Pokémon Sleep Skills Specialist Guide: Best Natures, Sub Skills, and Selection Criteria

When choosing a Skills specialty Pokémon in Pokémon Sleep, it is common to look first for Skill Trigger M.

Skill Trigger M is certainly one of the strongest Sub Skills for a Skills specialty Pokémon, but I usually do not decide to raise a Pokémon based on that alone.

The main reason is the cost of Main Skill Seeds.

If I am going to invest several Main Skill Seeds into a Pokémon, I want something beyond just Skill Trigger M, such as:

• Helping Bonus
• Skill Level Up M
• Helping Speed
• a favorable Nature

For Skills specialty Pokémon, I do not only ask whether the individual is strong.

I also ask:

“Is this individual good enough that I actually want to spend Main Skill Seeds on it?”

In this guide, I will explain how I evaluate Skills specialty Pokémon, including Skill Trigger, Helping Bonus, Skill Level Up M, inventory, Berry Finding S, and the cost of Main Skill Seeds.

I Judge Skills Specialty Pokémon by Whether They Are Worth Main Skill Seeds

Many Skills specialty Pokémon only reach their full potential after their Main Skill level has been raised.

That means raising one seriously often requires multiple Main Skill Seeds.

Because Main Skill Seeds are limited, I do not want to spend several of them on an individual that is merely “good enough.”

For example, even if a Pokémon has Skill Trigger M, I may still hesitate if there is nothing else particularly strong about it.

Its skill activation rate may be good, but if I later find a much better individual, it becomes difficult to switch after already investing several Main Skill Seeds.

On the other hand, if Skill Trigger M is combined with something like Helping Bonus or Skill Level Up M, I find the individual much easier to justify.

Because Skills specialty Pokémon often require heavy investment after capture, I want some extra value beyond Skill Trigger M alone.

Skill Trigger M Alone Is Not an Automatic Keep

Skill Trigger M is extremely well suited to Skills specialty Pokémon.

Their main role is to activate their Main Skill, so directly increasing skill activation rate is obviously valuable.

However, I do not think:

Skill Trigger M = automatic keep.

Even an individual with both Skill Trigger S and Skill Trigger M gives me some pause.

Its activation rate is excellent, but personally, I would still prefer another useful trait on top of that.

For Skills specialty Pokémon, I care not only about activation frequency, but also about whether the individual gives me enough additional value to justify the investment.

Two combinations I particularly like are:

• Skill Trigger M + Helping Bonus
• Skill Trigger M + Skill Level Up M

Skill Trigger M + Helping Bonus Is a Very Appealing Combination

One combination I rate highly is:

Skill Trigger M + Helping Bonus

Skill Trigger M improves the Pokémon’s own Main Skill performance, while Helping Bonus improves the Speed of Help of the entire team.

The biggest advantage is that the Pokémon still contributes even when its Main Skill activation is unlucky.

Skills specialty Pokémon naturally have some variance.

Even with a high activation rate, there will be days when the Main Skill activates less often than expected.

Helping Bonus acts as a kind of insurance against that bad luck.

Even when the Pokémon’s own skill activations are below average, it is still increasing the performance of the other four Pokémon on the team.

That is why, for a typical Skills specialty Pokémon, Skill Trigger M + Helping Bonus is enough for me to seriously consider raising it.

Of course, whether I actually invest Main Skill Seeds still depends on how much I want to use that Main Skill.

For example, even if a Vaporeon had this combination, I would not necessarily raise its Main Skill all the way to the maximum if I did not have a clear role in mind for it.

Still, as an individual, I would view it very positively.

Skill Level Up M Is Valuable Because It Saves Main Skill Seeds

I also rate Skill Level Up M quite highly.

Skill Level Up M raises the Main Skill level by two, effectively saving two Main Skill Seeds.

If you only care about the final maximum performance, Helping Speed M may be more attractive in many situations.

Players with plenty of Main Skill Seeds may reasonably think:

“I can raise the skill level later anyway, so I would rather have a Sub Skill that improves long-term performance.”

That is a valid way to evaluate it.

However, the situation is different for players who do not have a large supply of Main Skill Seeds.

Even with the Premium Pass, Main Skill Seeds are still a limited resource.

For a player like me, saving two Main Skill Seeds has significant value.

In practical terms,

saving two Main Skill Seeds means reaching a usable skill level much sooner.

That can justify slightly lower skill activation performance compared with an individual that has both Skill Trigger S and M.

