A Guide to EVs and IVs by Ciaran

Effort Values (EVs) and Individual/Deter Values (IVs/DVs):

Table of Contents:

• 1. Introduction to EVs
  
• 2. EV Training
  -Pokemon and Locations
  -Vitamins
  -EV Items
  -The Pokerus
  
• 3. Planning your EVs
  -EV Spreads
  --Jobs/Roles
  --Standard vs. Specialized
  -Efficiency with EVs/Custom EV spreads
  
• 4. Introduction to IVs/DVs
  
• 5. IV/DV Breeding
  
• 6. Hidden Power

*NOTE*: you can use CRTL+C on the section title you want, CRTL+F to open the search prompt, and CRTL+V to find the section.

Introduction to EVs:
Effort Values, or EVs, are a hidden concept in the Pokemon games that majorly affect the stats of a Pokemon at level 100. Each Pokemon can have a maximum of 510 EVs total, and 255 EVs in a single stat, and every 4 EVs counts as one stat point at level 100. That means a single stat can be increased up to 63 points when the Pokemon hits level 100! 63 points is a big difference in terms of both attacking and defending ability.

EV Training:
But how do we give EVs to our Pokemon? Well the main way is by defeating Pokemon that give the EV of the stat you want. In Pokemon D/P/Pt the "best" Pokemon to defeat for EVs and their main locations are as follows:

Pokemon and Locations:

HP:

• Wooper - Found on Route 212 East (Surf) with an Ecounter Rate of 90%. Awards 1 EV
  
• Quagsire - Found on Route 212 East (Surf) with an Encounter Rate of 10%. Awards 2 EVs
  
  Attack:
  
• Gyarados - Found when using Super Rod on Route 229 with an Encounter Rate of 100%. Awards 2 EVs
  
• Kricketune - Found on Route 212 North with an Encounter Rate of 60%. Awards 2 Atk EVs
  
  Defense:
  
• Geodude - Found in the Ruin Maniac Tunnel, Cave, and Extension with Encounter Rates of 80%, 95% and 90%. Awards 1 EV
  
• Pelipper - Found on Route 224 (Surf) and in front of the POkemon League (Surf) with an Encounter Rate of 65%. Awards 2 EVs
  
  Special Attack
  
• Gastly - Found in the Old Chateau with an Encounter Rate of 100%. Awards 1 EV
  
• Golduck - Found in the Resort Area (Surf) with an Encounter Rate of 100%. Awards 2 EVs
  
  Special Defense:
  
• Tentacruel - Found on Route 223 (Surf) and above Sunyshore City (Surf) with an Encounter Rate of 60%. Awards 2 EVs
  
  Speed:
  
• Fearow - Found on Routes 225 & 226 in the Morning Only with an Encounter Rate of 60%. Awards 2 EVs
  
• Poliwhirl - Found on Routes 227 & 228 (Surf) with an Encounter Rate of 70%. Awards 2 EVs
  
• Magikarp - Use an Old Rod in any body of water with an Encounter Rate of 100%. Awards 1 EV

Another way to give your Pokemon's EVs is through Vitamins (although you can only receive 100 EVs per stat from Vitamins), the names and effects of the Vitamins are as follows:

Vitamins:


• HP UP - Increases HP EVs by 10
  
• Protein - Increases Atk Evs by 10
  
• Iron - Increases Defense EVs by 10
  
• Calcium - Increases SpAtk EVs by 10
  
• Zinc - Increases SpDef EVs by 10
  
• Carbos - Increases Spd EVs by 10

Now, this process may seem tedious, defeating that many Pokemon to hit 255 in a stat, even with the Vitamins. Well, luckily there are many ways to speed up this process, such as the Macho Brace, the Power Items, the Exp Share and the Pokerus.

EV Items:


• Macho Brace - Halves the Pokemon's Speed while held, but Doubles the number of EVs gained in battle.
  
• Power Weight - Halves the Pokemon's Speed while Held, but gives an Additional 4 HP EVs after for each POkemon defeated in Battle.
  
• Power Bracer - Halves the Pokemon's Speed while Held, but gives an Additional 4 ATK EVs after for each POkemon defeated in Battle.
  
