================================================================================
Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire: Game Mechanics Guide
Authors:
Ken J. Egervari .........
[email protected]
Game ................. Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire
Guide ......................... In-depth FAQ
Platform ............................... GBA
Version ............................... 0.60
First Published ............. March 31, 2003
Last Updated ................ April 27, 2003
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Table of Contents
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1. Introduction
1.1 - About This FAQ
1.2 - Credits/Thanks
1.3 - To Other FAQ Authors
1.4 - Updates and Revisions
2. Maximizing Your Stats
2.1 - A Discouraging Scenario
2.2 - Definitions & Stat Recalculation
2.3 - Ability Values
2.3.1 - Base Stats
2.3.2 - Dynamic Values
2.3.3 - Main Statistic Formulas
2.3.4 - Level Growth Rate Formulas
2.3.4.1 - Specific Pokémon Growth Rates
2.4 - Influencing Your Statistics
2.4.1 - Influencing Individual Values
2.4.2 - Influencing Effort Values
2.4.2.1 - Opponent Pokémon Effort Values
2.4.3 - Getting the Right Personality
2.5 - Level-Up Deceptions
2.6 - How Does Evolution Affect Stats?
2.7 - How Does Shiny Pokémon Affect Stats?
2.8 - How Does Trading Affect Stats?
2.9 - How Does The 8 Badges Affect Stats?
2.10 - Exceptions with Legendary Pokémon
3. Last Words
3.1 - Contact Info
3.2 - Copyright Info
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1. Introduction
================================================================================
First, I'd like to say thank you for reading my FAQ and I hope that it aids
you in training your Pokémon so that they perform effectively.
Next, I'd like to talk about myself a bit so you can learn a bit about my
credentials. I've written several other FAQs for Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind
Dale 2, Might & Magic 7 & 8, Diablo 2, Starcraft and Warcraft III. I might
have written others in the past, but they don't come to mind.
In terms of my career, I'm a software architect who developers in J2EE and
.NET mostly although I've been doing programming for several years in other
platforms prior. I'm also a co-author on three published books:
* Professional PHP4 Programming
* Professional PHP4 XML
* Professional PHP Web Services
I can't help but give me a shameless plug: Please purchase these books if
you find these topics interesting. I, as well as the other authors, would
really appreciate it. These books are some of the best on PHP after all.
Be sure to check your local stores and amazon.com!
Anyway, needless to say, I'm an accomplished writer and a logical
thinker - two things that I believe are important to writing FAQs =)
Note: If you are or know someone who is serious about hiring a technical
writer, author or software architect, please contact me as I'm sure I
would be an excellent candidate for the position. Your help would be
much appreciated.
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1.1 - About This FAQ
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After many people have stated they have no idea how to train their Pokémon
properly in Ruby/Sapphire, I decided to write a small Trainer Guide that
would explain all the details to getting the most out of your Pokémon.
This means you won't see what the "A-Button" does or how to throw a ball to
catch a Pokémon. That stuff is better left to other guides (which I have no
idea why anyone would even bother reading that crap let alone author it - but
anyway).
This guide is the real deal as it's going to explain precisely how to aquire
quality Pokémon and tell you exactly how to train them. I need to first warn
you that it's going to get very discrete and mathematical - so heads up. If
you think you do understand the math behind training or maybe you might think
you know a bit, I would still recommend that you skim the guide from start to
finish to make sure you understand the material really well. That way,
you'll be prepared for the later sections as they appear. This guide was
written so that it fully explains the mechanics of the game. While there are
some sources out there that explain different aspects of this guide, I
consolidated all this information into one place and wrote the necessary
commentary to help explain it. I hope that you find it useful.
After you read this guide (providing you understand it), you should see
a considerable increase in your overall statistics of your trained
Pokémon if you haven't been doing the things suggested in this FAQ. How
can I make such a claim you ask? Read the guide and you'll see that it's
not that daring at all as anyone can achieve these results after the become
a graduate of Ken's Mega-Pokémon Advance Training Centre! (okay, that wasn't
so cool).
As of right now, I've cancelled the sections on Evolutions, Breeding,
Pokémon Analysis & Move Sets and Contest Training. The guide is fairly long
for such a small topic and it's probably better left as a single guide. This
is also the reason why the guide has been renamed to the "Game Mechanics
Guide", as it's better suited for a single topic. This doesn't mean that I
have abandonned these issues. I still wish to do a Pokémon Analysis and
Move Set guide, since it has not been written in a FAQ already and it's a
fairly complex topic in its own right. Thus, I'm sure it will be rewarding
to author and provide a wealth of information to you readers.
Lastly, you will find the most up to date version of this FAQ at:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/
This FAQ looks best in a fixed-width font, such as Courier New. I
personally like to use Lucida Console since it's not so dark and I have
terrible eye sight. I would use a browser such as Internet Explorer or a
good text editor like EditPlus to read the FAQ.
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1.2 - To Other FAQ Authors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While I think it's great that many people contribute their time and effort
to writing FAQs and helping the gaming community, I also can't help but
notice the wasted effort and disorganization of the content that we
contribute. While the content we write might stand well by itself, without
coordination and leadership, our guides are bound to overlap in many areas.
This is most painful for the authors as they wish to have a complete guide
or perhaps they believe they can do a more complete job than the current
ones available. However, most times authors end up duplicating a lot of
unnecessary content only to provide better insight in a few areas.
One way to stop this is that if you state your guide is a "walkthrough", you
should limit that guide to a walkthrough, only detailing the game's story,
trainer information and hidden secrets.
However, in many walkthroughs, they cover a variety of topics from breeding,
training (which happens to be a glorified manual), a full-fledged Pokédex,
HM/TM analysis and many other areas (but never all of them of course). This
forces other gamers to read each and every guide to make sure they learn the
'full scope' of the game - in reality, they probably only learn about 5%
more information with reading each guide in succession. I can remember all
the scrolling I had to do (since it's not HTML) just to look for various
sections in the guide, only to realize conflicts with other guides.
Being a published author, avid FAQ writer and respected software architect, I
say we can do better. I invite all the walkthrough authors to email me and
contribute the content that should go in this guide (as well as other
specialty guides) so they can move it out of their 'walkthroughs'. I'll
assure you that I will make you a contributor or co-author of this guide
(depending on the size of the contribution) and you'll get full credit for
your work. Our strategy should be to provide content in the simplest way
possible - that is what we hoped to accomplish with our guides, no? By
having everyone write their own version of this and that, we make it harder
for our readers to get anything out of our work and then no one wins -
gamers and authors alike.
I would also encourage other FAQ authors to communicate with each other as
well and consolidate your information into specialty guides (which doesn't
even pertain to my own). By doing this, we can show some real leadership
and establish our guides to be among the very best that have been written
and provide superior content for our readers. If there is one way to show
the world how great of an author you really are or your knowledge about the
game, it's to show that you are also a team player and care about the
content more than the file size of your walkthrough =)
To summarize, I think we need to separate our content into (but not limited
to) the following 'different' FAQs:
* Walkthrough (many out there bunched with other stuff)
* Pokédex (The one available isn't complete, is formatted poorly and it's
using Japanese names)
* Game Mechanics (I did this)
* Evolutions (in the Pokémon Locations FAQ, but it's not obvious that it is
there. Some other guides have it too - consolidate it into 1 guide)
* Breeding (we need a really good guide on this. I'm no expert).
* Pokémon Analysis & Move Sets (I'm most interesting in doing this next. The
content from the "New Moves Guide" should really be inserted here.)
* Contest Training (again, I'm no expert but I could figure it out. There
are different opinions about this in some walkthroughs - need to
consolidate it).
If we all work together, we can make it happen. Thanks for listening and
enjoy the rest of the guide!
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1.3 - Credits/Thanks
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I'd like to thank the following people for making this guide possible.
* Christopher Fritz (Meowth346) @ www.Pokéfor.tk for offering the game's
formulas and other information. Without this content, my guide would have
not been possible.
* Chris Speight (Paradisio) for providing the personality table.
* Jamie (sdfn36640) for finding the Pokémon EV table and a big thanks to
www.Pokémasters.net for calculating all that stuff out. All I did was
change the Japenese names to English. This is there work. I'd also like
to thank Jamie for correcting the Experience Share information.
* Team Rocket Elite for suggesting a bunch of changes and fixes. This
person really did spend a lot of time looking over the guide by providing
over 20 comments. Most of the changes in 0.30 were the result of his
help.
* Eric Childers (dohdohburd) for noticing that there was an error when
calculating your IVs.
* Peter for providing various quality EV training locations.
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1.4 - Updates and Revisions
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Version 0.60 - April 27, 2003
-----------------------------
* Made changes to the contact info. Please read it.
* Sorry for no updates, but I haven't played this game in weeks since I got
really bored with it and I doubt I'll ever play it again. I've fixed or
added a bunch of things today and expect this to be the last update you'll
ever see. If you really, really think something should be added to this
faq, write the section yourself and email it to me and tell me where to
put it.
* Added stuff about boxing and determing if you have Max Effort Values.
* Fixed personality table; there were two typos (from copy/pasting).
* Fixed broken link for base stats (the URL changed)
Version 0.51 - April 09, 2003
-----------------------------
* Added an additional Sp. Attack EV training area (from kidvid2)
Version 0.50 - April 09, 2003
-----------------------------
* Fixed the Experience Share section to indicate that your Effort Points are
not doubled if you are also using the Macho Brace.
* I added some more commentary in calculating IVs to help those people
receiving erroneous results.
* Reorganized the "Suggested EV Training Areas" section. I added one more
location suggested by Jamie (sdfn36640).
* Fixed some other minor things.
Version 0.40 - April 08, 2003
-----------------------------
* Added information on Pokérus
* Added how training badges affect stats
* Added information about shiny Pokémon and how they affect stats
* Added how trading affects Pokémon stats
* Added a section detailing the stats on legendaries
* A few spelling corrections and table fixes.
Version 0.30 - April 02, 2003
-----------------------------
* I figured out that the formulas weren't perfect when you rearrange to solve
for another statistic (such as IV, which many people were trying to do).
The reason for this was that the game rounds down whenever a division
occurs in the original formula, thus if you tried to solve for IV on a
Pokémon with 'really' bad or non-existant IVs (such as Legendary Pokémon),
the forumla would result in small, negative values. I re-did the formulas
and calculations throughout the guide to reflect these changes. The odd
thing is that when you try and solve IV, you'll have to round-up in this
new formula rather than round-down when making divisions in order for it
to work correctly.
* Added the direct forumla for calculating your IVs for your HP and other
5 statistics (to save you some time in case you would like to use it).
* Fixed the commentary about the Wizard's stats at Level 2. I missed the
+1 to Defense.
* Improved the clarity of the re-calculation paragraph in section 2.2.
* In earlier versions, I had stated that your base stats always improve
with new evolutions. In this guide, I mention that there are a few
exceptions to this rule and changed 'always' to 'most of the time'
* Changed a sentence that said 24 "hidden" stats to 18 "total" stats where
17 of these stats are hidden.
* Added various section on how breeding does not guarentee great stats
* Changed a number of occurences where I said "base values" to "base
stats".
* Changed the number of EV stat bonus from 64 to 63 (and all values that
relied on this result) because I made an error in how the game handled
rounding.
* Added a section on why you should only get 252 EVs rather than 255.
* Added more comparison information between IVs and EVs.
* Added information on the two new growth rates, "Erratic" and
"Fluctuating".
* Added a complete list of Pokémon that belong to all 6 growth rate
categories with extra commentary.
* Added IV information pertaining to Hidden Power.
* Added commentary to explain random IV generation.
* Added convincing rebuttal to spending a lot of time gaining EVs.
* Mentioned that the Energy Guru sells his items for half-price.
* Mentioned ways to obtain more money to aquire large amounts of vitamins.
* Added a neat way to use Rare Candies in helping IV calculation for
low-level Pokémon
* Completely revampled the "Influencing Effort Points" section of the
guide. I pretty much re-wrote the first few paragraphs, largely improving
the clarity of how EVs work.
* Added section on how to use Exp. Share to gain more EVs.
* Added section on how switching Pokémon in battle gives more EVs.
* Added section on the relationship between EVs and Running from battle.
* Fixed the personality table. It said that Hardy, Docile, etc. did not
have any penalties, but it turns out that they don't provide any benefits
either (many people mentioned this).
* Changed various typos throughout the guide.
Version 0.20 - April 01, 2003
-----------------------------
* Added the Pokémon EV Table and related commentary
* Fixed some minor sentence structure errors.
Version 0.11 - March 31, 2003
-----------------------------
* Fixed Various Spelling and Grammar Mistakes. Fixed one occurance where I
said 30 for max IV points at level 100 and it should have been 31.
Version 0.10 - March 31, 2003
-----------------------------
* Start of the project (first draft)
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2. Maximizing Your Stats
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One of the most important things to do in Ruby/Sapphire is to maximize your
stats. While it is possible to be completely oblivious to what is going on
behind the scenes, you'll be rewarded for steering the finer details of your
Pokémon's training. This section is dedicated to showing you how to do just
that.
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2.1 - A Discouraging Scenario
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Before I understood how the game worked, I tried many things to maximize the
power of my Pokémon. I read several threads on gamefaqs.com that breeding
your own Pokémon would produce better results than catching a random wild
one. While I didn't completely understand why, I went out and tried it.
For my first attempt, I decided I needed an electric Pokémon. Since Pichu
(the first form of Pikachu) is not available for catching, you have to breed
it. Thus, I wanted to kill two birds with one stone and add Pichu to my
Pokédex and also obtain a good electric Pokémon at the same time.
Before I did this, I already had a level 53 Raichu. I thought it would serve
as a pretty good test to compare wild and bred Pokémon. So, I bred two
Pikachus and after a few minutes, out came a Pichu. Now, I was under the
impression that the quality (i.e. his genes) of the new Pichu was supposed to
be much better, but it didn't turn out that way for me.
Before I started raising the level 5 Pichu, I also had some idea that
Vitamins would improve the stats of the character. So, I used all the
money I had and purchased 5 speed increasing vitamins and 5 Sp. Attack
vitamins. Keep in mind, I had already beat the Final Four too, so I was
kind of surprised I couldn't buy any more. I also equipped the Macho Brace
because people on gamefaqs.com were saying that it helps stats (although
there was a lot of confusion as to what this item actually did - no one
really knew - or the people that did never bothered to answer).
