Competitive Battling Strategies: Vol. 4

          

I'm sorry this took so long. I was on vacation until recently.

So! You have your team made. You tested it on Shoddy Battle, and it holds up well enough. Now it's time to make the team a reality. Also, keep in mind that though I am ignoring nature and ability in this episode because I assume you already know what they are and how to use them, it does not mean they are not important!

There are two values that you will need to familiarize yourself with. The former, IVs (individual values) are hidden values in the game that are assigned to a Pokemon randomly the first time you meet it. Each stat is assigned an IV from 0 to 31, equivalent to a boost of 0 to 31 in said stat at level 100. There are ways of manipulating IVs. A bred Pokemon will have 2 IVs the same as one of it's parents, 1 IV from the other, and 3 random IVs. In HG/SS, giving the parents a power item to hold (e.g. power weight, power bracer, power belt, etc.) will ensure that the parent will pass down the IV in the stat represented by the power item (it says which stat in the description). The most efficient was of checking IVs is to have a lvl. 100 wifi battle with a friend and use an IV Calculator (http://www.serebii.net/games/iv-calcdp.shtml) to determine the pokemon's IVs. This all in mind, it is very difficult to get good IVs and unless your are either an expert IV breeder or have a lot of time on your hands I suggest you only re-breed if the IVs are completely terrible.

Now to the meat of the post. There is another hidden value in the game. EVs (effort values). EVs are very manipulatable, and very game changing. A pokemon can have 510 total EVs, and 255 total in a stat. For every four EVs in a stat, that pokemon will have an extra point in that stat at level 100. Because of this, getting over 252 in a stat is completely useless and you will see many sweeper EV spreads look something like 252 Attack, 252 speed, 6 attack. Every time a pokemon gains Exp, said pokemon will also gain one or more EVs. The EV(s) it gains is reliant on which pokemon it gained experience from. Each pokemon has an EV give assigned to it, and will give that value of EVs upon defeat. The value is never more than 3 EVs total. This sounds like very little, but there are was to boost the EV gain. If your pokemon is holding the macho brace, it will gain double the normal EVs. If your pokemon is holding a power item, it will gain an extra 4 EVs in whatever stat the power item is associated with. If your pokemon is, or was at one point infected with pokerus, it will again gain double the xp. If you add this all up, if your Dragonite gained xp from a Riachu (3 speed EVs) while holding the power anklet (+4 speed EVs) and was infected with pokerus (*2 EVs) it would gain a whopping 14 EVs in speed for that one KO. Here is a list of what EVs each pokemon gives:
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_effort_value_yield)
Also, before you go off EV training I believe I should tell you that ounce you give your pokemon EVs, IT IS QUITE HARD TO GET THEM REMOVED. This means, unfortunately, that you must not let your pokemon get a single bit of experience unrecorded if you plan on giving your pokemon a specific EV spread. If you want your pokemon to have max speed EVs and max special attack EVs, you have to make sure that you don't win a single battle against a pokemon that gives any other type of EV with the pokemon you are training.

So I'm sure your wondering now how to go about EV training the fastest way. Fortunetly, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl have very fast, efficient ways of EV training. Pokemon Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver; not so much. Using the vs. recorder in Diamond and Pearl, fight these trainers (in Platinum most of them have changed teams)

HP - Route 209, Cowgirl Shelly (5 Bidoof, 1 EV each)
Speed - Route 205, Fisherman Andrew (6 Magikarp, 1 EV each)
Defense - Route 221, Collector Ivan (3 Hippopotas, 1 EV each)
Attack - Route 214, P.I. Carlos* (3 Seaking, 2 EVs each)
Special Attack - Route 214, Collector Douglas (3 Roselia, 2 EVs each)
Special Defence - You're out of luck.**

* P.I. Carlos will begin with three Goldeen, and upgrade to Seaking as you repeatedly rematch him. I suggest you do so the make things easy (It's annoying when you have the number of times you need to fight him planned out and then he switches his team on you)

** Surf in route 223. 70% of the wild pokemon raise Special Defence. In HGSS, in route 41, 100% of the wild pokemon will give you Special Defence.


Note: This is listed as Mudkip's post because of a system error. Please ignore and give full credit to Dragonite. Thank You!