Note: if you play on an emulator, there are also a few Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen ROM hacks available that increase the difficulty to the point where you need to EV train to beat the hacks. Although not many people are playing FireRed and LeafGreen competitively nowadays, but learning the ropes on a game you love is good practice for modern games.ĮV training has not changed very much with the most recent Pokémon games, and it has even become a little easier. This process adds another layer of depth to the game for players that want to min-max their Pokémon’s strength.ĮV training is also all but necessary if you want to play competitively. Why EV Train?ĮV training raises the stats of your Pokémon and makes them stronger in the specific areas that you choose.

Usually competitive players will raise the EV that a Pokémon is already strong in, in order to take advantage of the Pokémon’s natural abilities.įor example, players that use Gengar in competitive matches will typically raise Gengar’s Speed and Special Attack stat, so that their Gengar will always go first and its special attacks will hit like a truck.

So if you train a Pokémon to have 252 EVs in its speed stat, it will have an extra 63 Speed.Ĭertain Pokémon excel with certain stats. What many casual players do not realize is that you can actually specifically train each of these stats with the help of EVs.ĮVs are “Effort Values”, and every 4 EVs in a specific stat will raise its value by 1.

What Are EVs? Pokémon stats that can be targeted through EV trainingĮvery single Pokémon has 6 key stats that increase as the Pokémon battles and levels up.

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