5th Gen How does EV training work in Pokemon Black and White?

[RussianBoss]

I know that they changed EV in Pokemon Black and now they add 1 point to your stat for every for EV you have in that stat after each battle. I have a level 34 Vullaby that I never trained before and started EV training on Patrats and Lilipups that give 1 Attack EV. I defeated at least 20 of them and my Attack stat only raised by 2 points. Why not 5 like it should??

Also I read that you need to get 8 EV for every 1 stat point at level 50 and it drops to 4 at level 100. Does that mean I am not using EV efficiently by training at lower levels? If anyone can clear both these problems up I'll greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[PlatinumDude]

It's hard to explain in words, but Bulbapedia sums it up:

Pokémon can now gain effort values from battling even at Level 100, and stats are recalculated at the end of every battle instead of only after leveling up, much like Deoxys in the Generation III games. When a Pokémon is defeated, EVs do not get added until after all experience points have been added (if the Pokémon levels up more than once, the second level it gains will have new EVs calculated into it); if a Pokémon levels up in the middle of a battle, its stats will update assuming there are EVs to add from a previously defeated opponent, but EVs from the opponent that caused it to level up will not be added until after the experience points have been completely added

 

[RussianBoss]

I read off many sites like Bulbapedia and Smogon and it still doesn't explain why I only received 2 Attack after getting 20 Attack EV. It says specifically that stats are recalculated after each battle too.

 

[PlatinumDude]

I read off many sites like Bulbapedia and Smogon and it still doesn't explain why I only received 2 Attack after getting 20 Attack EV. It says specifically that stats are recalculated after each battle too.

Your Pokemon is too low a level for the EVs to have much of an impact on the stats. That's my best explanation. The higher the level of your Pokemon, the more obvious the changes are. Either that, or you've maxed your EVs already.

 

[RussianBoss]

So does that mean by EV training on lower level pokemon I'm pretty much wasting EV since I'm getting less stat points than a level 100 pokemon??

 

[S7Kid]

It happened to me as well, I never EV trained pre-Gen V and I got like +200 EV in a couple of levels, but it wasn't adding the 50 stat points after battle (Though it'd have been kinda weird). Anyway, the more you level up, the stats will eventually increase the way you trained the Pokémon. Of course assuming that you haven't reached the 510 EV limit, as PlatinumDude suggests.
Also, you might as well try to use the Power thingies that the Subway place gives you or even Macho Brace. And, to start with, you could also use the vitamins (Up to 100 EV per stat) for an easier EV training start.

 

[PlatinumDude]

So does that mean by EV training on lower level pokemon I'm pretty much wasting EV since I'm getting less stat points than a level 100 pokemon??

Not exactly. You can start EV training at any level (not too low, though), but you won't be seeing any significant changes until the higher levels. If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about the stat changes, and just focus on the EV training itself.

 

[RussianBoss]

So basically you get some of the Stat points right after the battle and the rest as you level up?

 

[Griffinbane]

You're never gonna see ridiculous stat gains like +8 in gen 5 since the stats will automatically update after each battle. Unless you pay attention -very- carefully, you're likely to never notice the gain. Furthermore, the extra stats you gain is calculated differently at lower levels than at higher. You'll notice the 252 EVs no problem at level 100 but at something like level 20, you probably won't see the +whatever points from the EVs. It's there, but won't get applied until later. This is mainly to prevent something like level 5 Arcanine with 80 attack.

 

[Miau]

Here's what happens and why you don't see any huge leaps in stats: it's because you only get all the stat points from EV training when your Pokemon is level 100. Otherwise, the amount of stat points you get for a particular stat depends on the level. Smogon's EV training guide is the best and the one I used to understand the mechanics, here it is.

Copied from there:

Spoiler:

The following two formulas determine your Pokemon's stats (round down after every parenthesis):

HP = ((2 * BaseHP + IV + (EV / 4)) * Level / 100 + Level + 10)
Stat = (((2 * BaseStat + IV + (EV / 4)) * Level / 100 + 5) * Nature)

Where

BaseHP = The Pokemon's base HP
BaseStat = The Pokemon's base stat for your given statistic (Attack, Defense, etc)
IV = The IV value of your Pokemon's stats (anywhere from 0 to 31)
EV = The amount of EVs you invested into your Pokemon (anywhere from 0 to 255)
Nature = Nature modifier for the given stat (0.9, 1.0, and 1.1)
Level = The Pokemon's current level.

So basically, the amount of stat points you get is actually (EV/4) * (Level/100).

Also, if you want to check if you've done the EV training correctly, call Bianca in B2W2 and she'll tell you if your Pokemon got 510 EVs in total or 252 EVs in a particular stat.

 

[Xander Olivieri]

Well since you've got some good answers given to you I'll go ahead and close this now.

If you have any more questions about EV training, feel free to send any of the people who answered you a PM. Or try asking again in the Quick Questions thread.