Skill Level Up M Also Makes a Pokémon Easier to Test

The value of Skill Level Up M is not limited to saving seeds.

It also lets you use the Pokémon at a reasonably high Main Skill level before committing additional resources.

For example, if a Pokémon has Skill Trigger M + Skill Level Up M, you can test things such as:

• how often the Main Skill activates
• whether the Pokémon fits your team
• whether the Main Skill is actually useful in your playstyle

before spending several Main Skill Seeds.

I think this flexibility is very valuable.

I Tested Vaporeon Without Using Main Skill Seeds

One of my Vaporeon has Skill Trigger M and Skill Level Up M.

I did not immediately invest a large number of Main Skill Seeds into it.

Because Skill Level Up M already gave it a reasonable Main Skill level, I was able to use it first and see how it felt in practice.

For example, I could put it on the team during a more relaxed week and check how useful it was without committing any additional Main Skill Seeds.

So far, I have been reasonably satisfied with that use case.

However, if you asked whether I want to fully invest in this Vaporeon and raise its Main Skill all the way to the maximum, I would not necessarily say yes.

This is one of the advantages of Skill Level Up M.

You can test the Pokémon properly before deciding whether it deserves further Main Skill Seed investment.

Helping Speed Is Excellent for Final Performance

Skill Level Up M is valuable because it reduces the cost of raising a Pokémon, but Helping Speed is excellent for improving the Pokémon’s long-term performance.

More helps means more opportunities for Main Skill activation.

Because of that, I also highly value:

• Helping Speed M
• Helping Speed S
• Helping Bonus
• a Nature with Speed of Help up

A combination such as:

Skill Trigger M + Helping Speed M

is extremely strong because it improves both the chance of skill activation and the number of opportunities to trigger it.

Personally, I like Skill Level Up M a lot because of the resources it saves.

However, if I had to choose between Skill Level Up M and Helping Speed M in many cases, I would still be happier to see Helping Speed M because it continues improving the Pokémon’s final performance.

In actual hunting, though, perfect combinations are rare.

That is why I evaluate both:

Sub Skills that improve final performance

and

Sub Skills that reduce the cost of reaching that performance.

Berry Finding S Depends Heavily on the Pokémon

Berry Finding S can also be strong on a Skills specialty Pokémon.

However, I do not evaluate it the same way on every Pokémon.

The normal role of a Skills specialty Pokémon is to activate its Main Skill, so Berry Finding S alone is not enough for me to decide to raise one.

But some Pokémon already have excellent Speed of Help and strong berry performance.

On those Pokémon, Berry Finding S can create an entirely different role.

Gallade and Sceptile are good examples.

Gallade and Sceptile Can Function Like Pseudo-Berry Specialists

Gallade and Sceptile are technically Skills specialty Pokémon, but I do not evaluate them only by Main Skill activation rate.

Gallade in particular has excellent Speed of Help and works very well with Berry Finding S.

The Gallade I use still has its Main Skill at level 1.

Even so, its natural speed combined with Berry Finding S lets it produce a surprisingly large amount of Energy from berries.

In some situations, its berry efficiency can approach what I get from Blaziken.

For a Pokémon like this, there is no need to insist that:

“Because it is a Skills specialty Pokémon, Skill Trigger must be the highest priority.”

Instead, the Main Skill can be treated as a bonus while Berry Finding S becomes one of the main reasons to use the Pokémon.

Sceptile can be evaluated in a similar way.

Depending on the Pokémon’s base performance and intended role, improving berries may be more useful than maximizing Main Skill activation.

Some Skills Specialty Pokémon Should Also Be Evaluated for Ingredient Performance

Berries are not the only exception.

Some Skills specialty Pokémon are also worth evaluating for their ingredient performance.

Crustle and Sandslash are examples.

These Pokémon can have respectable Ingredient Finding performance and can contribute meaningful ingredient supply.

For Pokémon like these, I may consider:

• Skill Trigger
• Helping Speed
• Ingredient Finding
• ingredient set

together.

If I evaluate them only by asking whether they have Skill Trigger M, I would ignore a significant part of what makes them useful.

Even within the same Skills specialty category, Pokémon can have very different practical roles.

That is why I first decide what I actually want the Pokémon to do, and then judge its Sub Skills based on that role.

Inventory Up Can Be Very Strong Depending on How You Use the Pokémon

Inventory Up is another Sub Skill whose value changes considerably depending on the Pokémon and how you use it.