I raised my Pichu to level 21 until it became Pikachu. I knew it had to
evolve by friendship, but needless to say, I didn't do that correctly =)
After level 50, I decided it was time to use the last Thunderstone I had to
evolve it to a Raichu. When I looked at the stats, I was shocked that it
didn't improve that much at all.
Custom Raichu (level 50):
141 HP
106 Attack
74 Defense
108 Special Attack
89 Special Defense
134 Speed
Captured Raichu (level 53)
134 HP
102 Attack
78 Defense
123 Special Attack
96 Special Defense
132 Speed
I realize that the new Raichu was a few levels behind, but if this Pokémon
was supposed to be more effective, shouldn't the values show a significant
improvement? My captured Raichu didn't use the Macho Brace or any Vitamins
after all, so I thought it had to be weaker even if it was level 55 or 60.
I also had thought that bred Pokémon were 'always' better in some way. At
this point, I obviously felt that this was a waste of time and that all the
talk about breeding and effort points was just talk.
For my hard work, I received a slight increase in HP and Attack, but I also
received less Defense and a pretty massive decline in Sp. Attack and Sp.
Defense (which are never good for a Raichu given his special moves and his
weaknesses). So what gives? Can the 'advice' about effort points mean
nothing at all? Have the FAQs and fellow gamers been wrong about this?
Well, to much surprise, I really screwed it up. That is why I wrote this
guide in the first place - so you can be more informed on how to train
your Pokémon correctly without wasting a lot of your time.
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2.2 - Definitions & Stat Recalculation
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First off, we should define the terms that we are going to use throughout
this guide. Our first set of terms should be quite obvious if you've played
the game since they come directly from the "Summary" screen when you select
a particular Pokémon.
HP - Your calculated maximum number of Hit Points
Attack - Your calculated value for physical attacks (like Slash)
Defense - Your calculated value against physical attacks
Speed - Your calculated speed value
Sp. Attack - Your calculated value for special attacks (like Fire, Psychic)
Sp. Defense - Your calculated value against special attacks
Now, what do we mean by 'calculated'? Unlike some console RPGs (such as
early games in the Final Fantasy series), your stats are always dynamic,
reflecting any changes made to your character instantly. This is very
different because games like Final Fantasy keep two 'tables' for your
statistics in the console's memory - one for your base stats gained through
levels and another that keeps track of bonuses (like items, junctions or
whatever).
Note: I know this might seem somewhat complicated or irrelevant, but
it will help you understand the inner-workings of the game a lot
better. I'm a software architect, so I imagine on how all this stuff
is done in my head (it's really not that hard). I believe this is
first step you should take to understanding how the stats work.
For the first set of statistics, Squaresoft describes a 'level-up table'
that describes how a particular character or class's stats are affected
after a level-up. D&D and other RPG systems use something similar as well.
Let's look at a really simple example of a Wizard's level up table.
Class: Wizard Attack Defense Magic
------------- ------ ------- -----
Level 1 0 +1 +3
Level 2 +1 +1 +3
Level 3 0 0 +2
Level 4 0 +1 +3
...
When using this model, the character's Attack score would be increased by 1,
the Defense score would be increase by 1, and the Magic score would be
increased by 3 when the Wizard reaches Level 2. When this happens, these
bonuses get added to the base stats for the character and they are permanent.
If the character wants to increase or decrease a stat, they need to do it
with an item or by using some other means offered by the game.
At Level 4, the character will have the follow base stats (simply by adding
them all up) that are permanent until that character gains another level:
Level 4 1 3 11
This row of stats is stored with the character. Now, let's say you use an
item that gives you 50% magic power. This information would be stored in
a separate location that is 'layered' on top of this row. Here would be the
result:
Level 4 1 3 11 + 5
Thus, that +5 bonus (50% rounded down) is not stored in the base stat table.
In Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire, many people believe you only receive stat increases
in the same manner as indicated above, but this is not true. In Pokémon
Ruby/Sapphire, your stats are always dynamic as they are 're-calculated'
whenever 'any' event occurs. Essentially, it combines the two types of
stat tables into a set of formulas that re-calculate your stats in real
time. This means that while a level-up might induce the Pokémon to undergo
a series of stat increases, this is not the only way to improve your stats.
For instance, you can force the game to re-calculate your stats when you
consume vitamins, win battles (during level-ups and receiving effort-points),
eat rare candies and evolve as well as many other possible events. While
this might appear as the same thing, it's very different in the program code
in that it doesn't store any tables at all for any of your Pokémon. Rather,
it contains a set of 'hidden' variables that the game uses to generate your
stats (so it doesn't store the stat values themselves).
Unfortunately, the game hides this fact since it shows you how well you've
improved when you level-up but it doesn't tell you the specifics when consume
vitamins, deposite the Pokémon into the box or take your Pokémon out of the
Day Care for instance. It also doesn't show any of these hidden variables
that influence your statistics. This can lead a player to believe that their
Pokémon aren't doing as well as the level-up statistics for one Pokémon might
be completely different to another (even though they are the same species and
at the same level).
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2.3 - Ability Values
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Now that you understand that the stats are calculated using formulas rather
than pre-defined tables, the next two questions we need to ask are:
a) What are these hidden values; and
b) How can we influence them?
To answer the first question, we are going to look at 'base stats' and see
why they affect the overall power of our Pokémon. Next we'll look at
the various dynamic values that make up our main statistics and we'll see
how to control these areas ourselves so we can make the most of our Pokémon.
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2.3.1 - Base Stats
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Let's take on the first question, "What are these hidden values?" In Pokémon
Ruby/Sapphire, there are 6 static variables called 'base stats' that
correspond to each of the main six statistics (i.e. HP, Attack, Defense,
etc.). Each Pokémon species has a predefined set of base stats and they
will always be the same for any Pokémon of that type. In other words, all
wild and bred Pokémon will have the same base stats as long as they are of
the same species.
Note: To look up the base stats for any Pokémon, you should consult the
base stats FAQ written by Ragnarok25 (Victor Castillo). You can
find it at the following address:
http://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadvance/file/Pokemon_rs_stats.txt
Here are the base stats for a Raichu:
HP : 60
Attack : 90
Defense : 55
Sp. Attack : 90
Sp. Defense : 80
Speed : 100
As you can see, Raichus are very fast but fragile and offer good normal and
special attacks. These base stats determine how strong (or weak) a
particular statistic can be for the Raichu and are the most influential
statistic in the game. Thus, if you hoped that you could improve Raichu's
defense to be higher than his speed, you are most likely out of luck.
The last thing to mention about base stats is that they are different with
each evolution (i.e. they usually get better, but there are a few exceptions,
such as Shedinja receiving a lower base stat total than Nincada, and
Salamence receiving lower defense than Shelgon to name a few examples).
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2.3.2 - Dynamic Stats
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In addition to the six base stats, there are three dynamic, hidden values
and one other value that are used to calculate each main statistic. What do
I mean by dynamic? Well, these values are not set in stone as they are
decided when the Pokémon is either captured or bred, and some of them even
change as you play the game. In total then, there are 18 values that
influence the stats of each of your Pokémon and 17 of them are hidden from
you (the remaining one being your current level). We'll look at each of
these in turn.
Individual Values (IV):
-----------------------
The purpose of Individual Values is to provide some randomness to each
Pokémon by simulating gene trait differences between those that belong to
the same species. These values are determined when the Pokémon is caught
and are between 0 and 31 (thus, there are 32 possible values). Higher
Individual Values reflect better 'quality' Pokémon and provide the second
most influential value to obtaining powerful statistics. There are six
separate IVs generated by the game and they correspond to each of your six
main stats.
It is also known that Pokémon hatched from eggs will provide you with better
control in receiving higher IVs than those in the wild since it adopts the
values from their parents (to be discussed in the Breeding section).
However, it is still possible to receive 'quality' Pokémon from wild areas
provided you are patient enough to look for them (however, unlikely that may
be) and breeding doesn't always produce perfect results (there is still some
luck involved).
Effort Values (EV):
-------------------
Like the Individual Values, there is also an Effort Value that is used to
calculate each main statistic (thus, a total of six Effort Values). The
purpose of Effort Values is to describe a Pokémon's superiority of a
particular attribute in real battle. In short, Effort Points will be
allocated to your main stats whenever a battle is won. The number of points
and the statistic it is allocated to is dependant on the species of your
opponent. Thus, an opponent that provides Effort Values in Speed will
increase the Speed statistic of your own Pokémon. These values can range
from 0-255 (thus, a total of 256 possible values). However, you cannot have
more than 510 points total so you must train wisely and give Effort Points
to the stats that need it most.
Level Value (LV)
----------------
This value should be very familiar to you as it's the easiest to increase
(although probably the most time consuming) and you can actually see the
value in your Summary screen. The only important thing to say about it is
that it influences your main statistics greatly since it is multiplied with
your IVs, EVs and Base Stats.
Personality Value (PV)
----------------------
The last of the dynamic values is the personality value, which may increase
one of your main statistics by 10% while lowering another by 10%.
For example, on the Summary screen, you might have noticed the "Brave"
personality for example. This personality trait increases your normal
attack by 10% but decreases your speed by 10%. This can either work to your
advantage (you want to go first and cause more criticals) or might hurt you
in some way (this Pokémon uses many normal attacks), so it's important that
you don't train Pokémon with unfavorable personalities. We'll talk more
about this in a later section. In most cases, this value is "1" (meaning
100%) but it can also be "0.9" to indicate -10% or "1.1" to indicate +10%.
Note: Unlike the EV or IV, there are only 5 of these values stored by the
game since your HP statistic does not require it.
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2.3.3 - Main Statistic Formulas
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that we know about base stat, Individual Values, Effort Values, Level
Values and Personality Values, it's time to learn how these affect our main
statistics (attack, defense, etc.).
Attack, Defense, Speed and Specials Formula:
--------------------------------------------
The first formula we are going to discuss is the generic one used for:
* Attack
* Defense
* Sp. Attack
* Sp. Defense
* Speed.
So, if you want to calculate any of these, you would use this formula:
Stat = (((( BaseStat * 2 + IV + EV/4 ) * Level ) / 100 ) + 5 ) * P
After looking at this formula on Meowth's site, I realized it should have
been written this way for additional clarity:
Stat = (( BaseStat * 2 + IV + EV/4 ) * Level/100 + 5 ) * P
Due to in-game rounding, these formulas above aren't identical but they can
be very, very close. To be get the most accurate results, you need to
round-down in two places. Before I show you them, however, I want to
describe the rounding notation used throughout this guide.
In any rounding-friendly formulas, you'll see functions called Math.Floor()
and Math.Ceiling(), which are the same function names as those in C# (I just
picked a programming language format since I'm most familiar with that).
The Math.Floor() function just takes any value and rounds it down. Here are
some examples:
Math.Floor( 0 ) = 0
Math.Floor( 5.1 ) = 5
Math.Floor( 5.5 ) = 5
Math.Floor( 5.9 ) = 5
As you can see, this isn't rocket science =) Likewise, I also use a
Math.Ceiling() function that should always round a value up. Thus,
Math.Ceiling( 0 ) = 0
Math.Ceiling( 5.1 ) = 6
Math.Ceiling( 5.5 ) = 6
Math.Ceiling( 5.9 ) = 6
You should be aware that I won't always include the Math.Floor() or
Math.Ceiling() parts in my discussions since they take up too much space for
an 80-column text document. When you do any of these calculations yourself,
you must remember to round-down or round-up accordingly or your values may
turn out incorrect. Now that these concepts are out of the way, here is the
last rendition of the formula.
Stat = Math.Floor(
(( BaseStat * 2 + IV + Math.Floor( EV/4 ) ) * Level/100 + 5 ) * P
)
This version is the same as before except "EV/4" needs to be rounded down
since the game can never give you "part of a stat point". Also, you'll need
to round the entire end-result down after you have multiplied it by P (which
is the Personality value) because whenever you multiply by the values .9 or
1.1, you will receive anywhere from 0 to an infinite amount of decimal places
in the end-result and that is definately no good.
I find that as long as you round the end-result, you probably don't have to
worry about rounding "EV/4" down. I don't see how it can really have a
large impression on the overall result and will most likely get rounded off
at the end anyway.
Note: Since these formulas use base stats, you can refer to this fantastic
URL that shows all the base stats for all the Pokémon games:
http://user.yagb.de/meowth346/index.php?data=stats/stats_rs_pokemon.php
Now to use this formula, you need to look up the base statistic from the URL
above and substitute for "BaseStat". Next, you need to substitute IV, EV,
Level and P (Personality). Unlike the Level Value, which is very easily
shown in the Summary screen, you'll have to either guess or calculate your
IV and EVs. We'll discuss each of these right now.
To calculate your IV (Individual Value), you'll have to rearrange the formula
so that you solve for IV instead of Stat (you can use your actual value from
the Summary screen for this). Once you have found IV, you'll be able to
calculate any Stat for any given Level, Effort Value or Personality Value
with impeccable accuracy. An example of this usage can be found in the
section, "2.4.1 - Influencing Individual Values".
If you are keen at observing algebra equations, you would have noticed that
at Level 100, one IV will always give you 1 additional stat point exactly -
the programmers engineered it that way. Thus, you can receive up to 31 bonus
points from your IV score alone! Why? Because when "Level" equals 100, it
becomes cancelled out. This should make 'test' calculations done by hand
very quick to compute.
To substitute your EV (Effort Value), it is possible to assume your Effort
Value if you have it maxed out. In this case, EV would equal 255. If you
have not battled any Pokémon yet, you can use 0 instead. If you are simply
putting in values to see if influencing stats is worth it, you can just use
any value and compare the results to your liking.
Since it's possible to receive 255 points in a given statistic for effort,
it's possible to acquire 63 (i.e. Math.Floor( 255/4 ) ) bonus points through
EVs. However, due to the 510 point cap that is placed on Effort Values,
you'll only be able to have two statistics possess this 63 point bonus.
Here is what Team Rocket Elite has to say:
Since 255/4 is rounded down, you should only get 252 EV in a single
stat (as opposed to 255) to reach the maximum because those extra 3
points will be wasted. Thus, you can max out 2 stats and put this 1
extra stat point into a third stat.
