Effort Values
By: Synchronize
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. What's an Effort Value?
II. How do I get EVs?
III. Let's EV Train!
IV. Speeding up the Process
V. Maximum Leftovers Recovery and HP Evs
I. What's an Effort Value?
An Effort Value (EV) is the building block of the potential of each individual Pokemon's stats. A Pokemon has a capacity of 510 EVs to split between all 6 of its stats (HP, Atk, Def, Spd, SAtk, and SDef), each having their own capacity of 255 EVs.
II. How do I get EVs?
In-game, battling a specific Pokemon will help your Pokemon gain a certain amount of EVs in a specific stat (and in some cases two stats). That Pokemon must be able to gain EXP. however, and cannot faint.
If you would like to know which Pokemon gives specific EVs, here's the link to a GameFaqs guide that spells it out for you:
https://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbad..._ev_points.txt
On Pokemon NetBattle, you can manually mess around with Pokemon EVs in the Team Builder.
III. Let's EV Train!
Ok, it's time to make the most out of your stats, but keep these guidelines in mind:
1) Yes, your pokemon's EVs and Stats will grow, but you won't see the significance of these gains until level 100. Now that you know that, it is required to have 4 EVs to gain 1 point in that specific stat (i.e. If you battle two Marills, you will gain 4 HP EVs, and gain 1 more point in HP once you level up). But like I said, you won't necessarily know the actual change until level 100. So let's say we didn't give a Salamence any speed EVs during training. Once it reaches level 100, it will have a 236 Spd stat. Now what if we had given it 8 Spd EVs? It would've had a 238 Spd stat.
In other words don't mix the fact that you got +8 Spd once your Pokemon leveled up with your actual EVs and Stat totals.
2) Wow, that was a long guideline. Anyways, the next thing you should know is actually branched off from guideline #1 - As mentioned, 4 EVs = 1 point increase in stats. Since you have a capacity for 255 in a stat, the maximum EVs you SHOULD put into a stat is 252, which is divisible by 4.
3) JOT IT DOWN! If you're EV training, it's wise to have a piece of paper, or at least an online EV Tracker, as I doubt you'll count out all 510 EVs iny your head and still remember how many you used within the next 2 minutes.
4) Ever used one of those Proteins, or Irons? These medicines are actually what you should start your EV training with, as for each one you use, it increases its respective stat by 10 EVs. Given that you can use only 10 of each medicine, and still are limited by the 255 and 510 EV limits, you'll be able to increase your EVs by 100 per stat.
5) Make sure to ask around for a good "EV Spread" for the Pokemon your training, otherwise, you might think that a Smeargle needs 252 Def EVs to cover for its low defense, and that's not going to help you.
Other than that, consider breeding first for a good Nature or good IVs (not included in this guide) and get crackin.
IV. Speeding Up the Process
*Whew* This EV training is a grueling process. There must be a faster way to do this...
INTRODUCING THE MACHO BRACE!
The Macho Brace is a hold item that doubles the amount of EVs you gain from a fainted Pokemon. So if you normally get 2 Def EVs from Skarmory, if the Pokemon you use is holding Macho Brace, you gain 4 Def EVs instead. The only downside is that the item decreases your speed, but you don't care anyway.
Another helpful, but random, way to speed the process, is for your Pokemon to receive the PokeRus (did I spell that right?) virus. Lol, it's actually a beneficial virus, applying the same effect as Macho Brace without lowering your speed.
Now here's a thrill:
What if your Pokemon holding the Macho Brace is inflicted with the Virus? Your EVs Double twice. So now you get 8 Def EVs from Skarm. Cool, no?
V. Maximum Leftovers Recovery and HP EVs
So you've got the hang of EVs now. Now there's a couple of other important factors to learn, that mainly apply to pokemon that tank, wall, or use Rest. that's Max Lefties.
To understand this, you must know that Leftovers heals a Pokemon by 1/16th of a Pokemon's HP. So unless your Pokemon's total HP stat is divisible by 16, you won't heal as much as you possibly could (you may also have one more HP than your max lefties point and still get the most out of your leftovers. For example, 400 HP is divisible by 16, acheiving Max Lefties Recovery, but you may use 401 HP and still acheive it, as decimals are exempt from the division). This is not necessarily a setback in all cases, but it's valuable to know.
Here's the Max Leftovers Recovery Stat Totals from 272 HP to what ever Blissey's range covers:
272 288 304 320 336 352 368 384 400 416 432 448 464 480 496 512 528 544 560 576 592 608 624 640 656 672 688 704 720 736
Another important piece of info to know about HP EVs is how they relate to your walls and tanks. Health accounts for most of your defenses, so the more HP you have, less you need to put into your Defense EVs, and the better your pokemon can tank or wall. Skarmory is a prime example. At first, a standard EV spread included 196 HP EVs for a max lefties point, putting the rest in Defense, Attack, and Speed. CBed Fighting types started to hurt it more until a solution was found to give Skamory 252 HP EVs, and easily walls physical attacks better than it could before. Some walls, however, require max HP just becase their base HP stat is pitiful, like Cloyster or Dusclops.
The road to training a pokemon to its max potential is a long and hard one, but you'll competively reap the benefits if you have your EVs right. After that, it's only a matter of gaining and understanding/mastery of breeding, IVs/Pokemon genes, and Natures, and you're on the start to making some of the best teams around.
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