Introduction
In GSC we had stat experience. In Ruby, Saphire, Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen, Diamond, and Pearl we have Effort Values. These are a bit more complicated than stat Exp, but they both have the same principles
Each pokemon has six stats - HP, Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Attack and Special Defense. Effort Values are like points - each time you battle a wild pokemon or an in-game trainer's pokemon, it will increase your stat's EV count by a certain amount of points, for example, beating a wild Gardevoir will increase your Special Attack EVs by 3. For every 4 EVs you earn, the actual stat value raises by one (note this applies to pokemon at lv100 only - at any other level, you may not notice an increase until more EVs are aquired). In other words, take the number of EVs, divide it by 4, and round it down to the nearest whole number. This gives you the stat increase.
Each stat can have a maximum of 255 EVs. So that means if you were to fight a wild Gardevoir 100 times, you'll only have 255 EVs instead of 300 (100 x 3). A pokemon with 255 EVs for defense (Or 254, 253, 252 since they are divided by four and round down to the same number) will have 63 points more than a pokemon with 0 EVs for defense.
However, a pokemon can only hold a maximum of 510 EVs. This is, the sum of the EVs for HP, Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Attack and Special Defense must not exceed 510. Therefore, its impossible to max out two of a pokemon's stats, whether it be Attack and Defense, or HP and Speed, or whatever. Careful planning means that you can have 252 for one, 252 for another, and 6 in another, meaning you have max out two stats, and increase the last by 1.
This table summarises the restrictions on a Pokemon's Effort Value:
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HP: Must not exceed 255
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Attack: Must not exceed 255
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Defense: Must not exceed 255
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Speed: Must not exceed 255
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Special Attack: Must not exceed 255
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Special Defense: Must not exceed 255
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Total: Must not exceed 510
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Planning your EVs
It is obvious that maxing out EVs is a powerful training method to make your Pokemon that much stronger. With 510 EVs to distribute between 6 stats, however, how should one go about gaining EVs?
The distributing of EVs on a Pokemon is more commonly known as its EV Spread. When planning what EV Spread should be for a Pokemon, you have to consider the moves the the Pokemon knows.
Take a Latios which knows the moves Calm Mind, Dragon Pulse, Psychic, and Recover, for instance. As you can see this Latios is used as a Special Sweeper, with all its attacking moves to use. Instead, you should probably choose to pump EVs into Special Attack and Speed, since those help it do damage to the foe before it can damage you.
Checking your EVs
As stated before, EVs are gained when you battle and defeat wild Pokemon or in-game Trainers, excluding the trainers in the Battle Frontier and Battle Tower facilities. As a general rule of thumb, if you gain experience in a battle, you are gaining EVs as well, just that EVs are hidden values and are not shown to you.
The fact that EVs are hidden means that there is no way for you to know how many EVs your Pokemon has accumulated. As such, you should manually keep track of the EVs that your Pokemon has gained.
There is, however, one in-game method to check if your pokemon has already maxed out its EVs. In Diamond or Pearl, go to the lady behind the counter at SunyShore Market and speak to her. In Ruby, Saphire, or Emerald, go to the stall in the lower left, and speak to the woman there. If your lead Pokemon has already maxed out its EVs, you can get an Effort Ribbon from her. Apart from this, there are no other methods of telling how many EVs your Pokemon have.
EV training a Pokemon refers to letting the Pokemon gain the correct EVs according to your plans for the Pokemon's EV Spread. In short, you would have to battle 510 Pokemon to max out your Pokemon's EVs, assuming each of the 510 Pokemon give only one EV each.
Speeding up EV Training
With 510 EVs to gain, EV-training can be a daunting task. Thankfully, there are a variety of items and features which will go a long way towards helping you gain those EVs.
Macho Brace:
When a Pokemon is holding a Macho Brace, it will gain double the EVs per Pokemon beaten. As such, defeating a wild pidgey will net you 2 Speed EVs instead of just 1. Note that your Pokemon's Speed is halved when it is holding the Macho Brace. However, it is just a temporary effect, so once the Macho Brace is removed, the effect will be gone.
