Effort Values

I'm going to cover every single aspect of EV training on this page. A word of warning; it's a lot to take in if you've never heard of anything about EVs before. However with a little help from some practical examples you'll soon be able to start EV training your own team quite easily.

The Basics

What is an "EV"?

EV stands for “Effort Value.” They determine what stats your Pokémon gets upon levelling up and are gained from battling any Pokémon you come across that award Experience points. For example;

Beating a Patrat would give all Pokémon that participated in the battle +1 Effort Value to Attack.
Beating a Frillish would give all Pokémon that participated in the battle +1 Effort Value to Sp. Defence.

At the bottom of this page you'll find a list of good places to EV train specific stats in Pokémon Black and White and for lists of what Pokémon give which stat, click the icons below. But for the meantime lets look at the mechanics some more.

How do EVs affect stats?

For every 4 EVs you gain in a specific stat, you'll gain +1 to your Pokemon's base value in that stat. What this basically means is that if you battle 4 Patrat with your Tepig, Tepig will then gain +1 to its attack stat (because each Patrat gives +1 EV in the attack stat).

EVs are calculated at +1 Stat point per 4 EVs at level 100, which means you won't see the full benefit of the EVs you put into your Pokémon until it reaches that level; there will still be a benefit, just not as significant as when it reaches the maximum level.

Is there a limit to the amount of EVs I can give my Pokémon?

Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately) there are two limits to the amount of EVs a Pokémon can gain.

• Each Pokemon can have a maximum of 510 EVs.
• One stat can have a maximum of 252 EVs (as of Generation 7) and 255 EVs prior to Generation 7.

This equates to +63 to the affected stat of a Pokémon (at level 100), if you maxed out EVs in that stat. So if we take Tepig and then battle 255 Patrat, we'd be giving it +255 EVs in Attack, then Tepig will gain a +63 increase to its current attack stat.

The more mathematically minded of you may be noticing that this doesn't actually add up. The number 4 doesn't go into 255, so 3 of the EV points have gone to waste. You'd be exactly right. The optimum number of EVs to put into any stat is therefore 252. This is explored in a bit more detail later.

When is the best time to start EV training a Pokémon?

The best time to start EV training is as soon as you get that Pokémon, either through breeding or catching it. As soon as that Pokémon participates in a battle in which it gains experience, it will have gained some EVs.

If you were to breed a Pokémon you probably won't be able to battle with it right away, due to it only being Level 1. This is where the Exp. Share item becomes extremely useful. Unlike experience, EVs are not divided up between the Pokémon that gain experience from a battle.

Using our Tepig again, lets say she is currently level 1 and you wanted to give her some Attack EVs. Unfortunately Tepig isn't really capable of beating a Patrat just yet. Put Exp. Share on Tepig and battle with another Pokémon, so that Tepig still gets experience and as a result will also get the EVs from that Pokémon.

In simplistic terms, if a Pokémon gains experience from a battle, regardless of the way in which that experience was awarded, it will receive all EVs it could gain from that battle.

This all seems like a lot of work, so what's the benefit?

The best way to show you the benefits is an example, which I'll take from my own Volcarona. One has been fully EV trained. The other has not been EV trained in any particular way, as I used it in my party for my main play through of the game. See if you can guess which one is which.

If you guessed that Volcarona #1 is the one that has been properly EV trained, you'd be absolutely right. I put 252 EVs into Special Attack, 252 EVs into Speed, and 4 EVs into HP. The difference is most notable in the Speed stat; even though it is 14 levels below #2, Volcarona #1 is only 11 points behind.

The benefits of EV training allow you to tailor your Pokémon to specific needs for your team. Volcarona here excels at being a fast, hard hitting Special Attacker Pokémon so it's sensible to put those kind of EVs into it; the result is that its stats are far better than what they would ordinarily be if I had just trained Volcarona in a non-EV Specific manner.

If you need to check your Effort Values, then from Pokémon Sun & Moon there is a way. In the Pokémon status screen, press the Y button on the device and it will change the list of the Pokémon's stats to show a graph showcasing its base stats, as well as the Effort Points. If the graph is orange, then the Pokémon hasn't maxed out its Effort Points. If it is Light Blue, it has. If the stat is sparkling, then you have maxed out that stat.

The Advanced Stuff.

Now that we have a better understanding of what an Effort Value is, and why they are beneficial it's time to look into some of the more in depth aspects of this part of Pokemon training; who knew it was so intricate?

The rule of 252.

I mentioned above that it's pointless to put anymore than 252 EVs into a stat. I'm going to lay down the mathematical reasons for this here.

Each stat is given +1 for every 4 EVs you put into it. The maximum amount of EVs you can give a stat is 255.

