Is Sandshrew Good in Crystal Playthrough?
Kanto postgame only, same as Gold and Silver. By the time Sandshrew is available, your Ground coverage is already settled. Crystal's combined roster means Quagsire and Donphan are both reachable before Kanto, making Sandshrew even less relevant than in the individual versions.
Sandshrew trades roughly evenly with Falkner's team.
Sandshrew trades roughly evenly with Bugsy's team.
Sandshrew trades roughly evenly with Whitney's team.
Sandslash resists most of Morty's coverage and hits back hard.
Sandslash trades roughly evenly with Chuck's team.
Sandslash resists most of Jasmine's coverage and hits back hard.
Sandslash has the type edge here and should clean up Pryce's team.
Sandslash trades roughly evenly with Clair's team.
Sandslash resists most of Lt. Surge's coverage and hits back hard.
Sandslash trades roughly evenly with Sabrina's team.
Sandslash trades roughly evenly with Erika's team.
Sandslash has the type edge here and should clean up Janine's team.
Sandslash trades roughly evenly with Misty's team.
Sandslash resists most of Brock's coverage and hits back hard.
Sandslash resists most of Blaine's coverage and hits back hard.
Sandslash trades roughly evenly with Blue's team.
Sandslash trades roughly evenly with Will's team.
Sandslash has the type edge here and should clean up Koga's team.
Sandslash has the type edge here and should clean up Bruno's team.
Sandslash has the type edge here and should clean up Karen's team.
Sandslash trades roughly evenly with Lance's team.
Catchable
Catch Sandshrew in Union Cave (walking, Lv 6, common).
Recommended Moves
- After Bugsy
- TM28GroundDigPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10National Park
- TM02NormalHeadbuttPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a man in Ilex Forest
- LV 23NormalSlashPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 20
- After Morty
- HM04NormalStrengthPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15Olivine City
- LV 30NormalSwiftPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 20
- After Jasmine
- TM23SteelIron TailPower 100Accuracy 75%PP 15Prize for defeating Jasmine
- TM10NormalHidden PowerPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a fisherman in a house at Lake of Rage
- After Clair
- TM26GroundEarthquakePower 150Accuracy 100%PP 10Victory Road
Evolve Sandshrew to Sandslash
Sandshrew evolves into Sandslash at Level 22. Your Sandshrew should hit Level 22 before you reach Morty, at typical leveling pace.
Recommended Moves
- After Bugsy
- TM28GroundDigPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10National Park
- TM02NormalHeadbuttPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a man in Ilex Forest
- LV 24NormalSlashPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 20
- After Morty
- HM04NormalStrengthPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15Olivine City
- After Jasmine
- TM23SteelIron TailPower 100Accuracy 75%PP 15Prize for defeating Jasmine
- TM10NormalHidden PowerPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a fisherman in a house at Lake of Rage
- After Clair
- TM26GroundEarthquakePower 150Accuracy 100%PP 10Victory Road
- After Lt. Surge
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Celadon Game Corner prize (7500 coins)
How to Get Sandshrew in Crystal
Four spots hold Sandshrew, common in Union Cave and Mt. Moon but rare on the Kanto routes near them. The caves are the dependable pick.
4 locations to catch Sandshrew
Encountered via tall grass encounters
Badge 1
Badge 2
Badge 3
Badge 4
Badge 5
Badge 6
Badge 7
Badge 8Where To Catch Sandshrew in C
Sandshrew is the chain's first catch. You'll find walking encounters from Lv. 6-35 across 6 total spots in the chain.
- Step 2Catch or Evolve into Sandslashor evolve from Sandshrew (Step 1)
Want the exact numbers? Work out your catch odds in Crystal for Sandshrew.
How to Get Shiny Sandshrew in Crystal
Sandshrew digs through Union Cave by morning and day and pops up in Kanto's Mt. Moon; both caves serve quick back-to-back encounters. Compare Shiny Sandshrew odds across every game
Crystal Shiny Sandshrew Calculator
2 MethodsThe best route is Breed w/ Shiny Parent, about 1 in 64 on each try.
Full Odds: Walk through grass, surf, or fish. Every encounter is its own independent shiny roll.
Breed w/ Shiny Parent: Eggs inherit stats from a shiny parent, so about 1 in 64 hatch shiny. A shiny Ditto helps every egg, and any other shiny parent (the red Gyarados works) helps only eggs of the opposite gender.
How many you have done, or plan to do.
| Chance | Encounters | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10%lucky few | 7-- | -- |
| 25%one in four | 19-- | -- |
| 50%coin flip | 45-- | -- |
| 90%very likely | 147-- | -- |
Time assumes -- at your pace and does not change your shiny odds.
How is this calculated?
Every encounter has the same shiny chance, the Shiny Odds Per Try shown above. Each one is a separate roll that does not care how many you have already done, so the more you hunt, the higher your overall chance of at least one shiny. The formula below turns your odds and your number of tries into that combined chance.
chance after N tries = 1 − (1 − p)^N, where p = 1 / odds per try
Example at 1 in 8,192 (classic full odds): about 864 encounters for a 10 percent chance, 5,678 for 50 percent, and 18,862 for 90 percent.
The table above flips that around: it shows how many encounters it takes to reach a 10, 25, 50, and 90 percent chance at your current odds. Turning on boosts like the Shiny Charm, sandwiches, or chains improves your odds, so the encounter numbers drop.
