a dark haired woman in a jumpsuit standing in a large gymnasium. dialogue at the bottom reads "Make your strong points stronger, I always say - that goes for both people and Pokemon!"

Screenshot via Nintendo

Best Way To EV Train In Pokémon Scarlet And Violet

Train to be the best there ever was!

Hayden Epstein

Published: Nov 24, 2022 12:42 pm

The Pokémon games have long been known for their competitive nature. Players the world over strive to build the strongest team to counter any type matchup. One of the key aspects of developing a powerful party is Effort Values or EVs. These invisible data points have a huge bearing on the growth of your Pokémon, and there’s a very simple method for focusing them in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

What Are EVs?

a yelllow dragon-like creature faces off against a yellow, mouse like creature with a long tail. on the left hand is a menu of attack moves — Screenshot via Nintendo

EVs are essentially the background numbers that determine how your Pokémons’ stats grow as they level up. Traditionally, Effort Values are earned during battle, with each Pokémon awarding specific EVs dependent on their own base stats. To put it more simply, fast Pokémon tend to award Speed EVs while strong ones award Attack EVs.

Four EVs in a particular stat grant one point to that stat overall, and each stat maxes out at 255 EVs. A single Pokémon can have 510 total EVs, so EV training usually means focusing on two particular stats. Most Pokémon already have high base values in two stats, so the savvy EV trainer will focus on boosting these stats.

How To Train EVs In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

a store menu with a list of items down the left side and a description of the highlighted item on the right. the selected item is a power bracer and the description says "an item to be held by a pokemon. holding this bracer reduces the pokemon's speed in battle but allows its attack stat to grow more quickly." — Screenshot via Nintendo

EV training Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet is very similar to how it’s been in past games, but the game itself doesn’t make it obvious right from the start. The trick is to have your Pokémon hold special bands that boost EV growth in a particular stat every time they battle. Delibird Presents sells each of them in its General Goods section for 10,000 in cash or League Points.

Each item boosts a particular stat:

Power Weight: Boosts HP
Power Bracer: Boosts Attack
Power Belt: Boosts Defense
Power Lens: Boosts Special Attack
Power Band: Boosts Special Defense
Power Anklet: Boosts Speed

While holding any of these items, the Pokémon in question will only earn EVs for the selected stat, maximizing their growth. This works even if that Pokémon isn’t in battle, as your whole party earns experience for each victory. Bear in mind, Pokémon don’t earn any Effort Values from auto-battles, so you will need to actually enter into traditional matches for this to work. These EV training items also cut a Pokémon’s Speed while they’re being held, so keep that in mind when going into tougher battles.

How To Check On EV Status

menu screen with pokemon moves on the left and a graph of its stats on the right — Screenshot via Nintendo

There’s also an easy way to see your Pokémon’s EVs, check if a certain stat has been maxed out, and even know when your Pokémon has earned all the EVs it can. While in the summary menu, tab over to the screen with their moves and stats and press the L shoulder button to switch to the graph view. This graph shows the distribution of EVs for that Pokemon.

A stat has its maximum number of EVs if there are little sparkles next to it. At most, you can max out two stats, but you’ll have to start EV training before ever entering that Pokémon into a battle. If your Pokémon has earned all the EVs they possibly can, the graph view will be blue instead of yellow. Once this happens, the Power items won’t have any more use with that Pokémon.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. For more on the games, check out how to build the best team to take down Scarlet and Violet’s gym leaders.

Author

Hayden Epstein

Hayden is an avid gamer, writer, fitness enthusiast, and fan of speaking in the third person. He dabbles in most game genres, but his heart belongs to JRPGs. When not gaming, Hayden can be found working out, reading, watching television, or getting into heated political arguments with bots on Twitter.