Post by LuciferIX on Oct 27, 2013 15:51:50 GMT -8
Okay considering how many questions get asked about these topics and that with the Friend Safari and Pokemon Battles occurring between members; there have been a few requests by members to do something like this so I figured I could do a compilation to try so that if anyone has questions they can come specifically to this thread instead of asking every time in the battle thread. This will be an open thread to ask and clarify your questions on the topic so that we can refine this first post to help out as many people as possible.
The thread was created to be used as a resource for those wanting to start the more advanced training techniques compared to the casual player and focuses on the idea of a min/max type of play. If you don't have the patience and want to do this type of play then it's just best to ignore everything here and play in the way you find fun. That's one of the great things about Pokemon and many games in general, you don't have to be a complete master of the details to simply enjoy the gaming experience.
This thread though will be only for talking about IVs and EVs. Any other topic can be taken up in the Battle and Trade Thread, Pokemon X&Y Thread, or any other relevant thread.
So, with that out of the way, on to business.
We'll start with definitions and the reason why these matter. IVs stand Individual Values while EVs stand for Effort Values. Combined with the Pokemon's base stats (which are a set value for each species) and the Pokemon's nature, these four primarily determine your Pokemon's growth in the stats of HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Depending on how these four work together it can produce a wide variety of stats in the same species of Pokemon. But unlike the base stats and natures, IVs and EVs are the true defining factor about how a Pokemon will grow under your care and how it will be raised.
For the casual trainer, knowing about any more than trying to not get a detrimental nature is about the furthest you need to learn as the level advantage and limited intelligence of the AI will, more often than not, overshadow the work done by IVs and EVs. For competitive battling though, not only are you up against another human mind but all Pokemon are at the same level. So controlling these two factors is essential to get that small advantage over your opponent and grab victory. Those few points can mean the difference between a sweeping victory and a sound defeat, so this is where the competitive players put their time into creating their team. These are also rather relevant in the Battle Maison in Kiloude City for reasons very similar, and going up against the large variety of trainers that appear there will force you to make your Pokemon the best they can be if you want to advance far.
Starting with Individual Values, the best way to describe these is the Pokemon's genetic heritage. As with a lot of things in nature some Pokemon are simply born better at certain things than other Pokemon. And like genetics, these are passed down from parent Pokemon to child.
An IV is a point value from 0-31 given to every stat. Although this is in effect throughout the Pokemon's life from level 1, it's most easily detected when the Pokemon reaches level 100 as shown by it effectively adding the IV to the Pokemon's stat total. Thus, at level 100, a Pokemon with an IV of 10 for HP will have 15 less HP than a similar Pokemon with a 25 IV in HP.
When you encounter a wild Pokemon each of their six IVs are determined randomly. Although if you catch a Pokemon a the Friend Safari there is a near guaranteed chance of catching a Pokemon with at least two IVs at 31.
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Figuring out what your Pokemon's IVs are is a little harder. There are a couple ways of going about this. The first is to bring it to the Ace Trainer sitting in the Pokemon Center of Kiloude City. He will give you a good approximation of your Pokemon's IVs. The first statement he makes is based on the sum of all six IVs of the Pokemon, the second statement helps you know what the highest IV is. If more than one IV is tied for the highest he will tell you each one that is. In the current generation with the relative ease of getting an IV to the max of 31, this is probably the best way of going about it.
1st Statement
IV total is between 0 and 90: "This Pokémon's potential is decent all around."
IV total is between 91 and 120: "This Pokémon's potential is above average overall."
IV total is between 121 and 150: "This Pokémon has relatively superior potential overall."
IV total is between 151 and 186: "This Pokémon has outstanding potential overall."
2nd Statement
Highest IV is between 0 and 15: "It's rather decent in that regard."
Highest IV is between 16 and 25: "It's very good in that regard."
Highest IV is between 26 and 30: "It's fantastic in that regard."
Highest IV is 31: "Stats like those... They simply can't be beat!"
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The next way is more of a guideline than actually telling you what a specific IV is. Along with a nature, a Pokemon is shown with a characteristic. This little description tells you what the highest IV it has is. Each description has a given set of IV numbers spanning the entire range of IV possibilities and can be any one of them. If there is a tie between the highest IV, there is a special way it goes about figuring out the characteristic but if you really want to learn about that one follow the link below.
For example, lets say that you have an Eevee whose characteristic is "Highly curious". Looking it up on a chart shows that it means the Eevee has a 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 in its Special Attack and that is its highest IV. It doesn't say anything further than this. The Eevee could very well still have a 5 as its Sp Atk IV, and still hold this characteristic by having all other IVs less than 5.
A good chart of what each characteristic represents and its examples can be found here.
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Finally is the most accurate way of going about it. For this you will need to use one of several online IV Calculator (like this one). Since you need several levels to figure this out while completely controlling your Pokemon's EVs you have a few options. To learn more about EVs, see further down.
First is to raise the Pokemon's level using Rare Candies or the Day Care and input the statistics as is. As these two don't add any EVs to your Pokemon you can completely ignore the changes they would otherwise do and get the raw stats you need.
Next option is to max out the EVs, easiest by getting the standard 252/252/6, of the Pokemon and input them into the calculator as well, this way is longer but can be done if you don't have sufficient Rare Candies or time to waste on the Day Care.
The last way is hardest in simply leveling up your Pokemon normally but recording each Pokemon you defeat and input those EVs gained. This way is highly not recommended as it takes far more calculating than necessary and too easy to mess up.
