What it does
Purifying Salt does two separate things: complete immunity to every status condition (burn, poison, toxic, paralysis, sleep, freeze), and a 50% reduction to Ghost-type move damage.
Status immunity is genuinely valuable in competitive play. Burn halves physical attack — critical against a Pokémon that needs to stay in and deal damage over time. Poison and toxic chip HP every turn. Paralysis cuts Speed by half and carries a 12.5% full-stop chance. For a tank like Garganacl that wants to sit on the field and accumulate value, removing all of those disruption routes is significant.
The Ghost resistance is a bonus that adds up. Rock-type normally takes neutral damage from Ghost moves (×1). Purifying Salt changes that to ×0.5. Ghost-type attackers are common enough in Champions — Basculegion, Runerigus, and others — that this reduction fires regularly.
Purifying Salt is always active; it doesn't get consumed. Only direct ability suppression (Gastro Acid) or swapping (Wandering Spirit) turns it off.
Who runs it
Garganacl is the standard user (90%). Its strategy centers on Salt Cure: an entry hazard-like effect that drains the target's HP every turn — 1/8 per turn normally, 1/4 against Water and Steel types. Garganacl then tanks hits while Salt Cure does the work. That strategy requires Garganacl to stay alive and healthy, which Purifying Salt enables by blocking the status conditions that would otherwise accelerate its attrition.
Purifying Salt also shuts down Will-O-Wisp teams that would otherwise halve Garganacl's physical damage output — since burn is a status condition, it simply doesn't apply.
How to use it
Garganacl's plan: come in, use Salt Cure, then stall with Protect and high physical bulk while the opponent's HP drains. Purifying Salt keeps that plan alive by eliminating the most common ways to accelerate your HP loss.
High physical Defense + immunity to burn (the main physical damage debuff) makes Garganacl extremely difficult for physical attackers to handle efficiently. The opponent's main answers are special attackers (Rock-types have modest Special Defense) and simply hitting hard enough to KO before Salt Cure matters.
Leftovers is the standard item — per-turn recovery pairs perfectly with a slow-burn strategy. Rocky Helmet is an alternative that punishes physical contact, which synergizes with the opponent needing to hit Garganacl to break through.
Tips & strategy
Purifying Salt doesn't block Taunt. Taunt is a field effect, not a status condition. If Garganacl gets Taunted, it's locked into attacking moves and loses access to Salt Cure and Protect.
Garganacl's main weaknesses are special attackers — its Special Defense is decent but lower than its physical Defense — and fast teams that can KO it before Salt Cure accumulates enough damage to matter. In those matchups, the slow-drain strategy doesn't close out games fast enough.