Lastly, the Personality Value is usually "1" (meaning, the value should not
change at all) unless your Personality affects a particular stat in some
way. For instance, if your Pokémon is "Brave" and you are calculating your
Attack or Speed, you'll have to provide a different Personality Value to the
formula. When calculating your Attack, you'll have to substitute "1.1" for
your Personality, indicating that this Pokémon receives a 10% bonus to his
attack stat. When calculating your Speed, you'll need to substitute "0.9" to
indicate that you receive a 10% penalty to your Speed score. A full list of
personalities and their affects on statistics can be read in the section,
"2.4.3 - Getting The Right Personality".
Otherwise, the use of this formula is fairly self-explanatory (for the real
young people, ask your math teacher to help you :P). The really exciting
aspect to all this is that it's possible to receive up to 94 bonus points
due to your IVs and EVs alone and you could potentially get another 10% from
a personality trait (although this is very difficult to engineer - it's
mostly luck).
I decided to program the formula in C#/Java and started playing around with
things. For anyone who is interested, here is the source code to calculate
the values for your these five statistics.
Note: Please don't email me asking how to compile this or integrate it into
a working application - I don't have time and will not reply to you.
Also, given that I'm a pretty good software architect, please don't
ask me to help you with any programming issues either. I will simply
ignore you and I will not make any exceptions. I'm truly sorry for
having this attitude regarding this issue, but you have to admit this
makes sense for obvious reasons.
/**
* Calculates any ability stat given Pokémon Hidden Values
*/
private double CalculateAbility( double effortValue, double baseValue,
double individualValue, double level, double personality )
{
double quarterEffort = Math.Floor( effortValue / 4 );
double doubleBase = baseValue * 2;
double levelValue =
( doubleBase + individualValue + quarterEffort ) * level;
double levelPercentage = levelValue / 100;
double personalityValue =
Math.Floor( ( levelPercentage + 5 ) * personality );
return personalityValue;
}
Now, to give you an example, let's show you the difference between a really
poorly trained Pokémon, a descent Pokémon and an 'uber' Pokémon using the
above Formula. I'll be using a Lv. 50 Salamence for this example since he
can become fairly powerful, but he is still caught in the wild so there is
the possibility for low IVs and the need for proper breeding. To start off,
here are his base stats, since we'll need this to compute his abilities at
various levels and hidden values.
Attack : 135
Defense : 80
Speed : 100
Sp. Attack : 110
Sp. Defense : 80
Now, here is chart containing 3 columns representing how well-trained it is.
For "Poor", EV and IV are both 0. For "Decent", IV is 15 and EV is 50. For
"Uber", IV is 31 and EV is 100. Notice that I could have selected two stats
to be 255 instead of balancing them at 100, but I'll leave that to you as
an exercise. Here is the table containing the stats of the three variations:
Poor decent Uber
---- ------ ----
Attack : 140 153 168
Defense : 85 98 113
Speed : 105 118 133
Sp. Attack : 115 128 143
Sp. Defense : 85 98 113
As you can see from the chart, if we had produced the Uber version of this
Salamence, we would have had achieved a +28 bonus to each of your statistics
at only Level 50. If we took this a step further and went to Level 100, the
total bonus would be doubled to +56 points. Thus, it really does make a
considerable difference if you try to get the highest IVs (through breeding)
and EVs (through battling) as possible. Later on in this guide, we'll show
you exactly how to achieve this in an efficient and effective manner.
The last thing I'd like to note is that IVs have slightly more influence on
your main statistics then EVs do. Thus, if you are strapped for time, it's
better to breed quality Pokémon than trying to raise EVs since you'll receive
the most initial benefit (and it's also permanent too whereas you can
influence EVs at a later time).
Why is this so? If you look at the formula (following BEDMAS rules), the
game first calculates the main value that is then scaled by your current
Level. Since there is nothing you can really do about your base stats, IVs
and EVs are the only workable values that pump up your final value the most.
Since an EV is divided by 4, you'll need to get 4 EVs to produce the same
effectiveness as a single IV. The developers did this on purpose since the
obvious tradeoff is that you can acquire EVs at any time in the game (whereas
IVs are set in stone when captured or hatched from an egg). If you plan out
your EVs perfectly, however, you should be able to acquire a total of 63
bonus points, which is a little more than twice the bonus points generated
by IVs.
Here is what Team Rocket Elite has to say in addition to my own comments:
When developing your statistics, EVs take a couple hours to develop
correctly while it could take days to breed for good IVs. You must do
both before you start training for normal experience because IV's are
unchangeable. Therefore, if you start training your Pokémon, you will
place points in EVs that are unimportant to you.
Also in total IVs generate 186 stat points over 6 stats while EVs
only generate 127 stat points over 6 stats. On the overall scale, IVs
are more important while on the individual stat scale, EVs are more
important.
Finally it is much easier to get 4 more EVs in comparison to 1 more IV.
HP Statistic Formula:
---------------------
Unlike the other abilities, HP uses a slightly different formula to ensure
a Pokémon's HP is higher than its other stats and to make weaker Pokémon
take a few hits before it faints (otherwise, it would be a real hassle to
train level 5 and below Pokémon in even the weakest tall grass areas).
Thus, to calculate your Pokémon's HP at any given time, you need to use this
formula where IV means Individual Value and EV means Effort Value as before.
HP = ((( BaseStat * 2 + IV + EV/4 ) * Level ) / 100 ) + 10 + Level
Also like the other formula, it could be written like this as well, which
is a lot easier to read and includes the rounding function.
HP = ( BaseStat * 2 + IV + Math.Floor( EV/4 ) ) * Level/100 + 10 + Level
Unlike the other formula, there is no Personality Value involved, making it
easier to calculate. The only difference is that you add 5 more points plus
your Level value to the end result, making it the largest of all six stats
(as we discussed in the last paragraph). Otherwise, this works and behaves
exactly as the formula from before).
I also programmed this formula in C#/Java, so you should be able to use it
directly (or write it in any language that you see fit).
Note: Please don't email me asking how to compile this or integrate it into
a working application - I don't have time and will not reply to you.
Also, given that I'm a pretty good software architect, please don't
ask me to help you with any programming issues either. I will simply
ignore you and I will not make any exceptions. I'm truly sorry for
having this attitude regarding this issue, but you have to admit this
makes sense for obvious reasons.
/**
* Calculates HP given Pokémon Hidden Values
*/
private double CalculateHitPoints( double effortValue, double baseValue,
double individualValue, double level )
{
double quarterEffort = Math.Floor( effortValue / 4 );
double doubleBase = baseValue * 2;
double levelValue =
( doubleBase + individualValue + quarterEffort ) * level;
double levelPercentage = levelValue / 100;
double finalHitPoints = levelPercentage + 10 + level;
return finalHitPoints;
}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.3.4 - Level Growth Rate Formulas
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lastly, I thought I would include the level growth rate formulas. Not all
Pokémon species grow at the same rate, so some Pokémon take longer to
level-up than others. Most of this information comes from the "Pokémon
Forever" website as I don't really have anything interesting to say about
it. However, I recently received the growth rate for each Pokémon from Team
Rocket Elite, so that should definately provide some useful information.
Here is a small chart illustrating the formulas for the various growth rates.
Given the value 'n' (any given level from 1 through 100), each of these
formulas will return the number of experience points required in order to
reach that level.
I use the "^" symbol to denote "to the power of". Thus, n^3 means "n-cubed"
and n^2 means "n-squared" in case you are unfamiliar with this notation.
Growth Quickly Moderately Moderately Slowly Slowly
------ ------- ---------- ----------------- ------
Formula: 0.8n^3 n^3 1.2n^3-15n^2+100n-140 1.25n^3
To see a full chart of experience points for levels 1 through 100 using
these formulas, go to this link:
http://user.yagb.de/meowth346/index.php?menu=training&data=data/stats/stats_experience.php
There are actually two more growth rates in Ruby/Sapphire called Erratic
(which takes 600,000 exp. to reach Level 100) and Fluctuating (which takes
1,640,000 exp. to reach Level 100) whose formulas are currently unknown to
anyone outside the circle of Nintendo and Gamefreak game designers and
developers. While it would be cool if we had the formulas, all you need to
know is that Erratic Pokémon will level extremely quick while Fluctuating
Pokémon will take the most effort to level-up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.3.4.1 - Specific Pokémon Growth Rates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this last section about growth rates, I've included the growth rate of
every Pokémon found in the game. With this information, you can decide
things like which Pokémon are worth trading for in order to speed up the
level-up process.
The developers have distributed these growth rates amongst the Pokémon in a
bell-curve fashion, thus "Med-Fast" and "Med-Slow" are considered normal
while "Erratic" and "Fluctuating" are considered irregular.
Note: I'd like to say thanks again to Team Rocket Elite for providing this
information.
Erratic (600,000 exp. to reach Lv.100)
-------------------------------------
Nincada, Ninjask, Shedinja, Volbeat, Swablu, Altaria, Zangoose, Lileep,
Cradily, Anorith, Armaldo, Feebas, Milotic, Clamperl, Huntail, Gorebyss
Fast (800,000 exp. to reach Lv.100)
----------------------------------
Azurill, Marill, Azumarill, Skitty, Delcatty, Mawile, Spoink, Grumpig,
Spinda, Lunatone, Solrock, Igglybuff, Jigglypuff, Wigglytuff, Shuppet,
Banette, Duskull, Dusclops, Chimecho, Corsola, Luvdisc
Med-Fast (1,000,000 exp. to reach Lv.100)
---------------------------------------
Poochyena, Mightyena, Jigzagoon, Linoone, Wurmple, Silcoon, Beautifly,
Cascoon, Dustox, Wingull, Pelipper, Surskit, Masquerain, Goldeen, Seaking,
Nosepass, Zubat, Golbat, Crobat, Meditite, Medicham, Plusle, Mainan,
Magnemite, Magneton, Voltorb, Electrode, Doduo, Dodrio, Numel, Camerupt,
Slugma, Magcargo, Torkoal, Grimer, Muk, Koffing, Weezing, Sandshrew,
Sandslash, Barboach, Whiscash, Baltoy, Claydol, Castform, Vulpix, Ninetales,
Pichu, Pikachu, Raichu, Psyduck, Golduck, Wynaut, Wobbuffet, Natu, Xatu,
Girafarig, Phanpy, Donphan, Snorunt, Glalie, Horsea, Seadra, Kingdra
Med-Slow (1,059,860 exp. to reach Lv.100)
---------------------------------------
Treecko, Grovyle, Sceptile, Torchic, Combusken, Blaziken, Mudkip, Marshtomp,
Swampert, Lotad, Lombre, Ludicolo, Seedot, Nuzleaf, Shiftry, Taillow,
Swellow, Abra, Kadabra, Alakazam, Whismur, Loudred, Exploud, Geodude,
Graveler, Golem, Sableye, Machop, Machoke, Machamp, Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume,
Bellossom, Roselia, Trapinch, Vibrava, Flygon, Cacnea, Cacturne, Kecleon,
Absol, Spheal, Sealeo, Walrein
Slow (1,250,000 exp. to reach Lv.100)
-----------------------------------
Ralts, Kirlia, Gardevoir, Slakoth, Vigoroth, Slaking, Magikarp, Gyarados,
Tentacool, Tentacruel, Aron, Lairon, Aggron, Electrike, Manectric, Carvanha,
Sharpedo, Skarmory, Staryu, Starmie, Tropius, Pinsir, Heracross, Rhyhorn,
Rhydon, Relicanth, Chinchou, Lanturn, Bagon, Shelgon, Salamence, Beldum,
Metang, Metagross, Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Latias, Latios, Kyogre,
Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys
Fluctuating (1,640,000 exp. to reach Lv.100)
------------------------------------------
Shroomish, Breloom, Makuhita, Hariyama, Illumise, Gulpin, Swalot, Wailmer,
Wailord, Seviper, Corphish, Crawdaunt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4 - Influencing Your Statistics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that we've looked at the various dynamic values that make up your main
statistics, we should learn how to manipulate and control these values to
our advantage, thus allowing us to make the strongest Pokémon possible.
Since we can't do very much about base stats (they are statically stored
within the game and are completely dependant on species type and evolution),
we'll look at influencing the following values in these upcoming sections:
* Individual Values
* Effort Values
* Personality Values
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4.1 - Influencing Individual Values
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this section, we are going to cover all the possible things you can do to
improve your Pokémon's "Individual Values". This section is probably the
most rewarding as the difference between good and poor IVs can often mean
the difference between 0 and 31 free points in each of your statistics (at
Level 100) totalling a potential bonus of 186 stat points.
One of the problems with the game is that it doesn't tell you the IVs for
any particular Pokémon on the Summary screen, so at low levels it's very
difficult to discern if you received a quality Pokémon or not. Let's look
at 4 attempts to capture a quality Zigzagoon. All of these Pokémon were
Lv.3, so the only attribute that could haved possibly affected the
variation in stats would have been the Individual Values.
Attempt #: A1 A2 A3 A4
HP : 15 15 15 15
Attack : 7 6 7 7
Defense : 7 7 7 7
Sp. Attack : 6 7 7 7
Sp. Defense : 8 8 7 7
Speed : 8 8 9 8
----------------------------------
Total: : 51 51 52 51
As you can see, each of these captures yielded different stats and it appears
that attempt #3 was the best, but that doesn't tell us the entire story.
Since we are working with integers and not real numbers, it's not possible to
know if A1, A3 or A4 have the best IV for their Attack statistic due to the
problems with rounding integers (this means that the game will always round
down rather than use the .5 rule that you were taught in school). The only
real way to find out which value is truly better is to raise them all up a
few levels so we can see a larger difference between them. I did just that
and made them all level 12 (However, the more you level them up, the more
accurate values you will receive). Here is the chart:
Attempt #: A1 A2 A3 A4
HP : 32 33 33 32
Attack : 15 12 16 14
Defense : 14 16 15 15
Sp. Attack : 12 13 15 14
Sp. Defense : 17 17 16 15
Speed : 19 20 21 19
-----------------------------------
Total: : 109 111 116 109
Note: In order to save a great amount of time in this area, always keep
around 8-10 Rare Candies in your Bag. Whenever you need to check the
IVs for a newly aquired Pokémon, save your game, use the Rare Candies
to level-up the Pokémon to level 13-15 and then make the calculations.
Once you have the IVs, you can then reset your Gameboy Advance and
either decide to keep the Pokémon or try again. The real advantage to
this is that you will not gain any Effort Values while you level-up so
it makes the calculations as accurate as possible.
