Pokemon Diamond / Pearl Effort Values Guide Last updated 4-20-08 By R2 ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Contents: Section 1: Effort Value Overview Put as much effort into this as your Pokemon do. Section 2: The Point of EV Training Keep your goals in mind. Section 3: Sources of EVs WE DEMAND SAUCE Section 4: The Best Places to Find EVs He's a Fisherman. She's a Cowgirl. They fight Pokemon! Section 5: Other Places to EV Train Anywhere you go, really, but these are the prime spots. Section 6: Pokemon Builds And How EVs Affect Them Know your role. Section 7: Miscellaneous Tips Whee! ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 1 - Effort Value Overview An Effort Value, often abbreviated and hereafter referred to as "EV", is a way to measure the hard-fought battles your Pokemon has overcome. These EVs, in turn, increase your Pokemon's statistics. It is a widely-held belief that Pokemon raised on Rare Candy are weaker than Pokemon who battled their way to high levels. This is technically true, but doesn't tell the whole story. The reason this is the case is because Rare Candy doesn't give a Pokemon any EVs. When a Pokemon gains EXP from a battle, it also gains a few EVs. Which kind of EVs the Pokemon gets are determined by what Pokemon granted the EXP. More on this later. EVs are associated with one of the Pokemon's base statistics: HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, or Speed. As EVs associated with a statistic increase, that statistic gets bigger boosts when the Pokemon levels up. The end result, at level 100, is that for every four EVs in a given statistic, the Pokemon gets +1 to that statistic. A Pokemon may never have any more than 510 EVs total, and no more than 255 in any single statistic. When a Pokemon has reached the limit of its EV training -- 510 EVs total -- a woman in the market in Sunnyshore City will give that Pokemon an Effort Ribbon. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 2 - The Point of EV Training With this in mind, EV training is an important step in training a champion Pokemon. Take, for example, Alakazam. His natural talents are in Special Attack and Speed, making him an ideal "sweeper" capable of moving before his opponent and knocking them out with a powerful move before they can strike back. His HP, Attack, Defense, and Special Defense are less important than making sure he has the Speed to go first in a turn and the Special Attack to KO his opponent in one hit. Thus, it is ideal to EV train Alakazam in Special Attack and Speed exclusively. Shuckle has fantastic Defense and Special Defense, but his Attack, Special Attack, and Speed are virtually nil. His HP could use some buffing up, too. Therefore, the ideal way to train a Shuckle is to give him as many HP EVs as possible and spend the rest of his EVs pumping up his Defense and Special Defense. There's no point to raising either offensive stat or his Speed, since Shuckle has no natural talent there. Lucario has equal talent for Attack and Special Attack. EVs determine which of those areas he excels in -- although he's certainly no slouch in the other field either. A "physical sweeper" Lucario puts EVs into Attack and Speed, a "special sweeper" Lucario puts EVs into Special Attack and Speed, and a "mixed sweeper" Lucario puts EVs into two of Attack, Special Attack, and Speed -- his natural aptitude in the last area will have to see him through. This is, sadly, where the 510-point limit on EVs shows through. Very few Pokemon have the strength to knock out opponents and take several hits in return. More on this in section 5. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 3 - Sources of EVs As above, the most readily-available source of EVs is battling. Earning EXP gives a Pokemon between 1 and 3 EVs, depending on the Pokemon battled. Anytime the Pokemon gets EXP from battle, it earns EVs -- switching the Pokemon out or using the EXP Share still grant EVs. Unlike EXP, which is divided between Pokemon, EVs are given in full to every Pokemon that recieves any at all. A Staravia is worth 2 Speed EVs, for example. If your Pikachu defeats it, your Pikachu gets 2 Speed EVs. If your Magikarp encounters the Staravia and switches out, your Pikachu switches in, and your Pikachu defeats the Staravia, both Magikarp and Pikachu get 2 Speed EVs. A Pokemon holding the Macho Brace gets double the number of EVs from any battles. A Pokemon holding the Power Weight, Power Bracer, Power Belt, Power Lens, Power Band, or Power Anklet gets 4 additional EVs any time it gets EXP. The Weight gives 4 HP EVs, the