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To be able to control the IVs of your Pokemon requires breeding. When you breed two Pokemon together the game will take two random IVs from one or both of the parents and give those to the baby while giving completely random IVs for the rest like any wild Pokemon.
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Now to take some of the randomness out of that to increase efficiency so you don't have to breed hundreds if not thousands of Pokemon to get the one you want. There are a few items that you can give to a Pokemon to hold while in the Day Care to help with this issue. The first is are the EV Enhancing Power Items (more on these later). Each Power Item correlates to one of the six stats (HP, Atk, Def, etc.) and having one of your two Pokemon in the Day Care holding one of these items will force the game to choose one of the parents' IVs from that stat.
So for example. You have two Eevee in the Day Care, one of which is holding the Power Anklet. The Power Anklet increases the amount of Speed EVs gained so it'll correlate to the Speed stat for this example. The male Eevee has a 12 for its IV in Speed while the female has a 27. The game will still pick two IVs from the parents like normal, but thanks to the Power Anklet now it'll force it to pass one one of the two parents' Speed IVs as one of those two while the other is still chosen at random. So your cute baby Eevee will be guaranteed to have either a 12 or a 27 for its Speed IV.
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Next we have a new addition to Gen VI, the use of the Destiny Knot. Letting one of your two Pokemon in the Day Care hold this will result in the game choosing five of the parents' EVs instead of the normal 2. It's still entirely random but it allows one to increase the odds of getting more 31s greatly by allowing grater genetic inheritance from parents to baby. So to put it more simply, while one of them is holding the Destiny Knot, the game will randomly choose one of the six stats. The baby will now get a completely random IV for this stat. The other five will then be chosen from one of the two parents and passed onto their child.
A quick note about the Destiny Knot. While the above example does make it easy to understand, it doesn't give the whole story. Say you put two Pokemon in the daycare and each has the max of 31 IVs in each of their six stats. Giving the Destiny Knot to one you would assume that every egg would hold a Pokemon with at least five max IVs, well this isn't the case and it isn't a glitch. The current assumption is that when choosing the five stats the Knot can double up on a stat. So for the current example, the Knot might pick the Attack IV from both parents, the Defense IV from the father, the Speed IV from the mother, and the Special Defense IV from the father again while the HP and Special Attack are determined randomly. I'm not sure if this only happens if both stats are the same or what, but since this use of the Destiny Knot is new to this Generation the specifics are still being discovered.
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With all this talk about breeding I might as well quickly touch on natures. There are a total of 25 different natures that a Pokemon can have and each correlates to a 10% increase and a 10% decrease to each stat combination with the exception of HP. Due to the fact that it includes the positions that would cancel itself out (+ Atk and - Atk) there are several that are simply called neutral natures as they don't change the Pokemon's stats. It's easiest understood by looking at a chart like the one given below.
Outside of simply knowing what will hatch from an egg, natures are the easiest part to control while breeding or catching Pokemon. And with nearly every Pokemon build having at least one throwaway score there is little excuse to settle for a neutral or detrimental nature. Ever since Emerald, having your female (or Ditto) in the daycare hold an Everstone will give the baby a 50% chance of inheriting its mother's nature. But come Black & White 2, and later versions as well, they loosened this so that either Pokemon can hold the Everstone to pass on its nature and it's now a 100% chance of passing it down.
The games also give you a way to control the natures of wild Pokemon you meet. By leading your party with a Pokemon who has the ability Synchronize, every wild Pokemon you encounter has a 50% chance of sharing the same nature as your lead Pokemon.
Because of how many natures there are and there is generally only one that you would want, combined with the ease of being able to control it, the Everstone is almost always the compliment to the Destiny Knot as one of the two items the breeding Pokemon
Okay on to topic number two, EVs. Effort Values, or EVs, are the example of what your Pokemon learn as they defeat other Pokemon. And to be more specific, any Pokemon than gains experience from a battle has gained the EVs that defeated Pokemon can give, even through the use of Exp All/Share. There are EVs devoted to each of the six stats and they are completely independent of each other. Each defeated Pokemon gives a different number of EVs and type of EV based on its highest base stat and its evolutionary level. Since each Pokemon is different I highly recommend going to either Bulbapedia or Serebii and looking at their pages for the individual Pokemon. There should be a box containing the number of EVs each Pokemon will give when defeated.
For example let's look at the Machop line. That evolutionary line all has their highest base stat as Attack so they all give Attack EVs when defeated. Machop, as the first of the three, gives 1 Attack EV. Machoke, as the second, gives 2 Attack EV. Machamp, as the third, gives 3 Attack EV.
Again, each Pokemon species can be different so go look them up to make sure as fewer evolutions or a change in base stats can alter what the EVs gained are. Such like Charmander giving 1 Speed EV while Charizard gives 3 Special Attack EV. Or with Spiritomb, who when defeated gives 1 Defense EV and 1 Special Defense EV.
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So now that we've done a quick summary of what EVs are lets explain what they do. Once again calculated from level 100, even though they also apply to all earlier levels as well, for every 4 EVs your Pokemon gain in a specific stat it will gain 1 bonus point toward that stat. So if when your Pokemon grows to level 100 it has 40 EVs in Speed, it will have a Speed 10 higher than a Pokemon of the same species that has 0 EVs in Speed. These are all rounded down so it wouldn't matter if you had 40, 41, 42, or 43 EVs in Speed, they would all still amount to 10 stat points.