Now that they are all Lv.12 (using Gameshark, so it was impossible for
Effort Points to objectively affect the results), we can see that A3
continues to out-shine the others - it just has better genes. The second
thing we notice is that A1 is clearly better than A2 or A4. This was not so
obvious when observing the previous table since many of the stats had the
same values.
Now, you could be saying to yourself that a difference of 7 points isn't
much and you'd be correct in questioning it - I agree with you. I think
catching 5+ instances of the same species is probably a waste of time, let
alone a waste of money on the mass consumption of Pokéballs.
Breeding To Achieve Higher Stats
--------------------------------
Thus, the other way to help engineer high IVs is to breed your own Pokémon.
While this section isn't the complete guide to breeding (you should consult
a seperate FAQ to learn about these issues), it does shed some light on why
you should do it. First I'd like to say that breeding does in no way
guarentee incredible IVs. Even in this example in which we made 3 breeding
attempts, we received one egg that produced equivalent IVs to its wild
counterparts and a second that was just slightly better. Actually, only one
of them truely stood out and this could have taken us longer to achieve
given how random breeding can be (since no one has discovered how the
formulas really work yet).
For this test, I took one Lv. 13 Zigzagoon from the grass area outside the
Daycare Center (making sure it was a male) and bred it with my female
Lv. 46 Linoone (which is the evolved form of a Zigzagoon). I then passed
them along to the Daycare supervisor and after 3 attempts, this is what I
got when I raised each of them up to Lv.12.
B1 B2 B3
HP : 34 32 32
Attack : 15 14 13
Defense : 18 16 17
Sp. Attack : 15 13 13
Sp. Defense : 18 19 17
Speed : 23 23 20
----------------------------
Total: : 123 117 112
As you can see, the IVs for two of these Pokémon are better on average then
catching the 4 wild ones earlier. Now that we have B1, we can be assured
that this Pokémon will be much more powerful than any of the wild instances
we caught earlier since it has 7-14 more points at Lv.12.
Note: An interesting result is that the quality of the Pokémon decreased
after each egg. I originally thought that this was intended by the
developers, but I hadn't bred enough eggs to see the larger picture.
This just goes to illustrate that breeding does not provide you with
amazing IVs all the time - you really have to work at it and have some
luck.
Note: Although I am using a higher level Zigzagoon, the actual level of your
male or female has no effect on the IVs passed down to the child (while
the IVs of the parents does have some effect on the child). We'll get
more into this in the breeding section of the guide, as this sort of
talk is better discussed there.
Although some people might believe this extra time and effort in hatching
multiple eggs may or may not be worth these extra points, keep in mind that
this is only the first step in achieving powerful stats. Also keep in mind
that as you gain more levels, your IVs will continue to be an asset as they
are multiplied by your current level. Thus, the higher your current level is
and the higher your IVs, the higher your stats will be. Since this Pokémon
is only level 12, we still have (potentially) another 88 more levels to go!
Calculating IVs
---------------
Now that you have some examples of stats at various levels, it's actually
possible to calculate your IVs. While the formula is correct (since we are
working with the game's rounded numbers), our values can only be estimates
to the actual values stored within the game. However, for our purposes,
this should be sufficient enough since all we can do is compare them to
others using the same methods anyway.
First off, you need to know the formula for calculating your IV given the
base stat, the actual value of the statistic, the effort value and the
personality value (for non-HP stats). For your convenience, I derived the
new formula by rearranging the variables using basic algebra. All you have
to do is plug in the values.
IV = (( Math.Ceiling( Stat/P ) - 5 ) * 100/Level ) - 2 * BaseStat - EV/4
Note: It is *very* important that you round-up "Stat/P" or the formula will
produce smaller, inaccurate values. In most cases this isn't a
problem, but if your Pokémon have low or non-existant IVs, this
formula will produce negative values. Thus, make sure you always
round-up this 'sub-result' before you compute the rest of the formula.
Note: Since the input values to this formula come from the game, you have to
keep in mind that they are not accuarate. Many people have complained
that this formula produces negative values or different values
depending on the input. When you put in "23" into the "Stat" variable,
the value could have actually been 23.111111 or 23.999999 - there is
no way to tell. Thus, the best way to ensure accurate results is
use higher level Pokémon - preferably level 12 or higher. Anything
lower, and your values will be completely inaccurate.
Note: Some moves like Hidden Power rely on a Pokémon's IVs, so if you want
to calculate its exact power, you need to heed the advice given in the
warning above.
Now, to calculate the IVs for our Zigzagoon, we need to first find out our
base stats. I have looked these up at the following website:
http://user.yagb.de/meowth346/index.php?data=stats/stats_rs_pokemon.php
For convenience, I have shown the base stats here along side the actual
statistics of B1 (our first attempt at breeding a Lv.12 Zigzagoon).
Base Stats B1's Actual Stats
---------------- -----------------
HP : 38 HP : 34
Attack : 30 Attack : 15
Defense : 41 Defense : 18
Sp. Attack : 30 Sp. Attack : 15
Sp. Defense : 41 Sp. Defense : 18
Speed : 60 Speed : 23
Now that we have the base stats, finding the IVs is a simple matter of using
the formula shown above and applying the techniques of basic algebra. By
assuming that,
Level = 12; and
Effort Value = 0; and
Personality = 1 (for 100%, let's assume to make it simple),
we can begin to calculate the IV for each stat given our Summary information
from within the game. Let's find out our Attack and Sp. Attack IVs. Some of
you might be able to calculate this in fewer steps, but I wanted to show
each step for clarity.
IV = (( Math.Ceiling( Stat/P ) - 5 ) * 100/Level ) - 2 * BaseStat - EV/4
IV = (( Math.Ceiling( 15/1 ) - 5 ) * 100/12 ) - 2 * 30 - 0/4
IV = (( 15 - 5 ) * 100/12 ) - 60
IV = ( 10 * 100/12 ) - 60
IV = 1000/12 - 60
IV = ~23
So by using the formula and solving for IV, we managed to figure out that
our Attack IV and Sp. Attack IV are both 23, which is two-thirds of the
maximum value of 31 - Not bad. Let's calculate our Defense and Sp. Defense
IVs next.
IV = (( Math.Ceiling( Stat/P ) - 5 ) * 100/Level ) - 2 * BaseStat - EV/4
IV = (( Math.Ceiling( 18/1 ) - 5 ) * 100/12 ) - 2 * 41 - 0/4
IV = (( 18 - 5 ) * 100/12 ) - 82
IV = ( 13 * 100/12 ) - 82
IV = 1300/12 - 82
IV = ~26
Now Speed.
IV = (( Math.Ceiling( Stat/P ) - 5 ) * 100/Level ) - 2 * BaseStat - EV/4
IV = (( Math.Ceiling( 23/1 ) - 5 ) * 100/12 ) - 2 * 60 - 0/4
IV = (( 23 - 5 ) * 100/12 ) - 120
IV = ( 18 * 100/12 ) - 120
IV = 1800/12 - 120
IV = 30
Since the HP statistic uses a different formula, we need to come up with a
new formula for calculating the HP IV as well. This formula was derived
in the same way as the others, but simply rearranging the variables in order
to solve for IV. Here is the formula:
IV = (( Stat - Level - 10 ) * 100/Level ) - 2 * BaseStat - EV/4
Using this formula, we can now calculate the HP IV for our Zigzagoon.
IV = (( Stat - Level - 10 ) * 100/Level ) - 2 * BaseStat - EV/4
IV = (( 34 - 12 - 10 ) * 100/12 ) - 2 * 38 - 0
IV = ( 12 * 100/12 ) - 76
IV = 100 - 76
IV = 24
When we receive numbers like 23, 26, 30 and 24 for Individual Values, we can
clearly see that wild Pokémon produce poor IVs in comparison to ones hatched
in the breeding process. In the breeding section of this guide, I'll talk
more about how to get quality IVs.
When using these formulas for all our main stats, we can now fully list our
set of IVs for this Lv.12 Zigzagoon:
HP IV : 24
Attack IV : 23
Defense IV : 26
Sp. Attack IV : 23
Sp. Defense IV : 26
Speed IV : 30
-------------------
Average :~25
As you can see, we made out pretty good with B1 with an efficiency rating of
81% (since we received an average of 25 out of a possible 31). If you use
these steps followed in this section of the guide, you can now be absolutely
certain that your breeding is working correctly. Now that you have the
actual values for the IVs, you can also re-input them with various EVs and
level values to calculate your projected stats at later points in the game.
Note: Although we demonstrated that breeding has provided us with some more
favourable results, IVs are generated by the game randomly when both
catching Pokémon from the wild and hatching eggs, thus making it
possible to receive a 'super' Pokémon. Since IVs range from 0-31 and
there are 6 stats, there is a 1 in 1,073,741,824 chance of receiving a
perfect set of IVs (or equally a set of all 0's as well).
When considering these terrible odds, as long as you receive a total
of 144 or more points in your all of your IVs (i.e. 75% of the
maximum), you should consider jumping up and down for joy and start
working on your EVs next.
Looking back to the Pichu example shown earlier in this guide, I realized
that I was unlucky and received a Pichu that had poor IVs (or at least ones
that compared with the wild Pikachu at best). If I had known that from the
beginning, I would not have wasted so much time leveling it up to Lv. 50.
After reading this section, I'm certain you won't make the same mistake.
A Common Problem People Have
----------------------------
If you have had some problems with the formulas, you should really read this
section. Otherwise, you can go on to section, "2.4.2 - Influencing Effort
Values".
A person named John had just emailed me stating that he was having some
problems with the formulas outlined in this guide. While he wasn't the
first to have issues, he was the first person to actually provide me with
adequate information that illustrated the main problem. In this section,
I'm going to show you his email that illustrates the problem and the
explanation I gave him that shed some light on the subject.
Here is the email sent to me on April 09, 2003:
Hello. I read your Advanced Trainer Guide from Gamefaqs last night and
sought out to breed and raise a Vulpix with decent IVs across the board,
using your formula to calculate the values from the ones that I've bred
and hatched. The problem I'm having is in the consistency of the
solutions for various levels. I would assume that rather I did the
calculations at level 5 or level 50, they should come out the same,
assuming that I have not attained any EVs (which I haven't), and that
I'm actually doing the math correctly. Here's what I did, and perhaps
you can see what I'm doing wrong.
I took a newly hatched Vulpix, used a Fire Stone to evolve it to a
Ninetails (I did this because the Base Stat Guide that I look at only had
the bases for Ninetails), and then did my calculations from there. The
Pokemon did not fight in any battles whatsoever, and no EV altering items
were used. I could only go as high as level 17, as I have only received
12 rare candies thus far in my travels. I got the base figures using the
material that was recommended within your guide. All numbers under each
corresponding level are respective in the order that I've listed the
Bases.
Species : Ninetails
Personality : Quirky
Base Hp : 73
Base Attack : 76
Base Defense : 75
Base Speed : 100
Base Sp. Attack : 81
Base Sp. Defense : 100
Lv.5 IV Lv.10 IV Lv.11 IV Lv.17 IV
--------- ---------- ---------- ----------
HP: 23 14 37 24 40 26 57 30
Attack: 11 32? 19 12 21 7 31 1
Defense: 13 10 22 20 24 22 34 20
Speed: 15 0 25 0 27 0 39 0
Sp. Attack: 13 2 22 8 24 10 34 8
Sp. Defense: 16 20 27 20 29 18 42 17
I also did the same with a standard Vulpix (after I found the base
stats), but posting those would probably be irrelevant as they aren't as
"detailed" as what I have above, however I will note that I got the same
end result as I have above. The last one I did was of a Pichu, and those
results were even more insane looking than those of the Vulpix and
Ninetails.
I'm sure many people have had a similar situation, so I wanted to let you
know why this is happening and I also wanted to ease your mind that there is
nothing wrong with the formulas directly.
If you compare the results from the Level 5 Ninetails to the Level 17
instance, you can clearly see the results are completely different. The
reason for this is that these formulas do not work very well at low levels
(such as Level 5). The main reason for this is due to fact that the final
stat doesn't change much if the IV is "0" or "31". At Level 5, you'll be
lucky to see more than a 5 point difference. The more levels you gain,
however, the more accurate the formulas will become. That is why I
recommend that you raise the Pokémon in question to level 12 or higher, as
stated earlier in this guide. If you have more Rare Candies or a Gameshark,
feel free to level the Pokémon up as high as possible to receive the most
accurate results (for data collection purposes only).
John's assumption that the formulas should provide the same IV results for
level 5 to level 50 is actually incorrect. While that statement might be
true while doing algebra or calculus equations, you have to remember that
we usually work with real numbers in those equations and make an effort to
avoid rounding down. However in these equations, your input is already
incorrect - it's been rounded by the game. Thus, you can't really trust
the actual stat values being provided on the Summary screen. While at level
5, it might show you 23 for your HP stat, it may actually be anywhere
between "23.000001" or "23.999999". If you plug that information into the
IV formula, you will receive two totally different IVs even though they
produce the same integer value.
Therefore, the best way to 'estimate' your IVs is to level up your
Pokémon as much as possible so that the actual stat value is closer to the
real value rather than the inaccurate integer that has been rounded by the
game.
Now, there is another interesting observation that I would like to point
out. When you look at the calculated IVs for Level 11 and 17, you should
be able to see that the IVs do not differ all that much - they are
relatively close together. In fact, you had calculated the IVs for higher
levels, you would start to get the impression that the values are stablizing
to their correct value. This is clearly different when you look at the
difference between the Level 5 and 11 values - the degree of seperation is
huge (in fact, they are opposites in some cases).
What does all this mean? John's Level 17 results are probably fairly
accurate, and if they aren't, they are at most 1 point off from the actual
value stored from within the game. Thus, if you plotted a graph of all the
IV values for levels 5 through 100 with the correct stat values, you'll
probably start to see it flatten out after level 12. This means that
anything before level 12 is nonsense.
Where's the proof of this? Well, let's take a look at the Defense and Speed
values, as this clearly shows that IVs are influencing the final values.
You'll see that the Defense value is "34" and the Speed value is "39".
If you look closely however, the Speed Base stat for Ninetails is 100 -
that's 25 more points than the Defense Base stat. Then how can the actual
stats be so close? If you look at the IVs, this particular Ninetails has a
very good Defense IV of 20 while the Speed IV is 0. This is how its Defense
stat was only a few points behind its Speed - truely not the norm for most
Ninetails Pokémon.