Bracer gives 4 Attack EVs, the Belt gives 4 Defense EVs, the Lens gives 4 Special Attack EVs, the Band gives 4 Special Defense EVs, and the Anklet gives 4 Speed EVs. The EVs granted by a Power item are in addition to the EVs earned in the battle naturally. Defeating a Staravia while holding a Power Lens will give 2 Speed EVs (natural for a Staravia) and 4 Special Attack EVs (from holding the Power Lens). The "Power" items can be earned by trading points in Battle Tower. The Macho Brace is earned in Pastoria by showing a certain person all three forms of Burmy. If you have three Burmy, use one to fight in a forest, one to fight on a road or in a cave, and one to fight in an urban area or indoors. One battle in each area should get Burmy to change form. Finally, Vitamins immediately grant 10 EVs. HP Up gives 10 HP EVs, Protein gives 10 Attack EVs, and so on. A Pokemon can't take a vitamin if it already has over 100 EVs in the associated statistic (so no more than ten vitamins of any given kind). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Need to respec one of your Pokemon? The Pomeg, Kelpsy, Qualot, Hondew, Grepa, and Tamato berries will drain 10 EVs from one of your Pokemon's statistics, or if they already have more than 100 EVs, the EV total will drop to 100. If you feed your Pokemon one of these berries and get the message that your "'s can't go lower!", that Pokemon has 0 EVs in that stat. You may then retrain it as you like. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 4 - The Best Places to Find EVs Using the Vs. Seeker is a must. When you first enter Route 207, Rowan's assistant will approach you and offer to play a guessing game. Whichever way you guess, you'll get the Vs. Seeker and the Dowsing Machine. To use the Vs. Seeker, stand near a trainer you've defeated before and activate it. If a "!" sign appears above their head, you can talk to them to challenge them again. Sometimes their Pokemon have changed, leveled, or evolved since the last time you fought them! After you use the Vs. Seeker, success or failure, you will need to walk 100 steps before you can use it again. The best places to grind EVs with the Vs. Seeker are Fisherman Andrew and Cowgirl Shelly. Fisherman Andrew is the second Fisherman from the right on the bridge on Route 205. If you talk to him without using the Vs. Seeker, he'll tell you how to watch for the "!" sign when fishing. Fisherman Andrew attacks with six level 10 Magikarp. Each Magikarp is worth 1 Speed EV. You can bike back and forth between Andrew and Eterna City to recharge the Vs. Seeker. Cowgirl Shelly is on Route 209, near one of the bike ramps, just below and to the left of the Hallowed Tower. Young Couple Ty and Sue chase one another in a circle nearby. Cowgirl Shelly attacks with five Bidoofs at levels 14, 15, 15, 15, and 16. Each Bidoof gives one HP EV. Recharge the Vs. Seeker by riding up into Solaceon Town and back. Why are these the best places to grind? Well, all battles are at low levels, so even newly-hatched Pokemon won't need much training before they can battle these two. Andrew's Magikarps are helpless with only Splash, and Shelly's Bidoof squad only knows Tackle and Rollout. These places are ideal for these reasons: 1) Very few Pokemon builds do not need either HP or Speed. See Section 6. 2) Most Pokemon only need EVs in two areas. Again, see Section 6. 3) You can equip the Power item for the statistic not provided that you need -- in other words, anything but Power Anklet against Andrew and anything but Power Weight against Shelly -- to rapidly train in that area. Then switch to the Anklet or Weight to fill up your remaining EVs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- For example, I've got a newly-hatched Doduo with an ideal moveset and good IVs (see my Breeding guide for details on this stuff). I want the Dodrio he evolves into to be a fast, strong sweeper -- he needs lots of Attack and Speed EVs. I give my Doduo the Power Bracer so he gets 4 Attack EVs from everything he battles and go challenge Fisherman Andrew. After Doduo (with some help from one of my higher-level guys, a level 1 Doduo takes a long time to KO a level 10 Magikarp) knocks out all six of Andrew's Magikarp, he has 6 x (1 Speed EV per karp) = 6 Speed EVs and 6 x (4 Attack EVs from Power Bracer) = 24 Attack EVs. I repeat this ten times, giving Doduo 60 Speed EVs and 240 Attack EVs. I then remove Doduo's Power Bracer and replace it with the Power Anklet. Now every Magikarp gives 1 natural Speed EV and the Anklet provides 4 more Speed EVs -- each karp is now worth 5 Speed EVs. All six together provide 30 Speed EVs. Battling Andrew six more times at 30 EVs a pop gives Doduo a grand total of 240 Attack EVs and 240 Speed EVs. I'm almost done training him, and all I had to do was KO a hundred helpless fish, six at a time. A little cleaning up with Starlies and Bibarels (see section 5) and he'll be ready to roll. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 5 - Other Places to EV Train For HP: If you need fewer than the 5 HP EVs provided by Cowgirl Shelly, grind wild Bidoofs. They can be found around levels 2 and 3 on Route 201. Each Bidoof is worth 1 HP EV. For Attack: For low-level Pokemon, search for Shinx in Route 202. Shinx can be hard to find, but each one provides 1 Attack EV. For Pokemon around or above level 20, search the grassy areas on Route 212, west of Pastoria City. Both Bibarel and Kricketune can be found here, providing 2 Attack EVs each. Finding Bibarel and Kricketune among all the Roselia and Woopers in the area can be a pain, though. For Defense: The Oreburgh Mines make Defense EVs a snap. Geodudes and Onix around level 10 can be found inside, each providing 1 Defense EV each. Only Zubats (1 Speed EV) complicate things. For Special Attack: For low-level Pokemon, Route 204 provides Budew, worth 1 Special Attack EV, at levels 4-5. Budew only appears about a quarter of the time you get into random encounters, though, so the only virtue of this spot is that low-level Pokemon can win battles unassisted. For more able Pokemon, the Old Chateau in Eterna Forest is a much better spot. You need to use Cut to get in, but the only encounters inside are with Gastly at levels 12-16. Each Gastly gives one Special Attack EV. Furthermore, if you've become Champion and have one of the Advance generation games in the port at the bottom of your DS, Haunters may also appear at level 16, worth 2 Special Attack EVs each. The best place to look for EVs in the Old Chateau is the second room from the right in the upstairs hallway -- the one with a painting on the wall with glowing eyes. If you have beaten the Elite Four and have an Advance-gen game as above, you might run into wild Gengar in this room, worth 3 Special Attack each! For Special Defense: Surf or fish around the Valley Windworks and connected waterways to encounter Tentacool at low levels. Each is worth 1 Special Defense EV. Surfing around Route 223, north of Sunyshore, provides Tentacruels worth 2 Special Defense EVs and Mantykes worth 1 Special Defense EV. Only Pelipper (2 Defense EVs) complicates this area. For Speed: Surfing inside Victory Road provides only Golbats, at 2 Speed EVs each, but if you need fewer than the 6 EVs provided by Fisherman Andrew at a time, you might as well grind level 2 and 3 Starlies on Route 201. They're worth 1 Speed EV each. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 6 - Pokemon Builds And How EVs Affect Them We're getting into some metagame concepts here, but this information will help you turn a good Pokemon into something truly extraordinary. It is important for each Pokemon you raise to have a role in your group. Some are naturally good at doing lots of damage with powerful attacks, some are good at soaking hits, some are good at causing status ailments, and so on. Once you know your Pokemon's role, you can work out the moveset it needs to perform that role. Knowing which statistics are needed for each role can help you EV train your Pokemon and decimate all challengers who oppose you. The Physical Sweeper A "sweeper" is a Pokemon that seeks to move first in any round, hitting its opponent so hard it gets knocked out before it even gets a chance to act. A physical sweeper is one that uses physical moves of many different types, such as a Hitmonchan with Close Combat, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, and Thunderpunch -- no matter what it's up against, it probably has a move to exploit one of its weaknesses. When building a physical sweeper, it's common to support its natural talents with Swords Dance, Agility, or Dragon Dance. Needless to say, physical sweepers need to be EV trained in Attack and Speed. My personal favorite is Electivire, but Metagross and Gyarados are other examples. The Special Sweeper Whereas the physical sweeper seeks to punch as many people in the face as fast as it can, the special sweeper uses Special attacks instead. The ability to learn several different types of special moves is important, and the standard "Boltbeamer" -- a Pokemon with Thunderbolt and Ice Beam, is a good example. When building a special sweeper, Speed is just