What are IVs and EVs in Pokémon?

In nearly every Pokémon game, you can see that every Pokémon has different stats, even when you caught two of the same and on the same level meaning that further down the line one might end up weaker than the other, or if you somehow got two with the same stats, they might still end with different ones later; These are their IVs and EVs at work, and here you’ll see what are these so you know what you can do with this information.

What are IVs and EVs in Pokémon

Often you’ll hear other players talk about IVs and EVs when checking different mediums in the community, and if you just started playing a game in the franchise you might be wondering what are these and how they might affect your experience; the short answer would be that they won’t matter in normal play, that being playing the story and filling your Pokédex, the long answer is as follows.

Base Stats

Base Stats are the stats that every Pokémon of the same species will always share, these are quite literally the base in which IVs and EVs will take effect, you can’t see these numbers in the game, but they can be calculated; with HP, subtract 60 points from the Stat and you’ll roughly get the Base stats if it has 0 IVs and 0 EVs on level 50, with the other stats do the same, but with 5 instead of 60 for the Base value.

IVs

Individual Values, or IVs, define the stats you get when you get a Pokémon; you don't have full control over them; they're also what's taken into account when breeding, but that's for another time; each stat has a chance to have a range from 0 to 31 IVs added to a Pokémon's base stat; IVs do not translate 1 to 1 with the stat points displayed in-game, not until your Pokémon reaches level 100, meaning that if you level a Pokémon with 31 IVs in one stat and another with 0 IVs in the same stat, the difference will grow over time.

A Pokémon’s Nature also affects the scaling, if a nature affects positively a stat with 31 IVs, it will raise more than 31 points to that stat, and the opposite is also true to the negatively affected stat, if it has 31 IVs, it won’t raise by 31 points.

You can artificially raise these to the max in some games, for example in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, you can talk with the guy near the Pokémon Center in Montenevera and pay with Bottlecaps.

EVs

Effort Values, or EVs, are points that your Pokémon earn after defeating or catching another Pokémon; depending on which Pokémon was defeated, the stat will be determined, as well as how many points, from 1 to 3; unlike IVs, you have different ways you can raise or lower EVs.

Each Pokémon can gain up to 510 EVs total, and each stat can gain 252, meaning you can max up two stats and raise a bit of a third one; for reference, by the time your Pokémon reaches level 100, 252 EVs will mean that the specific stat has increased by 63; similarly to IVs, Nature will affect if a stat with 252 EVs will raise by over or under 63.

Knowing all this, now you can learn how to train your Pokémon so they are at their best, raising the stats that matter, learn which Natures are best for the stats you want raised without hindering other important stats, or even passing down natures and IVs through breeding.