The beginners guide to IV and EV training a Pokemon in gen 6

Here’s your beginner’s guide to IV and EV training in Gen 6 Pokemon

The first time you took on the gen 6 Battle Maison or faced a random player online, you probably got your ass kicked right. The reason for this is because under all that kid friendly dialogue about friendship beats the heart of a world where players and the AI are manipulating their Pokemon‘s stats through IV and EV training.

If you want to stand a chance, your going to need to learn how to do this as well and this guide will show you the easiest way to IV and EV train your Pokemon, while at the same time giving you some advise to speed up the process since it’s going to take quite a while.

Before I start though I should explain that IVs stand for Inherited Values and these refer to the stats that your Pokemon are born with a natural boost too. EVs meanwhile stands for Effort Valves and these are points to one of your six stats that your Pokemon get when they defeat, or help defeat another Pokemon in battle. Basically there the reason why a trained Pokemon is stronger than a wild Pokemon, even if the wild Pokemon are a few levels higher.

Now that that’s out-of-the-way, let’s get started with IV Training.

IV Training

Get used to seeing this place once you begin IV training.IV training is technically not training since the idea behind it is that your breeding Pokemon with get the IVs of its parents. Every wild Pokemon has one, occasionally two IVs and through breeding, the baby Pokemon can eventually inherit both parents IVs.

Once you get a Pokemon with two IVs, replace one of the parent Pokemon and repeat. As you can tell its a pretty time-consuming process. Before you start however I suggest that you get a couple of things to make it quicker.

For starters get a Pokemon with the ‘Flame Body’ ability. The ‘Flame Body’ ability reduces the amount of steps that are required to hatch an egg by half, and trust me you’re going to be hatching a lot of eggs.

In gen six this ability is extremely easy to find since one of the first gen six Pokemon you can catch is a Fletching, which evolves into Fletchinder who has Flame Body as its normal ability.

Why oh why do the heads of the Battle Maison have legendary Pokemon?So now you’ve got your Fletchinder, it’s time to get very familiar with the Day Care centre on Route 7 and the male Ace Trainer at the back of the Pokemon Centre in Kiloude City.

This male Ace Trainer is unique because he can tell what IV’s your Pokemon has, and Day Care is necessary because it’s the only place you can get Pokemon Eggs through breeding.

Finally your going to need to get your hands on two Destiny Knots. The Destiny Knot gives the hatched Pokemon up to five of the IV’s the parent Pokemon that’s holding it has, so by giving both parent Pokemon a Destiny Knot you can in theory breed a Pokemon with perfect IVs.

You can get one Destiny Knot just by talking to a Maid in Cyllage City and you can get another one by defeating Beauty Aimee, who hangs around the plaza’s in Limiose City.

Now for the long part because its time to get hatching and then flying back to Kiloude City to check the new IVs. Don’t forget to change the Pokemon in the Day Care when you get better IV ones and you should get a perfectly IV Pokemon eventually.

Now that you know what to do here some tips to further help with the IV training:

• IV training when both parent Pokemon only have one IV is a pain so have you considered trading for Pokemon in the Wonder Trade. While the Pokemon you’ll get are random, trainers who have finished IV training often use Wonder Trade as a way to clean out their PC’s, so you can with a bit of luck get some Pokemon with five IVs.

• If you can, try to get the Friend Code of someone with a Ditto in their Friend Safari. The Friend Safari is in Kiloude City and the Pokemon there have more IVs then normal Pokemon. Ditto passes on its IVs like anyother Pokemon so with a group of Ditto, you can kick start your IV training with any Pokemon.

• While getting a Pokemon with perfect IVs is nice, it’s not really necessary most of the time. For example if your making a Physical Sweeper (EVs in Speed and Attack) you’re not exactly going to need stats in Special Attack. Knowing what stat you don’t need can save you a lot of time and let’s be honest, do you really need all six IVs.

• The last thing you want while trying to hatch eggs are random battles, so I recommend you cycle up and down Route 7. Route 7 is a straight left to right with no random battles to worry about, and you’ll always be close to the Day Care to pick up new eggs to boot.

