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One of the hidden stats in Pokémon is called EV. What are these? What do they do? Is it something I need to worry about at all? Does this exist in every Pokémon from the beginning? If not, in what generation did it start?

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  • @Fbueckert the browser wouldnt let me post the questions without the 'this is not a duplicate' sentence lol. Interesting that it can be removed by edit and the question remains.
    – Ender
    Jan 8, 2013 at 21:19
  • Huh. Didn't know that. I guess your questions are very similar, and the automation processes don't allow that.
    – Frank
    Jan 8, 2013 at 21:20
  • @fbueckert additionally, my original question about generic stats has an answer that somewhat answers some if not all of these questions, but I was forced to edit my question to un-do a close vote, so if these get closed as duplicates I'm gonna drown a litter of kittens.
    – Ender
    Jan 8, 2013 at 21:22
  • Oh, it won't be, no worries. I worded it differently than your IV question, too, so people know at a glance that they're different questions.
    – Frank
    Jan 8, 2013 at 21:24
  • 3
    Who would possibly vote to close stuff at a glance...
    – Decency
    Jan 8, 2013 at 21:47

1 Answer 1

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EVs stand for Effort Values. When you catch a wild Pokemon, it has no EVs, and they go up through battle. Every time it participates in fainting another Pokemon (either in the wild or a trainer battle), a Pokemon will be given specific EVs depending on the Pokemon it defeated (for example, Machop will give Attack EVs, whereas Abra will give Special Attack EVs; you can look up which EVs a Pokemon gives on any reasonable online Pokedex). Pokemon holding an Exp. Share will also gain EVs even if they don't participate in the battle.

EVs are all tied to one of the basic stats (Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, Speed, and HP). Your Pokemon can have a total of 255 EVs in a single stat, and 510 EVs overall.

For each 4 EVs you have in a given stat, that stat will be increased by 1 at level 100. This is scaled down to whatever level your Pokemon currently is, so for example at level 50, you need 8 EVs in a given stat to increase that stat by 1.

Once you have 510 total EVs, additional EVs that Pokemon would gain are simply lost. Because of this, if you are really set on having a min/maxed Pokemon, you need to keep track of its EVs and do very specific training on Pokemon that will raise the correct stats and not raise the wrong stats until the EV training is complete. Otherwise, you are liable to "waste" EVs in stats you don't care about.

EVs have existed since the beginning, but they were overhauled in the 3rd generation. I am not as well-versed in the specifics from before that change, although you can read about them at Bulbapedia.

There is a Pokemon disease called "Pokerus" (which was introduced in Generation 2) that will double the rate of EV gain. Since EV training is very, very tedious, this rare disease is highly coveted, and it is recommended to always keep an actively infected Pokemon in your box so that you have access to the disease whenever convenient.

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  • Since we're covering multiple generations, has pokerus been around since gen 1? And if not, when did it start?
    – Fambida
    Jan 8, 2013 at 22:24
  • @Fambida Addressed. Jan 8, 2013 at 22:25
  • How many EV's does a pokemon get per instance of fainting an opponent?
    – Ender
    Jan 9, 2013 at 14:24
  • @Ender It depends on the Pokemon. I mentioned in the first paragraph that you'll need to look that up individually using an online Pokedex. There are a bunch to choose from, but I like Psypokes. For example, Magmar gives 2 Special Attack EVs, as seen on the page linked. Jan 9, 2013 at 14:25

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