Now, I know many people probably don't like these uncertainties, especially
when mathematics is supposed to be an exact science. If the game provided
you with real numbers, these formulas would work perfectly no matter what
level you used. Since the inputs are inaccurate to begin with, you can't
expect your answers to be perfect either. There isn't much you can do unless
you can find a way to hack into the game and find the real numbers stored in
the console or emulator's memory, and I'm sure many of you aren't prepared
to do that.
So remember everyone, the results of using these formulas are only
"estimates". All you should be interested in is comparing your estimates
with others. If you need the exact IVs later on, you'll probably have to do
some more digging, but I can't see many practical uses for that anyway. All
you really need to care about is getting the best IVs possible (as your
estimates indicate) and then get max EVs (which we will discuss in the next
section of this guide). That's all there is to it folks and that's really
the best you can hope to accomplish.
Now, let's work on influencing our Effort Values.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4.2 - Influencing Effort Values
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After you have picked out a Pokémon with a good set of genes, the next area
you need to work on is leveling it up and improving each stat's EVs (i.e.
Effort Values).
While the word "Effort" is a good noun to describe how these points are
obtained, many people don't know for sure how they acquire them and why. As
you battle with your Pokémon, you will receive some "Effort Points" along
with the experience gained from winning the battle. Unlike general
experience points, these effort points are not shown to you when the battle
is finished, thus, the player is unaware how many Effort Values have been
obtained and accumulated through battle. Despite this setback, this guide
shows you everything you need to know to put you in control.
Firstly, each Pokémon species that you fight in battle has a static Effort
Value associated with it. In other words, this information is already
stored in the game and will always be the same regardless of the opponent
Pokémon's level and other stats. When you win a battle against a certain
species, the game will add this value (which ranges from 1 to 3) to your
Effort Value in one or more of your statistics. Usually rare or highly
evolved Pokémon provide 2 or 3 points per battle while unevolved or more
common Pokémon provide 1 point. We will look more into the exact values
that each Pokémon species provide in the section entitled,
"2.4.2.1 - Opponent Pokémon Effort Values".
Let's give a brief example to explain how you might gain Effort points in
Speed and Sp. Attack. If you were battling Pokémon that provides Effort
Points to Speed (such as Voltorbs that provide 1 point or Electrodes that
provide 2 points), you should expect your own Pokémon to grow in that stat
after each battle. Later, you might decide that you require more Sp. Attack
EVs, so you might seek out Beautify since they provide 3 points per battle to
your Sp. Attack Effort Value. For a Raichu, this would be a very desirable
situation since it performs best with high Speed and Sp. Attack
(Thunderbolt, etc.).
What if more than one Pokémon enters the battle? Unlike what logic would
indicate, every Pokémon that shifts into battle (regardless if they attacked
or not) will receive the full amount of Effort Points from that battle.
Thus, if you are fighting an opponent that provides 3 Effort Points in a
particular stat that three of your Pokémon require, you could switch each of
them in the battle to gain a total of 9 Effort Points spread across your 3
Pokémon!
Now, in order to properly balance the game, you cannot exceed 255 points in
any one of your stats and you will actually stop receiving effort points
altogether when you reach a total of 510 points in all your statistics
combined. Thus, if you raised your Speed EV to 255 and your Sp. Attack EV
to 255, you will not be able to receive any more Effort Points to your
other statistics. The good thing is that you will only have to fight
anywhere from 170 to 510 battles in order to reach this cap. One you reach
this cap, you can put a 'check mark' on the Pokémon since there isn't much
else you can do to make it better at this point.
Now, the Effort Value cap also has an unfortunate consequence. If you
increase your Effort Points in stats you don't care about (such as your
Attack statistic for a Raichu perhaps), you will not be able to 'erase'
them. Remember, you only have 510 points to allocate, so if you spend 400
points in areas that are not important to your Pokémon, you will considerably
damage the potential gain from the stats you *do* care about. In order to
prevent this from happening, you must make sure you look up the Effort
Points gained by the opponent you are facing in battle so you can gain
Effort Points in the areas that really matter. Again, this information is
found in the section entitled, "2.4.2.1 - Opponent Pokémon Effort Values".
As a last note about battling for Effort Points, if you decide to run from
a battle, you won't receive any Effort Points for that battle. You can use
this to your advantage by running away from battles that provide you with
Effort Points in areas that you don't want.
Looking back to the "Discouraging Scenario" from the beginning of the guide,
this also begins to explain why my custom Raichu did not have higher stats
than the wild Raichu - I fought with it less and used other Pokémon to 'ease'
it's leveling at Victory road while my wild Raichu was apart of my team for
a large portion of the game (which most likely faught a considerable amount
of battles than my custom raichu who leveled very quickly in fewer battles).
I would have seen a better increase over time if I had continued to use it
more regularly and against enemies that provided a boost in the stats that
mattered.
How Do I Know My Effort Values Maxed Out?
-----------------------------------------
To give you an idea that you have maxed out your stats (for those that didn't
bother counting), you'll notice that if you have gained a substantial amount
of Effort Points before you gain a level, during your next level up you'll
notice a great boost to one of your stats (like +11 or something along those
lines). When you finally see this bonus go back down to normal (like +2),
that's a guarenteed sign that you have received 255 effort points in that
particular stat.
Another way to find out if you have maxed out your Effort Values, you should
go see the woman wearing red-and-white clothes with brown hair and wearing a
white hair piece next to the Vitamin shop owner in Slateport City (aka, the
Energy Guru). They are both near the south-west location of this town if
you are having some trouble finding it. She will give you an Effort Ribbon
indicating your achievement, otherwise she will tell you to "try harder".
Using the Macho Brace:
----------------------
Now that you understand how Effort Values work and how they are obtained
through battle, we are going to look at ways to gaining Effort Points more
efficiently. For our first discussion, we are going to talk about the Macho
Brace, which can be found by defeating the Winstrate family at their house
just north of Mauville City (if you haven't found it yet).
Note: I'm surprised that no walkthrough (even the most complete, high quality
ones) have not even mentioned the word Macho Brace, let alone how to
even use it. I just find this to be a really big surprise and I would
encourage these authors to include something about it when they battle
the Winstrate family in their guides (even if all you do is redirect
them to this guide).
One of the biggest problems with gaining Effort Points is that it just takes
too long. This is a valid concern since many people don't have time to
engage in 170-510 battles for each of their Pokémon (which ends up being
6 or more).
Note: I tend to agree with the above statement entirely as I think the
developers were deliberately trying to waste the player's time, but I
guess it doesn't really matter since the game is beatable without
putting in the extra effort (no pun intended).
However, this might have an impact on player vs. player matches
(assuming their Pokémon are at equal levels) and I can't see the
strategy where the 'smart player with no life' beats 'smart player
with a life' only because they invested countless hours getting better
Effort Values. I realize that is what the cap is for, but the whole
concept of Effort Values seems to completely create an imbalance and
a disadvantage towards casual players. I guess I just don't
understand game 'design' as well as the designers do <sarcasm>, but
I'm sure this design issue has something to do with marketing and
sales department.
Team Rocket Elite rebuttal to my comment:
In case you are concerned with the time it takes to max out your EVs,
doing it correctly may only take a few hours while trying to get to
level 100 for example will take much longer. If you are patient
enough to get to level 100, raising your EVs should be a walk in the
park for you.
Effort Values really do make a large difference in a Player vs. Player
battle. When Effort Values are properly placed, it can mean the
difference between surviving an attack or getting OHKO'd (One-Hit
Knock-Out). The Effort Value system provides serious players with an
advantage, meaning that people who work hard to study the game have an
advanage over someone who didn't. In other words, they put in the
time and effort, they get results.
In any case, the Macho Brace will double the effort points gained through
battle, effectively reducing the number of battles to be fought to 85-205.
This should considerably reduce the time required to raise your effort
values.
Given the benefits of the Macho Brace, it does have its disadvantages, but
it really isn't anything to gripe about. While equipped, it will provide
a 50% level reduction to your Speed statistic. All this means is that your
Speed Formula will use "Level * 0.5" instead of "Level". When you take the
brace off (after you have maxed out your points), your Speed score will be
re-calculated by the game and will be reset to the value it should be at.
Thus, you won't suffer from any permanent Speed loss as some people are
stating on the gamefaqs.com forums.
To get the best results from the Macho Brace, use it *only* against enemies
that provide Effort Points in the statistics you are interesting in. When
you are battling enemies that provide Effort Points in statistics that you
don't care about, you should take off the Macho Brace or run away from the
battle since you don't want to waste valuable effort points - i.e. you don't
want to accidentally receive 6 points to a useless stat when you would have
only wasted 3 points with the brace off or 0 points by running away.
Thus, make sure you select your 'training' area before you start using the
Macho Brace and make sure to use 'maxed-out' Pokémon to see what enemies
lurk there first - you don't want to accidentally allocate Effort Points to
any Pokémon who still needs to raise their EVs.
Using Exp. Share
----------------
Another item that you can aquire is called an Exp. Share, which splits the
total experience gained from a battle and gives half of it to the Pokémon
holding the item even if it did not battle. The most obvious use for this
item is to level-up weak Pokémon while saving yourself the burden of having
to constantly switch Pokémon out of battle as the fight begins. What some
people don't realize is that the Pokémon holding the item will also recieve
the full amount of Effort Points gained in the battle. This differs from
previous games as the Effort Points were split in the same way normal
experience was.
Like using the Macho Brace, you'll want to co-ordinate these efforts so that
the Pokémon battling receives the same EVs as the one holding Exp. Share.
Thus, this effectively halves the time required to gain Effort Points.
One thing I would like to make clear is that if your front Pokémon has the
Macho brace (discussed in the last section), you WILL NOT gain Effort Points
at a quadruple rate as previous stated by the guide (unfortunately). Thus,
the one holding the Exp. Share will always gain EVs at the normal place.
What is Pokérus and How Does That Affect My Stats?
--------------------------------------------------
Pokérus is a condition (something like a virus, but it's not harmful) that
occurs at random. The purpose of this condition is to improve the rate of
which you aquire Effort Points. While a Pokémon has this condition, he'll
gain twice as many Effort Points. Combined with the Macho Brace discussed
earlier, you'll have a 4x modifier on your EV development, which will
considerably reduce the number of battles you'll have to face.
Like any virus, Pokérus will spread to your other members without fail.
Thus, if you are using all your Pokémon in a balanced manner when battling,
you should notice a substantial increase in all your Pokémon's stats until
Pokérus weas off (usually between 2 to 3 days).
There isn't a lot of strategy to Pokérus, since it does happen randomly.
The best you can do to take advantage of it is to set aside what you are
doing and train your Pokémon for EV development until the effects go away.
I wouldn't count on this to be a general strategy, so treat it like the
'special case'.
If you want to induce Pokérus using Gameshark, here is the code:
A208DB56 547FB6C5
This code makes all the wild Pokémon near Littleroot Town have Pokérus,
thus it'll spread amongst your other Pokémon quickly. While some people may
not like cheating, this code will only speed up the inevitable - maxed
Effort Values. Since you can only attain legal values using this code, I
don't see a problem with it. Not all of us have hours to gain max EVs and
the process isn't exactly 'mind-intensive' or 'strategic' either. So don't
email me saying, "You shouldn't endorse this as it makes my opponents harder
to beat" - too bad :P
Using Vitamins:
---------------
The final way you can influence Effort Values is to have your Pokémon
consume Vitamins. While some people believe that taking vitamins gives a
+X bonus to a statistic, it actually just adds 10 Effort Points. This
causes the game to make a re-calculation on a particular statistic, which
will generally add 0-2 bonus points.
Did I say 0 to 2? Yep. Sometimes, if your Pokémon is at a low level, a
'single' vitamin won't make a lot of difference on the Summary screen. While
you might not visually see this stat increment, rest assured the game has
increased your effort points by 10 permanently. At later levels, you'll
begin to see that the stat is slightly higher if you compared it to another
Pokémon had not used the vitamins or battled for the equavalent number of
effort points (this is assuming that this Pokémon is also at the same level
and has the same IVs) - just trust me on this one :P
The game provides you with 6 different types of vitamins, each one adding
10 effort points to a certain stat. Here is a table showing you what each
Vitamin does (each costs $9800 at any "Energy" store found the game and
sometimes the "Energy Guru" in Slateport City sells them for half-price).
Protein : +10 EV to Attack
Iron : +10 EV to Defense
Carbos : +10 EV to Speed
Zinc : +10 EV to Sp. Defense
Calcium : +10 EV to Sp. Attack
HP Up : +10 EV to HP
Question: So if I buy 26 Calcium’s, will I have 255 Effort Points in
Sp. Attack?
Answer: To ensure that you can't max out any one statistic through vitamins
alone, the game has provided a Vitamin 'in-take' cap at 10 per statistic if
you have not battled and it's actually less than that if you have already
started receiving Effort Points. More specifically, once your Pokémon has
reached 100 Effort Points (using vitamins or not), it will not be allowed to
take any more). Thus, you can only increase any given stat by 100 points,
forcing you to actually battle to get the remaining potential 155 points
(since each stat can have 255 Effort Values). While this doesn't make
battling non-existent, there is a certain logic to it and if you take
anywhere from to 10 to 51 vitamins, you can limit the numbers of battles by
19 to 100%, respectively. You should then battle and use the Macho Brace to
get these remaining Effort Values.
If you don't care to battle for your EVs, you could also choose to purchase
10 Protein, Iron, Carbos, Zinc, Calcium and 1 HP Up. This would total up to
510 Effort Points, which is the cap set by the game. While this might not
produce the strongest Pokémon possible, it will produce a balanced one and
it saves you the trouble of battling for EVs. However, this approach won't
be an option all the time since even if you have beaten the game, you will
only have enough money to purchase between 10-12 vitamins (I had just above
$120,000 and I didn't purchase all that much throughout the game). Thus,
unless you are using Gameshark, you'll have to battle anyway.
Team Rocket Elite had this to add:
By battling the Elite Four over and over using the Amulet coin, you
will earn more then enough money to buy all the vitamins you need.
Why are Vitamins Used?
----------------------
Now that you understand what Vitamins are and how they relate to game
mechanics, what are the practical reasons why one might use them? Well,
there are two major reasons why you might want to use Vitamins.
