EV guide for u

If your reading this guide you probably don't know what evs are, or what their purpose is. Sure you can beat the game without having a single clue as to what evs are. In fact you can even beat some low level battlers without an inch of knowledge concerning evs. So why learn about them? Well in the metagame of today you will need to know about evs to stand a chance in a real tournament. They can even help build to the uniqueness of your team. But lets get down to business.

What are EVs?
If you've ever been around any serious competitive pokemon battlers, you've most likely heard the term "Evs" tossed around once or twice. Evs stand for "Effort Values". I like to think of Effort Values as skill points, such as in games like the Sims, where at the beginning you are given a certain amount of points and can distribute them to whatever stat or characteristic you want. This works in a similar matter in pokemon. Each time you gain 4 Evs in the same stat you gain an extra point in that stat. Each pokemon can gain a total of 510 evs (although the max is really 508, but I'll explain that later) meaning that you spread 127 stat points among your pokemon's stats.

How can I obtain EVs?
Obtaining Evs is really quite simple. When one of your pokemon defeats another pokemon, either in the wild or from another trainer, they gain effort values along with the regular exp. points. The number of points and the kind of stat differs from pokemon to pokemon. Though in general you gain effort values in whatever stat the pokemon you defeated is strongest in (Ex. Machamp gives you attack evs). To see which pokemon gives what stats see the chart below. As previously stated, once you gain 4 evs of the same stat your pokemon gains an extra stat point in that particular category.

Maxing your stats with EVs
I know that if some of you stopped reading right now you would probably go and fight a thousand pokemon thinking your pokemon would keep gaining evs until all its stats were 99999. However, the producers of the game were kind enough to put in ev limits. Each pokemon can only gain a total of 510 evs. But because 510 divided by 4 is 127.5 and the game rounds down the real total of evs a pokemon can receive is 508. The extra two points, i believe, are really just in case you make a tiny mistake in your ev training. In addition to the 508 max limit, each pokemon can only obtain 255 evs per stat. In a similar way to the 510 rule, the real total is 252 because 255 would waste 3 effort values. This means you can put up to 63 stat points in two different stats and 1 more point in a third stat.

Speeding up EV Training
So wait Hidden, your telling me that for each of my six pokemon I have to fight 508 pokemon to collect all my effort values. Well in a way yes, but there are several ways to speed up the process:
-Vitamins- Vitamins are handy items but they are a bit cost heavy. Each vitamin gives your pokemon 10 Evs in the corresponding stat (ex. Carbos gives 10 evs in speed). However, vitamins can only be used to gain the first 100 evs in a stat and can only give 100 evs (meaning you'll have to do the rest by other means). Vitamins are best used to collect easy evs.
-Exp. Share- Yes, that same item that is used to raise weak pokemon can be used in ev training too. Just as the pokemon holding the exp. share gets the same amount of exp. as the pokemon battling, so do both pokemon collect the same number of effort values from each battle. This is useful for training weak pokemon when they are just hatched (after vitamins of course).
-Macho Brace- If a trainer doesn't know about evs, the macho brace is a very curious item. While a pokemon is holding the macho brace it cuts said pokemon's speed in half, but it also doubles the evs obtained in each battle. Meaning instead of gaining one ev, the pokemon would gain two and so on.
-Power items - The power items add 4 EVs to whatever you would normally gain. So if you fight someone that gives you 1 EV, the right power item will add 4 to that, making it 5 total EVs gained (they still half the speed of whoever is holding it though) This helps speed up the process if you know what EVs you're training in:
Power Weight: HP
Power Bracer: Att
Power Belt: Def
Power Lens: Sp. Att
Power Band: Sp. Def
Power Anklet: Speed
-Pokerus- Pokerus is a special virus that is very difficult to obtain. It can only be found by battling a pokemon in the wild who has it, or by spreading it between able party members by having the pokemon infected with pokerus in your party. The odds of getting pokerus ingame are almost the same odds of getting a shiny (lucky for you it can be purchased from the TAG Credit Store, shameless plug #1). After 24 hours of being infected with pokerus outside of the box (pokerus status is frozen when in the pc) the pokemon is no longer able to spread the virus but it still gets the same benefits. What benefits? Once a pokemon is infected with pokerus it will always gain double evs from that point on, similar to the macho brace. That means using pokerus and macho brace in combination can give you 4 times the regular rate of evs. (ex. Instead of getting 1 Ev you would get 4 evs and so on)

EV Training Hot Spots
ATK-Valor Lakefront- (Gyarados and Seaking give 2 EV in attack)
DEF- Oreburgh Mines-(Geodude and Onix give 1 ev in def)
SATK- Old Chateau-(Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar give 1,2, and 3 evs respectively)
SDEF- Surfing almost anywhere-(Tentacool give 1 ev in sdef and tentacruel gives 2 evs.)
SPD- On the fisherman bridge on Route 205, near Eterna City, the 2nd fisherman from the right-(Has 6 magikarp, earning 6 spd evs.)
HP- Roue 213, in front of Hotel Grand Lake. The boy tuber running around; use vs. seeker on him (At first he has 3 shellos, which give 3 HP total, but they become gastrodon's later, giving 6 total)

EV Spreads
The way in which you decide to distribute your evs in the various stats is called your "EV spread". EV Spreads can be very short or moderate but usually long spreads tend to fail. If you want a special sweeper for instance, a very simple spread could be 252 satk/ 252 spd/ 6hp. Basically you want to use ev spreading to your advantage (as in don't place attack evs on a special sweeper). Besides the general rules listed above, ev spreading is all up to you, the trainer. Ev spreading is fun, adding more strategy and creativeness to your team.

EV reducing Berries
These berries reduce the amount of EVs in a particular stat by 10. So if you mess up, no need to worry! Use these berries to get back on track. (See the [URL= ]Berry Guide[/URL] to find out how to get these berries or visit the TAG Credit Store to purchase them, shameless plug #2)
#21: Pomeg Berry: Reduces HP EVs by 10.
#22: Kelpsy Berry: Reduces Attack EVs by 10.
#23: Qualot Berry: Reduces Defense EVs by 10.
#24: Hondew Berry: Reduces Special Attack EVs by 10.
#25: Grepa Berry: Reduces Special Defense EVs by 10.
#26: Tamato Berry: Reduces Speed EVs by 10.

hi!
i just got started on this ev training thing for my glaceons speed
i gave it a lot of vitamins that boost speed (5 to be exact)...
i read that u can c the boost when u level up, but when i looked at the stats
it was still the normal +2 while i was expecting something quite a bit more than that
can anyone tell me y please?

I have one question about this, I dont have pokerus but i am trying to train for speed so i went and battled the magikarp guy alot and killed 65 magikarps to level with the power anklet and his speed only went up by 5.. shouldnt of it went up by more

it takes a while to go up. as your pokemon gains level, you will see the difference. my torterra's one went up by 32, but that's only because it was a high level