With all this in mind we can say in simple terms; Don't put more than 252 EVs into any stat.

Speeding up the process.

Lets look at our Tepig again. If we want to give 252 Attack EVs to Tepig you might be thinking that having to battle 252 Patrat is going to be a bit dull. The good news is that there are a large amount of ways we can speed up the entire process.

Hordes.
In Pokémon X & Y, there is a new concept called Horde Battles. These battles bring five Pokémon for you to battle at once, and each of them gives you the standard Effort Value points. They're typically of a low level as well, making them perfect for Effort Training. Hordes may seem rare, but they can be triggered through the use of Honey or the move Sweet Scent, but only when it isn't raining.

Vitamins.
If you head to the Department store on Route 9 in Black & White, and then proceed to the top left corner of the uppermost floor, or in the Pokémon Center in Laverre City in X & Y, you'll find a merchant selling a variety of different vitamins for $9,800 each. They all say they “increase the base stat” of one specific statistic on a Pokémon. Their effects are outlined here.

Pic	Item	Effect on EVs
	HP Up	+10 Hit Point EVs
	Protein	+10 Attack EVs
	Iron	+10 Defence EVs
	Calcium	+10 Special Attack EVs
	Zinc	+10 Special Defence EVs
	Carbos	+10 Speed EVs

You can use these items up to 10 times, giving you +100 EVs to the stat of your choosing. So we feed Tepig 10 Protein, and all of a sudden we only have to give 152 EVs via battling, knocking off 100 from the original 252 Patrat we had to battle. But there's more!

Power Items.
There are a number of items in the game you can let your Pokemon hold that increase the amount of EVs they gain from battles. Before Sun & Moon, the Power Items gave you +4 for each stat, but as of Sun & Moon they give +8. Their effects and location are outlined here.

Pic	Item	Effect
	Macho Brace	Doubles the amount of EVs gained but cuts Speed in half
	Power Weight	+8 HP EVs after each battle, regardless of the Pokémon fought, but cuts Speed in half.
	Power Bracer	+8 Attack EVs after each battle, regardless of the Pokémon fought, but cuts Speed in half.
	Power Belt	+8 Defence EVs after each battle, regardless of the Pokémon fought, but cuts Speed in half.
	Power Lens	+8 Special Attack EVs after each battle, regardless of the Pokémon fought, but cuts Speed in half.
	Power Band	+8 Special Defence EVs after each battle, regardless of the Pokémon fought, but cuts Speed in half.
	Power Anklet	+8 Speed EVs after each battle, regardless of the Pokémon fought, but cuts Speed in half.

Because we want to train our Tepig in the attack stat, lets give it a Power Bracer to hold. If we go and battle a Patrat, instead of gaining +1 Attack EV from the battle, we're instead gaining +5 EVs from every battle. All of a sudden that daunting figure of 152 Patrat has gone down to just a fraction over 30!

Note as well the “Regardless of the Pokemon fought” aspect of these items; even if we battled a Frillish with Tepig, we'd still be gaining +4 Attack EVs as well as the +1 in Special Defence a Frillish gives, so long as she was holding the Power Bracer.

The only downside to these items is the fact that they cut the holders Speed stat in half, however if you have Tepig at the starting position in your party and immediately switch her out for another Pokémon, Tepig will still gain the EVs from the item as well as from the defeated Pokémon.

Wings.
On Driftveil Drawbridge and Marvellous Bridge, occasionally you'll see shadows on the ground. Often these shadows mark the location of the Pokémon Ducklett and Swanna, however from time to time you'll also pick up an item. These items are as follows.

Pic	Item	Effect on EVs
	Health Wing	+1 Hit Point EV
	Muscle Wing	+1 Attack EV
	Resist Wing	+1 Defence EV
	Genius Wing	+1 Special Attack EV
	Clever Wing	+1 Special Defence EV
	Swift Wing	+1 Speed EV

Unlike the Vitamin items mentioned above, there is no limit to the number of wings you can use on your Pokemon to increase its EVs. The only downside is that they are somewhat time consuming to get hold of in any significant amount. There is also a seventh type of Wing - the Pretty Wing - which can only be sold and has no other value.

PokéRus.
You may have heard of PokéRus before, but there's a good chance you haven't seen it. It's an extremely rare virus your Pokemon can catch from battling with wild Pokemon, and if you are lucky enough to get it you'll soon find that it is absolutely wonderful for EV training your Pokemon. There are two ways of determining whether or not your Pokemon has been infected with PokéRus.

Pokemon Centre nurses will stop you the next time you go in to heal your Pokemon and tell you about the virus. The other way of finding out if you have the virus is by checking your Pokemon's status page; PokéRus shows up as a little purple box with the letters PKRS in the top right hand corner.