If you check the game frequently during the day, additional inventory may not matter much.

However, it can be very useful for Pokémon that you want to activate their Main Skill after a long period without checking the game.

A good example is a Pokémon you want to trigger immediately after waking up.

Inventory Up L Makes My Dedenne Much More Reliable in the Morning

I have a trained Dedenne with Inventory Up L.

There are situations where I put Dedenne on the team Sunday night because I want its Main Skill to activate first thing Monday morning.

For this kind of use, being able to continue helping through the night without filling its inventory too early has real value.

Inventory Up L gives Dedenne more chances to continue helping before I check the game in the morning, which makes an early Main Skill activation much more realistic.

I also have a trained Holiday Spheal that I sometimes want to activate early in the morning.

However, my Holiday Spheal does not have additional inventory.

Compared with Dedenne, I feel less confident that it will activate right away in the morning.

Because of experiences like this, I do not view Inventory Up as a weak Sub Skill by default.

Its value depends heavily on:

when you want the Pokémon’s Main Skill to activate.

I Rate Main Skill Chance Up Natures Highly

For Skills specialty Pokémon, I highly value Natures with Main Skill Chance up.

They directly support the role these Pokémon are designed to perform.

A Nature with Speed of Help up is also excellent because it increases the number of help opportunities and therefore the number of skill activation chances.

On the other hand, I generally view Main Skill Chance down quite negatively.

Many Skills specialty Pokémon only perform their intended role when their Main Skill activates, so lowering that activation chance works directly against them.

However, there are exceptions.

If I am using a Pokémon like Gallade primarily for berry performance, or a Pokémon like Crustle partly for ingredient gathering, then Main Skill activation may not be the only thing I care about.

As always, I judge the Nature based on the role I want the Pokémon to fill.

Skill Trigger M + One More Strong Trait Is My General Standard

For a typical Skills specialty Pokémon, Skill Trigger M alone is usually not enough for me to immediately decide to raise it.

Ideally, I want one additional strong trait.

Examples include:

• Skill Trigger M + Helping Bonus
• Skill Trigger M + Helping Speed M
• Skill Trigger M + Skill Level Up M
• Skill Trigger M + a Main Skill Chance up Nature

Among these, I especially like Helping Bonus and Skill Level Up M.

Helping Bonus means the Pokémon still contributes to the entire team even when its own Main Skill activation is below average.

Skill Level Up M reduces the amount of Main Skill Seed investment required.

Both provide value beyond simply increasing activation probability.

My Standards Change Depending on the Main Skill

Even if two Pokémon have similar individual quality, I may use different standards depending on their Main Skill.

If the Pokémon has a Main Skill I expect to use almost every day or a skill with a large impact on the entire team, I am more willing to spend time looking for an excellent individual.

On the other hand, I may compromise more if:

• the Pokémon is only useful in certain situations
• I still do not have a clear use case for the Main Skill
• I do not think the skill is worth heavy Main Skill Seed investment

Vaporeon is a good example.

Skill Level Up M allowed me to use it without immediately spending Main Skill Seeds and decide whether it was actually useful before making a larger investment.

For Skills specialty Pokémon, I think it is better to consider hunting and investment together rather than treating them as separate decisions.

The real question is:

“How many resources am I willing to invest in this individual?”

Summary: My Skills Specialty Selection Criteria

Skill Trigger M is one of the strongest Sub Skills for Skills specialty Pokémon.

However, I usually do not keep a Pokémon based on Skill Trigger M alone.

Because Main Skill Seeds are such an important investment, I consider:

1. Whether I actually want to use that Main Skill
2. Whether the Pokémon has Skill Trigger M
3. Whether it has another strong trait such as Helping Bonus or Helping Speed
4. Whether Skill Level Up M can reduce the required Main Skill Seed investment
5. Whether the Pokémon can also contribute through berries or ingredients
6. Whether its Sub Skills match the way I actually plan to use it

Skills specialty Pokémon can differ greatly from one another.

Gallade and Sceptile can be built around berry performance, while Pokémon such as Crustle and Sandslash may also deserve consideration for their ingredient value.

That is why I do not think there is one universal answer to:

“Which Sub Skills are best for Skills specialty Pokémon?”

Instead, I first decide what role I want the Pokémon to perform.

And if I am going to invest heavily in Main Skill Seeds, I want more than just high Skill Trigger.

I want an additional reason that makes me confident I will continue using that individual for a long time.