Power Items:
Introduced to Diamond/Pearl, there are six new items that speed up EV training for a certain stat. Unfortunately, like Macho Brace, these items cut the users Speed while wearing that item. Listed below are the effects of the Power Items:
Power Weight - Gains 4 extra HP EVs after every battle
Power Bracer - Gains 4 extra Attack EVS after every battle
Power Belt - Gains 4 extra Defense EVs after every battle
Power Lens - Gains 4 extra Specail Attack EVs after every battle
Power Band - Gains 4 extra Special Defense EVs after every battle
Power Anklet - Gains 4 extra Speed EVs after every battle
Each of the Power Items can be bought at the cost of 16 Battle Points at the Battle Tower, but well worth it when you are EV training for commonly used EVs like Speed and Attack
Vitamins:
Vitamins, unlike the Macho Brace, instantly give a pokemon EVs, instead of helping it to gain them faster. There is a Specific vitamin for each stat. Listed here are the effects of the vitamins
HP Up - Increases HP by 10 EVs
Protein - Increases Attack by 10 EVs
Iron - Increases Defense by 10 EVs
Carbos - Increases Speed by 10 EVs
Calcium - Increases Special Attack by 10 EVs
Zinc - Increases Special Defense by 10 EVs
Vitamins can be obtained in a variety of ways. They can be found as hidden items throughout the land, Proteins may be obtained by a pokemon with the Pickup ability, and Vitamins can also be purchased in SlatePort City from the Energy Guruin the Slateport Market for 9800 dollars. After beatint the Elite 4, the Energy Guru will occasionally have a half-priced sale preceded by an ad on the TV 2 days in advance. In addition, they can be purchased in the Lilycove Department Store on the left counter on the third floor for 9800 dollars. Berries can be crushed using the Berry Crush Machine and the Powder traded to the Medicine Shop in Slateport for Vitamins for 1000p each. Last, but curtaintly not least, vitamins can be obtained in the Battle Point Exchange Service Center for a mere 1 Battle Point per vitamin.
What's the use of Vitamins? As listed, any one vitamin will give you 10 EVs to its corresponding stat. Since it takes 4 EVs to change any stat point one, this is the most effective if given in twos. 20 EVs = 5 stat points. However there is a limit of 10 vitamins per any given stat limiting it to 100 EVs or 25 stat points per attribute by vitamin enhancement. Plan well ahead and you can save yourself half the trouble and time of actual battle to completely EV train your selected Pokemon.
EXP. Share:
The EXP. Share is a useful tool for EV-training more than one Pokemon simultaneously. This is because the EXP. Share gives the Pokemon all the base EVs gained from the Pokemon which has been defeated, even if the Pokemon does not take part in the battle. For instance, if a Flygon with a Macho Brace defeats a wild Pidgey, it would gain 2 Speed EVs. Suppose you have a Milotic in your party holding an EXP. Share. The Milotic would gain 1 Speed EV.
PokeRus:
Mach Brace , Pokerus doubles the EVs gained. So if a Flygon has both Macho Brace and Pokerus, it would gain 4 Speed EVs from defeating a Pidgey, and not just 2 or 1. Note that Pokerus can be lost, but your Pokemon still gains double the EVs after losing it.
So by battling a Pokemon who awards 3 of your target EVs and by wearing the approriate Power Items, you can gain 7 EVs per battle. Throw PokeRus into the mix and you have a grand total of 14 EVs earned per battle.
Undoing Trained EVs
First of all, you might be asking "Why undo EVs if they're so beneficial?". Well, by chance, you might have let your Pokemon gain EVs in the wrong stat. EVs gained cannot usually be undone, but if you have Pokemon Emerald, there is a way. By feeding special Berries to your Pokemon, you can reduce the EVs gained by the Pokemon. This makes it easier to undo misplaced EVs. Note that this only works in Pokemon Emerald.
~ FinalFlare
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