as important as it is for a physical sweeper, but Special Attack training takes precedence over Attack. Nasty Plot may be added to the moveset instead of Swords Dance. Alakazam, Porygon-Z, and Gengar all have the natural Speed and Special Attack to make fine special sweepers. The Mixed Sweeper Mixed sweepers are tricky, because you're only allowed to allocate 510 EVs total to any given Pokemon. Giving a mon less than the full 255 (or 252, see Section 7) EVs in their primary statistics is asking for trouble, but mixed sweepers need good Attack, Special Attack, and Speed to function. Generally a mixed sweeper uses only its natural predisposition in one area while training the other two. The result is basically a Pokemon trained like a physical or special sweeper but has a move or two of the opposite kind. A Blaziken with Fire Punch and Brave Bird looks like a standard physical sweeper, but it can bust out with a powerful Overheat if it's facing down a physical wall (see below). Infernape and Lucario are some examples of Pokemon with the potential to be mixed sweepers. Tank Many players consider "Wall" (below) and "Tank" to be synonymous, but I draw a distinction between the two. A tank, I feel, is a sweeper who just happens to be too slow to outspeed his opponents. Instead of staying alive by being so fast his opponents can't hit him, the tank takes a hit and retaliates hard. Tanks generally have a good Attack or Special Attack, good HP, and either good Defense or Special Defense. Where they are trained depends on whether you value their offensive power or their defensive power, but generally they benefit most from training in whichever attack stat they use, and either HP or the defensive stat they excel in. Snorlax is one of the most popular tanks, as he has a great Attack and can soak plenty of hits with his good Special Defense. Hitmonchan is often underestimated, but shares that talent with Snorlax. Aggron is a fair example of a Pokemon with good Attack and Defense. Walrein can soak hits with its fantastic HP and counter with powerful special moves. Wall. Also: Sponge A wall seeks to stay alive for as long as possible (generally while something else goes on to defeat its opponent). An example is sending out a nigh-indestructable Blissey against your opponent's special sweeper. Walls generally lack the offensive power of tanks, but make up for it in sheer resiliency. The aforementioned Blissey has more HP than anything else in the game and a fantastic Special Defense. Any Substitute it creates is going to have plenty of HP to soak hits, and it can recover its wounds with Softboiled. With that kind of staying power, chipping its foe's HP down with Seismic Toss isn't so bad. Many Walls often also serve the purpose of Clerics, Spikers, or Trappers, as detailed below. Walls need HP, because any HP training generally goes further than training either Defense or Special Defense. In Single play, walls that are effective against either physical or special sweepers are great, so dump EVs into your Pokemon's natural area of expertise. In Doubles play, walls are less effective because your opponent might have a physical and special sweeper out at the same time. If you build a wall for doubles, balance its Defense and Special Defense as best you can. The king of walling Pokemon is Shuckle, with peerless Defense and Special Defense but nigh unable to harm his opponent. Staller Generally the same as a wall, but these rely on status ailments to do the dirty work of knocking out their opponents. A Shuckle with Toxic has turned from a wall to a staller -- once he poisons his foe, he just needs to survive longer than they do. Stallers are EV trained like walls. Trapper A staller who uses Mean Look, Block, Spider Web, Arena Trap, or Shadow Tag to force his opponent to stay in the match and suffer from its status ailment. Since all of those effects end when their user faints, Trappers need a lot of staying power, so train them in HP and Defenses. Umbreon is a great trapper, using Mean Look and Toxic to wear down its foe. Annoyer Not used as often as in previous generations, the Annoyer seeks to inflict debilitating status ailments on its foes. They bear Confuse Ray and Thunder Wave, or Will-o-Wisp and Attract, or any combination of shutdown moves. Annoyers tend to be fast (and a little lucky), counting on being able to inflict a status ailment before the opponent gets to move and having the status ailment nullify the incoming attack. Thus, Speed EVs are most important, with the rest of their EVs changing depending on the situation. Crobat