A Mini-Guide to Optimizing IVs and EVs

MagicVGC

Banned deucer.
Hi, guys. I mostly stick to Battle Spot Doubles online (I got 3rd in the US/Top 64 overall in the first Online XY Competition), and just felt like I needed to bring something up.

While browsing through this forum, I've noticed that a lot of players use simple 252/252/4 spreads, or slight variations thereof. While 252/252/4 spreads work on some sweepers (e.g. offensive Thundurus), they're sub-optimal spreads for a lot of Pokemon and are, quite frankly, lazy spreads. VGC and even Battle Maison players have been devising more complicated spreads for years, so here's a short guide on how to get the most out of your Pokemon.


Basic Notes on IVs and EVs at Level 50
  • If your Pokemon has a 31 IV, you need 4 EVs to get the first point in a stat, then 8 EVs for each subsequent point. (For instance, 4 EVs = 1 point, 12 EVs = 2 points, 20 EVs = 3 points, etc.)
  • However, if your Pokemon has a 30 IV, you need 8 EVs to get the first point, then 8 EVs for each subsequent point. (For instance, 8 EVs = 1 point, 16 EVs = 2 points, 24 EVs = 3 points, etc.) This means that each stat "caps" at 248 EVs, making 252 EVs pointless.
  • Example: If you want to max out a Hidden Power Fire Latios’ (30 Special Attack / 30 Speed IVs) Special Attack and Speed, a spread of 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe is suboptimal, since you’re wasting 4 EVs in Special Attack and Speed. Use a spread of 4 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 4 SDef / 248 Spe instead.
Tips on IVs
  • If your Pokemon uses no physical attacks, it should have a 0 Attack IV to minimize confusion and Foul Play damage. (If it requires an odd IV for Hidden Power, give it a 1 Attack IV instead.) This isn't a big deal, though, so don't fret about it while breeding unless you're a perfectionist.
  • If you're trying to counter a Trick Room team (mostly relevant in Doubles and Triples), you may want to give your Pokemon a custom Speed IV to outspeed certain threats inside and outside of Trick Room. For instance, in Ray Rizzo's VGC2012 Worlds team, he used a Metagross with a 14 Speed IV so that his Cresselia could move before it in Trick Room. This is a situational tip, but it's worth keeping in mind.
Tips on EVs

HP

  • Ideally, your Pokemon's maximum HP should be 1 less than a multiple of 8 or 16 to minimize residual damage (e.g. sandstorm, burn, Leech Seed damage). You can ignore this rule in certain cases - for instance, if your Pokemon has a poor base HP (e.g. Rotom-A, Aegislash) or if its HP is notably lower than its defenses (e.g. Mega Venusaur and Mega Metagross), you're better off maxing its HP. You can also ignore this rule if you're trying to hit a certain defensive benchmark.
  • If your Pokemon holds the Leftovers, you may want to set its HP to a multiple of 16 to maximize Leftovers recovery. Similarly, if your Pokemon has the Regenerator ability, its HP should ideally be divisible by 3 to maximize Regenerator recovery. If your Pokemon holds a Sitrus Berry, you can make its HP divisible by 4 to maximize Sitrus recovery; however, you’re generally better off making its HP 1 less than a multiple of 8/16, since Sitrus only triggers once while residual damage is recurring.
  • If your Pokemon holds the Life Orb, its maximum HP should ideally end in 9 to minimize Life Orb recoil. This is less important than the above tips, since your Pokemon is still losing HP with each attack.
  • If you haven't invested any EVs in your Pokemon's defenses (e.g. a 12 HP / 244 Atk / 252 Spe Pokemon), take out 8 EVs in HP and put 4 EVs in Defense and Special Defense instead. This way, you're trading 1 point of HP for 1 point of Defense and Special Defense. Of course, this only works if your Pokemon has 31 IVs in Defense and Special Defense.
(Special) Defense
  • If your Pokemon uses an Eviolite or Assault Vest, its defenses should ideally end in an even number so you don’t “waste” any points. For instance, if a Pokemon with the Assault Vest normally has 100 Special Defense, it will have 150 Special Defense instead. However, if a Pokemon with the Assault Vest normally has 101 Special Defense, it will have 151.5 Special Defense, which is rounded down to 151 Special Defense and causes the Pokemon to lose .5 Special Defense.
Speed
  • If you want your Pokemon to outspeed a certain Pokemon after a Dragon Dance or Choice Scarf boost, take the target Pokemon’s Speed stat and divide it by 1.5. If the result is a whole number, add 1 to it for your target stat; otherwise, round the number up. For instance, if you’re trying to outspeed a Pokemon with 150 Speed, you should run 101 Speed (150 / 1.5 = 100 + 1 = 101). If you’re trying to outspeed a Pokemon with 200 Speed, you should run 134 Speed (200 / 1.5 = 133.67 -> 134).
  • Don’t get carried away with "speed creeping" (e.g. investing 12 Speed EVs into defensive Rotom-A to outspeed 4 Speed Rotom-A), since your opponent can always use a custom EV spread with more or less Speed than the standard.
Other Notes
  • If your Pokemon requires a ton of EVs to survive an attack, you may want to EV it to survive the attack 15/16 (93.75%) or even ⅞ (87.5%) of the time. This gives you more EVs to spare, instead of EVing your Pokemon to survive one specific attack.

