【Pokémon Sleep】Is Skill Level Up M Good? How to Evaluate It for Team Building

In Pokémon Sleep, Skill Level Up M is one of those sub skills whose value can be difficult to judge.

At first glance, raising a Pokémon’s main skill level by two seems extremely powerful. On the other hand, Main Skill Seeds can eventually achieve the same result, so if you only care about a Pokémon’s final performance, you may prefer a different sub skill instead.

However, Main Skill Seeds are a limited resource.

Because of that, Skill Level Up M can look very different when you evaluate it not just by maximum potential, but by how much time and how many resources it takes to actually build a Pokémon.

In this article, I’ll explain how I evaluate Skill Level Up M and Skill Level Up S, including how my evaluation changes between Skills, Ingredients, and Berries specialists. I’ll also use my own Blissey and Meganium as examples.

Is Skill Level Up M Good? My Conclusion

If you are only looking for the ideal Pokémon, Skill Level Up M is not one of my highest-priority sub skills.

For a Skills specialist, I would generally rather have something like Skill Trigger M or Helping Bonus, since those sub skills continue to improve the Pokémon’s performance even after it is fully built.

However, Skill Level Up M raises the main skill level by two, which means it can save you two Main Skill Seeds.

That is why I personally see it as:

A sub skill that may not be ideal for maximum performance, but can be extremely useful when actually raising a Pokémon.

Its value becomes especially high on Pokémon with useful main skills that you would not normally prioritize for Main Skill Seeds.

Skill Level Up M Is Not a Top Priority on an Ideal Pokémon

Skill Level Up M does not directly improve a Pokémon’s maximum potential.

In an extreme example, if you had an unlimited supply of Main Skill Seeds, you could reach the same main skill level without Skill Level Up M.

In that case, you would generally be better off using that sub skill slot for Helping Bonus, Skill Trigger M, Helping Speed M, or another sub skill that continues improving performance afterward.

For that reason, when evaluating a Skills specialist, I generally rank Skill Trigger M and Helping Bonus above Skill Level Up M.

Just because Skill Level Up M is a gold sub skill does not automatically make it ideal.

Skill Level Up M Saves Both Seeds and Time

The biggest reason I still value Skill Level Up M is that it saves two Main Skill Seeds.

In Pokémon Sleep, Main Skill Seeds cannot be obtained in unlimited quantities whenever you want them.

Some of the regular ways to obtain them include:

• Premium Exchange: one per month for 1,800 Sleep Points
• Regular Exchange: one per month for 3,600 Sleep Points
• General Store: one per month for 900 Diamonds

You may also obtain additional Main Skill Seeds through events, limited-time bundles, achievements, and other sources, but the regular supply is still restricted over time.

This means Skill Level Up M does more than simply save two Main Skill Seeds.

It can also save the time you would otherwise spend waiting to obtain those two Seeds.

For example, if you normally obtain around two Main Skill Seeds per month, Skill Level Up M represents roughly one month’s worth of that supply.

If you mainly rely on the one Seed available through the Premium Exchange each month, it can represent close to two months’ worth.

The exact value will vary depending on how you play and how much you spend, but Main Skill Seeds are fundamentally a resource that cannot be farmed freely.

It Can Also Skip the Main Skill Seed “Waiting List”

The time savings can be even greater than one or two months.

You may already have Skills specialists or Special Pokémon that you want to prioritize for Main Skill Seeds.

In that situation, even if an Ingredients or Berries specialist has a useful main skill, you may never get around to investing Seeds into it.

That Pokémon could remain low priority for several months or longer.

With Skill Level Up M, you can use it with a higher-level main skill immediately.

So one of its advantages is not only:

“Saving two Main Skill Seeds”

but also:

“Removing that Pokémon from the waiting list for Main Skill Seeds.”

This is particularly valuable for Pokémon with useful main skills that are not important enough to justify taking Seeds away from your highest-priority Skills specialists.

Skill Level Up M and Helping Bonus Have Different Roles

Helping Bonus improves the helping efficiency of the entire team.

By earning more Strength, you can also indirectly improve the results of your sleep research, which can contribute to obtaining more Dream Shards, Pokémon Candy, and other resources over time.

Because of that, if I am only comparing long-term final performance, I usually value Helping Bonus more highly.

Skill Level Up M works differently.

Its effect can ultimately be replaced with Main Skill Seeds.

A useful way to think about the difference is:

Helping Bonus improves your team’s performance after the Pokémon is fully raised.

Skill Level Up M reduces the resources and time needed to reach the desired build.

They are valuable for different reasons.

I Would Not Raise a Skills Specialist Just Because It Has Skill Level Up M

The main job of a Skills specialist is to trigger its main skill frequently.

Because of that, I generally would not raise a Skills specialist with Skill Level Up M if it has no meaningful boosts to its main skill trigger rate.

A high skill level does not help as much if the Pokémon rarely triggers its main skill in the first place.

On the other hand, if the Pokémon already has Skill Trigger M and a Nature that boosts its main skill chance or helping speed, Skill Level Up M becomes much more attractive.

In that case, the Pokémon can already perform its main role well while also reaching a high main skill level with fewer resources.

What If a Pokémon Has Both Skill Level Up M and S?

A Pokémon with both Skill Level Up M and Skill Level Up S uses two sub skill slots on skill levels, so it is difficult to call that an ideal combination.

However, I would not automatically consider it a bad Pokémon.

For example, suppose a Skills specialist has the following by Lv. 50:

• Skill Level Up M
• Skill Level Up S
• Skill Trigger M

and also has a Nature that increases its main skill chance or helping speed.