is a fantastic Annoyer, using Confuse Ray, Hypnosis, and Torment to keep his opponent from functioning. Purugly is another example, capable of using Fake Out to flinch his foe, Body Slam to paralyze, and Swagger to force the foe into damaging themselves. As an example of the situation declaring where EV training should go, both Purugly and Crobat need lots of Speed EVs. Purugly relies on Body Slam, so AttacK EVs are fine. Crobat may find better mileage in taking a hit or two, and thus may want to bolster his HP. Of course, a Crobat who debilitates his foe before finishing them off with physical hits is fine too. Cleric A Pokemon with Aromatherapy or Heal Bell. Since they need to survive long enough to come in, cure status ailments for their teammates, and switch back out -- potentially several times in a match -- they should be built like walls. Meganium, Blissey, and Miltank are good clerics. Spiker A spiker's job is to set up Spikes, Toxic Spikes, or Stealth Rock. Often more than one! A spiker with only one move might be called a Toxic Spiker or Stealth Rocker. Stealth Rockers tend to be built like tanks -- Donphan is a good example of one. Spikes and Toxic Spikes benefit from multiple applications each, so users of those moves generally benefit from being trained like walls. Add Roar or Whirlwind to the moveset for extra fun, but see Pseudo-Hazer below. Spinner A Pokemon with Rapid Spin, used to nullify an opponent's Spikes, Toxic Spikes, or Stealth Rock. Pumping up their HP is a must, unless they're immune to the attack you expect them to take (e.g. Poison-types are immune to Toxic Spikes, Flying-types are immune to Spikes, etc.). Resisting Rock-type moves is helpful when spinning away Stealth Rock, but that's not something you can EV train for. The rest of a spinner's moveset determines where the rest of its EVs go. Hazer A hazer, put simply, uses Haze to nullify the stat boosts of an enemy Pokemon who's set up with Dragon Dance or Calm Mind or whatever. Hazers can be very fast in order to nullify the enemy's boosts, or very sturdy to take a boosted hit and then Haze. Build as a sweeper or wall appropriately. Weezing is the most popular hazer. Pseudo-Hazer Sometimes called a "Phazer", pseudo-Hazers use Roar or Whirlwind, because a Pokemon forced out of battle loses all stat boosts. It also subjects the Pokemon switching in to Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and Stealth Rock. One downside of Roar and Whirlwind is that they are low-priority moves, always activating last in combat regardless of the user's Speed. Train pseudo-hazers like you would a wall. Shuffler A rarely-used strategy that occasionally overlaps with the pseudo-hazer. A Shuffler inflicts a status ailment in one turn, then Whirlwinds or Roars its opponent away. The next Pokemon to switch in also gets a status ailment, and is in turn pseudo-hazed out. These need to be even sturdier than regular pseudo-hazers, because they take two hits from each foe instead of one. The most creative shuffler I've seen is a Hariyama with Knock Off and Whirlwind. He'd strip half a team of items before he was taken down. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 7 - Miscellaneous Tips Scratching a Poketch When training one EV group at a time, use the Poketch Counter app (number 11). Tap the screen to increment the number displayed by 1. Switch apps to reset the counter. When training two EVs at a time, use a piece of paper and a pencil to keep track. If there's no paper around, Poketch app 18, the notepad, is an acceptable substitute. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Dirty Half-Dozen If you battle at set level 100 or set level 50, then there's no need to train a statistic to 255 EVs. EVs only have an effect when they come in multiples of four, so the maximum useful number of EVs in a statistic is 252. Put 252 each in your primary statistics and the leftover 6 in wherever your Pokemon could use a little boost, because the result will be quite small indeed. For example, a physical sweeper might have 252 Attack EVs and 252 Speed EVs. The remaining six go into HP on the off chance that a couple extra HP might help it live longer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Defense Spread Because of the way statistics are calculated, EVs in HP, Defense, and Special Defense interact a little strangely. To ensure your Pokemon lives longest, you generally want to put EVs into HP before Defense or Special Defense. Physical attacks are nulled by Defense and Special attacks are nulled by Special Defense, but either way the