EV Training 

After all that time-consuming egg hatching you’ll be happy to hear that EV training is way quicker than IV training, and actually involves you doing something besides cycling.  Pokemon can gain a maximum of 510 EVs and since gen 6 each stat can gain a maximum of 252 EVs. This was lowered from 255 so you can put the leftover EVs in another stat, once you’ve maxed out the other two.

Horde battles also increase your chances to get a shiny Pokemon.When you defeat any Pokemon, all Pokemon who fought it gain EVs. Each Pokemon will give you the same IV every time so for example a Scraggy will always give you one attack EV.

Before you start try and get your hands on at least one copy of these items; the Power Weight, Power Bracer, Power Belt, Power Lens, Power Band and the Power Anklet.

I have listed them in order from HP to Speed and they give an extra four EVs for that items after battle for that items stat, so for example a Power Bracer will give you five EVs per fight instead of 1. In Gen six there available at the Battle Maison for 16 BP each.

Gen six also brought in Super Training, which is a series of balloon based mini-games that will let you EV train your Pokemon without battling.

Unfortunately these mini-games are repetitive so some players might be turned off. Thankfully however a Pokemon that was EV trained at level one through Super Training will have the same stats as a Pokemon that was EV trained and leveled up in battle.

The reason EV Training is easier in Gen 6 is because of Horde Battles. Horde Battles make EV training amazingly quick and easy since you,re fighting the same Pokemon 5 times in one fight and you can wipe out all five Pokemon in one area clearing move. Horde Battles are also very easy to start because the move Sweet Scent always guarantee’s horde battles.

Finally before you start don’t forget to turn on the Exp Share since it shares both Experience and EVs, meaning you don’t need to worry about low-level Pokemon.

Here are the best Pokemon to fight for EV training each stat:

HP: On Route five you can take on hordes of Gulpin which gives you one HP EV each ,or you can head to the Victory Road to fight Lickatung hordes, which give two HP EVs each. The only problem with the Lickatung horde is that there a rare horde encounter.

Attack: While your on Route five you can also take on hordes of Scaffy, which as I already mention net you one Attack EV each. Alternatively you can head to Route 14 where both Ekans and Bellsprout hordes can be found, and they both net you one Attack EV each.

Defence: On Route 10 you can take on hordes of Nosspass, which net you one defence EV each, although you can also return to Victory Road and fight hordes of Graveller for two EVs each.

Special Attack: The  best place to EV train Pokemon in Special Attack is at the Frost Cavern which is south of Dendemille Town. The Caverns are home to the Vanillite and Smoochum hordes which both offer one Special Attack EV each.

Special Defence: In Route seven you can run into a horde of Hoppip which give you one Special Defence EV each. Alternatively you could fight hordes of Lombre in the Pokemon Village water, as they give you two EVs each.

Speed: Finally we have Speed and your best bet is to head to Route Eight which is just above Ambrette Town. Route Eight is home to hordes of Wingull and Taillow, and they both give you one Speed EV each.

Before I finish this article here’s some extra tips for EV training:

• Even though you mightn’t want to use Super Training, at least pass all of the tutorials. This way be able to see exactly where all yourNever underestimate how useful this screen is.Pokemon’s EVs are going.

• If you’re not sure if you’ve finished EV training, try using one of Super Trainings punching bags because if the Pokemon has maxed out that stat, you won’t be allowed to use that bag.

• To give yourself a head start on EV training, try using nutrients like the Protein for example. Each one increases your Pokemon’s EV’s by 10. Don’t depend on them though because there kind of expensive and you can only use them till your Pokemon gains 100 EV’s from them.

• If you want to see how many stats your Pokemon has gained from EV training, try saving the game and then using a Reset bag. These are also useful if you want to redo one of your Pokemons EV training for some reason.

• After you finish EV training, you’ll want to increase your Pokemon’s level to 50, which is the level all Pokemon online are at. The quickest way to do this is by grinding at Le Wow in Lumiose City. You’ll need 100,000 to get in but every time you win, you’ll earn enough Balm Mushrooms to keep going back.

That’s my beginner’s guide to IV and EV training a Pokemon in gen 6 of Pokemon. As you can see EV and IV training isn’t as hard as you might of though, and maybe I’ll see you online.