• Power Belt - Halves the Pokemon's Speed while Held, but gives an Additional 4 DEF EVs after for each POkemon defeated in Battle.
  
• Power Lens - Halves the Pokemon's Speed while Held, but gives an Additional 4 SPATK EVs after for each POkemon defeated in Battle.
  
• Power Band - Halves the Pokemon's Speed while Held, but gives an Additional 4 SPDEF EVs after for each POkemon defeated in Battle.
  
• Power Anklet - Halves the Pokemon's Speed while Held, but gives an Additional 4 SPD EVs after for each POkemon defeated in Battle.
  
• Exp Share - Gives additional Exp to the POkemon holding it from Battle in addition to any EVs that would be garnered from the battle.

The Pokerus:
The Pokerus is a mechanic introduced in Generation II that, while bad sounding, is very useful in the EV training of Pokemon. Let me explain, the Pokerus doubles the number of EVs taken from Battle. This means that with the Pokerus, defeating a Magikarp would give you 2 Speed EVs instead of 1. If you're also holding the Macho Brace this Magikarp will give you 4 Speed EVs instead of the one. If you're holding the Power Anklet, which gives an additional 4 Speed EVs after battle, and have the Pokerus that one Magikarp will give you 10 Speed EVs! Sounds helpful, right? Well, how do you get it? Well the way to get the Pokerus is by attacking Wild Pokemon with Pysical Attacks. It's really that simple. However, when it was introduced it had only a 1 in 21,845 chance of getting it (About 1/3 of the chances of encountering a Shiny Pokemon), and although in the later versions it has become easier to get it's still quite rare. Once a Pokemon becomes infected, it is contagious for 3 days (not counting time in the PC), during this time it can affect other Pokemon in your party. After this time the Pokemon will still get the bonus of doubled EVs, however they can no longer infect other Pokemon. The way you can tell if a Pokemon is infected is that a little sign where Status Afflictions would normally appear as shown here:



When they are no longer contagious or when they have been "cured" a small smilie face appears to the right of the Pokemon's picture, as shown here:



Remember, the Pokemon still gets it's doubled EVs, it just loses the ability to infect others.

Planning your EVs:
Before EV Training you Pokemon, it is advised you plan what EVs you want your Pokemon to have. For example, you don't want to go facing 100 Magikarps when you only want 18 Spd EVs. Design an EV Spread before beginning your Training.

EV Spreads:
An EV spread is a listing of the EVs planned to be put on, or that have been put on a Pokemon. Often times this EV Spread is based off what job you want the Pokemon to do. Jobs vary in many ways, but examples of the most basic ones are Sweepers, Pokemon meant to do high damage at high Speeds, Walls Pokemon meant to take hits and provide healing/status support to the rest of the team, Tanks, high damage dealing Pokemon with the ability to take a hit over Speed, Leads, pokemon who generally set up Entry Hazards or get Early KOs, the Revenge Killer, meant to come in after an opposing KO and kill the opposing pPokemon in "revenge", and Spinners, Pokemon that use the move Rapid Spin to remove opposing Entry Hazards.
The most simplistic of the common spreads of any job is likely the Sweeper's. The Sweeper generally has Maximum Speed and Maximum Atk or SpAtk, depending on which one it uses. An example of a Sweeper EV spread would be this:


Starmie @ Life Orb
Natural Cure
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
6 Def | 252 SpAtk | 252 Spd

• Hydro Pump/Surf
  
• Grass Knot/Thunderbolt
  
• Ice Beam
  
• Recover
  

You could call this a Standard set. Some sets should be altered for the purposes of your team, and should therefore be well thought out instead of Copy+Pasting from Smogon or the Moveset board here.

The jobs other pokemon have a generally more complex than the Sweeper set, and therefore require a level of Efficiency to make.

