EFFORT VALUE (EV) TRAINING GUIDE

Every Pokemon you battle gives your Pokemon either one, two or three points in one or two stats. The more points you earn per stat, the stronger it becomes. If you have a Pokemon and just go around battling anyone then your points will be spread out across all stats and some of them will be wasted.

Let’s use a Geodude for example, it is obvious that a Pokemon made of rock would have very high defense but would be rather slow so you would be better off battling only Pokemon who would give Geodude defense points. If you battled a Zubat then that would contribute points to speed which is a total waste on Geodude as it is too slow.

What Each Stat Does:
HP: Determines your Pokemon's Life Points
Defense: How much resistance your Pokemon has to Physical Attacks
Special Defence: How much resistance your Pokemon has to Speical Attacks
Attack: The strength of Physical Attacks
Special Attack: The strength of Special Attacks
Speed: Determines whether your Pokemon attacks first in battle

Each Pokemon has 510 EV points which are spread out among stats determined by the Pokemon you battle. Why not dedicate every one of those 510 points to Geodude's defense then? Well each stat can only have a total of 255 points so it would be smart to total out its defense leaving 255 points left. You would then maybe want to give most of that to Special Defense and a little to Attack or HP.

Who wants to battle 255 Onix to max out the defense stat? That would take ages. Well to help quicken the process you can use an item called Macho Brace which doubles the EV points the holding Pokemon receives. Now you only need to battle 128 Onix but wait there's more, do you have Pokerus? Well that also doubles the EV points the infected Pokemon receives. Combine the two together and you will get four times the points per Pokemon battle which brings battling 255 Onix down to only 64.

It is very hard to EV train a level 1 Pokemon so to start off with you should use Exp Share. Exp Share may divide experience from a battle among Pokemon but it gives full EVs. If you battle a Beedrill for example, all Pokemon who enter the battle and are holding Exp Share will all get 2 Attack points. Exp Share is very helpful when you EV train though infecting your Pokemon with Pokerus while it holds Exp Share will NOT give you double points. You can however send out your weak Pokemon with Pokerus and Macho Brace first then swap it straight away so it does not faint.

Dividing 510 EVs amoung two stats is a total waste as only 252 EVs can be used, it is best to contribute those 6 leftover EVs to a third less important stat.

Best Places to EV Train:
HP: Shellos/Bidoof at the Valley Windworks and Bidoof at Route 201

Defense: Geodude/Onix at Orebough Mines or Graveler/Onix at Iron Mountain

Special Defence: Tentacool/Tentacruel/Mantyke while Surfing on Route 220

Attack: Bibarel/Machop at the east of Route 211 and Snover/Machoke at Acuity Lakefront

Special Attack: Gastly/Haunter at the Old Chateau and Golduck while Surfing in the Resort Area Ponds.

Speed: Staravia/Pichu/Pikachu in the Trophy Garden and Zubat/Golbat in any Cave they appear.

Unown give 1 point for both Attack and Special Attack and they are all you encounter in the Solaceon Ruins so that is a great lace to train Pokemon that you want to have powerful attacks.

Can't be bothered battling? Well for those with heaps of money you can just buy your way out of some hard work by buying items like Iron and Protein from the PokeMart in Vielstone City. Each vitamin will give you 10 EV points towards a certain stat but that would make EV training too easy so a limit of 10 vitamins per stat is put in place so you can only buy your way to 100 EVs per stat before you even need to battle anyone.

EV Training Items
HP Up - Gives your Pokemon 10 HP EVs
Iron - Gives your Pokemon 10 Defense EVs
Zinc - Gives your Pokemon 10 Special Defense EVs
Calcium - Gives you 10 Special Attack EVs
Protein - Gives your Pokemon 10 Attack EVs
Carbos - Gives your Pokemon 10 Speed EVs
You can find these at the Veilstone Department Store for 9800 PokeDollars or for 1 Battle Point in the Battle Tower.

Diamond and Pearl bring in six new items to make EV training even easier if you have the Battle Points to buy them. The six items listed below quadruple the EV points you get per battle so Onix which gives you 1 Defense point would then give you 4, infect Geodude with Pokerus and you then get 8 Defence EVs per Onix which is awesome.

Battle Tower Prizes:
Power Weight - Use to EV train Hit Points
Power Belt - Use to EV train Defense
Power Band - Use to EV train Special Defense
Power Bracer - Use to EV train Attack
Power Lens - Use to EV train Special Attack
Power Anklet - Use to EV train Speed
You can find all these items in the Battle Tower for 16 Battle Points each.

To find out whether you have used up all 510 EV Points on a Pokemon, visit Sunnyshore Market. Next to the PokeSeal man is a women and she will give out an Effort Ribbon if your Pokemon has filled up its EVs.

Rare Candies and the Daycare center do not increase EVs so if you used 99 Rare Candies on a Level 1 Pokemon, it would be extremely weak. Rare Candies are fine to use once your Pokemon's EVs have been used up though.