EV training has been a thing in the Pokémon series for a long, long time now. For newcomers, it might be difficult to understand what it is or why you’d want to spend your time doing it. Fortunately, we’ve written up a complete guide on what EV training is, how your Pokémon benefit from it, and the best way to do it right here! Let’s get started.
What is EV Training?
Every time your Pokémon defeats an opposing Pokémon, it gains something called an Effort Value for one of its stats. Each Pokémon yields a different set of effort values — for example, defeating a Shinx yields 1 Attack “EV” and defeating a Rookidee yields 1 Speed EV. When a Pokémon gathers up 4 Effort Values in a single stat, that stat increases by 1. A Pokémon can have a total of 510 Effort Values, but each stat caps out at 252 of them. In other words, to build an optimized Pokémon, you have to decide which of its stats to give EVs to.
The stats a Pokémon should have depends on its base stats, which can be found on sites like Bulbapedia or Serebii. For example, Meowscarada is a fast physical attacker, so you’d probably want it to have 252 EVs in both Attack and Speed. The remaining 6 EVs can go into whichever stat you like. Basically, then, you’ll have to decide what kind of spread you want your Pokémon to have based on its base stats and moves. Once you’ve made that decision, you’ll have to start your training!
How do you EV train a Pokémon?
There are two ways to EV train a Pokémon, and one of them only works if you’re rich — really rich. If you’ve got money to spare, head over to any Chansey Supply store and grab some vitamins. HP Up increases HP, Protein increases Attack, Iron increases Defense, Calcium increases Sp. Attack, Zinc increases Sp. Defense, and Carbos increases Speed. If you want to maximize a Pokémon’s EVs in one specific stat, you’ll need to buy 26 of its corresponding vitamin. This can get expensive, and we’re assuming you might not be able to afford this more than once or twice.
The other way to EV train a Pokémon is the manual way: defeating wild Pokémon that give the kind of EVs you want. Head to the general goods section of a Delibird Presents store and have a look at the “Power” items in stock. When held by a Pokémon, it gains 8 additional EVs in the corresponding stat any time it gains experience. This means your Pokémon cannot be Level 100 if you’re trying to EV train it this way!
The Power Weight corresponds to HP, the Power Bracer corresponds to Attack, the Power Belt corresponds to Defense, the Power Lens corresponds to Sp. Attack, the Power Band corresponds to Sp. Defense, and the Power Anklet corresponds to Speed. Purchase the power item that corresponds to the stat you want to train, and give it to your Pokémon to hold. It’s time to EV train the hard way!
Optimal EV Training Locations
As mentioned before, you’ll need to track down and KO specific Pokémon to earn EVs. The Pokémon only needs to be in the party to obtain EVs — you can have a Level 100 Pokémon do the fighting, while the Pokémon you want to EV train rests in the back of your party. Assuming you’ve given your Pokémon the power item that corresponds with the stat you want to train, scroll down to that stat and we’ll list the best place to go on a wild Pokémon hunting spree!
- If you’re training HP, the best place to do that would be in the Great Crater of Paldea — more specifically, in the cave where Roaring Moon spawns. To get there, teleport to Research Station 2 and turn right. Run down the slope and across the river until you get to a lone tree. Check behind the large rocks and you’ll find a cave entrance. Use a Normal Encounter power sandwich (the Ultra Curry-and-Rice Style Sandwich) and you’ll find lots of Chansey. KO them for huge EXP and 2 HP EVs (10 for Pokémon holding a Power Weight)!
- If you’re training Attack, head to the South Province’s Area 3 — it’s directly east of Mesagoza. There, you’ll want to look for Growlithe, Shinx, Yungoos, and Nymble. Each of these gives you 1 Attack EV (9 for Pokémon holding a Power Weight). You don’t really need an encounter-boosting sandwich to EV train here.