Although there still is a little confusion as to what has been changed in Gen VI I will go by what I have experienced, this part is liable to change as other data comes in. Each Pokemon can have a total maximum of 510 EVs before it stops gaining them. And from the 510, each specific stat can have a maximum of 252. Allowing up to two stats the maximum 252 and one remaining stat 6. This would amount to a grand total of an additional 63 points into two stats and 1 into a third.
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Normally a casual player or one not currently concerned with EVs will go through the game without picking specific Pokemon to battle with each Pokemon, and as mentioned earlier this will do very little to make the game any harder. But when it comes to competitive play these can greatly affect the difference between Pokemon. While it is the most common to do so, you don't need to do a full max 252/252/6 in three stats. Any combination that adds up to 510 is possible allowing for great customization of what you want the Pokemon to do. Do you want your Alakazam to hit hard and fast with its Psychic and other Special Attacks? Then the full 252 in both Special Attack and Speed with the other 6 in one of the defenses is probably best. Or do you want a near impenetrable wall of an Umbreon that can shrug off hits like there's nothing there? Then you would probably be best doing 252 in HP while splitting the rest into Defense and Special Defense depending on what you want more protection from. Alternatively you could take that same Alakazam and turn it into a reasonable wall itself against Special Attacks by instead putting those EVs into Special Defense and HP like the Umbreon. The Alakazam now will do less damage and be slower than its attacking counterpart but can survive hits far better than the other could. It all will come down to how you want your Pokemon to perform.
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Now that the explanation of what EVs are is out of the way, time to talk about how to gain them. I already talked about fighting other Pokemon and gaining them that way, and while this works well it's inefficient and can take a while if you're trying to pick certain EVs to gain and not gain others. So there are a few ways to speed up the process.
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The first will be one of the brand new features to Gen VI, Super Training. Super Training is very straight forward in that each mini-game that you do with your Pokemon will give it a specific amount of EVs for a single stat. The harder the mini-game, the more you get. Each one will show you what and how much you gained after you beat the mini-game and in the Super Training resting screen you can seen a green bar fill up as your Pokemon reaches its max EVs. In addition to this you can also gain punching bags that will do the same as the mini-game but only require you to tap the bag to the the points from it. This isn't the fastest way of going about it but it is faster than simply going out and trying to find what Pokemon you need without any items.
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Second is something that's been around in one form or another since Gen I, those expensive vitamins (Carbos, Protein, HP Up, etc.). Each vitamin will give 10 EVs to a particular stat until there is 100 total EV for that stat, after that you aren't allowed to give them any more. It can be a bit expensive but starting your EV training for a stat at 100 instead of 0 can save a lot of time.
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The classic way to speed up EV training is the most basic one too, and that's done by giving the Pokemon you're trying to train the Macho Brace which was introduced in Gen III after the switch to the current IV/EV system. While it slows down the holder as the brace is held, it also doubles the base EVs that the opponent gives. So that Weepinbell that was giving 2 Attack EVs is suddenly giving 4, and that Pidgeot that was giving us 3 Speed EVs is now handing out a grand total of 6! This is already a nice boost as it literally halves the time needed to get to max EVs. But we can do better.
In Gen IV they introduced a new set of items that work like the Macho Brace but are more specialized, and these have continued into the current Gen. In the Kiloude City Battle Maison you can buy these specific items for 16 BP each; the EV Enhancing Power Items mentioned earlier. Each has a specific stat that it boosts and it will only do that one stat so it's best to buy all six. But once you give that to a Pokemon to hold, all defeated Pokemon will now give an additional 4 EV of that stat. A quick description of each Power Item can be found here.
So using the earlier example, instead of the Macho Brace you give your Pokemon the Power Bracer, which is the Power Item specific for the Attack EV. That Weepinbell now instead of the base 2 will give you a full 6 Attack EV. The Pidgeot on the other hand will now give you 3 Speed IV (as is normal for defeating a Pidgeot) and an additional 4 Attack EV (from the Power Bracer) resulting in a gain of 7 EVs, 3 in Speed and 4 in Attack.
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Still not fast enough? Well there is a rare little bug that will cut that time in half once again. Its name? Pokerus. You have a 3 in 65,536 chance of finding Pokerus on either a wild Pokemon or on one that you bred making it several times rarer than even encountering a shiny Pokemon. But that little virus is a godsend for EV trainers. A Pokemon infected with Pokerus has all EVs that it gains doubled, and this stacks with the Macho Brace and Power Items.
Once again going back to the earlier example, with Pokerus, a normal Weepinbell now gives us 4 Attack EVs while the Pidgeot gives 6 Speed. Add the Power Bracer again and that same Weepinbell is giving a grand total of 12 Attack EVs while the Pidgeot is handing over 6 Speed EVs and 8 Attack.
While the initial encounter with Pokerus is extremely rare it spreads very quickly. If encountered on a wild Pokemon your attacking Pokemon has a chance to contract it if it makes contact with the wild Pokemon. Once one of the Pokemon on your team has it, every encounter with a wild Pokemon will have a chance of spreading it to the two adjacent Pokemon, and so on and so forth until your entire team in now infected. This "infection" has literally no detrimental effects and will only double the EVs gained so don't be worried about anything bad from getting this little wonder-bug.