So what use does this have to do with EV training?

PokéRus doubles the amount of EVs you gain from battles and stacks with the power items mentioned above. Lets look at our Tepig once more. Tepig has been fed 10 Protein, meaning she already has 100 Attack EVs in the bank. Next, we've given her the Power Bracer to hold, meaning she gains an additional +4 Attack EVs each battle. Finally lets say we got lucky and have infected Tepig with the virus. Now lets go battle a Patrat (remember, Patrat gives +1 Attack EV).

If you've been doing the maths as you read along, you'll know that with all this Tepig is gaining an outstanding +10 Attack EVs per Patrat battled and defeated, cutting the number we need to fight to max Tepig's attack EVs down to a mere 15.

When are EVs calculated, and can I reset them?

With Black and White the way in which EVs are calculated has been changed. Prior to these games, EVs were calculated each time your Pokémon levelled up. This is no longer the case; they are now calculated after each battle. What this means is that it is now possible for you to EV train a level 100 Pokemon, if you so choose.

We also have the ability to reset EVs if we need to. This is done through using the following Berries.

Pic	Item	Effect on EVs
	Pomeg Berry	-10 Hit Point EVs
	Kelpsy Berry	-10 Attack EVs
	Qualot Berry	-10 Defence EVs
	Hondew Berry	-10 Special Attack EVs
	Grepa Berry	-10 Special Defence EVs
	Tamato Berry	-10 Speed EVs

They're listed here as providing a decrease of 10, however, in Generation IV, the first berry you use will reset the EVs for the stat it effects to 100. This means in order to completely reset a stat we need to use 11 of the specific berry. In Generation V though, you'll need 26 of the berries to completely remove a stat from maximum

Sadly, Black and White have brought with them no way of obtaining these berries aside from through the Dream World. The berries will be available through the dream world, but will likely be more time consuming to get hold of than they were in previous generations of the games. X & Y allow for you to grow these berries, but you can also completely wipe the EVs by earning a Reset Bag in Super Training, or by purchasing the Perilous Soup in the Juice Shoppe.

Super Training

Added into Pokémon X & Y, there is a new method called Super Training. This mini-game, accessible from the very beginning, has you play through various mini-games, each focused upon a certain stat. If you manage to sufficiently complete the mini-game, you will get a boost of Effort Values in that specific stat. Level 1 games add 4 Points, Level 2 games add 8 points and Level 3 games add 12 points.

When you complete a game, you also get a Training Bag which can be used on the bottom screen as you play for the Pokémon to boost the stats even further. You get given these bags depending on your score in each of the mini-game. Each bag can be either Small, Medium or Large with Small adding 1 Point, Medium adding 4 Points and Large adding 12 Points.

To top that off, when your Pokémon is being trained, it is capped at 252 in each stat, and it allows you to view the progress of EV training through a special graph on the bottom screen. This shows how much each stat has increased and along the side, how much more training the Pokémon can do.

S.O.S. Battles

In Pokémon Sun & Moon, Super Training and Horde Battles are gone but S.O.S. Battles provide a new way to get Effort Values. When a Pokémon calls for help in battle, the Effort Point yield for all Pokémon in the battle is multiplied by two. This makes it easier to boost your stats. If you're facing a Caterpie, which gives 1 Hit Point EP as standard, when it calls for help, this is doubled. If you have Poké Rus and the Power Weight attached, then this makes each Caterpie you defeat give you 36 points. So, in a SOS Battle, you'd need to defeat just 7 Pokémon to maximise a stat.

Join Avenue & Festival Plaza

Added into Pokémon Black 2 & White 2, there are various parts of Join Avenue which allow you to raise up your EVs in massive amounts and even reset them quickly. These are done through items in various shops, which differ depending on the players you interacted with to make the shop. The Fitness, Bistro and Beauty Salon all have items you can purchase which will affect EVs. Fitness & Bistro will boost them while the ones at the Beauty Salon will lower them. The Festival Plaza in Sun & Moon brought these back with their own new items, including one which will outright maximise a stat from 0. Each specific item can be use once a day

Anything else I need to know?

Rare Candies are absolutely fine to use after you have finished EV training your Pokemon. Pokemon do not lose stats if they are levelled with a Rare Candy so long as they have sufficient EVs.

As a way of checking whether or not your Pokémon has it's EVs maxed out, there is a person in Opelucid city (in a house North of the Pokémon Centre) who will tell you about how many EVs a Pokémon in your party currently has.

Everything should be completely covered here, however if there is anything else you need to know don't hesitate to ask in our chat room or forums. Finally, below is a list of all the best EV training areas in the game.

Effort Value Training Locations