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Effort Values Guide

Synchronize

Donphan: My Fourth Love
  • 2,254
    Posts
    19
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    • Age 35
    • Seen Oct 5, 2008
    Effort Values


    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/gbadvance/file/pokemon_emerald_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.


    Feel free to make comments and so on, so forth.
     
    Last edited:
    Wonderful job I would expect no less from you.

    Maybe someone should write and IV guide, or maybe you could add info about IVs into this one.

    I'll have to get AB to sticky this as he did with Husks topic and mine as well. Pyro is making a UU/BL one and Husk is going to post and Uber metagame guide as well, and a begginers guide. My idea to make new guides for the Movesets forum seems to be running smoothly.
     
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    I'll probably merge the UU/OU/Uber guides together so as not to clutter the forum with stickies.

    Anyways, STICKIED.

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    aragornbird said:
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    I'll probably merge the UU/OU/Uber guides together so as not to clutter the forum with stickies.

    Anyways, STICKIED.

    ~*^*~~*^*~ ~*^*~ ~*^*~ ~*^*~~*^*~

    I know what you mean but it's a lot easier to find the guides if they stay seperate. It's not like we're going to need more stickies after this anyway.
     
    Ice demon said:
    Good job Synchronize.
    IMO u should add the pokemon the gives the specific EVs instead of the link and probably give the 252/252/6 example of a simple EV spread.

    Well, there are over 300 pokemon to list EVs for, so that's kind of hard to put all in one FAQ, especially with so much to do in my house. And as far as EV spread examples, I should possibly clarify that, but I'll wait until someone comes along asks a specific question.
     
    Hey Synch, is it better to lump all the EVs into just a couple of stats, or is it smarter to spread them out across the board. I have heard of a 252/252/6 spread. What does that mean? LOL
     
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    252/252/6 means maxing out two stats and putting the leftover 6 in another.

    You should generally avoid using 252/252/6 spreads if you can. Pokemon only need a certain number of EVs in certain stats in order to do well in battle so always maxing out two stats can sometimes be a waste. For instance, look at Swampert.

    Swampert usually has both physical and special attacks. But putting 252 in Attack and 252 in Sp. Attack is a bad idea because one of Swampert's jobs is to defend against the likes of Salamence and Tyranitar. Without any EVs in Defense or HP, Swampert won't do well in this role. That's why Swampert has EVs in many different stats.

    The only time you should use 252/252/6 is when you don't care about defenses or HP. For instance, fast Choice Banders like Salamence and Slaking use this spread since they rely on Attack and Speed. Frail Special attackers like Alakazam and Houndoom also use this spread since they can't survive any hits whether they have defense/HP EVs or not.

    A good way to determine how many EVs you need in an attacking, HP, or defending stat is to use a Damage Calculator. You can adjust your EVs to either survive hits from certain Pokemon or kill off opponents in one hit. Speed EVs are different in that there's always a set amount of EVs you need in order to outrun certain Pokemon.

    For more info, you can consult the Magic Stat Numbers guide: https://www.smogon.com/advance/articles/magic stat numbers

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    Oh yea that reminds me, I'll have to include Pyro's old Max Leftovers Recovery guide in here too.
     
    Synchronize said:
    Oh yea that reminds me, I'll have to include Pyro's old Max Leftovers Recovery guide in here too.

    lol, the guide that took me five minutes and the use of my computer's calculator? =P I'd go find it and put it in myself if my school computer didn't block s14 anymore..

    I'd like to mention that 252/252/4 is actually the correct amount, since those extra 2 are just added space (EV Points are calculated in 4s, not 6s). This can help when you don't want to spend that extra 20 seconds battling something for a stat you're only raising one point in. In NB, this is automatically done for you if you put SNAP on your EVs.
     
    Great guide!
    My only problem is that my parents KEEP throwing out my EV Papers, even when I write DO NOT THROW AWAY in red marker on them. :\
     
    Well, you can always use a word document on your computer to save the EVs. You can also place certain pokemon in a box on Netbattle, then pull them out to view what EVs you gave them. Some EV spreads are easily memorized though, as most use only 2-3 stats.
     
    Great guide! I don't have to go to stupid Serebii for EV information now!
     
    Walls don't necessarily need max Leftovers recovery. They should always, and I do mean always have max HP seeing it increases its defensive capabilities. Even with max HP possible with Leftovers recovery it would still heal the same as if it had 252 HP EVs only it would save some EVs for other defensive stats for example. But why would you want to put those leftovers in a specific defensive stat when you can just put them in HP which acts like an increase in both Defence ad Sp. Defence if Base Defence + Base Sp. Defence > Base HP
     
    Pax Deorum said:
    Walls don't necessarily need max Leftovers recovery. They should always, and I do mean always have max HP seeing it increases its defensive capabilities. Even with max HP possible with Leftovers recovery it would still heal the same as if it had 252 HP EVs only it would save some EVs for other defensive stats for example. But why would you want to put those leftovers in a specific defensive stat when you can just put them in HP which acts like an increase in both Defence ad Sp. Defence if Base Defence + Base Sp. Defence > Base HP

    :s....

    Synchronize said:
    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.

    Did one of us miss something in the other's post?
     
    Yes, but max HP isn't just for pitiful pokemon. Any wall should have it and shouldn't care about max Leftovers recovery.
     
    I thought that was implied by the fact that I stated that Skarmory uses max HP more effectively than its max lefties recovery
     
    Yes but you then made a specification.

    Some walls, however, require max HP just becase their base HP stat is pitiful, like Cloyster or Dusclops.

    Doesn't matter anyway seeing we are basically supporting the same thing.
     
    Indeed. Let's leave it at that.
     
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