Gamer's Promised Land

You think you're ready to start EV training yourself and start some competitive battling? Well maybe not... Sure its all well and good to know that you can get three EV points from a Salamence, but is that really the best and fastest way to do it?

This guide is here to tell you the best and most convenient ways to EV train your pokemon. Don't forget that with every 4 EVs you earn in a stat, that stat will be boosted by one point.

Well, like I said, these have been covered already, but I assume you know what they are. However, I am sure this assumption is incorrect in some cases, so I might as well put it here.

EV is short for  Effort Value. Every time your pokemon wins a battle and gets experience it gains an EV point in a specific stat.

Okay, so each pokemon gives a point. What do these points do? Well, when you get four in a single stat, that stat will increase by one extra when you level up. SWEET! That means I can fight a million Bidoofs and give my Mewtwo 250,000 HP? Well, no, unfortunately.

There are limits to how many EV points you can get, and this is why people EV train. Altogether, you can only have 510, and a single stat can only have 255. Why waste those points in stats you are not going to use? My Gyarados doesnt know any special moves, so why waste the points there? I will put them all in to attack instead. Using EV points, you can give two stats a bonus of up to 63!

Also, just to save you some time, I will tell you that you should only put 252 EV points in to a stat, even though you can put three more. Why? Because 252 is the largest number divisible by four that goes in to 255. So you would waste 3 Evs. Unfortunately, you can not stop some waste, and the EV spread people use the most is 252 in one stat, 252 in another, and 6 in the last. This has the minimal amount of waste.

So I have to fight 252 of a certain pokemon... ok... that sounds like a lot. Well I have some good news for you! There are ways to speed this up. There is a rare condition your pokemon can get called POKERUS. This does not harm your
game or your pokemon in any way, it actually doubles the rate you earn EV points at. You an tell with the pokerus symbol, PKRS. Pokemon will only infect other pokemon while this symbol is active. Once you see the smiley face, then your pokemon can no longer infect others. However your pokemon still gets an EV boost even after the PKRS symbol goes away. There is also an item called the MACHO BRACE that double them again. So each point is actually worth four. Saves a lot of time, eh?

There are also the power items that you can buy at the battle tower. I will try to explain them. Each item adds four to the EVs you would already be getting. So if you fight a magikarp, and have the power item for speed, you get five EV
points. In case you have the POKERUS at the same time, you add first then double. So these are even faster then the MACHO BRACE.

The power items are:

Weight-HP

Bracer-Attack

Belt-Defense

Len-Special Attack

Band-Special Defense

Anklet-Speed

 

Another thing that can shorten your training is the vitamins that you can buy on the second story of the mall.  They give 10 EV points in their stat. It's easy to figure out which stat, just check with the description.  

If you ever wanted to take EVs away, just use the berries. They are easy to identify for the same reason as above.  They will take away 10 EV points, or if you have more than 100, they will lower them to 100. If you have no idea about the EV's of a pokemon, 11 berries will always lower them back down to zero. I would just save first, so you aren't wasting berries.

And thats just everything you need to know about EV training.

 

Here is a quick list that corresponds to certain EVs

Attack- Gyarados(2 EVs) Route 229 w/ Super Rod

Defense- Geodude(1 EV) Oreburgh Gate 1F

Special Attack- Gastly(1 EV) Old Chateau

Special Defense- Tentacruel(2 EVs) Sunyshore City w/ Surf

HP- Bidoof(1 EV) Route 201

Speed- Starly(1 EV) Route 201

For those of you who may be wondering, IVs stand for Individual Values as indicated in this section. As the name states, each pokemon has individual characteristics that determine stats. Each point in an IV is essentially an extra stat in whatever it corresponds to. Each stat has a range 0-31 points. That's a pretty wide range considering that 5 points in a stat can determine how a battle flows. How can we tell what IVs my pokemon has and where they are placed? Unfortunately there is no way to tell without an IV Calculator. And to get the most accurate readings, you will also need to know your pokemon's EVs. Something that new competitive battlers may not be too keen on. So new competitive battlers may want to focus on IVs later on until they become more experienced in this area and know their pokemon's EVs are.

The following link is an IV Calculator. Just search for the pokemon you want to check and input all the necessary data. That includes current level, nature, current stats, and EP, which stands for your pokemon's EVs. Once you have all the necessary data and you think they are correct, just select the "calculate ivs" tab and the values will show up off to the right with the lowest and highest possible values at the time. It will also show what kind of type and power the move Hidden Power would have if your pokemon were to learn it. However if you don't know your pokemon's EVs or don't have the necessary data, check the link below.

The following link is for those looking for a non-IV Calculator solution. If you check your pokemon's  stat screen, yes, the one where the nature and where you met your pokemon are, you should also see a small phrase. Each phrase can determine certain IVs. To read the chart on the link before, all you need to do is match the phrase to the numbers off to the left. This is where it gets confusing. Lets say your pokemon has a "Likes to run" characteristic. Its possible IVs will range from either of the numbers shown, which in this case are 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30. But with this specific characteristic, its highest IV would be in speed, as indicated on the stat above the phrase. This means your pokemon's highest IV stat would be in speed. If you knew your IV in speed is 30, then all the other stats can range from 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. However if you know the IV speed stat is 10, then the numbers can only range from 0, 5, or 10. Quite low don't you think? So if you were looking for the highest IVs of 31, you'll want to get any of the characteristics on the second row. Remember this is just a general chart to show what the possible IVs may be, however you'll never accurately know without an IV Calculator.