There are two stages of Pokerus, active and dormant. Each "strain" of Pokerus has a set time period after generated before it goes dormant, between 1 and 4 days, as the Pokemon's immune system fights off the virus. The main difference between the active and dormant stage is the virus' ability to spread. Once infected the Pokemon forever will gain the bonus EV that Pokerus gives it no matter if it is active or dormant, but only an active virus can spread to other Pokemon. An active Pokerus is designated by the label "Pokerus" where the Pokemon's current status effect would be. After it becomes dormant that transforms into a little smiley face near where the star to designate a shiny would be. To prevent the virus to become dormant deposit the Pokemon into your Boxes, while in there the virus will not age and will stay active as long as you keep it in there. But it would be best to spread it a little to have some spares just in case.
With the widespread use of the GTS and Wonder Trade, even with Pokerus as rare as it is, many people these days have an active strain with them. To get one just ask a member here or go to the GTS and start looking around for people saying that the Pokemon has Pokerus.
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So, getting 10, 12, or 14 EVs per battle sounds pretty good huh? Well in Gen V and before this was the best one could get and it shaved off a large amount of time while bringing EV training down to about a half-hour to an hour if you knew what you were doing. Even though this was annoying but acceptable, Gen VI upped the anti with an introduction that was made fun of ever since its announcement, horde battles.
Yes, in combination with the Power Item and Pokerus, this is by far the fastest way to EV train. Defeating 5 Weepinbell with Pokerus and the Power Bracer now hands over a staggering 60 Attack EV. And by using Sweet Scent or Honey you can create a horde battle whenever and where ever you want/need one. Use this with Exp All and a lead Pokemon that as a mass kill attack like Swift or Earthquake and you can do all your training in a matter of 10-20 minutes. If you have multiple Power Items you can even use this to train several Pokemon at once, although to do this, even if they're not in the lead, Exp All has to be on and each Pokemon has to be holding the Power Item. Without the item they will get the normal 2 per Weepinbell (4 if infected with Pokerus) instead of the 6 per.
They key to using hordes to your advantage is to find one that matches what you're trying to train for. While gaining the 3 Speed and 4 Attack of the earlier Pidgeot sounds good, it's easiest to concentrate on one stat at a time. Here's a good table showing ideal places to EV train using this method.
And courtesy of Skarm, a video that should be helpful if the rest didn't make as much sense as you were hoping.
The thread was created to be used as a resource for those wanting to start the more advanced training techniques compared to the casual player and focuses on the idea of a min/max type of play. If you don't have the patience and want to do this type of play then it's just best to ignore everything here and play in the way you find fun. That's one of the great things about Pokemon and many games in general, you don't have to be a complete master of the details to simply enjoy the gaming experience.
This thread though will be only for talking about IVs and EVs. Any other topic can be taken up in the Battle and Trade Thread, Pokemon X&Y Thread, or any other relevant thread.
So, with that out of the way, on to business.
We'll start with definitions and the reason why these matter. IVs stand Individual Values while EVs stand for Effort Values. Combined with the Pokemon's base stats (which are a set value for each species) and the Pokemon's nature, these four primarily determine your Pokemon's growth in the stats of HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Depending on how these four work together it can produce a wide variety of stats in the same species of Pokemon. But unlike the base stats and natures, IVs and EVs are the true defining factor about how a Pokemon will grow under your care and how it will be raised.
For the casual trainer, knowing about any more than trying to not get a detrimental nature is about the furthest you need to learn as the level advantage and limited intelligence of the AI will, more often than not, overshadow the work done by IVs and EVs. For competitive battling though, not only are you up against another human mind but all Pokemon are at the same level. So controlling these two factors is essential to get that small advantage over your opponent and grab victory. Those few points can mean the difference between a sweeping victory and a sound defeat, so this is where the competitive players put their time into creating their team. These are also rather relevant in the Battle Maison in Kiloude City for reasons very similar, and going up against the large variety of trainers that appear there will force you to make your Pokemon the best they can be if you want to advance far.
Starting with Individual Values, the best way to describe these is the Pokemon's genetic heritage. As with a lot of things in nature some Pokemon are simply born better at certain things than other Pokemon. And like genetics, these are passed down from parent Pokemon to child.
An IV is a point value from 0-31 given to every stat. Although this is in effect throughout the Pokemon's life from level 1, it's most easily detected when the Pokemon reaches level 100 as shown by it effectively adding the IV to the Pokemon's stat total. Thus, at level 100, a Pokemon with an IV of 10 for HP will have 15 less HP than a similar Pokemon with a 25 IV in HP.
When you encounter a wild Pokemon each of their six IVs are determined randomly. Although if you catch a Pokemon a the Friend Safari there is a near guaranteed chance of catching a Pokemon with at least two IVs at 31.
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Figuring out what your Pokemon's IVs are is a little harder. There are a couple ways of going about this. The first is to bring it to the Ace Trainer sitting in the Pokemon Center of Kiloude City. He will give you a good approximation of your Pokemon's IVs. The first statement he makes is based on the sum of all six IVs of the Pokemon, the second statement helps you know what the highest IV is. If more than one IV is tied for the highest he will tell you each one that is. In the current generation with the relative ease of getting an IV to the max of 31, this is probably the best way of going about it.
1st Statement
IV total is between 0 and 90: "This Pokémon's potential is decent all around."
IV total is between 91 and 120: "This Pokémon's potential is above average overall."
IV total is between 121 and 150: "This Pokémon has relatively superior potential overall."
IV total is between 151 and 186: "This Pokémon has outstanding potential overall."
2nd Statement
Highest IV is between 0 and 15: "It's rather decent in that regard."
Highest IV is between 16 and 25: "It's very good in that regard."
Highest IV is between 26 and 30: "It's fantastic in that regard."