- If you’re training Defense, head over to the Asado Desert. There, you’ll find Hippopotas, Rellor, and Stonjourner. The former two yield 1 Defense EV each, while the latter yields 2 (and can only be found in Scarlet). Again, these Pokémon spawn regularly as-is, so you don’t really need the help of a sandwich to effectively EV train here.
- If you’re training Sp. Attack, you can head south from Los Platos and defeat a whole bunch of Psyduck. They’ll yield 1 Sp. Attack EV each, and this number increases to 9 for Pokémon holding a Power Lens. You could also go to Area Zero and beat up Girafarig for 2 Sp. Attack EVs instead! Don’t defeat Farigiraf, though — they yield HP EVs instead.
- If you’re going for Sp. Defense, head to Area Zero and defeat a whole bunch of Floette. They spawn in groups, so knock them out one at a time. Remember, auto-battling does not yield any EVs, so you’ll have to KO these Pokémon the hard way. If you don’t have access to Area Zero, try KOing Hoppip in South Province’s Area 1.
- If you’re going for Speed, jump into the ocean behind your house! There, you’ll find Magikarp, Wingull, Buizel, and Arrokuda. Each of these Pokémon yields 1 Speed EV. You should have no problem training your Speed stat here, given how many of the spawns are beneficial!
Some Pokémon sets, such as ones created by top players, might require specific EV counts — not just 252 of them in two stats. If you’re going for something more precise, you can also use the feather items you obtain from Tera Raid Battles. These give 1 EV each in their corresponding stat, so you’ll need 4 of them to increase a Pokémon’s stat by 1. For these specific EV spreads, you can open up something like Pokémon Showdown. Create a team, select the Pokémon you’re EV training, and enter the EV spread you’re going for. You can then compare your Pokémon’s stats to the stats shown in Pokémon Showdown to see if you EV trained your Pokémon correctly.
If you messed up your EVs along the way, you’ll need to stock up on EV-reducing berries. Each of these reduces its corresponding stat’s EVs by 10 each. Pomeg berries reduce HP, Kelpsy berries reduce Attack, Qualot berries reduce Defense, Hondew berries reduce Sp. Attack, Grepa berries reduce Sp. Defense, and Tamato berries reduce Speed. These can be obtained via auctions at Porto Marinada. If they don’t have any of these berries, save the game and then close it. Change the date to a different day, re-open it, and check again. Repeat the process until they’re auctioning one of the berries you want.
If you’d like to check your progress, open up your Pokémon’s summary and check its move menu. Press the L button to switch the graph view and get a rough estimate of its EV count. If one of its EVs has been maximized, you’ll see sparkles by the name of the stat. You can use this trick to help gauge how much longer you’ll need to EV train your Pokémon for.
What about IVs?
Once your Pokémon’s EVs are finalized (and it has 510 of them), you’re about halfway done! Each Pokémon has something called an IV for each of its stats, and these aren’t affected by battles. IVs can be between 0 and 31, so a Pokémon with 0 IVs in Attack will have 31 points less than one with 31 IVs by the time it reaches Level 100. If you’ve got Bottle Caps (obtained via Tera Raid Battles or purchased from Delibird Presents), you can take them to a man in Montenevera. If your Pokémon is at least Level 50, he’ll allow you to use a Bottle Cap to maximize a Pokémon’s IVs.
Remember, if a Pokémon’s IVs were increased via Hyper Training, it won’t pass them down via breeding. Hyper Training doesn’t actually change the Pokémon’s IVs; it simply increases them for the sake of battling. It’s also important to note that Legendary Pokémon come with 3 perfect IVs, so you’ll need to use less Bottle Caps on average to make them battle-ready.
Even More Help & Tips
Making a Pokémon battle-ready with a complete EV spread is challenging, but it becomes much easier after you get the hang of it. If you need any more help or information on EV training your Pokémon, feel free to join our Discord server! We can explain anything you want in greater detail, plus we can recommend basic EV spreads and movesets for just about any Pokémon you might want to train. We’ve also got a full list of Pokémon guides down below just in case you want to look them over. Thanks so much for reading — happy training!
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