These are estimates, not promises. Most games have no pity counter, meaning no guaranteed shiny no matter how many you hunt, so even Very Likely is not guaranteed: some hunters find one early, others go well past that point.
Curious how fast a hunt could go? Work out your Crystal shiny odds for Sandshrew.
Sandshrew Weakness
Sandshrew's Ground typing leaves it vulnerable to Water, Grass, and Ice. It shrugs off Electric-type attacks completely. Sandshrew's physical bulk (base 85 Def) helps cushion physical weakness hits, but special attackers are the bigger threat.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 2x (Weak) | Water, Grass, Ice |
| 0.5x (Resist) | Poison, Rock |
| 0x (Immune) | Electric |
- Dark and Steel types added — Fairy does not exist yet
- Moves are Physical or Special based on type, not per move
- Special stat split into Sp.Atk and Sp.Def
What is Sandshrew Weak Against
AvgBest Pokemon Against Sandshrew
 Smoochum IcePsychic | C | |
Obtain MethodRoute 34 Gift | ||
 Chikorita Grass | D | |
Obtain MethodNew Bark Town Gift | ||
 Bellsprout GrassPoison | D | |
 Hoppip Grass | D | |
 Psyduck Water | D | |
Obtain MethodIlex Forest Surfing | ||
 Poliwag Water | C | |
Obtain MethodEcruteak City Surfing | ||
 Totodile Water | C | |
Obtain MethodNew Bark Town Gift | ||
 Oddish GrassPoison | C | |
 Slowpoke WaterPsychic | C | |
Obtain MethodSlowpoke Well Surfing | ||
 Paras BugGrass | C | |
 Wooper WaterGround | C | |
Obtain MethodRuins Of Alph Surfing | ||
Sandshrew Evolutions
Sandshrew evolves into Sandslash. It's a two-stage chain with the method shown below. Plenty of partners for breeding via one egg group. Eggs take an average time to hatch. The evolved forms gain up to 150 total stats over Sandshrew. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
Breed Sandshrew easily with 66 breeding partners from the Field egg group. Pass egg moves like Counter, Flail, Metal Claw and 2 more to offspring.
C Sandshrew Best Moveset
Ground pre-evolution with MoveEarthquake at stats too low to threaten. Physical bulk absorbs a few hits, but Sandslash does everything at higher numbers with MoveRapid Spin utility on top.
Best Build
Utility Moveset
- Earthquake
- Dig
- Mud Slap
- Sand Attack
Moves List
You'll want to breed for Counter and Flail on Sandshrew. These egg moves aren't just nice to have. Combined with STAB from Earthquake and Dig, they expand what Sandshrew can actually threaten in practice.
How to Read the Moves Table
Tabs
- Level-Up
- Learned by leveling up.
- TM
- Taught by a Technical Machine.
- Egg
- Inherited via breeding.
- Tutor
- NPC tutor (cost: items, BP, money).
- Reminder
- An NPC reteaches any move this Pokemon could have learned by leveling up.
- Transfer
- Carried over from an older game using Pokemon HOME.
- Event
- Given out through Mystery Gift events.
Visual Signals
CAT (Category)
How the move deals damage and which stats it uses.
A small dot on the icon's corner marks the move as contact.
Tier (S to D)
Each move's competitive rank in RankedBoost's system. TM, Egg, and Tutor sort by tier by default (best first). On Level-Up, click the Tier header to do the same.
PWR (Power)
Base damage. Numbers shown in a type color include STAB (base × 1.5). Hover any colored number to see the math.
— means no power (status moves) or variable power.
Sorting & Filter
Click any column header to sort. Level-Up opens with Lv 1 at the top. TM, Egg, and Tutor open with the highest-tier moves at the top.
Search filters by move name or type. The Filter button limits the list to STAB, Physical, Special, or Status moves.
Level-Up Moves
TM Moves
26 of 30 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
It prefers dry, sandy places because it uses the sand to protect itself when threatened.
Sandshrew Crystal Guide
In Crystal, Sandshrew does the job early-game if you need a Ground type on your team. Evolve it into Sandslash before the later gyms and it holds up fine through the story.
Sandshrew has an Alolan form that swaps the typing and reshuffles the stats. Introduced in Gen 7. Worth checking if the original version doesn't fit your team.
Game Availability
Sandshrew first appeared in Red & Blue and spans 20 games across 9 generations. It later gained an Alolan form in Generation 7, adding new dimensions to its competitive identity.
Click a game to view version-specific details
- Gen 1RBDebut
Red & Blue - Gen 1Y
Yellow - Gen 2GS
Gold & Silver - Gen 2C
Crystal - Gen 3RS
Ruby & Sapphire - Gen 3E
Emerald - Gen 3FRLG
FireRed & LeafGreen - Gen 4DP
Diamond & Pearl - Gen 4Pt
Platinum - Gen 4HGSS
HeartGold & SoulSilver - Gen 5BW
Black & White - Gen 5B2W2
Black 2 & White 2 - Gen 6XY
X & Y - Gen 6ORAS
Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire - Gen 7SMAlolan
Sun & Moon - Gen 7USUM
Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon - Gen 7Let's Go
Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee - Gen 8SwSh
Sword & Shield - Gen 8BDSP
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl - Gen 8PLA
Legends: Arceus - Gen 9SV
Scarlet & Violet - Gen 9LZA
Legends: Z-A - Gen 10WW
Winds & Waves
Explore
Where to go next after Sandshrew.
Keep playing · CrystalCrystal Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Crystal Tier List