Highest IV is 31: "Stats like those... They simply can't be beat!"
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The next way is more of a guideline than actually telling you what a specific IV is. Along with a nature, a Pokemon is shown with a characteristic. This little description tells you what the highest IV it has is. Each description has a given set of IV numbers spanning the entire range of IV possibilities and can be any one of them. If there is a tie between the highest IV, there is a special way it goes about figuring out the characteristic but if you really want to learn about that one follow the link below.
For example, lets say that you have an Eevee whose characteristic is "Highly curious". Looking it up on a chart shows that it means the Eevee has a 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 in its Special Attack and that is its highest IV. It doesn't say anything further than this. The Eevee could very well still have a 5 as its Sp Atk IV, and still hold this characteristic by having all other IVs less than 5.
A good chart of what each characteristic represents and its examples can be found here.
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Finally is the most accurate way of going about it. For this you will need to use one of several online IV Calculator (like this one). Since you need several levels to figure this out while completely controlling your Pokemon's EVs you have a few options. To learn more about EVs, see further down.
First is to raise the Pokemon's level using Rare Candies or the Day Care and input the statistics as is. As these two don't add any EVs to your Pokemon you can completely ignore the changes they would otherwise do and get the raw stats you need.
Next option is to max out the EVs, easiest by getting the standard 252/252/6, of the Pokemon and input them into the calculator as well, this way is longer but can be done if you don't have sufficient Rare Candies or time to waste on the Day Care.
The last way is hardest in simply leveling up your Pokemon normally but recording each Pokemon you defeat and input those EVs gained. This way is highly not recommended as it takes far more calculating than necessary and too easy to mess up.
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To be able to control the IVs of your Pokemon requires breeding. When you breed two Pokemon together the game will take two random IVs from one or both of the parents and give those to the baby while giving completely random IVs for the rest like any wild Pokemon.
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Now to take some of the randomness out of that to increase efficiency so you don't have to breed hundreds if not thousands of Pokemon to get the one you want. There are a few items that you can give to a Pokemon to hold while in the Day Care to help with this issue. The first is are the EV Enhancing Power Items (more on these later). Each Power Item correlates to one of the six stats (HP, Atk, Def, etc.) and having one of your two Pokemon in the Day Care holding one of these items will force the game to choose one of the parents' IVs from that stat.
So for example. You have two Eevee in the Day Care, one of which is holding the Power Anklet. The Power Anklet increases the amount of Speed EVs gained so it'll correlate to the Speed stat for this example. The male Eevee has a 12 for its IV in Speed while the female has a 27. The game will still pick two IVs from the parents like normal, but thanks to the Power Anklet now it'll force it to pass one one of the two parents' Speed IVs as one of those two while the other is still chosen at random. So your cute baby Eevee will be guaranteed to have either a 12 or a 27 for its Speed IV.
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Next we have a new addition to Gen VI, the use of the Destiny Knot. Letting one of your two Pokemon in the Day Care hold this will result in the game choosing five of the parents' EVs instead of the normal 2. It's still entirely random but it allows one to increase the odds of getting more 31s greatly by allowing grater genetic inheritance from parents to baby. So to put it more simply, while one of them is holding the Destiny Knot, the game will randomly choose one of the six stats. The baby will now get a completely random IV for this stat. The other five will then be chosen from one of the two parents and passed onto their child.
A quick note about the Destiny Knot. While the above example does make it easy to understand, it doesn't give the whole story. Say you put two Pokemon in the daycare and each has the max of 31 IVs in each of their six stats. Giving the Destiny Knot to one you would assume that every egg would hold a Pokemon with at least five max IVs, well this isn't the case and it isn't a glitch. The current assumption is that when choosing the five stats the Knot can double up on a stat. So for the current example, the Knot might pick the Attack IV from both parents, the Defense IV from the father, the Speed IV from the mother, and the Special Defense IV from the father again while the HP and Special Attack are determined randomly. I'm not sure if this only happens if both stats are the same or what, but since this use of the Destiny Knot is new to this Generation the specifics are still being discovered.
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With all this talk about breeding I might as well quickly touch on natures. There are a total of 25 different natures that a Pokemon can have and each correlates to a 10% increase and a 10% decrease to each stat combination with the exception of HP. Due to the fact that it includes the positions that would cancel itself out (+ Atk and - Atk) there are several that are simply called neutral natures as they don't change the Pokemon's stats. It's easiest understood by looking at a chart like the one given below.
Outside of simply knowing what will hatch from an egg, natures are the easiest part to control while breeding or catching Pokemon. And with nearly every Pokemon build having at least one throwaway score there is little excuse to settle for a neutral or detrimental nature. Ever since Emerald, having your female (or Ditto) in the daycare hold an Everstone will give the baby a 50% chance of inheriting its mother's nature. But come Black & White 2, and later versions as well, they loosened this so that either Pokemon can hold the Everstone to pass on its nature and it's now a 100% chance of passing it down.
The games also give you a way to control the natures of wild Pokemon you meet. By leading your party with a Pokemon who has the ability Synchronize, every wild Pokemon you encounter has a 50% chance of sharing the same nature as your lead Pokemon.