Example Spreads

This can seem overwhelming, so here are some of my custom EV spreads. They were designed for Battle Spot Doubles/VGC, but can still serve as general examples.



1. Sitrus Berry Cresselia - 220 HP / 124 Def / 12 SpA / 132 SDef / 20 Spe, Bold Nature @ Sitrus Berry
All of these calculations take the Sitrus Berry into account.
  • Survives 2 Double-Edge from Adamant Mega Salamence
  • Survives 2 Double-Edge from Adamant Mega Kangaskhan
  • 3HKOed by Jolly Tyranitar's Crunch after sand damage
  • 4HKOed by Adamant Life Orb Talonflame's Brave Bird
  • Has a 90% chance of surviving 2 Sucker Punch from Adamant Mega Mawile
  • Survives +1 Bug Buzz from Modest Volcarona
  • Survives spread Heat Wave + Overheat from Modest Mega Charizard Y
  • Has a 99.3% chance of surviving 3 spread Hyper Voice from Choice Specs Sylveon
  • Outruns 4 Spe Rotom-A




2. Bulky Hidden Power Ice Thundurus - 236 HP / 108 Def / 4 SpA / 116 SDef / 40 Spe, Calm Nature (30 Speed IV) @ Sitrus Berry

All of these calculations take the Sitrus Berry into account.
  • HP is divisible by 4 to maximize Sitrus Berry recovery
  • Survives Adamant Mega Kangaskhan's Double-Edge
  • 3HKOed by Modest Mega Gardevoir's Psychic
  • 3HKOed by Timid Life Orb Thundurus' Thunderbolt
  • 4HKOed by Modest Heatran's spread Heat Wave
  • Survives Modest Life Orb Heatran's Overheat
  • 3HKOed by Quiet/Modest 100 SpA Life Orb Aegislash's Shadow Ball
  • Outruns +Speed base 70s (e.g. Breloom) and Jolly Mega Tyranitar




3. Choice Specs Sylveon - 228 HP / 12 Def / 232 SpA / 24 SDef / 12 Spe, Modest Nature (30 SpA, SpDef IVs for HP Ground) @ Choice Specs
  • HP is 1 less than a multiple of 8 to minimize residual damage
  • Survives Choice Band Talonflame's Brave Bird
  • Survives Modest Mega Charizard Y's sun-boosted Overheat
  • Has a 95.3% chance of surviving 2 spread Hyper Voice from opposing Choice Specs Sylveon
  • Outruns minimum Speed Cresselia


Your EV spreads don't have to be this complicated, but this is an example of what you can accomplish. You'll be surprised at how bulky Pokemon really are!

Resources

Nugget Bridge Damage Calculator - This calculator is designed for VGC, but it also works for Battle Spot. Pokemon are automatically set at level 50, so you don't have to keep adjusting their level, and Sitrus Berry is taken into account. A Pokemon's total EVs are at the bottom, so you don't have to keep track of your Pokemon's total EVs manually. Finally, you can also double-click a move to stay on a certain move, so you don't have to keep clicking an attack every time you change a Pokemon's EVs.