difference comes out of HP. For Pokemon that are intended to soak only one kind of hit -- a physical wall or a special wall -- train HP and whichever defensive stat absorbs the hit you intend them to take. A Snorlax functioning as a wall instead of his usual tank would get HP and Special Defense EVs, because no amount of training is going to help that shoddy Defense. For Pokemon that are intended to take hits from both sources, you will generally put as much into HP as you can and balance Defense and Special Defense. A Shuckle needs all the HP it can get, and after that, EVs should endeavor to give it equal Defense and Special Defense. This goes out the window when dealing with a Pokemon with HP more than double its Defense or Special Defense. In this case, HP are adequately covered, so you're better off training its other defensive stats. Wailord is base HP 170 and base Defense and Special Defense 45, so he would be able to soak more damage with higher Defense and Special Defense than he would with higher HP. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Worthless Effort After a Pokemon reaches level 100, its statistics will never change. If it hasn't earned its Effort Ribbon by then, further EV training will be useless. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Pokerus There is a rare Pokemon disease called the Pokerus, allegedly contracted from battling a Pokemon that has the disease. The chances of meeting a Pokemon with the Pokerus are even lower than finding a wild shiny, so good luck with that. Should you have a Pokemon with the Pokerus, the nurse at any Pokemon center will point out that your Pokemon has a disease of some sort, but not to sweat it. If your Pokemon has contracted the Pokerus, any EVs it earns from battling will be doubled, including those granted by the Macho Brace or Power items. Its status screen will have a purple "PKRS" plate on it. If a Pokemon is kept in your party for a day or two, it will fight off the disease. This is indicated by a small smiling face icon next to your Pokemon's portrait on the status screen. It still gets double EVs, but is no longer contagious. Pokemon kept in PC storage do not recover from the Pokerus. Contagious? Yes, it is possible to infect other Pokemon with this wondrous, time-saving ailment. Put an infected Pokemon in your party, fill the rest of the group with the Pokemon you want to infect, and go fight a few battles. Random battles are best -- trainer battles will work, but only count as one battle no matter how many Pokemon the trainer had. After a few battles, the Pokemon in your party will infect the Pokemon adjacent to it on your list with the Pokerus. For example, putting your infected Pokemon in slot 4 of your group will infect the Pokemon in slots 3 and 5. These will, after a few more battles, infect Pokemon 2 and 6. With the Pokerus, each Pokemon is worth from 2 to 6 EVs instead of the 1 to 3 that come normally. Add in a Power item and that's doubled too, meaning any Pokemon is worth 10 EVs or more! For example, a Starly is worth 1 Speed EV. With the Pokerus, it's worth 2 Speed EVs. Putting on the Power Weight and battling a Starly earns 1 Speed EV and 4 HP EVs from the item. Putting the Power Weight on an infected Pokemon and battling a Starly is worth 2 Speed EVs and a whopping 8 HP EVs! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Missing Number Unfortunately, there's no way to tell how many EVs you have in any stat. Until you get the Effort Ribbon, there's no indication you're EV training at all. The only way to get an estimate is to save your game, then stuff your Pokemon with the EV-dropping berries described in section 3 until the stat won't go lower. Count the number of berries it takes. Restart your game and load your save to get your berries back. This can only tell you things like "Between 50 and 60" (if it took six berries) or "somewhere over 100" (if it took ten), but it's the only estimate the game gives. Keep careful notes when EV training. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== This game guide is copyright 2007 Richard Rouse. It may not be duplicated or sold for profit without permission. No guarantee, promised or implicit, is given for the authenticity of the information contained in this guide, but if you screw up your Pokemon game it's not exactly the end of the world. Whatcha gonna do, cry about it? This guide is posted on my personal website at http://www.intentionallyblank.net, so if you found it anywhere else, I'd appreciate knowing about it (I can be contacted from the website listed above).