IVs and EVs Explained: The Beginner's Guide I Wish I'd Had

A few years ago, my little brother came to me complaining that a player on his team had completely flattened him in a Pokémon Showdown battle, and I must tell you, he was so frustrated. Back then, even I didn't have enough knowledge of IVs and EVs to help him much, but I wish I had the knowledge I do now and could go back in time and explain all this to him in a way he could understand.

So, have you ever encountered the same thing as my younger brother did? Did you know that two identical Pokémon, at the same level, can have completely different stats? Also, have you ever caught two of the same Pokémon and noticed one is slightly stronger? Yes, this is what IVs and EVs do to a Pokémon behind the scenes — the hidden layer under every Pokémon's stats, which the game never mentions explicitly (or not well enough for some dummies like me to understand).

In Simple Words

Before I start unfolding the layers, I'd like you to know that every Pokémon's stats come down to three hidden things:

• IVs — the genes it's born with.
• EVs — the training it puts in.
• Nature — its personality.

This is it. It's the whole system — the genes, the training, and the personality. Simple, isn't it? Everything else below it is just details you don't need to worry much about. If you remember the three things above, you're already much better than a lot of players and trainers out there.

The most common mistake I've noticed while surfing through some threads on Reddit and other forums is players mixing up IVs and EVs. They're not the same; they were never meant to be. IVs are fixed at birth (0–31 per stat), but EVs are earned through battles (up to 252 per stat). Just note down this difference in your head, and the rest will be a cakewalk.

IVs: the genes your Pokémon is born with

IVs (Individual Values) are hidden numbers between 0 and 31 that are attached to each of the six stats of your Pokémon. Think of it like genes — how some people are born with black hair but others with blonde, ginger, and so on. Your Pokémon is born with IVs, they never change, and they're the reason two wild Pichu of the same level can have different Speed!

A higher IV means a higher stat. To put some math into it, at level 100 (curious why 100? I'll explain a little later in this article), a Pokémon with the perfect IV (31) in Attack will have 31 more Attack than the same Pokémon with a 0 IV in Attack — same species, same level, same everything else. That's the magic genes do to us humans too — some are athletic by birth and others are not, and we can't do much about it. Unfair, isn't it?

A "perfect" or "6IV" Pokémon means all six stats rolled a 31 IV.

Years ago, when the creators of Pokémon were asked about the logic behind IVs, this was their answer, and it makes complete sense:

"I prefer to think of them as real, living creatures. It's the same way that if you have a pet and someone else has the same breed of dog, it's a different dog."

That's what IVs are for — so your Pikachu is genuinely a one-in-a-billion Pikachu, not a spreadsheet row. The competitive scene reverse-engineered them, but they were never meant to be homework.

"Okay, but how do I even see them?"

You mostly can't — not directly, and that's exactly how it was meant to be — but you have a few options:

1. The Judge feature. Modern games (Gen 7 onward), like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, let you unlock a "Judge" feature that reads a Pokémon's IVs right in your boxes. You unlock it after becoming Champion, then switch it on inside your Boxes. It doesn't hand you the raw numbers, but the text ratings map to them cleanly: Best (31), Fantastic (30), Very Good (26–29), Pretty Good (16–25), Decent (1–15), and No Good (0 — hard luck).
2. Characteristics. A vaguer clue: you might see a line like "Alert to sounds" or "Proud of its power." It tells you which stat has the highest IV.
3. An IV calculator. The most helpful tool for ages now, especially for older games. How does it work? You feed in your stats and it works in reverse to calculate the IVs as accurately as possible. There are many IV calculators out there, but you can use the IV Calculator I designed if it suits your needs. You can also leave feedback on it down in the comments to help me make it better — I'll read all of them.

Now, a thought must be striking your mind — can I change these numbers? Historically, no. But more recent games added something called Hyper Training (using Bottle Caps), which makes a stat behave like it has a perfect 31 — a lifesaver if you fell in love with a Pokémon before you knew any of this.

EVs: the training your Pokémon earns

Just like with human genetics, our genes aren't something we can control, but our hard work is something we have complete command over. In the same fashion: if IVs are nature, EVs (Effort Values) are nurture. Every time your Pokémon helps knock out another Pokémon, it earns a few EVs — hidden training points that permanently boost its stats. Defeat a bunch of Zubat and your Pokémon quietly gets faster; grind Blissey and its HP starts climbing. Some of you have been EV training this whole time without even knowing it.