I would still be very happy with that Pokémon.

Other sub skills could produce a stronger final build, but the Pokémon can still perform its main role while saving a huge amount of investment.

In Pokémon Sleep, the Pokémon with the highest theoretical ceiling and the Pokémon that is easiest to build efficiently are not always the same.

Skill Level Up S Can Also Be Useful

Skill Level Up S can still save one Main Skill Seed.

If the Pokémon does not already have Skill Level Up M, you can also use a Sub Skill Seed to upgrade Skill Level Up S into Skill Level Up M.

Another way to look at that is:

You can spend one Sub Skill Seed to save an additional Main Skill Seed.

If you are short on Main Skill Seeds but have more flexibility with Sub Skill Seeds, this can be a reasonable option.

Main skill level caps can also be expanded in future updates.

For example, Dream Shard Magnet has had its maximum level increased in the past.

Because of that, you could leave Skill Level Up S as it is for now and only upgrade it to M later if a higher main skill level becomes useful.

That said, I would not specifically hunt for Skill Level Up S.

I see it more as a nice bonus when the Pokémon already has the traits needed to perform its main role.

For Ingredients and Berries Specialists, Their Main Role Comes First

For an Ingredients specialist, ingredient gathering comes first.

For a Berries specialist, earning Strength through Berries comes first.

Skill Level Up M does not make up for a Pokémon that is weak at its actual specialty.

However, if a Pokémon already performs its main role well and also has a useful main skill, Skill Level Up M can be a very nice extra.

For Ingredients and Berries specialists, I see it as:

Not a sub skill I specifically aim for, but a valuable bonus if the Pokémon is already good at its main job.

Why I Like Skill Level Up M on Blissey

One Pokémon where I personally feel the value of Skill Level Up M is Blissey.

Screenshot of my Blissey will be added here.

Blissey is an Ingredients specialist, so ingredient performance is the first thing I care about.

However, its main skill is Energy for Everyone S.

Energy for Everyone S is an extremely useful main skill because it restores Energy to the entire team, but Blissey itself is not a Skills specialist.

Because of that, spending multiple valuable Main Skill Seeds specifically on Blissey can be difficult to justify.

If you raise Blissey normally from Happiny, its main skill reaches Lv. 3.

Energy for Everyone S restores 9 Energy to every team member at Lv. 3, while Skill Level Up M raises it to Lv. 5, where it restores 15 Energy per activation.

That is a significant increase in value per trigger without spending any Main Skill Seeds.

Of course, Skill Trigger M would also be useful because it could increase the number of activations.

But Blissey is an Ingredients specialist, so I would not prioritize main skill trigger rate over its ingredient performance.

If a Blissey already performs its main job well and also has Skill Level Up M, it can use a powerful Energy for Everyone S at a high level without requiring valuable Main Skill Seeds.

This is exactly the kind of Pokémon where I find Skill Level Up M especially useful.

Why Skill Level Up M Feels Less Valuable on Meganium

I also have a Meganium with Skill Level Up M, but I do not feel nearly as much benefit from it.

Screenshot of my Meganium will be added here.

Meganium is a Berries specialist, so its main role is to earn Strength through Berries.

Its main skill is Charge Strength S.

Raising the main skill level does increase the Strength gained when it triggers, but it does not improve Meganium’s main job of collecting Berries.

The extra Strength is not useless, but I do not notice the benefit as much as I do with Blissey’s Energy for Everyone S.

This shows why Skill Level Up M should not be evaluated in isolation.

Its value depends heavily on how useful the Pokémon’s main skill actually is.

Examples of Pokémon That Benefit from Skill Level Up M

I tend to value Skill Level Up M most on Pokémon that have a useful main skill in addition to their primary specialty.

Examples include:

• Blissey
• Cramorant
• Weavile
• Swampert
• Spiritomb
• Alolan Ninetales

Cramorant, Weavile, and Swampert have Tasty Chance S.

Tasty Chance S is a useful main skill, but these Pokémon are not Skills specialists, so it can be difficult to justify prioritizing Main Skill Seeds for them.

If they already perform their primary role well and also have Skill Level Up M, they can raise Tasty Chance S by two levels without any Main Skill Seeds.

The same idea applies to Spiritomb and Alolan Ninetales with Extra Helpful S.

These are Pokémon where:

“I would not prioritize Main Skill Seeds for this Pokémon, but I would definitely appreciate having a higher-level main skill.”

That is where Skill Level Up M becomes particularly valuable.

Could Skill Level Up M Become Less Valuable in the Future?

New ways to raise main skill levels are planned for Pokémon Sleep.

If main skill levels become significantly easier to raise in the future, Skill Level Up M could become less valuable.

However, we still do not know how frequently those new resources will be available or how easy they will be to obtain.

Considering how valuable and limited Main Skill Seeds currently are, I personally do not expect players to suddenly be able to max out the main skills of many Pokémon with little effort.

That is only my current expectation, though.

If future updates make main skill levels much easier to raise, the value of Skill Level Up M should be reevaluated at that time.

Final Thoughts: Don’t Judge Skill Level Up M Only by Maximum Potential

If you only care about the highest possible final performance, Skill Level Up M is not a top-priority sub skill.

However, it can save two Main Skill Seeds while also reducing the time and waiting involved in obtaining and allocating those Seeds.

That makes it extremely useful from a practical resource-management perspective.

For Skills specialists, I would first make sure the Pokémon has enough main skill trigger performance.

For Ingredients and Berries specialists, I would first make sure they are good at their primary specialty.

If those conditions are already met and the Pokémon also has a useful main skill, Skill Level Up M can be a very valuable bonus.