Name: Sandslash

National Dex Number: #024

Complete Dex Number: #028

Flavour Text: The blood vessels in Sandslash’s quills become super-heated upon Mega Evolution to the point that they explode. As the heat receded the sudden cold caused this Pokémon’s blood to freeze into replacement crystaline spikes.

Species: Mouse

Type: Ground (Ground/Ghost upon Mega Evolution)

Height: 100cm (3,3ft)

Height (Mega Evolution): 94cm (3,0ft)

Weight: 29.5kg (65lb)

Weight (Mega Evolution): 19.9kg (43.67lb)

Evolution: Sandshrew (L22) -> Sandslash (Holding Sandslashite Mega Stone) -> Mega Sandslash

Battle Mechanics

Ability: Sand Veil (When surrounded by a Sandstorm the accuracy of enemy attacks against this Pokémon is decreased by 1/5th)/Razor Edge (This Pokémon inflicts damage with the razor sharp edges of its body when an attacker makes contact with it)

Hidden Ability: Sand Rush (When caught in a Sandstorm the speed of this Pokémon is doubled)

Ability (Mega Evolution): Tough Claws (The power of this Pokémon’s contact moves are increased by 33%)

EggGroup: Field

Signature Move(s): Dune Cutter (Ground Type Attack - 80BP) This Pokémon cleaves the opponent with terrible claws that have a high critical hit ratio)

Base Stats

Characteristics

Appearance: Sandslash’s body is severely damaged by the energies released during Mega Evolution, to the point where the blood vessels in the quills on its back exploded. As the initial burst of energy cooled the haemorrhaging blood froze into crystal like spikes. This sudden blood loss affected the rest of Sandslash’s body, especially its eyes where the remaining pooled, leaving this Pokémon with a bloodshot eye that looks ready to burst. The amount of blood remaining in the rest of the body is low, and lead to the pallid almost sickly colouring of Sandslash’s skin.

While its body has become relatively fragile, the claws of Mega Sandslash have become reinforced and even longer than they were prior to the exposure to its mega stone. In addition to being stronger, these talons have a serrated inner edge allowing Mega Sandslash to hack pieces of its victim off, as well as to use them as stabbing weapons.

Ecology: Mega Sandslash is not a naturally occurring Pokémon as such this section refers to Sandslash in its normal form.

Sandslash, while not rare in Invcitia, isn’t common either, with only a few sightings of wild specimens every year. Despite its scarcity, Sandslash has a wide habitat distribution, with populations found in forests, meadows and heaths across the region. The only place not to have Sandslash are the most remote fells and Invictia’s mountains, although an attempt was made to transplant a population of Alolan Sandslash to the later, although evidence suggests that all the introduced Pokémon died from predation or where captured by trainers and taken far away from their new home.

Sandslash is omnivorous, although it prefers meat to vegetables, and will feed on anything it can catch, kill and crush between the plates of bone that act as this Pokémon’s teeth. While diet is different across the habitats insect and small reptile Pokémon are often targeted along with roots, leaves and berries. In more forested areas, Sandslash adds the eggs of bird Pokémon to its diet, climbing trees and forcing the parent out of their nest, and dining there and then until there’s nothing left. In the same areas, Sandslash will also invade the drays of Pachirisu, where it kills any youngsters if finds and steals as much of the host’s Pokémon’s cached food as it can.

In addition to its prickly nature, Sandslash is also well known for its digging abilities, and as such this Pokémon is often a common sight at mining operations around the world. However, on the rare occasion a wild Sandslash wanders into an urban area it can cause a large amount of damage; ranging from the destruction of lawns and parks to undermining pavements and cutting through underground utilities. It’s thought that the Invictian Government spends on average two and a half million crowns on repair of structures and control of urban Sandslash populations every year, although recent global population increases may cause said figure to rise excessively over the course of the next decade.

Trivia

Origin: Sandslash shares various physical traits with the pangolin. It also draws from hedgehogs, porcupines, and echidnas due to its coloration and having spikes instead of scales. Both Sandshrew and Sandslash are mentioned to have poisonous claws, similar to how some species of the shrew are poisonous.

Name Origin: Sandslash is a combination of sand and slash, referring to its long claws.