By Matt
Today’s topic discusses EV Training, which is another way to make your Pokemon stronger in one (or more than one) particular stat. EV stands for Effort Value(s), which are given out every time you can fall either an enemy or a wild Pokemon with one of your own. Effort Values, or EV Points, are given based on what stat the Pokemon is strongest at. They are also given in small increments, so you will have to encounter that same Pokemon again to find an increase in EV.
For example, Geodude have a very strong base stat in Defense, which is what their EV is: 1 point in Defense. When you defeat a Pokemon, you will get their EVs, and store them up until the next level up (there is no point in EV training if you are at level 100). Serebii (which I use all the time, as you may have noticed) says that in order to gain 1 extra EV in a certain stat, you have to defeat four of the same Pokemon.
The guide compares it to heart containers from The Legend of Zelda series: once you fill up four, you receive one heart container, or one EV point. When you level up your Pokemon, you will be able to see the stats increase in one area more than the other. When I EV train, I usually get about +2 or +3 in that stat, until I realized I don’t need power to be happy with my Pokemon. Fortunately, there are items that speed up the process of gaining EV points.
The Macho Brace’s description says that it “promotes strong growth but lowers Speed”. Serebii says that it doubles the EVs gained from defeating Pokemon. (I don’t find this true, because the results are the same for me). There are some items you can get which will help increase one certain stat, but will also lower speed. I found these items in the Battle Frontier, which I think is for only Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver versions. I tried using these, and they do have the same effect as the Macho Brace.
Another way for easy (but costly) EVs is buying vitamins. Each vitamin provides an increase in a certain stat. You can feed your Pokemon vitamins, and they will get an increase in that stat, but only one at a time. Since each vitamin costs 9800 Poke dollars, it is quite expensive, unless you’ve been spending your waking hours defeating the Elite Four with an Amulet Coin. If you’ve fed your Pokemon enough vitamins, it will say that they will not take any more. When I tried doing this, the stat I was trying to raise (Defense) mysteriously became +0 when it leveled up. So, I don’t find EV training my kind of thing.
There are towns in HG/SS and B/W version that have people that judge how hard your Pokemon has worked. If they say it has worked hard enough, they will give it a ribbon (HG/SS, I’m not sure about B/W). So this is sort of an incentive to EV train, but I don’t see any practical purpose unless you want to show off, or win at a Pokemon tournament (yes, they have those).
Tags: Nintendo DS, Pokemon Black & White