Because of how many natures there are and there is generally only one that you would want, combined with the ease of being able to control it, the Everstone is almost always the compliment to the Destiny Knot as one of the two items the breeding Pokemon
Okay on to topic number two, EVs. Effort Values, or EVs, are the example of what your Pokemon learn as they defeat other Pokemon. And to be more specific, any Pokemon than gains experience from a battle has gained the EVs that defeated Pokemon can give, even through the use of Exp All/Share. There are EVs devoted to each of the six stats and they are completely independent of each other. Each defeated Pokemon gives a different number of EVs and type of EV based on its highest base stat and its evolutionary level. Since each Pokemon is different I highly recommend going to either Bulbapedia or Serebii and looking at their pages for the individual Pokemon. There should be a box containing the number of EVs each Pokemon will give when defeated.
For example let's look at the Machop line. That evolutionary line all has their highest base stat as Attack so they all give Attack EVs when defeated. Machop, as the first of the three, gives 1 Attack EV. Machoke, as the second, gives 2 Attack EV. Machamp, as the third, gives 3 Attack EV.
Again, each Pokemon species can be different so go look them up to make sure as fewer evolutions or a change in base stats can alter what the EVs gained are. Such like Charmander giving 1 Speed EV while Charizard gives 3 Special Attack EV. Or with Spiritomb, who when defeated gives 1 Defense EV and 1 Special Defense EV.
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So now that we've done a quick summary of what EVs are lets explain what they do. Once again calculated from level 100, even though they also apply to all earlier levels as well, for every 4 EVs your Pokemon gain in a specific stat it will gain 1 bonus point toward that stat. So if when your Pokemon grows to level 100 it has 40 EVs in Speed, it will have a Speed 10 higher than a Pokemon of the same species that has 0 EVs in Speed. These are all rounded down so it wouldn't matter if you had 40, 41, 42, or 43 EVs in Speed, they would all still amount to 10 stat points.
Although there still is a little confusion as to what has been changed in Gen VI I will go by what I have experienced, this part is liable to change as other data comes in. Each Pokemon can have a total maximum of 510 EVs before it stops gaining them. And from the 510, each specific stat can have a maximum of 252. Allowing up to two stats the maximum 252 and one remaining stat 6. This would amount to a grand total of an additional 63 points into two stats and 1 into a third.
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Normally a casual player or one not currently concerned with EVs will go through the game without picking specific Pokemon to battle with each Pokemon, and as mentioned earlier this will do very little to make the game any harder. But when it comes to competitive play these can greatly affect the difference between Pokemon. While it is the most common to do so, you don't need to do a full max 252/252/6 in three stats. Any combination that adds up to 510 is possible allowing for great customization of what you want the Pokemon to do. Do you want your Alakazam to hit hard and fast with its Psychic and other Special Attacks? Then the full 252 in both Special Attack and Speed with the other 6 in one of the defenses is probably best. Or do you want a near impenetrable wall of an Umbreon that can shrug off hits like there's nothing there? Then you would probably be best doing 252 in HP while splitting the rest into Defense and Special Defense depending on what you want more protection from. Alternatively you could take that same Alakazam and turn it into a reasonable wall itself against Special Attacks by instead putting those EVs into Special Defense and HP like the Umbreon. The Alakazam now will do less damage and be slower than its attacking counterpart but can survive hits far better than the other could. It all will come down to how you want your Pokemon to perform.
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Now that the explanation of what EVs are is out of the way, time to talk about how to gain them. I already talked about fighting other Pokemon and gaining them that way, and while this works well it's inefficient and can take a while if you're trying to pick certain EVs to gain and not gain others. So there are a few ways to speed up the process.
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The first will be one of the brand new features to Gen VI, Super Training. Super Training is very straight forward in that each mini-game that you do with your Pokemon will give it a specific amount of EVs for a single stat. The harder the mini-game, the more you get. Each one will show you what and how much you gained after you beat the mini-game and in the Super Training resting screen you can seen a green bar fill up as your Pokemon reaches its max EVs. In addition to this you can also gain punching bags that will do the same as the mini-game but only require you to tap the bag to the the points from it. This isn't the fastest way of going about it but it is faster than simply going out and trying to find what Pokemon you need without any items.
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Second is something that's been around in one form or another since Gen I, those expensive vitamins (Carbos, Protein, HP Up, etc.). Each vitamin will give 10 EVs to a particular stat until there is 100 total EV for that stat, after that you aren't allowed to give them any more. It can be a bit expensive but starting your EV training for a stat at 100 instead of 0 can save a lot of time.
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The classic way to speed up EV training is the most basic one too, and that's done by giving the Pokemon you're trying to train the Macho Brace which was introduced in Gen III after the switch to the current IV/EV system. While it slows down the holder as the brace is held, it also doubles the base EVs that the opponent gives. So that Weepinbell that was giving 2 Attack EVs is suddenly giving 4, and that Pidgeot that was giving us 3 Speed EVs is now handing out a grand total of 6! This is already a nice boost as it literally halves the time needed to get to max EVs. But we can do better.
In Gen IV they introduced a new set of items that work like the Macho Brace but are more specialized, and these have continued into the current Gen. In the Kiloude City Battle Maison you can buy these specific items for 16 BP each; the EV Enhancing Power Items mentioned earlier. Each has a specific stat that it boosts and it will only do that one stat so it's best to buy all six. But once you give that to a Pokemon to hold, all defeated Pokemon will now give an additional 4 EV of that stat. A quick description of each Power Item can be found here.
So using the earlier example, instead of the Macho Brace you give your Pokemon the Power Bracer, which is the Power Item specific for the Attack EV. That Weepinbell now instead of the base 2 will give you a full 6 Attack EV. The Pidgeot on the other hand will now give you 3 Speed IV (as is normal for defeating a Pidgeot) and an additional 4 Attack EV (from the Power Bracer) resulting in a gain of 7 EVs, 3 in Speed and 4 in Attack.
