HI guys, girls and everything in-between! Following the EV episode, we tackle IVs. From all, THIS is, in my opinion, the worst part of making a competivie team before gen 7. Why? Let’s just say the way to get good legendairy is far more imporbable than getting a shiny one. That’s why I though it was basically impossible to have a competitive team without cheating until those Silver Caps and Golden Caps came into existence. Thank Giratina you have introduced Mint in Gen 8.
Open your books folks, school is on
I am not a professional competitive trainer. I do not pretends to hold the holy sacred Truth and in no mean replace experts and experienced players. I simply think I have strong enough bases to share my knowledge with less experienced players.
Now, we shall address ine question: “Why the heck would I care about that?”
Short answer: “Be polite, we are not in an electoral debate.”
Long answer: “Be polite, we are not in an electoral debate. Plus, it raise or decrease your stats. Now shut up and let me talk!”
Hostility aside, IV stand for Individual Value or Inner Value. These can range from 0 to 31, giving 1 point per IV in a given statistic at level 100. Pokémon is a game of inches, every point counts. As such, having 30 IV in speed is far more dangerous than 31 IV. Why? Let’s see with an example:
Latios vs Gengar. They both have 110 speed, both at level 100 and 252 EV Speed. So, its a speed tie, right?
Nope! If Latios have 1 speed less than Gengar, its chance of survival turn from ½ to 0 because Gengar will allways outspeed it and K.O. with Shadow Ball. Latios then faints and everyone cry because our blue friend loose its self confidence, not being able to communicate its pain to his trainer and Latias roaming in the wild unable to help him. Destiny is tragic.
Whe should note, however, that having 31 IVs everywhere is recommended to a lot of Pokémon, but not all. In fact, there are extremely good reasons to have less than 31 everywhere.
Trick Room
As most of you know, Trick Room create a filed where speed check gets upside down. The slower attacks first and the fastest is last. So, for teams around this playstyle, we do want to be as slow as possible except for one very fast Pokémon in case trick room run out. So, logically, we would want next to 0 Speed on the Pokémin using trick room. Truth is, there is no catch, it IS true. As you can imagine, every Trick Room Abuser would want a speed reducing nature and 0 IV in speed, or 1 to get specific Hidden Power type. More on that later.
Foul Play
As you know, Foul Play deal damages using the opponent base attack instead of the users, while also factoring in the burn. So, for Pokémon that aren’t using physical attack, using 0 IVs in that stat and an attack reducing nature so that Foul Play does as lass damages as possible. Plus, confusion damages is based of the users attack. Ever wondered why hitting yourself dealt far more damages afer an attack boost? Here’s why.
Although this is not really relevent, I think it is still important to keep in mind when Mandibuzz and sometimes Porygon2 commonly run Fould Play. For safety mesures, 0 IV attack when not necessairy is a good idea.
Funfact: Confusion get passed by Baton Pass alongside Roots and stats boost.
Hidden Power
This is triggering someting in me. Hidden Freaking Power. You have NO IDEA how much Tapu Koko I’ve traded to the GTS to get a Naive one, and then see it have Hidden Power Dragon… AAAAAAAARG!
Hidden Power type is influenced by IVs in a very specific way. Here is how it is determined according to Poképedia:
And I know most of you won’t understand. Let’s try it another way:
MATH!
Problem is, Hidden Power change type depending on your IVs and there is a lot of possible answer to the formula. For example, a Pokémon having an IV spead of 31/30/31/30/31/30 will have a Fire type Hidden Power. However, a 31/0/31/30/31/31 IV spread will have a Grass type Hidden Power, and is what I recommend for Mega Typhlosion.
Hidden Power cannot be Normal or Fairy type and is the only Fire type move that cannot taw a frozen Pokémon.
DiGLET IT GO!!!
Other case
As for Kartana, in order to get a speed boost from Beast Boost, it need 19 Atk IVs and a Timid Nature. Gimmicky, but still somewhat viable with Swords Dance. That also goes to show that a 181 base attack can still have less attack than a 109 base attack if not trained properly. Yikes.
As a side note:
Sorry due, but you are wrong somewhere. At the time, in gen 1 and 2, there wasn’t IVs but DVs. They varied from 1 to 15 instead of 0 to 31 and are what looks to be currently used in Pokémon Go. Not that big of a difference, but you are true about Marowak spead.
How to change IVs
Short: You don’t.
Long: Its simple.
IVs cannot be changed the same way EVs does. The only way to change a Pokémon IV is by acheiving level 100 and spending an Silver cap or Golden cap in order to max given IVs. However, in Gen 7, changing IVs with those caps didn’t changed the Hidden Power Type, and this is something I prefer over IV stones.
If you happen to play Insurgence, you are familiar with IV stones. As opposed to caps, IV Stones cannot change more than one IV like the Golden Cap, they change the Hidden Power Type and can be used at any level.
The OG way to “change” the IVs are with breeding, topic I will be addressing in detail after Natures.
To see how much IVs you got, the player need to know the base stats and the exact EVs and do their maths:
Unless you are parradoxally smart enough to find the IV Judge. Its answer change depending on the IVs and it always change for every pokémon title except for Gen 8. Here’s the Gen 7 & 8 answer to the judge:
So, I don’t think I forgot anything crutial so far. There you have it! Next, I’ll be talking about Natures and then one that I wait for VERY long, breeding.
Get your minds out of the gutter. This is a family friendly forum.