You may already know what Pokemon Natures are, but do you know what they can do? Sure you can know that an Adamant nature raises Attack and lowers Special Attack, or a Timid lowers Attack and raises Speed. But do you really know what that means? Maybe you do, maybe you don't. This section is created for those of you who don't know. I'll try to explain to the best of my ability and I'll be using Serebii.net to help, so lets get started.

Natures can be found on your pokemon stat screens. It can be any one of 25, 5 of which being neutral, meaning that it doesn't lower or heighten any stats. Follow this link to see what natures do what. All you need to know are the first two columns, the pokeblocks are only for those looking for flavor. This section of the guide does not cover that, so don't ask about it. Anyways, back to the natures. You see that each nature has a positive and negative effect.

Ok I now know which stats are raised or lowered, but by how much? I'll try to explain this as best I can. Have a second window open to the following link. You should now be brought to a descriptive page of pokemon 493, Arceus.

Scroll all the way down until you see the multiple charts with the numbers. These are Arceus's possible stats, ranging from lows to highs. The top row here should have the six stats HP, Atk, Def, SpA, SpD, Spe. The numbers below these stats indicate how high and low the stats for this pokemon can go.

Base stats indicate how high and low a pokemon's stat can go. You'll see a trend in high and low base stats.

Below the words "Base Stats" should be the words Min-Max. This just means Minimal stats-Maximum stats. For now don't pay attention to lv.50, just look at the lv.100 rows(which are the higher numbers, naturally). Lets take Arceus's HP for example. It says 350-444. This matches the Min-Max. 350 being Arceus's minimal HP and being capped at 444. So Arceus can't have any HP lower than 350 or higher than 444 under any circumstances(without cheats). But lets go to Attack now. It says 220-305 for the first box, 245-339 for the box below it, and 269-372 after that. What does this mean? Well if you look off to the left, you'll see Min-Max Hindering Nature, the first row. Min-Max Neutral Nature, middle row. And Min-Max Beneficial Nature, last row. This is where natures come in handy. If your Arceus has an Attack beneficial nature, like Adamant, then it will be the last row of stats. So with this nature, Arceus can have any number of the stats between 269-372 and no lower nor higher. If it has a harmful or hindering nature, like Modest, then it will be the numbers between 220-305. Remember that Adamant lowers special attack, so you'll need to look at the first row of special attack to dertimine the possible stats. The same goes for Modest and its respective stats. If its neutral, meaning no effect. Then it would be the middle numbers. Examples of neutral natures for attack would be Relaxed, Serious, or Bashful.

How exactly do I get my Arceus's attack to 372 or 339?. That's why you EV train. You can have an upwards of 63 points in a single stat and 31 extra points for IVs, that gives an upward of 94 points. So 269+94=363. You may be confused as to why the math doesn't add up. Don't worry about that. If you invested the maximum number of EVs and you have the maximum IVs of 31, the numbers will add up to the max amount. I'm sorry to say I don't know why, however if you add 245+94, it will equal 339 exactly. So that easily adds up.

These stats can be found anywhere on the pokemon pages of serebii.net. Follow the same steps I gave here like you would on any pokemon. So thats pretty much all you need to know about how to determine the stats of pokemon based on nature.

Here are a few things to look for when you're making a team.

Physical Sweeper- A physical sweeper is to target pokemon with low defenses. Good physical sweepers include Tyranitar, Metagross, Garchomp, and Heracross. These are just a few examples so you can play around with certain pokemon and see which is best for you.

Special Sweeper- Special sweepers act the same as physical sweepers, but instead they target low special defenses rather than high special defense pokemon. A few examples of special sweepers would be Alakazam, Salamence, and Gengar.

Physical Wall- In order to counter physical sweepers, one must have a physical wall in their team. Walls usually have very high defenses, but don't usually excel at attacking. So pick and choose what you might want to add to your team. A good example of physical walls are Regirock and Rhyperior, who also has an impressive attack stat.

Special Wall- Special walls have the same roles as physical walls, but on the special attacking spectrum. A good example of a special wall would be Blissey or Tentacruel.

Spiker- Spikers are exactly what they sound like. They set up field traps like Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and Stealth Rock. they usually have high defenses and can also be used as walls. Good spiker pokemon would be Skarmory or Forretress.

Pseudo Phaser- Pseudo phasers  have usually one specific role. Get rid of stat or field changing obstacles. Pseudo phasers usually dispel moves like Stealth Rock and rid the opponents stats changes with Haze or switching moves like Roar or Whirlwind. Almost any pokemon can be a pseudo phaser, but the pokemon more suited for this job would be Swampert or Donphan. Both of these pokemon can also act as walls for your team.

Starters- Starters are also exactly what they sound like. Starters are the first pokemon to be sent out into the battlefield. They usually scope out your opponents team or set up Spikes or Stealth Rock. Some of the faster starters may also inflict status conditions on your starting pokemon. Good starters would include Crobat or Azelf.