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Still not fast enough? Well there is a rare little bug that will cut that time in half once again. Its name? Pokerus. You have a 3 in 65,536 chance of finding Pokerus on either a wild Pokemon or on one that you bred making it several times rarer than even encountering a shiny Pokemon. But that little virus is a godsend for EV trainers. A Pokemon infected with Pokerus has all EVs that it gains doubled, and this stacks with the Macho Brace and Power Items.
Once again going back to the earlier example, with Pokerus, a normal Weepinbell now gives us 4 Attack EVs while the Pidgeot gives 6 Speed. Add the Power Bracer again and that same Weepinbell is giving a grand total of 12 Attack EVs while the Pidgeot is handing over 6 Speed EVs and 8 Attack.
While the initial encounter with Pokerus is extremely rare it spreads very quickly. If encountered on a wild Pokemon your attacking Pokemon has a chance to contract it if it makes contact with the wild Pokemon. Once one of the Pokemon on your team has it, every encounter with a wild Pokemon will have a chance of spreading it to the two adjacent Pokemon, and so on and so forth until your entire team in now infected. This "infection" has literally no detrimental effects and will only double the EVs gained so don't be worried about anything bad from getting this little wonder-bug.
There are two stages of Pokerus, active and dormant. Each "strain" of Pokerus has a set time period after generated before it goes dormant, between 1 and 4 days, as the Pokemon's immune system fights off the virus. The main difference between the active and dormant stage is the virus' ability to spread. Once infected the Pokemon forever will gain the bonus EV that Pokerus gives it no matter if it is active or dormant, but only an active virus can spread to other Pokemon. An active Pokerus is designated by the label "Pokerus" where the Pokemon's current status effect would be. After it becomes dormant that transforms into a little smiley face near where the star to designate a shiny would be. To prevent the virus to become dormant deposit the Pokemon into your Boxes, while in there the virus will not age and will stay active as long as you keep it in there. But it would be best to spread it a little to have some spares just in case.
With the widespread use of the GTS and Wonder Trade, even with Pokerus as rare as it is, many people these days have an active strain with them. To get one just ask a member here or go to the GTS and start looking around for people saying that the Pokemon has Pokerus.
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So, getting 10, 12, or 14 EVs per battle sounds pretty good huh? Well in Gen V and before this was the best one could get and it shaved off a large amount of time while bringing EV training down to about a half-hour to an hour if you knew what you were doing. Even though this was annoying but acceptable, Gen VI upped the anti with an introduction that was made fun of ever since its announcement, horde battles.
Yes, in combination with the Power Item and Pokerus, this is by far the fastest way to EV train. Defeating 5 Weepinbell with Pokerus and the Power Bracer now hands over a staggering 60 Attack EV. And by using Sweet Scent or Honey you can create a horde battle whenever and where ever you want/need one. Use this with Exp All and a lead Pokemon that as a mass kill attack like Swift or Earthquake and you can do all your training in a matter of 10-20 minutes. If you have multiple Power Items you can even use this to train several Pokemon at once, although to do this, even if they're not in the lead, Exp All has to be on and each Pokemon has to be holding the Power Item. Without the item they will get the normal 2 per Weepinbell (4 if infected with Pokerus) instead of the 6 per.
They key to using hordes to your advantage is to find one that matches what you're trying to train for. While gaining the 3 Speed and 4 Attack of the earlier Pidgeot sounds good, it's easiest to concentrate on one stat at a time. Here's a good table showing ideal places to EV train using this method.
Route 5
• Frequent Gulpin - 5 HP
• Average Scraggy - 5 Atk
• Rare Minun x4 / Plusle x1 (Y) - 5 Spe
• Rare Plusle x4 / Minun x1 (X) - 5 Spe
Route 7
• Frequent Hoppip - 5 SpD
• Average Psyduck - 5 SpA
• Rare Roselia - 10 SpA
Connecting Cave
