item: Leftovers
Tera Type: Poison
EVs and Nature:
244 HP / 12 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
Garganacl has found success as an incredible Wide Guard Support Pokémon. While spread attacks are not as prevalent as in Regulation G, being able to block Gholdengo's Make It Rain, Ursaluna-Bloodmoon and Primarina's Hyper Voice, and various Earthquakes, Snarls, Muddy Waters, Rock Slides, Dazzling Gleams is a fantastic durability boost and can hinder if not outright shutdown some of the scariest Pokémon around. Protect provides invaluable utility, scouting for moves, Terastalizations, punishing double ups, stalling for opposing field condition expiration, allied setup, and Leftovers recovery. Recover further increases Garganacl’s longevity, giving it burst healing to prevent opponents from wearing it down to quickly. All this stalling power comes together in aid of Salt Cure, placing opponents on a timer that is invariably much shorter than Garganacl’s thanks to these Stalling tools. In addition to destroying popular Steel and Water types (especially Gholdengo and Primarina who are hit hard by Wide Guard), Salt Cure is flourishing in this format where it is not uncommon for a threat on field to try to stick around and accrue enough boosts. Archaludon, Annihilape, Armarouge, and Kommo-o all loathe the timer Salt Cure places them on, forcing them to switch and wipe away their boosts. Commander Dondozo is hit especially hard by this, as unless it has a non-Steel Terastalization available, it is falling in 4 turns.
EV spread is to make Garganacl as generally bulky as possible, shoring up its Special Defense in line with its already fantastic Defense, allowing Garganacl to stomach Primarina's Moonblast, Pelipper's Weather Ball (post Tera), and Archaludon's Draco Meteor. Tera Poison is strongly recommended given the number of Pokémon Garganacl can outlast between the Poison typing, Purifying Salt and Wide Guard. Annihilape, Primarina, Archaludon, Rillaboom, Kingambit, etc.
Other Options:
Garganacl has a claim for one of the best Iron Defense + Body Press users around between its access to Recover and immunity to status allowing it to outlast many of its contemporaries though Garganacle does struggle to fit every move it wants into a single set.
Preferred Partners:
Garganacl loves Grass types for their ability to resist the Ground and Water attacks that it must otherwise Terastalize to handle. Rillaboom provides passive recovery with Grassy Surge (though does slow down Salt Cure), Meowscarada can remove opposing Covert Cloaks, and Amoonguss can draw single target Water and Ground attacks to it with Rage Powder. All these Pokémon in turn love Garganacl and its ability to ruin Steel types that otherwise give them so much trouble.
Countering Garganacl
Any plan to check Garganacl includes measures on how to deal with Salt Cure, which compromises so many would be checks despite Garganacl’s horrid base typing and speed. Magic Guard Clefable is incredible at this, given its immunity to Salt Cure’s damaging effect, while capable of punishing most Garganacl with Encore. Regenerator Pokémon like Galarian-Slowking, Hydrapple, Amoonguss, also handle Salt Cure well, their ability easily outstripping Salt Cure’s damage, providing a smaller opportunity cost to stay in and threaten Garganacl with their super effective STABs. Poison Heal and Leftovers in conjunction with Grassy Terrain can keep up with normal Salt Cures, though such Pokémon are loathe to lose their passive recovery. Substitute also blocks Salt Cure’s HP drain, and given Salt Cure’s weak power, can even struggle to break the Sub, allowing Pokémon like Primarina, Dondozo, Ursaluna, and Serperior to costlessly overwhelm Garganacl. Covert Cloak is better suited to Doubles, though it does provide immunity to Salt Cure’s secondary effect.
Special Attackers are recommended in handling Garganacl. While its Special Defense is by no means bad, it is poorer than its Defense that it can boost up with Iron Defense or Curse. Though max HP/Special Defense investment does push Garganacl’s Special Defense higher than its Defense. It takes the likes of Tera Water Specs Walking Wake, Specs Iron Crown or Specs Hydrapple’s Leaf Storm to OHKO fully invested specially bulky Garganacl. Garganacl lacking in Special Defense investment can be felled by Gholdengo’s Make It Rain, Life Orb Greninja’s Hydro Pump, and Specs Keldeo.
If going up against Specially Defensive Garganacl, physical attackers may work better before it starts boosting. Banded Meowscarada is an exception thanks to Flower Trick’s Auto Crit ignoring Defense boosts. Banded Azumarill, Ogerpon’s Power Whip, and Banded Rillaboom are all capable of OHKOing a Max HP Garganacl.
Locations in Games
Red/Blue/Yellow:
Not in game
Gold/Silver/Crystal:
Not in game
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Not in game
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Not in game
Colosseum/XD:
Not in game
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Not in game
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Not in game
Black/White:
Not in game
Black 2/White 2:
Not in game
X/Y:
Not in game
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
Not in game
Sun/Moon:
Not in game
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon:
Not in game
Let's Go, Pikachu!/Let's Go, Eevee!:
Not in game
Sword/Shield:
Not in game
Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl:
Not in game
Legends: Arceus:
Not in game
Scarlet/Violet:
Area Zero
Tera Raid Battles: 5 Star Raid Battles, 6 Star Raid Battles
Anime Appearences
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Garganacl has made multiple appearances in the anime. Most notably Sidian of the Explorers has one as his partner Pokémon |
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