For one, you might want to quickly engineer a Pokémon to have better stats
at lower levels (it just hatched for example). While this doesn't make the
Pokémon gain stats quicker than any other Pokémon in the long run (like some
people believe because level-up information might indicate higher stat
increments), this will improve how effective your Pokémon is and will make
battles slightly easier when you are training it.
I really want to stress that you can take Vitamins at any time, regardless
of the Pokémon's current level. Since the game uses 're-calculations'
rather than tables (as discussed many times in this guide), it DOES NOT
matter when you decide to use them.
With the above paragraph being said, I would always take them first since
the game will not allow you take vitamins once your Effort Value has reached
100 (remember, you'll have to battle up to 255 at this point). Thus, a good
principle to adopt is to take them as soon as you decide that you would like
to use that Pokémon in your party. The more times you battle with that
Pokémon, the less you can take advantage of the 'free' Effort Points (thus,
you'll have to engage in more battles, which is a waste of time/effort).
Secondly, since Effort Values are hidden (and therefore you can't be certain
where the game is allocating them), you should use vitamins to increase the
stats that are most important to you so that you have a better chance of
maxing them out to 255. Even in the worst case scenario, you will at least
have 200 Effort Values assigned to the stats you care about and possibly 510
if you battle the correct Pokémon (i.e. Voltorbs/Electrodes for speed, etc.).
Using Rare Candies
------------------
Since there is a lot of talk about "Avoiding Rare Candies", I thought I would
shed some light on when they are useful. To recap this argument, the reason
why you shouldn't use Rare Candies right away is that they don't increase
your EV stats. Thus, even though you see your Pokémon level up and receive
some stat bonuses, it's only because your level value increased. To make a
long story short, you could have increased your stats more effectively if
you battled for the actual level experience manually (although it takes
longer) so that you are raising your EVs at the same time as your level
values.
Now, once you have maxed our your effort values, you actually *should* use
your Rare Candies to gain levels faster. Why? We'll, since you can't
improve EVs at this point, the only dynamic value that can affect your
main statistics is the Level Value anyway. Thus, you won't be rewarded
for any additional battling at this point - so make good use of those Rare
Candies. Ironically, by the time you have maxed out your effort points,
levels will be pretty tough to obtain. This makes each usage of a Rare
Candy more effective. The common principle here is to make each Rare Candy
provide you with more experience points, thus increasing their value to you.
Another neat usage for Rare Candies (also mentioned in the section entitled,
"2.4.1 - Influencing Individual Values") is to see if lower-level Pokémon
possess satisfactory IVs. This will save you a lot of time since you will
not have to battle and you can also guarentee that your Effort Values will
be 0, making the calculations as accurate as possible. All you have to do
is consume 8-10 Rare Candies and calculate your IVs. If you don't like what
you have, you can then reset the gameboy and try again =)
Note: You can aquire an infinite amount of rare candies by using 6 Zigzagoons
and fighting random battles. Every two or three battles, take the
items from all 6 Zigzagoons and repeat for several hours (or just use
a Game Shark if you want to do this in a few minutes).
What Happens When I Am Level 100?
---------------------------------
When you hit level 100 but amazingly haven't collected 510 Effort Points,
you can still take vitamins or battle for your remaining Effort Values. When
you have maxed them out, put the Pokémon in the box and take it back out.
This will cause the game to recalculate your stats (as if you leveled up)
and you'll be able to get your Effort Ribbon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4.2.1 - Opponent Pokémon Effort Values
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that we got a grip on how to influence our EVs, I'm now going to show
you a table containing the Effort Values gained from every Pokémon in
Ruby/Sapphire. The general pattern is that a weak Pokémon species will
provide you with 1 EV in a single stat, a moderately powerful species will
provide a total of 2 EVs in either one or two stats, and a very strong
species (such as the most evolved form or perhaps a rare Pokémon) will
provide 3 EVs in one to three different stats.
One thing I immediately noticed is that Pokémon which provide 3 EVs are
fairly rare in the wild because usually the player evolves them to this
state on his own rather than capturing them. All the legendary Pokémon are
like this as well. Thus, even though I stated earlier that you need to
fight between 170-510 battles, you'll probably be fighting closer to 510
battles rather than 170 battles. This is unfortunate since it's clear that
the developers wanted you to spend a great deal of time maxing out your
stats and they weren't really prepared to give you any breaks, so make sure
you use Vitamins first and equip yourself with a Macho Brace for maximum
efficiency.
My advice would be to attack foes that appear the most common in a given
area, even if they provide only 1 or 2 EVs. Why? At least this way you
can better control how your EVs are gained and you can count in your head
(or write it down) how many battles you engaged in so you know your exact
EV statistic (or you could calculate it if you already know your IVs as
well). By fighting really weak opponents, you should be able to mop up the
battles really quickly with fewer trips to the Poké Center. This won't get
you a lot of levels, but you'll probably max out your stats quickly (albeit,
this will be a mindless endevour but that's the price you pay for
efficiency).
I seperated the chart into 7 sections; one for each main statistic and the
last that contains Pokémon which provide mixed EVs (which may or may not
be key to your training strategy). I also sorted them in decreasing order,
so now it's easy to find which Pokémon provide the best EVs per battle.
Hit Points EV Table
-------------------
# English Name Jp Name HP Atk Def Spd Sp.Atk Sp.Def
- ------------ ------- -- --- --- --- ------ ------
38 Slaking Kekkingu 3 - - - - -
47 Exploud Bakuong 3 - - - - -
56 Azumarill Mariruri 3 - - - - -
139 Wigglytuff Pukurin 3 - - - - -
175 Walrein Todozeruga 3 - - - - -
44 Shedinja Nukenin 2 - - - - -
46 Loudred Dogoomu 2 - - - - -
49 Hariyama Hariteyama 2 - - - - -
55 Marill Mariru 2 - - - - -
96 Swalot Marunomu 2 - - - - -
100 Wailord Hoeruo 2 - - - - -
128 Whiscash Namazun 2 - - - - -
138 Jigglypuff Purin 2 - - - - -
150 Tropius Torobiusu 2 - - - - -
161 Wobbuffet Soonasu 2 - - - - -
172 Glalie Onigoori 2 - - - - -
174 Sealeo Todoguraa 2 - - - - -
182 Lanturn Rantaan 2 - - - - -
14 Wurmple Kemusso 1 - - - - -
34 Shroomish Kinokoko 1 - - - - -
36 Slakoth Namakero 1 - - - - -
45 Whismur Gonyonyo 1 - - - - -
48 Makuhita Makunotsuta 1 - - - - -
54 Azurill Ruriri 1 - - - - -
95 Gulpin Gokurin 1 - - - - -
99 Wailmer Hoiruko 1 - - - - -
106 Grimer Betobetaa 1 - - - - -
127 Barboach Dojocchi 1 - - - - -
137 Igglybuff Pupurin 1 - - - - -
142 Castform Powarun 1 - - - - -
160 Wynaut Soonano 1 - - - - -
165 Phanpy Gomazou 1 - - - - -
171 Snorunt Yukiwarashi 1 - - - - -
173 Spheal Tamazaratsu 1 - - - - -
181 Chinchou Chonchii 1 - - - - -
Attack EV Table
---------------
6 Blaziken Bashaamo - 3 - - - -
9 Swampert Raguraji - 3 - - - -
24 Shiftry Daatengu - 3 - - - -
75 Machamp Kairikii - 3 - - - -
189 Salamence Boomanda - 3 - - - -
199 Groudon Guraadon - 3 - - - -
8 Marshtomp Numakuroo - 2 - - - -
11 Mightyena Guraina - 2 - - - -
23 Nuzleaf Konohana - 2 - - - -
35 Breloom Kinogassa - 2 - - - -
51 Seaking Azumaou - 2 - - - -
53 Gyarados Gayarodosu - 2 - - - -
74 Machoke Gorikii - 2 - - - -
93 Dodrio Doudariou - 2 - - - -
98 Sharpedo Samehadaa - 2 - - - -
123 Altaria Zanguusu - 2 - - - -
126 Solrock Sorurokku - 2 - - - -
130 Baltoy Shizarigar - 2 - - - -
136 Armaldo Aamarudo - 2 - - - -
147 Banette Jubetta - 2 - - - -
152 Absol Abusoru - 2 - - - -
167 Pinsir Kairosu - 2 - - - -
168 Heracross Herakurosu - 2 - - - -
170 Rhydon Saidon - 2 - - - -
7 Mudkip Mizugorou - 1 - - - -
10 Poochyena Pochiena - 1 - - - -
50 Goldeen Tosakinto - 1 - - - -
73 Machop Wanrikii - 1 - - - -
92 Doduo Douduo - 1 - - - -
97 Carvanha Kibania - 1 - - - -
116 Trapinch Nakkuraa - 1 - - - -
129 Corphish Heigani - 1 - - - -
135 Anorith Anopusu - 1 - - - -
146 Shuppet Kagebouzu - 1 - - - -
187 Bagon Tatsubei - 1 - - - -
Defense EV Table
----------------
59 Golem Gorounya - - 3 - - -
72 Aggron Bosugodora - - 3 - - -
192 Metacross Metagurosu - - 3 - - -
193 Regirock Rezurooku - - 3 - - -
15 Silcoon Karasarisu - - 2 - - -
17 Cascoon Mayorudo - - 2 - - -
28 Pelipper Perippaa - - 2 - - -
58 Graveler Gouron - - 2 - - -
71 Lairon Kodora - - 2 - - -
104 Magcargo Magukarugo - - 2 - - -
105 Torkoal Kootasu - - 2 - - -
109 Weezing Matadogasu - - 2 - - -
113 Sandslash Sandopan - - 2 - - -
115 Skarmory Eaamundo - - 2 - - -
188 Shelgon Komoruu - - 2 - - -
191 Metans Metangu - - 2 - - -
22 Seedot Taneboo - - 1 - - -
42 Nincada Tsuchinin - - 1 - - -
57 Geodude Isitsubute - - 1 - - -
60 Nosepass Nozupasu - - 1 - - -
70 Aron Kokodora - - 1 - - -
108 Koffing Dogaasu - - 1 - - -
112 Sandshrew Sanddo - - 1 - - -
169 Rhyhorn Saihoun - - 1 - - -
176 Clamperl Paaruru - - 1 - - -
190 Beldum Danbaru - - 1 - - -
Speed EV Table
--------------
3 Sceptile Jucain - - - 3 - -
65 Crobat Kurobattou - - - 3 - -
157 Raichu Raichuu - - - 3 - -
2 Grovyle Juputol - - - 2 - -
13 Linoone Massuguma - - - 2 - -
26 Swellow Oosubame - - - 2 - -
37 Vigoroth Yarukimono - - - 2 - -
43 Ninjask Tekkanin - - - 2 - -
64 Golbat Gorubatto - - - 2 - -
77 Medicham Chaaremu - - - 2 - -
79 Manectric Raiboruto - - - 2 - -
85 Electrode Marumain - - - 2 - -
144 Starmie Satarumii - - - 2 - -
156 Pikachu Pikachuu - - - 2 - -
1 Treecko Kimori - - - 1 - -
12 Zigzagoon Jiguzaguma - - - 1 - -
25 Taillow Subame - - - 1 - -
27 Wingull Kyamome - - - 1 - -
32 Surskit Ametama - - - 1 - -
52 Magikarp Koiking - - - 1 - -
61 Skitty Eneko - - - 1 - -
63 Zubat Zubatto - - - 1 - -
76 Meditite Asanan - - - 1 - -
78 Electrike Rakurai - - - 1 - -
80 Plusle Purasuru - - - 1 - -
81 Minun Mainan - - - 1 - -
84 Voltorb Biriridama - - - 1 - -
86 Volbeat Borubiito - - - 1 - -
87 Illumise Irumiize - - - 1 - -
140 Feebas Hinbasu - - - 1 - -
143 Staryu Hitodemon - - - 1 - -
153 Vulpix Rokon - - - 1 - -
155 Pichu Piichu - - - 1 - -
183 Luvdisc Rabukasu - - - 1 - -
Sp. Attack EV Table
-------------------
16 Beautify Agehunto - - - - 3 -
31 Gardevoir Saanaito - - - - 3 -
41 Alakazam Fudin - - - - 3 -
90 Vileplume Rafureshiaa - - - - 3 -
197 Latios Ratiosu - - - - 3 -
198 Kyogre Kaiorga - - - - 3 -
30 Kirlia Kiruria - - - - 2 -
40 Kadabra Yungreaa - - - - 2 -
83 Magneton Reakoiruu - - - - 2 -
89 Gloom Kusaihana - - - - 2 -
125 Lunatone Runatoon - - - - 2 -
159 Golduck Goruddakku - - - - 2 -
164 Girafarig Kirinriki - - - - 2 -
178 Gorebyss Sakurabisu - - - - 2 -
4 Torchic Achamo - - - - 1 -
29 Ralts Rarutosu - - - - 1 -
39 Abra Keishii - - - - 1 -
82 Magnemite Koiru - - - - 1 -
88 Oddish Nazunokusa - - - - 1 -
94 Roselia Rozeria - - - - 1 -
101 Numel Donmeru - - - - 1 -
103 Slugma Magumaggu - - - - 1 -
114 Spinda Pacchiiru - - - - 1 -
119 Cacnea Sabonea - - - - 1 -
158 Psyduck Kodakku - - - - 1 -
162 Natu Neitei - - - - 1 -
184 Horsea Tattsuu - - - - 1 -
Sp. Defense EV Table
--------------------
18 Dustox Dokukeiru - - - - - 3
21 Ludicolo Runpapa - - - - - 3
91 Bellossom Kereihana - - - - - 3
194 Regice Rezuaisu - - - - - 3
196 Latias Ratiasu - - - - - 3
20 Lombre Hasuburero - - - - - 2
67 Tentacruel Dokukurage - - - - - 2
111 Grumpig Bupiggu - - - - - 2
122 Zangoose Chiritarisu - - - - - 2
132 Claydol Nendooru - - - - - 2
134 Cradily Yureidoru - - - - - 2
141 Milotic Mirokarosu - - - - - 2
19 Lotad Hasuboo - - - - - 1
66 Tentacool Menokurage - - - - - 1
110 Spoink Banebu - - - - - 1
121 Swablu Chiritto - - - - - 1
131 Crawdaunt Yajiron - - - - - 1
133 Lileep Ririira - - - - - 1
145 Kecleon Kakureon - - - - - 1
Mixed EV Table
--------------
# English Name Jp Name HP Atk Def Spd Sp.Atk Sp.Def
- ------------ ------- -- --- --- --- ------ ------
200 Rayquaza Rekkuuza - 2 - - 1 -
186 Kingdra Kingudora - 1 - - 1 1
195 Registeel Rezusuchiru - - 2 - - 1
118 Flygon Furaigon - 1 - 2 - -
149 Dusclops Samayooru - - 1 - - 2
62 Delcatty Enekororo 1 - - 1 - -
107 Muk Betobeton 1 1 - - - -
179 Relianth Jiiransu 1 - 1 - - -
5 Combusken Wakashamo - 1 - - 1 -
68 Sableye Yamirami - 1 1 - - -
69 Mawile Kuchiito - 1 1 - - -
102 Camerupt Bakuuda - 1 - - 1 -
117 Vibrava Biburaaba - 1 - 1 - -
120 Cacturne Nokutasu - 1 - - 1 -
124 Seviper Habuneeku - 1 - - 1 -
166 Donphan Donfan - 1 1 - - -
177 Huntail Hanteeru - 1 1 - - -
148 Duskull Yomawaru - - 1 - - 1
180 Corsola Saniigo - - 1 - - 1
185 Seadra Shiidora - - 1 - 1 -
154 Ninetales Kyuukon - - - 1 - 1
163 Xatu Neiteio - - - 1 1 -
33 Masquerain Amemoosu - - - - 1 1
151 Chimecho Chiriin - - - - 1 1
Suggested EV Training Areas
---------------------------
Lastly, in this section I will also provide some 'suggested areas' for
rapid EV advancement so you don't have to go finding these special Pokémon
yourself, thus saving you some time. Since every player wants to train
against the best Pokémon (as far as EVs are concerned), it made a lot of
sense to have a few people hunt out the best areas than have thousands of
readers duplicate the work themselves individually.