• Frequent Whismur - 5 HP
• Average Zubat - 5 Spe
• Rare Axew - 5 Atk
Route 8
• Frequent Wingull - 5 Spe
• Average Seviper x4 / Zangoose x1 (Y) - 6 Atk / 4 SpA
• Average Zangoose x4 / Seviper x1 (X) - 9 Atk / 1 SpA
• Rare Taillow - 5 Spe
Route 10
• Frequent Nosepass - 5 Def
• Average Yanma - 5 Spe
• Rare Electrike (Y) - 5 Spe
• Rare Houndour (X) - 5 SpA
Route 11
• Frequent Nidoran F x4 / Nidoran M x1 (Y) - 4 HP / 1 Atk
• Frequent Nidoran M x4 / Nidoran F x1 (X) - 4 Atk / 1 HP
• Average Stunky - 5 Spe
• Rare Starly - 5 Spe
Reflection Cave
• Frequent Mime Jr. - 5 SpD
• Average Roggenrola - 5 Def
• Rare Roggenrola x4 / Carbink x1 -
Route 12
• Frequent Wingull - 5 Spe
• Average Mareep - 5 SpA
• Rare Tauros x4 / Miltank x1 - 4 Atk / 1 Def / 4 Spe
Azure Bay
• Frequent Wingull - 5 Spe
• Average Slowpoke - 5 HP
• Rare Exeggcute - 5 Def
Route 14
• Frequent Bellsprout - 5 Atk
• Average Skorupi - 5 Def
• Rare Ekans - 5 Atk
Route 15
• Frequent Murkrow - 5 Spe
• Average Foongus - 5 HP
• Rare Klefki - 10 Def
Route 16
• Frequent Murkrow - 5 Spe
• Average Foongus - 5 HP
• Rare Klefki - 10 Def
Frost Cavern
• Frequent Vanillite - 5 SpA
• Average Cubchoo - 5 Atk
• Rare Smoochum - 5 SpA
Route 18
• Frequent Geodude - 5 Def
• Average Durant - 10 Def
• Rare Durant x4 / Heatmor x1 - 8 Def / 2 SpA
Terminus Cave
• Frequent Durant - 10 Def
• Average Geodude - 5 Def
• Rare Aron (X) - 5 Def
• Rare Larvitar (Y) - 5 Atk
Route 19
• Frequent Weepinbell - 10 Atk
• Average Gligar - 5 Def
• Rare Arbok - 10 Atk
Route 20
• Frequent Foongus - 5 HP
• Average Trevenant - 10 Atk
• Rare Trevenant x4 / Sudowoodo x1 - 8 Atk / 2 Def
The Pokémon Village
• Frequent Foongus - 5 HP
• Average Poliwag - 5 Spe
• Rare Lombre - 10 SpD
Route 21
• Frequent Spinda - 5 SpA
• Average Swablu - 5 SpD
• Rare Scyther - 5 Atk
Victory Road [Caves 1 & 4]
• Frequent Geodude - 5 Def
• Average Floatzel - 10 Spe
• Rare Lickitung - 10 HP
Victory Road [Caves 2 & 3] (Physical Wall)
• Frequent Geodude - 5 Def
• Average Graveler - 10 Def
• Rare Lickitung - 10 HP
• Frequent Gulpin - 5 HP
• Average Scraggy - 5 Atk
• Rare Minun x4 / Plusle x1 (Y) - 5 Spe
• Rare Plusle x4 / Minun x1 (X) - 5 Spe
Route 7
• Frequent Hoppip - 5 SpD
• Average Psyduck - 5 SpA
• Rare Roselia - 10 SpA
Connecting Cave
• Frequent Whismur - 5 HP
• Average Zubat - 5 Spe
• Rare Axew - 5 Atk
Route 8
• Frequent Wingull - 5 Spe
• Average Seviper x4 / Zangoose x1 (Y) - 6 Atk / 4 SpA
• Average Zangoose x4 / Seviper x1 (X) - 9 Atk / 1 SpA
• Rare Taillow - 5 Spe
Route 10
• Frequent Nosepass - 5 Def
• Average Yanma - 5 Spe
• Rare Electrike (Y) - 5 Spe
• Rare Houndour (X) - 5 SpA
Route 11
• Frequent Nidoran F x4 / Nidoran M x1 (Y) - 4 HP / 1 Atk
• Frequent Nidoran M x4 / Nidoran F x1 (X) - 4 Atk / 1 HP
• Average Stunky - 5 Spe
• Rare Starly - 5 Spe
Reflection Cave
• Frequent Mime Jr. - 5 SpD
• Average Roggenrola - 5 Def
• Rare Roggenrola x4 / Carbink x1 -
Route 12
• Frequent Wingull - 5 Spe
• Average Mareep - 5 SpA
• Rare Tauros x4 / Miltank x1 - 4 Atk / 1 Def / 4 Spe
Azure Bay
• Frequent Wingull - 5 Spe
• Average Slowpoke - 5 HP
• Rare Exeggcute - 5 Def
Route 14
• Frequent Bellsprout - 5 Atk
• Average Skorupi - 5 Def
• Rare Ekans - 5 Atk
Route 15
• Frequent Murkrow - 5 Spe
• Average Foongus - 5 HP
• Rare Klefki - 10 Def
Route 16
• Frequent Murkrow - 5 Spe
• Average Foongus - 5 HP
• Rare Klefki - 10 Def
Frost Cavern
• Frequent Vanillite - 5 SpA
• Average Cubchoo - 5 Atk
• Rare Smoochum - 5 SpA
Route 18
• Frequent Geodude - 5 Def
• Average Durant - 10 Def
• Rare Durant x4 / Heatmor x1 - 8 Def / 2 SpA
Terminus Cave
• Frequent Durant - 10 Def
• Average Geodude - 5 Def
• Rare Aron (X) - 5 Def
• Rare Larvitar (Y) - 5 Atk
Route 19
• Frequent Weepinbell - 10 Atk
• Average Gligar - 5 Def
• Rare Arbok - 10 Atk
Route 20
• Frequent Foongus - 5 HP
• Average Trevenant - 10 Atk
• Rare Trevenant x4 / Sudowoodo x1 - 8 Atk / 2 Def
The Pokémon Village
• Frequent Foongus - 5 HP
• Average Poliwag - 5 Spe
• Rare Lombre - 10 SpD
Route 21
• Frequent Spinda - 5 SpA
• Average Swablu - 5 SpD
• Rare Scyther - 5 Atk
Victory Road [Caves 1 & 4]
• Frequent Geodude - 5 Def
• Average Floatzel - 10 Spe
• Rare Lickitung - 10 HP
Victory Road [Caves 2 & 3] (Physical Wall)
• Frequent Geodude - 5 Def
• Average Graveler - 10 Def
• Rare Lickitung - 10 HP
And courtesy of Skarm, a video that should be helpful if the rest didn't make as much sense as you were hoping.