Pokemon Battle Historia XY Battle Spot Section (JPN) - This is a Japanese site that chronicles Japanese competitive play across various generations. It includes a general XY Battle Spot tier list, along with sample EV spreads that should still be applicable in ORAS Battle Spot. The site's in Japanese, so you'll probably have to use Google Translate and some common sense to figure out what's going on.

Nugget Bridge - The premier English VGC website. Although this subforum doesn't cover VGC, the site is still helpful since it includes various articles on how to EV your Pokemon (in fact, I got some of the tips in this guide from one of DaWoblefet's articles), and provides team reports where players talk about their custom EV spreads. Finally, it includes an article with Level 50 Speed Tiers, which should include all of the notable Pokemon allowed in Rating Battle Spot.


While team composition and player skill play a bigger role in battle than your Pokemon's EV spreads, you should still utilize every advantage you have in competitive play. If you have any questions or a cool EV spread, please post it here!
 
You know, the whole complex EV spread thing is mostly aimed at doubles and entirely more useful there. Not that it can't work in singles as well but it's not always as useful here. The whole idea of "252/252/4 is lazy!" is kind of silly and those spreads can actually be pretty effective, even on more defensive pokemon because they can have a lot of pressure put onto them by the powerhouses in the tier.

It's more useful in Doubles because you have two pokemon on the field that you're trying to design to stay on the field longer. You might EV your Cresselia to take more hits from Charizard, and with that spread you can keep your Cresselia in the game while your teammate deals with Charizard. But in Singles, you might try to EV your Cresselia to live attacks from Charizard Y, but if you're not beating it 1v1 anyway then what's the point? You could have just used another pokemon that could've stopped it in its tracks. In singles we have the options to switch in counters so we don't always need to EV for this specific pokemon or that specific pokemon. In singles you can say, I want my Cresselia to have a Rocky Helmet and be able to deal with almost any physical attack and 252/252 could work pretty well. And obviously there's fast and frail pokemon, and your general sweepers who want as much speed and power as they get, that's self-explanatory and happens in doubles as well.

This isn't to say that EV spreads for Singles are never optimized. You can take a look at plenty of analyses for BSS and see that many of them are optimized and not 252/252.

This thread is cool for helping people learn how EVs work at level 50. But I think to say that "252/252" is lazy and not ever preferred isn't accurate.
 

cant say

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NOVED said exactly what I wanted to say. The fact that in VGC you have to deal with two Pokemon on the field and that bulky Pokemon have to potentially deal with multiple hits in a turn before it can even move means they need specific spreads to survive certain combinations of moves. Max/max spreads work on a lot of things in singles because you either want to be as fast and powerful as possible, or as physically / specially bulky as possible so you can deal with more things 1v1 (especially with blanket-check mons like Porygon2, Cresselia, Ferrothorn etc. since, like NOVED said, if you can't beat something 1v1 then there's no point surviving its attacks). There are, of course, Pokemon in singles that run more specific spreads (such as Serperior with 116 HP / 220 Def / 172 Speed to outspeed Garchomp and also survive Adamant M-Kang's Double-Edge) and the Rotom formes, but the most variation you'll see is speed-creep on offensive mons (with the spare EVs going into HP).

The information on how EVs work with Hidden Power spreads, and how EVs can be wasted due to them raising a stat once for every 8 is great for newer users though, I still see people posting inefficient spreads every now and then, but I think it's just a learning curve from people who come from the Smogon metagames as they are played at level 100.

I see that this is also your first post here on Smogon. First off, Welcome! I don't know how it works at Nugget Bridge, however for future reference, if you'd like to post a thread we'd like it if you PM'd a mod to get it approved first. Since this thread has been very VGC-oriented we would have liked to work with you to first make it more Singles-appropriate. We also have a specialised VGC forum which would be more appropriate for Doubles stuff. This topic could potentially make a great on-site article, you could take it to the Contributions and Corrections Forum and see if you could get it approved there.

Unless we can get some cool custom EV spreads for singles then I don't really see any point in this thread and I can just CP the info about how EVs and IVs work at level 50 into the intro thread...
 

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