Efficiency with EVs:

When looking for efficiency in your EVs there are two types of EV spreads that are taboo: 252 | 128 | 128 (or similar spreads) and a random EV spread that looks like time was put into it but actually does nothing (something like 110 | 42 | 52 | 56 | 198). It doesn't matter if this spread lets your Luxray survive a Snorlax Earthquake, you could probably do that more efficiently (not that you'd want to) with a different spread. The first thing to talk about when mentioning EV efficiency would be 252 | 6 | 252. Why not max out the stats with 255? Well, because 255 isn't divisable by 4, which means you're wasting 3 EVs in each stat, meaning 6 total, well 4 EVs is one stat point so you'd be wasting one. It might not make too much of a difference, but it's being efficient.

And then there are "jump points". Smogon calls them "magic numbers" and they are numbers of EVs where in the Stat with a positive nature gains 2 points instead of 1. For max IVs these "jump points" are at 16 | 56 | 96 | 136 | 176 | 216 EVs. Let's take a Metagross.


Metagross @ Occa Berry/Leftovers
Clear Body
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpAtk)
252 HP | 216 Atk | 42 SpDef

• Meteor Mash
  
• Earthquake
  
• Explosion
  
• Thunderpunch/Bullet Punch

By hitting the jump point you allow yourself to still hit plenty hard, but also give yourself a bit more survivability. It might not make too much of a difference, but it could turn a potential 2HKO into a 3HKO, and most of all once again you're being efficient. No EVs are wasted. This applet can assist you in making sure your EVs aren't being wasted: http://www.geocities.com/xactcreations/FixEVs.htm

When EVing for defensive Pokemon it's important to EV not only for efficiency, but also to be able to survive certain attacks it may need to be able to endure. For example, HarvestCress, the brain child of BetterThanLori from Marriland forums is EVed to be a very efficient wall in all aspects:


Cresselia @ Leftovers
Calm Nature (-Atk, +SpDef)
252 HP | 176 Def | 80 SpDef

• Ice Beam
  
• HP [Fighting]
  
• Thunder Wave
  
• Moonlight

BetterThanLori wrote:

HarvestCress, my pride creation (admittedly created just to out-do Rhy's "perfect" EVs because I'm a scrub). It does a bunch of stuff for me, primarily scrub up sweepers with Thunder Wave. HP Fighting 3HKOs Tyranitar so in many situations (Thunder Wave scrub, a few layers of Spikes, TTar switching in on HP Fighting entirely etc.) Cresselia can beat Tyranitar without much worry. Is able to switch in on Stealth Rocks and mixmence Draco Meteor, and survive a secondary Outrage nearly all the time (less then one percent chance of being 2HKOed). Here are some calculations..

+2 Lucario Crunch = 73.87% - 86.94%
"new" Mixmence Outrage = 38.74% - 45.95%
"new" Mixmence Draco Meteor = 43.47% - 51.35%
LO Weavile Night Slash = 47.30% - 55.86%
CB TTar Crunch = 72.97% - 86.49%
CB TTar Stone Edge = 45.95% - 54.05%
+2 Infernape Fire Blast = 66.89% - 79.05%
CB Metagross Meteor Mash = 45.95% - 54.28%
+1 LO Salamence Outrage = 71.62% - 84.46%
Choice Specs Porygon Z Hyper Beam = 84.46% - 99.55%
Non-Petaya Empoleon Surf (pre-boost) = 23.65% = 27.93%
Torrent Petaya Empoleon Surf = 52.70% = 62.16%
Choice Specs Heatran Fire Blast = 49.55% - 58.33%
Choice Scarf Heatran Fire Blast = 33.11% - 39.19%

My LeadPerior set is also EVed to survive a specific threatening hit, A Waterfall from an Adamant Leftover LeadGyarados will never OHKO it:


Rhyperior @ Expert Belt
Solid Rock
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpAtk)
116 HP | 252 Atk | 42 SpDef | 100 Spd

• Stone Edge
  
• Earthquake
  
• Crunch
  
• Stealth Rock
  

Plus his Speed EVs hit a benchmark he needs to hit, it outspeeds -Spd nature Swampert. This is another concept when creating efficient EVs, if you don't need to run Max Speed to beat what you're out to beat, then there isn't a reason to do so. Hitting a specific Benchmark and putting the rest into Bulk to take hits better is a perfectly reasonable and efficient way to EV one's Pokemon. This concludes my guid to EVs. Now on to IVs/DVs.