To understand EVs nicely, you only need to understand two things:

1. Four EVs = one stat point. If you've ever played The Legend of Zelda, you might remember how four heart pieces give you one heart container. EVs work on a similar idea. At level 100 (again, I'll explain the level-100 thing in just a bit), every 4 EVs you pour into a stat give you +1 point in that stat. That little "every 4" is exactly why competitive players stop at 252, not 255. Only multiples of 4 actually do anything, and 252 is the biggest one that fits — 252 ÷ 4 is a clean 63 points. Push past it and nothing happens: 253, 254, and 255 all round back down to those same 63 points, so those last EVs are pure waste. Stop at 252 and you've got EVs left over to spend on another stat.
2. You've got 510 EVs total to spend. You can only put a total of 510 EVs onto one Pokémon, which is ideally split like 252 / 252 / 4 (remember, we don't want to waste EVs for nothing). So players fill two stats to the max and drop the leftovers into a third. It's not a universal rule, though — plenty of Pokémon like different spreads.

Training EVs on purpose (and fixing mistakes)

If you want to actually build a Pokémon rather than let it happen by accident:

• Vitamins (Protein, Carbos, HP Up…) add EVs instantly. In modern games you can pump a stat all the way to 252 with them — the fastest route by far.
• Pokérus, a harmless "virus" your Pokémon can catch, doubles all EVs earned in battle.
• Power items (Power Anklet, Power Band…) funnel bonus EVs into one specific stat while you battle.
• Messed up? EV-reducing berries (Kelpsy, Pomeg, and friends) strip EVs back out so you can start a stat over. No Pokémon is ever ruined.

If you want the full, hands-on version — down to exactly which Pokémon to battle for each stat — this thorough EV training guide is worth a read.

Natures: your Pokémon's personality

The final thing you should know about. A Nature gives a +10% boost to one stat and a −10% cut to another (remember the exception: HP is never affected). There are 25 natures overall, of which five are neutral — they boost and lower the same stat, cancelling out.

Now you must be wondering: how do I choose one? It depends completely on how your Pokémon fights. If it's a physical attacker, you'd want to boost its Attack, so a nature like Adamant is perfect because it raises Attack while lowering Special Attack (a stat a physical attacker never uses). If it's a fast special attacker, something like Timid is great — it raises Speed and lowers Attack. Here are the natures you'll actually reach for most; to see all 25, check out our Nature Chart.

Why level 100, anyway?

I've said "at level 100" a couple of times now and kept promising to explain — so here it is. Behind the scenes, the game scales a Pokémon's IVs and EVs by its level. Before those hidden numbers get added to a stat, they're multiplied by (Level ÷ 100). At level 100 that multiplier is exactly 1, so everything counts in full and a perfect 31 IV adds a full 31 points. Drop down to level 50 and the multiplier is only ½, so that same 31 IV adds around 15. At level 5 it's barely a single point, and at level 2 it rounds all the way down to zero.

Think of it as potential that grows in as your Pokémon matures. A freshly hatched baby barely shows its genes or its training, but by the time it hits level 100, all of it is in full bloom. That's also why competitive battles lock everyone to level 100 (or 50) — it's the only point where the differences are fully expressed and actually worth fighting over. And it's why an IV calculator feels fuzzy on a low-level Pokémon and gets sharper as you level up: until your Pokémon grows into those numbers, they're still hiding in the rounding.

Do I even need any of this?

I've walked you through all three — IVs, EVs, and Nature — so let me be very honest with you: if your aim is just to beat the main game, you don't even need to know any of this. I've seen so many people on Reddit feeling like they've played the game "wrong" for 20 years. No, they haven't. You can finish every story, beat every gym, and roll credits without ever thinking about IVs or EVs. Just sit back, relax, and play the game your way without doing all this math.

So when does this knowledge actually matter? In the endgame — online ranked battles, the Battle Tower, and tough raids. In those, almost everyone has Pokémon at the same level, and the only thing separating your Pokémon from theirs is how well each was trained. That's when a single stat point decides the match, and that's when IVs and EVs go from "just numbers" to "match winners."

If you don't play competitively and some of this didn't land crystal clear, treat the whole article as a fun read. You're not missing out on anything.

How I'd do it — an example

Suppose I want a competitive Garchomp — a fast, hard-hitting physical attacker. Here's how I'd build it:

1. IVs: I want 31s in Attack and Speed. I either breed for them (a Destiny Knot passes down 5 of the 6 IVs from the parents) or just Hyper Train them later.
2. EVs: 252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP — maximum damage, maximum speed.
3. Nature: Jolly (+Speed, −Sp. Atk) — Garchomp hits physically, so losing Special Attack costs me nothing.

Trust me, this Garchomp will confidently vanquish a poorly trained Garchomp of the same level any day of the week — and you might come to thank me later (kidding).

And if perfect breeding is something you struggle with, you can try the Breeding Calculator, which maps out exactly which parents and items get you there.

Still confused about something? Don't worry at all — this stuff was designed to be hidden. Drop a comment anonymously below this article with your questions or suggestions, and I'll do my best to help you out.