Note: If you use this guide and find some really nice areas for EV
advancement (like enemies with complementary EV stats), please let me
know so I can add it in the guide.
Stat Area(s)
---- -------
HP - Rusturf Tunnel to find Whismur (1 HP).
Attack - The bottom floor (and maybe the second and third) of Mt Pyre
has only shuppets (+1 attack). This is Sapphire Only.
- The desert in Route 111. There, you'll find Baltoy (Attack 2)
and Trapinch (Attack 1). Unfortunately, you'll find Cacnea
(Sp.Att. 1) and Sandshrew (Defense 1) just as often, so run
from them.
Defense - The bottom floor (and maybe the second and third) of Mt Pyre
has only duskulls (+1 defense). This is Ruby Only.
(Contributed by CK1)
- Go underwater on Route 124 (probably any other underwater area
will be the same). Clamperl (Defense 1) is most common there,
but Chinchou (HP 1) and Relicanth (HP 1 & Defense 1) are also
there.
Speed - Walk in the grass on Route 118. You will find Electrike
(Speed 1), Linoone (Speed 2), Manectric (Speed 2), Wingull
(Speed 1) and Zigzagoon (Speed 1). Kecleon (Sp.Def. 1) is
also here, but it's rare, so you can run from it when it
appears.
Sp. Attack - Route 112. You'll find Numel (Sp.Att. 1). Machop (Attack 1)
is also there, but it's not as common. You should run from
the rest.
- Route 113, fight Spinda. You'll only occasionally encounter
Sandshew and Skarmory
Sp. Defense - Abandoned Ship and Surf in the pool on the left side of
floor 1. You will find Tentacool (Sp.Def. 1) and Tentacruel
(Sp.Def. 2). There's only one place you can surf inside the
ship, so it shouldn't be too hard to find.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4.3 - Getting The Right Personality
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lastly, the only value we have not discussed in-depth is the Personality
Value. You can find out your personality by looking at the first Summary
screen at the bottom. By scanning the chart below, you can see if the
Personality Value is 1 (blank), 0.9 (-10%) or 1.1 (+10%) and you can then
use this value in the formulas provided in this guide.
The traits with the * next to them indicate that they do not provide any
bonuses or disadvantages. This is because it adds 10% to its statistic
but also subtracts 10% from that same statistic.
Note: In earlier versions of the guide, I stated that they only provided
a benefit. Many individuals have corrected this mistake, so I thought
I would bring that to your attention.
Trait Attack Defense Speed Sp. Attack Sp. Defense
----- ------ ------- ----- ---------- -----------
* Hardy none
Lonely +10% -10%
Brave +10% -10%
Adamant +10% -10%
Naughty +10% -10%
Bold -10% +10%
* Docile none
Relaxed +10% -10%
Impish +10% -10%
Lax +10% -10%
Timid -10% +10%
Hasty -10% +10%
* Serious none
Jolly +10% -10%
Naive +10% -10%
Modest -10% +10%
Mild -10% +10%
Quiet -10% +10%
* Bashful none
Rash +10% -10%
Calm -10% +10%
Gentle -10% +10%
Sassy -10% +10%
Careful -10% +10%
* Quirky none
Let's take a look at my Latios, which has a "Sassy Nature, Lv.40" and we'll
see that this chart combined with the formulas produces accurate results.
If we look the "Sassy" trait in the chart, we find out that my Latios is
given a reduction in Speed but gains an increase in Sp. Defense. This
might not have been the best trait for Latios (since Sp. Attack would have
been nicer and Speed is not really a good stat to give up), but you don't
exactly get a personal conversation with Latios to ask for your preference
when he randomly appears =)
Let's now prove that our personalities are taking effect according to this
chart. Currently, my Latios has the following stats at Level 55. I also
provided the base stats for Latios since we'll need them as well.
My Stats Base Stats
----------------- -----------------
HP : 162 HP : 80
Attack : 116 Attack : 90
Defense : 106 Defense : 80
Sp. Attack : 161 Sp. Attack : 130
Sp. Defense : 152 Sp. Defense : 110
Speed : 125 Speed : 110
I also know that the Effort Values for Sp. Defense and Speed were around
100 since I got lazy and used Vitamins. However, I did fight with it for
a bit before I used the Vitamins, so they were not going to be 100 exactly.
After fiddling around a bit with my C# application, I figured out that my
EVs for Speed and Sp. Defense were both 95.
We'll need all these stats if we hope to compute the Personality Value.
Since the chart says we should receive an increase in Sp. Defense, I'll
start with that first. So for this example, I'm going to substitute all
the values I know and I will solve for PV (Personality Value). If
everything checks out okay, PV should equal "1.1".
Sp.D = (( BaseStat * 2 + IV + EV/4 ) * Level/100 + 5 ) * PV
152 = (( 110 * 2 + 0 + 95/4 ) * 55/100 + 5 ) * PV
152 = (( 243.75 ) * .55 + 5 ) * PV
152 = ( 134.0625 + 5 ) * PV
152 = 139.0625 * PV
1.093 = PV
So, as you can see, our PV is 1.093 or ~1.1, which indicates a 10% increase
in that stat value. We will probably never get the "exact" value whenever
we decide to solve for PV since we are working in reverse and the values
aren't going to be exact to begin with (unfortunately - stupid
Nintendo/Gamefreak).
We can also do the same thing for the Speed statistic as well, which is
almost identical to the above calculation since the base stats for Sp.
Defense and Speed are both 110 (lucky me). Here is the calculation:
Speed = (( BaseStat * 2 + IV + EV/4 ) * Level/100 + 5 ) * PV
125 = (( 110 * 2 + 0 + 95/4 ) * Level/100 + 5 ) * PV
125 = (( 243.75 ) * .55 + 5 ) * PV
125 = ( 134.0625 + 5 ) * PV
125 = 139.0625 * PV
0.898 = PV
Again, our PV is 0.898 or ~0.9 to indicate a -10% in the overall stat value.
Thus, it shows that personality traits play a fairly significant role in the
overall power of your Pokémon. In my case, my Latios would have had been
better off as "Modest" (as most will) since it provides an increase in
Sp. Attack but a Decrease in the normal Attack value, with no reduction in
speed (hence, he will have better chances of going first). This would have
been ideal since I always use Dragon Claw and Psychic attacks with Latios,
but the randomness of the game will usually work against you considering
the probabilities involved.
Note: If you've been paying attention, you would have realized that I placed
a 0 for IV. Does this mean that Latios has bad genes? - Apparently
it does. I guess due to game balancing reasons and to get rid of any
random factors, the game designers decided that it should not
randomize IVs for Latios (and possibly other legends as well). While
this doesn't have a lot to do with this guide, I just thought it was
interesting to point it out since I have not heard anyone else
mention this information before.
Can I Engineer Personality?
---------------------------
As far as I know, it is impossible to engineer the personality of wild and
bred Pokémon. Thus, you'll have to breed or catch Pokémon until you finally
get the result you want. It's unfortunate that this is so, but what can you
do?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.5 - Level-Up Deceptions
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since the game re-computes the statistics using a formula, I'd really like
to ask the developers what were they trying to achieve by providing the
'old table-based' level-up information (as seen in Final Fantasy)? If
anything, this insinuates so many false preconceptions on how the game
actually works. In fact, if you refer to the story about Johnny and his
brother (see section, "2.6 - How Does Evolution Affect Stats?"), this is the
very reason why many people believe that evolving early produces better
stats in the long run.
During level-ups, the game actually takes your previous statistics and
subtracts them from the new ones. By doing these simple subtractions, it
generates a row of values that indicate which statistics have increased since
your last level. This sounds great in theory, but this generates many
problems that I'll discuss in turn.
Firstly, it does not include any stat increases that occurred between levels.
Thus, if you gained a level, consumed 51 vitamins, and then gained another
level, it won't show you your stat increases from the vitamins - this has
already been calculated and remembered by the game engine. This creates the
impression that vitamins are not working correctly and it's most notable
at lower levels.
A second problem with this approach is that no two Pokémon will level up
alike. This is due to the fact that evolutions, effort points and
individual values are taken into account, which obviously create different
level-up increments for what you'd think should be identical. A corollary
to this is that Pokémon with low IVs, EVs with or without poor base stats
will show little to no gain in stats at level-up. I read these kinds of
messages on gamefaqs.com all the time:
"I thought this Pokémon [Poochyena] would be good but I've been leveling
him up and he only gets a +1 on some stats and I have seen +0 on others.
This is crap, no?
What's wrong, is it just a rubbish Pokémon or does Mightyena have some
good stat growth?"
In this case, Poochyena really is a rubbish Pokémon with an average base
stat of 37 points. However, this often isn't the case; I just couldn't find
any other examples in today's messages when I wrote this =)
At least now you know how the level-up screen calculates its statistics and
how that can potentially make you believe your Pokémon isn't doing so great.
The only way to tell if your Pokémon sucks is to test it in battle as well
as look at the final stats in the summary screen and compare it with others.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.6 - How Does Evolution Affect Stats?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since it's possible to prevent a Pokémon from evolving, this obviously must
affect your stats in some way. Now, it's important that you understand that
your six statistics are 'calculated' with formulas, otherwise you'll end up
believing what you read on many forums, or perhaps you'll rely on your old
school knowledge from the early console RPGs.
A Common Scenario I Read A lot
------------------------------
Here is a common scenario that I see happen at least a few times a day over
this past week alone. It demonstrates that people really don't know what
they are talking about when it comes to stats and evolutions. More
specifically, they made an assumption on a game mechanic based on a 'single'
example and they were flawed. Even worse, they made a bunch of other people
believe it too.
Johnny: I have a level 49 Bagon which I then evolved to a Salamence at
level 50 to get Dragon Claw early. Here are my stats, little
brother! Let's compare!
Johnny's Brother: Wow, you're a moron since your stats are too low! Look at
mine! I evolved my Bagon at the earliest opportunity and
my Salamence has approx. 20 more points in various
statistics! You should have evolved it sooner!
Johnny: *Frowns* But then I would have had to wait until Level 79 to get
Dragon Claw naturally. I didn't want to waste a TM on my Salamence
since I thought Latios would make better use of it.
Johnny's Brother: Well, that's what you get for being stupid!
Johnny: Then why does the game even bother offering a decision to evolve or
not? Doesn't the penalty of staying in an un-evolved form compensate
for getting the moves early? What kind of screwed up game design is
that? I don't want to trade stats for moves - that's retarded since
moves are replaceable, but stats aren't!
Johnny's Brother: Well, you don't know how to play the game, man!. I got
this information from a guy on gamefaqs.com! He *really*
knew what he was talking about. I evolve all my guys at
the earliest chance because I want them to be uber
powerful! I'll just level them all up to 100 anyway!
I have all the time in the world during my recess and the
fact that I have *no* homework!
* After the conversation finalizes and Johnny thinks about what his brother
has said, Johnny opens up his web browser and decides to write a message
on gamefaqs.com.
Johnny: Hi Everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know that preventing
your Pokémon from evolving messes up your stats royally! My brother
has a Salamence that has approx. 20 more points in some stats than
mine does! I got really frustrated when I found this out, so I
wanted to let others know the truth!
Some Newb: Yeah! I figured this out too with my Raichu. I even started
the game over to correct my decision! It's smart to evolve
immediately!!!!!!!
Another Newb: I SeCoND THaT! eVoLuTioN iS eLiTe!
....
Sadly, I see this every now and then as the messages get posted on
gamefaqs.com and other forums. It's a shame that the messages scroll too
fast (due to the insane number of posts per minute) that it's nearly
impossible for experienced players to correct these individuals all the
time :/ What we have here is a newly 'discovered' game mechanic that turned
out to be completely false because Johnny and his stupid brother never
understood how stats really worked (and I don't blame them; I blame
Nintendo/Gamefreak). In reality, this is just a false statement that many
people end up believing because they read it from some 'game expert'.
While his brother was a moron in that he thought it was absolutely perfect
to level his Pokémon to level 100 (given all that excess recess time), in
reality, he gained a lot of Effort Points where as Johnny probably didn't
have the time. Also, Johnny's brother could have just been luckier when
it came to IVs since Bagon is a wild Pokémon. Sadly, it only takes a single
example to change someone's mind about how a particular game mechanic works.
Given the complexity of the hidden values and the lack of information about
them, I can totally see why this has happened.
Scenarios like this are also sad because Johnny actually had the right idea.
He was halting the evolutions because he knew the tradeoffs - he knew what
it took to be efficient at making powerful Pokémon, but his mentality was
manipulated by a single, flawed example provided by a uninformed gamer.
