Effort Values for the EV-intimidated

[cheyinka]

Effort Values for the EV-intimidated

First, a note: this isn't how it works in Gen 1 or 2, and in Gen 6 it is easier to do Super Training than get EVs from wild Pokémon (though the underlying mechanics are the same). For Gen 3, 4, and 5, however, read on!

Every Pokémon's stats are based on four things: their species' base stats, their nature, their Individual Values (IVs) and their Effort Values (EVs).

Base Stats are pretty easy to understand. They are why even very fast Shuckle are slow and very slow Ninjask are fast. (For that matter, the very fastest Shuckle, at level 100, is slower than the very slowest Sandslash at level 100 and the very slowest Ninjask at level 40.)

Natures are pretty easy too, once you remember that in-game, red is better and blue is worse. (If it helps, remember that in battle, stat-up moves produce a red effect and stat-down moves produce a blue one.)

Individual Values are assigned when a Pokémon first enters a party - whether as an egg or when it's caught in the wild or in Entree Forest. They do not subtract from base stats, and at most add 31 additional points to a stat at level 100. (It is possible to have 31 in every stat, or 0 in every stat.) At level 50, therefore, they only add at most 15 points; at level 20, they only add at most 6 points. This means that for anything other than battling human opponents who care about IVs, they can safely be ignored.

That brings us to Effort Values. The games tell us that a Pokémon who levels up through battle is stronger than one who's leveled up in the Daycare or via Rare Candy. This is true up to a point:

Simplest explanation:
A Pokémon can get up to 255 EVs in a single stat, and up to 510 EVs total. When a Pokémon is defeated and gives experience, it also gives every Pokémon who received experience 1, 2, or 3 EVs, divided among at most 3 stats. Bellsprout give 1 Atk, so if I take a freshly-hatched Bellsprout and fight 255 other Bellsprout, I'll max out my Bellsprout's Atk EVs. I could fight 500 more Bellsprout and my Bellsprout would still not get any more Atk EVs. If I then fought 255 Oddish (which give 1 Special Attack), my Bellsprout would have 255 Sp. Atk EVs and 510 EVs total. I can now give my Bellsprout as many Rare Candies as I like: leveling that way will not make it any weaker than if I level it through battle.

 

Slightly more complicated:
There are items that make this process less onerous.

The Macho Brace doubles EVs that the holder (and only the holder) receives, while in Gen 4 and 5 the Power items (like the Power Anklet) give the holder (and only the holder) an additional 4 EVs in a specific stat when the holder gets experience. (The Anklet is for speed, so if my Bellsprout holds a Power Anklet and defeats an Oddish, it'll get 1 Sp. Atk EV and 4 Speed EVs.)

Pokerus doubles the amount of EVs received. (So if that Bellsprout has Pokerus, holds a Power Anklet, and defeats an Oddish, it'll get 2 Sp. Atk Evs and 8 Speed EVs.)

Vitamins add 10 EVs at a time - e.g. Zinc gives 10 Special Defense EVs - until the Pokémon is at 100 EVs in that stat or 510 EVs overall.

Pomeg, Kelpsy, Qualot, Hondew, Grepa, and Tamato berries reduce EVs by 10 per berry, unless the Pokémon is at max friendship. They will not reduce EVs below 0.

Anything else that claims to "reduce base [stat]" is also going to reduce EVs in that stat by some amount; they will not reduce EVs below 0 and they will not work if the Pokémon is already at max friendship.

 

More complicated yet:

Like IVs, EVs have their full effect at level 100. At level 100, a Pokémon gains 1 additional point in a stat for every 4 EVs in that stat, rounded down. So a Pokémon with 252 Sp. Atk EVs and a Pokémon with 255 Sp. Atk EVs get the same benefit, namely, 63 additional points to Sp. Atk.

At level 50, EVs have half that effect. So a Pokémon with 248 Sp. Atk EVs gets the same benefit as Pokémon with 249 to 255 Sp. Atk EVs: 31 additional points to Sp. Atk.

This means that going through the story (where your team might not be in the 50s even as late as your first battle with the Elite Four), EVs are not going to make a tremendous difference. And the difference they do make doesn't require carefully maximizing them so that you have 252 in each of two stats and 6 in another (or 248 / 224 / 36, or whatever) unless you are battling other people who are doing that.

On the other hand, if you're battling other people at all, or taking on the post-E4 battle facilities, it's useful to have a Pokémon whose attacks all use Attack to have Attack EVs rather than Sp. Attack EVs, and EVs can be used to shore up a poor stat (unless it's abysmally poor, like Shuckle's and Munchlax's base Speed stat of 5).

Additionally, Audino give 2 HP EVs, so a team trained in Gen 5 mostly by battling Audino is going to have its EVs skewed towards HP. This is probably not a bad thing for going through the story!

Executive summary: You can only get so many EVs, whether through battle, Vitamins, or Super Training. If you use Super Training in Gen 6 effectively enough, you can be Fully-Trained at level 1: at that point you could put it in the Daycare for 99 levels and it would be no weaker than if you'd battled from 1 to 100. In Gen 3, 4, and 5, getting full EVs will involve at least some battles (and thus some exp), but after that point, it doesn't matter how they get the experience.