How to unlock Naganadel
Naganadel is not sold directly, so the only route is the Alola banner, where it occupies a 4★ slot. The 4★ band takes 6.5% of all pulls and holds 211 partners, so one specific Naganadel works out to about 0.0308% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter only applies to 5★ results, so Naganadel has no floor of its own and no targeted pull. A duplicate Naganadel refunds 120 coins at the 4★ rate.
Naganadel stats and rank
Naganadel reads 103 HP, 129 speed, ×1.4 attack, ×1.1 physical, ×1.4 special, 73 defense and 73 special defense, for a 540 base-stat total. On the three-stat percentile this is 82.5 out of 100, which puts Naganadel at rank 56 of 966 and in tier S. The relative picture matters more than the total: its strongest slot is speed (96th percentile) and its weakest is physical multiplier (47th percentile), so it is a specialist rather than an all-rounder.
Best moves in Naganadel's pool
At move level 5 the pool is led by Dragon Claw at 48.3 damage per 0.39s (136.2 effective DPS, ×1.10 multiplier), then Body Slam at 75.6 damage per 0.71s (116.7 effective DPS, ×1.10 multiplier), then Hyper Beam at 126.2 damage per 1.76s (100.3 effective DPS, ×1.40 multiplier). 9 of its 16 damaging moves scale with the physical multiplier and 7 with the special one, alongside 5 support moves. Its special multiplier is the higher of the two (×1.4 against ×1.1), so special moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 19.5 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call. Compare it as throughput, not as damage per hit, because the cooldown is already divided out.
Evolution cards for Naganadel
Its starting move, Sludge, evolves into Sludge Bomb once the move is at level 5 and you hold the Power card, which boosts attack for that run. The permanent menu cannot substitute: only a Power card picked during the run unlocks the evolution. 16 of its 21 moves carry an evolution card, across 6 distinct cards (Vigor, Sprint, Power, Reflexes, Armor and Synthesis). The strongest of them is Dragon Claw at 136.2 effective DPS, so that is the one worth holding a card for first.
Naganadel compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Munkidori (+7 HP, -6 speed, +0.02 attack, +15 total) and Porygon-Z (+5 HP, -13 speed, +0.04 attack, -5 total). Against Munkidori, Naganadel is 6 speed faster and Munkidori hits harder by ×0.02, and the rank gap is 21 places. Every one of those numbers cuts both ways, so the decision is about which stat the run needs, so neither side is a strict upgrade and the move pools have to break the tie.