Back To Reality
---------------
As we discussed before, different evolutions of the same species have
different base stats. So when you level up a Pokémon, you should
immediately notice your statistics improving at greater increments with
further leveling. Thus, if you used to gain +1 or +2 to your attack, you
will probably start seeing +3 or +4 instead.
This deception (or illusion) leads people to believe that evolving your
Pokémon early will result in better stats over time (like the story
illustrated above). However, due to the fact that the game relies on
formulas to calculate stats and not tables (as discussed in the very first
section of this guide), this is completely false.
For example, if I choose not to evolve a Torchic into a Combusken until
level 43 (to acquire Flamethrower), he'll have the same base stats as the
Torchic who decided to evolve at level 16 (who is now also a level 43
Combusken). When you compare the calculated stats between these two, you'll
see that the stats aren't exact, but they are *close*. The reason for the
difference is in the EVs, but Johonny's brother believed that they it was
because he evolved sooner. Thus, you need to learn this statement,
memorize it, and preach it for as long as you live:
YOUR POKEMON'S STATS WILL NOT BE PERMANENTLY AFFECTED IF YOU DECIDE TO
EVOLVE OR TO HALT THE EVOLUTION OF YOUR POKEMON!
The neat thing about this observation is that you do not need to worry about
'when' to evolve your Pokémon. Your main concern should be to get the
moves you think you'll need and then evolve when you get no benefit to
staying in the Pokémon's early form. After all, it's pretty useless to keep
a level 43 Torchic around since you will not acquire any new moves. You
should evolve to Combusken at this time. If you decide to stay a Combusken,
this would allow you to get Sky Upper at level 50 or you could fully evolve
to a Blaziken and get your missed Mirror Move as well!
Note: This also cancels out the rumours that leveling up a Shroomish to 54
to get Spore is a bad idea. Tell the people that suggest this to you
that they are a) morons, and b) they should read this guide so they
can redeem themselves from being called morons every again.
So, if this is all true, what's the catch? I know it sounds like a bargain
when you get all your desired moves as well as receive the same base stats,
but you have to remember what you put yourself through to acquire all these
benefits. Essentially, you have made a 'tradeoff'. You have decided to
play the game with lower statistics in favor of obtaining better moves for
the 'future'. At the end of the day though, your efforts will pay off once
you make the final evolutions - A Blaziken with Flamethrower is a lot better
than one without it since Flamethrower is stronger than Blaze Kick for a
standard fire-based attack.
If you really don't believe me (despite all the proof of stats, formulas
and examples shown in this guide), write down your stats before and after
your evolution and also copy down the level-up info. You'll see that the
stats have boosted greater (depending on the level and species, you should
notice an increase of 20 or 30 points in some stats). Now, if you compare
that to the level-up information, you'll see that there is really no
comparison. In fact, all those extra points add up to the points you
so-called 'lost' while preventing evolution in the first place.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.7 - How Does Shiny Pokémon Affect Stats?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The game also has 'Shiny' Pokémon, which appear randomly throughout the game
and are extremely difficult to find (It has been suggested that they appear
in 1 out of 8,500 battles). It has also been suggested that its possible
to receive a Shiny Pokémon while breeding, but it uses the same odds. To
provide you with some perspective of how rare they really are, I have yet to
personally find a single shiny Pokémon while I have played through the
storyline two times and have trained many of my bred Pokémon during testing.
Thus, the best way to find one is to not look for it.
When you enter a new battle, the game will make a 'ding' sound and the
Pokémon will have a new sprite (i.e. game graphic) that will look very
different than the normal sprite. This sometimes means that the Pokémon
will be a different colour, and other times, some features (such as its
eyes) will have a different a colour.
Contrary to popular belief, Shiny Pokémon do not provide better IVs than
normal Pokémon - they are completely the same with respect to stats. I take
it that Nintendo/Gamefreak have introduced them so people can have the
bragging rights if they actually caught one. While the kids might see a
'cool factor' in this, I consider it to be a pointless game mechanic.
I have thought about Shiny Pokémon a bit and I have questions like,
a) Do they produce quality offspring?
b) Do they gain any advantages outside of the main stats?
c) Do they become better if they are traded? (To make them a valuable
commodity in the Pokémon community - "I'll trade my Shiny for yours").
If we can get answers to these questions, perhaps we can start unlocking the
mystery associated with them. Until then, it's best not to worry about them
unless you think they are 'cool'.
Note: It's been several weeks and yet no information has come my way. I
I think we can assume they are for bragging rights only.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.8 - How Does Trading Affect Stats?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As you are probably aware, trading Pokémon is a great way to increase the
growth rate of your team - so much in fact, that you can level-up two
Pokémon for the price of one (in a manner of speaking). This can present
an incredible advantage since you will save a lot of time. Since the notion
that "Trading my Dustox for yours" is clearly a winning strategy, there must
be an obvious disadvantage to counter-balance this effect. Otherwise, people
that are able to trade amongst themselves freely are given an obvious, unfair
advantage.
It has been suggested that although traded Pokémon belong to a growth rate
group two levels lower than their own (i.e. a Pokémon in the Med-Fast group
would actually grow at the rate of those in the Erratic group), they take a
penalty to their Effort Value development.
What does mean? Well, I'm not really sure. It could mean that you cannot
gain Effort Values at all, or perhaps it takes you twice as long to aquire
them. Even if this was the case, I still think the ability to be level 100
in a shorter period of time presents greater value then EV training does in
the short term (however, against a good opponent, those EVs will be needed).
It has also been suggested that its IVs are modified, but since I have no
one to trade with, I can't prove such a claim.
My best guess is this: Since your Pokémon levels-up at an increased rate,
you'll fight less battles. Since you are fighting less battles to achieve
high levels, you'll aquire less Effort Points than the Pokémon with the
normal growth rate. Thus, you'll have lower EV values. While this guess
doesn't necessarily provide any disadvantages, it does make the most sense
to the meaning provided by the game. Once again, Nintendo/Gamefreak has
done a great job in not providing the necessary information that is
required in order to make the best possible decision.
However, if you read this section looking for answers, I have none. I put
this section in the guide to avoid the many emails asking if I knew the
answer. If you do know the answer (with proof I might add - I won't accept
any half-truths or one-line answers), I'll add it to this document with full
credit to you.
Note: Several people have confirmed or at least suspect my guess to be true
as well. Thus, if you were looking for answers, that's most likely
it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.9 - How Does The 8 Badges Affect Stats?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've received a couple of emails asking, "How does the 8 Badges Affect
Stats?". This is a valid question since badges like the Dynamo Badge
clearly state, "Improves the Speed of your Pokémon". Once again, however,
the game developers have provided another deception. In this section, I
hope to show you exactly how the badges affect your Pokémon.
While I have no doubt in my mind that the badge does what it claims, it has
nothing to do with your main statistics. If it did, there would be a badge
modifier (that would also be a hidden value like Personality) that would be
used in the formulas discussed earlier in this guide. Thus, if a badge
modifier had existed, the formula COULD look like this:
Stat = (( BaseStat * 2 + IV + EV/4 ) * Level/100 + 5 ) * P * BadgeMod
However, if you take any Pokémon and solve for BadgeMod, you'll end up with
"1" as the result. Why? Well, there is no badge modifier!
So how are these modifiers used then? The game has a whole new set of
formulas for determining how much damage you do to an opponent and who goes
first during a round for example. These formulas are used during a battle
and are completely different than the formulas discussed in this guide. In
fact, these formulas actually USE your main statistics rather than derive
from them.
Note: These next formulas aren't real. I have no idea what they are and have
no intention of figuring them out. I'm merely making them up to
illustrate how a badge modifier *could* be used. Please keep that
in mind while reading this section. I suggest that you try to learn
the 'concepts' being presented here rather than the specifics.
For example, let's assume that the formula for determining the damage done
to an opponent is this:
Damage = AttackStat * MovePower * StabBonus * BadgeMod / OpponentDefenseStat
While it's not perfect, it does incorporate all the essentials - your
attack stat, the power of your attack move, the stab bonus (if any), the
opponent's defense stat, and lastly, the badge modifier. The only thing I
didn't add was the chance for a critical hit and any of your opponent's
badge and type modifiers. I just want to keep this simple and also have the
formula fit on a single line.
Now, let's assume we are using a Lv.62 Breloom with a Sp. Attack stat of 114.
We are attacking an opponent with Giga Drain, which also gives us a Stab
Bonus of 1.5 since Breloom is a Grass-type Pokémon. Let's also assume
that we do not have the Mind Badge, which provides an increase in Sp. Attacks
and that we are fighting against an opponent with a Sp. Defense score of 166.
Now, let's figure out what the damage would be under these circumstances:
Damage = AttackStat * MovePower * StabBonus * BadgeMod / OpponentDefenseStat
Damage = 114 * 60 * 1.5 * 1 / 166
Damage ~= 62
Thus, we would have successfully hit the opponent with 62 points of damage.
While this might not be completely accurate, this is just a hypothetical
formula that I made up given, what I believe, to be in the game developer's
style.
Now, what if we had the Mind Badge? Let's say the Mind Badge provides us
with a 10% increase to our special attacks. Let's see the difference in
damage (should be obvious really, but I'll show it anyway):
Damage = AttackStat * MovePower * StabBonus * BadgeMod / OpponentDefenseStat
Damage = 114 * 60 * 1.5 * 1.1 / 166
Damage ~= 68
Thus, with the Mind Badge, we do an additional 6 points of damage to our
opponent.
I believe this is how the badges actually work. While my formulas are
probably completely wrong and the Mind Badge probably doesn't give a 10%
increase exactly, the point of this exercise is that the badges DO influence
the Attack (and Defense), Sp. Attack (and Sp. Defense) and Speed formulas
used during a battle, but they DO NOT affect your main stats in any way on
the Summary screen.
In fact, your main stats are used WITHIN these battle formulas. Thus, your
main statistics, the power of your moves and the badges you have all
contribute to the power of your Pokémon in battle. This makes it very easy
for you to use the formulas discussed at the beginning of the guide since we
don't have to account for the badges to obtain accurate results. I'm sure
the developers saw this as well and wanted to separate them at the same
level rather than making the badge modifiers apart of the main stat formulas.
I hope that this discussion has shed some light on the subject.
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2.10 - Exceptions with Legendary Pokémon
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TODO. Next version.
================================================================================
3. Last Words
================================================================================
Well, I hope you enjoyed reading the FAQ and learned something from it. I
enjoyed poking away at the secrets of the game, trying to find best builds
myself as well and writing this FAQ was a good way to assert my knowledge
and help people. I also learned a thing or two about the game in the
process.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.1 - Contact Info
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Expect this version (0.60) to be the last update you'll ever see.
If you really, really think something should be added to this faq,
actually write the section yourself and email it to me and tell me w
here to put it. If I think it should go here, I'll update the guide at
gamefaqs.com. I don't plan on putting anymore time into this project
myself since I no longer play the game (It was good for a week, but
after doing absolutely everything in Ruby and Sapphire, I got bored
of it). Thus, some of this material written below will no longer
apply. Be intelligent about what you email me.
If you have any suggestions to improve or fix the content in the FAQ, please
contact me (Ken Egervari) and I'll add them to the next version. I will, of
course, give you full credit for your addition and will be eternally
grateful to you (as well as the other readers that benefit from your
information).
If you are going to email me about this guide, please put
"Pokémon R/S: Game Mechanics Guide" as your email subject ALONG WITH THE
VERSION NUMBER of the FAQ that you are looking at. If you don't do this, I
WILL NOT reply seeing as you didn't take the time to respect the wishes of
the author. I have received many emails that have not stated the version
number and this has really annoyed me. Most of these emails were, in fact,
providing suggestions (or insults) on content that was fixed in later
versions. Hence, that is why I am emphasizing this restriction (it was
already here, unfortunately that wasn't enough to deter these individuals).
This leads me to another point. If your question pertains to an earlier
version of the guide, I WILL NOT respond to your email. I think you should
take some responsibility in checking for the latest version before
requesting my time. This is not to be rude, but I have provided all this
information for you freely, the least I can expect from you is that follow
these simple guidelines.
If you ask me generic questions about the game, I may or may not respond.
I only have so much free time and I obviously can't respond to everything.
I really tried to convert my knowledge about this game into the written
work that you see here, so if it concerns this FAQ, it's probably here
already.
As a last thought, please read this FAQ in its entirety before you ask
questions. There is a very good possibility that there are errors in it
since this is a first draft - copying/pasting and older content will
probably rear its ugly head sooner or later. If you spot something, it'd
be fantastic if you could let me know.
Note: If you send me a virus (like people have been) or spam, I swear I will
make your life very complicated. I have the resources to not only
figure out the source easily, owning a very profitable ISP, but I also
have the money to blow to make your life miserable for a very long
time (which I derive a great deal of pleasure from), so please stop
it. If I get another virus saying Pokemon on it, I'll delete my
email address and everyone loses.
Note: DO NOT ask me to pirate games. I had an email asking if I could give
them Might & Magic 7 & 8 - The answer is NO!
Note: Before you ask me something, especially stuff about the game that
doesn't pertain to this guide, check out
http://www.pokefor.tk/ first.
I swear, I get so many questions about generic stuff that could be
asked at general forums, it really makes you guys look so stupid
when you email me. *Think* first before you email me, then type.
I won't say it again.
I think if you asked any of the individuals that have emailed me, I'm fair
in my responses and I don't mind being challenged to new ideas. I'm also
sure that these same people will agree to the above guidelines are fair, so
don't take offense by them.
Email addresses:
----------------
Here is my email address. If you are one of these contributors, send me a
private message through the BIS forums and I'll add you here if you wish it.
Ken J. Egervari (Egervari) -
[email protected]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2 - Copyright Info
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This Document is Copyright 2003 by Ken J. Egervari.
Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire and all related marks are copyrighted and trademarked
by their respective owners. I had nothing to do with the development of
the game and I am not affiliated with them in any way.
This FAQ may be posted on any site so long as NOTHING IS CHANGED in part
or in total AND you EMAIL ME telling me that you are posting it. You may
not charge for, or in any way profit from this FAQ. If you would like me
to write articles and FAQs for you, email me and we can work something
out.
You are welcome to download the FAQ, print it out and even give it out to
friends (although I'd prefer that you give them the proper gamefaqs.com URL).
================================================================================