Introduction to IVs/DVs:
Individual Values, or Deter Values as they are sometimes called (I will refer to them as IVs throughout this guide), are randomized hidden numbers that are decided by an RNG (Random Number Generator) whenever a Wild Pokemon appears or an Egg is hatched. An IV is valued from 0-31 and each is equivilant to 1 stat point at level 100. A way to determine one's IVs is by going into a level 100 battle and checking your Pokemon's level 100 stats compared to the stats they would have with max IVs in each stat, another is by fully EVing them and doing the same thing. The characteristic displayed on the Pokemon info page (where the Nature and place the Pokemon was captured are listed) can give a hint about what the highest IV is and what numbers it could be. Here is a list of the characteristics and what they mean:

HP Characteristics:

• Loves to Eat - 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30
  
• Often Dozes Off - 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31
  
• Often Scatters Things - 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27
  
• Scatters Things Often - 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28
  
• Likes to Relax - 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29

Atk Characteristics:

• Proud of it's Power - 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30
  
• Likes to Thrash About - 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31
  
• A Little Quick Tempered - 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27
  
• Likes to Fight - 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28
  
• Quick Tempered - 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29

Def Characteristics:

• Sturdy Body - 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30
  
• Capable of Taking Hits - 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31
  
• Highly Persistent - 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27
  
• Good Endurance - 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28
  
• Good Perserverance - 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29

SpAtk Characteristics:

• Highly Curious - 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30
  
• Michievious - 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31
  
• Thouroughly Cunning - 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27
  
• Often Lost in Thought - 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28
  
• Very Finicky - 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29

SpDef Characteristics:

• Strong Willed - 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30
  
• Somewhat Vain - 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31
  
• Strongly Defiant - 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27
  
• Hates to Lose - 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28
  
• Somewhat Stubborn - 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29

Speed Characteristics:

• Likes to Run - 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30
  
• Alert to Sounds - 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31
  
• Impetuous and Silly - 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27
  
• Somewhat of a Clown - 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28
  
• Quick to Flee - 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29

Breeding for IVs:
When breeding, the child Pokemon's IVs come from the parents. Each parent contributes 3 IVs, but they can overlap. For example, if I have a Gyarados Mother and Father, the Mother with 23 | 31 | 4 | 15 | 17 |27 and the Father with 24 | 30 | 15 | 3 | 25 | 20 the child will inherent a random 3 from each, but the child can inheret both Atk and Spd stats, leaving 2 stats up to the RNG to produce. This higher the IVs of the parents the higher the IVs of the child. There is other complexity to this which may or may not be added later one.

[u]Hidden Power:[/b]
Hidden Power is a special move which has Power and Typing based on a Pokemon's IVs. It can be any type except Normal and is of power between 30 and 70. In this section I won't explain every Hidden Power there is, however I will list some key ones and the IVs needed for them, if you want more I can add them:

[*]HP [Fighting]-
Bold: 31/15/30/30/30/26 or 31/23/26/30/30/30
Modest: 31/23/26/30/30/30 or 31/27/30/30/30/26
Timid: 31/27/30/30/30/30

[*]HP [Ground]-
Modest: Works by default. (31/31/31/31/30/30)
Timid: Works by default. (31/31/31/31/30/30)

[*]HP [Fire]-
Adamant: 31/30/31/22/26/31 or 31/30/31/26/18/31
Bold: 31/26/31/30/26/31 or 31/22/31/26/30/31
Hasty: 31/6/27/30/30/31
Naive: 31/2/31/30/30/31
Rash: 31/2/31/30/30/31
Timid: 31/6/31/30/30/31

[*]HP [Grass]-
Modest: 31/26/31/31/30/31
Timid: 31/2/31/31/30/31

[*]HP [Electric]-
Bold: Works by default (31/31/31/31/30/31)

[*]HP [Psychic]-
Modest: 31/26/31/30/31/31

[*]HP [Ice]-
Bold: 31/10/30/31/31/31
Calm: 31/30/26/31/31/31
Modest: 31/10/30/31/31/31
Timid: 31/22/30/31/31/31



For now, this concludes my Guide/Article on EVs and IVs.