Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: How to EV Train

Training your Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet might initially seem like a simple prospect. Battle and capture other ‘mons out in the world or the care of other Trainers, watch your team’s level rise and continue on your way. However, if you want to go deep into the endgame of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, you need to train not only your team’s individual values (IVs), you need to also increase their Effort Values (EVs), which is an entirely separate, also hidden set of stats.

EV training is a laborious process, but taking on the highest-end Tera Raids and battling other players in competitive matches means bringing your absolute best. That means max EVs, IVs, the best moves, and the most meta Pokemon. We’ll cover how to EV train in this guide.

How to EV Train in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

EV training on its own is a simple process. Every Pokemon in the game has a particular EV yield and defeating one specimen in battle awards that value. Different Pokemon provide different stat EVs, focused specifically on what that Pokemon is best at.

For instance, an Ursaring — an Attack specialist — awards 2 Attack EVs per battle. Sneasel and Weavile, which are great at both Attack and Speed, provide 1 Attack and 1 Speed. Knowing what EVs you’re going for therefore depends on two factors. First, the stat you want your Pokemon to improve and the specialty of the Pokemon you’re farming.

It might seem daunting to know what all 400 Pokemon are good at, but once you know even one of them provides what you’re looking for, it’s a simple matter of causing an outbreak using an Encounter Power sandwich and battling until you’re blue in the face.

There is a limit to how many EVs you can farm, however. Any single Pokemon can have 252 EVs in a single stat and a maximum of 510 total. If you’ve got an Iron Hands for Raids, for instance, you want to max out its HP and Attack IVs and EVs, then put the remaining 8 points in either Defense or Special Defense. That few points won’t make much of a difference, but good to know you’ve taken your Pokemon to their absolute pinnacle.

Crazy as it sounds, that’s about everything you need to know about how to EV train your Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet. For a complete listing of all the EV yields, check out the community website Pokemon DB’s Scarlet and Violet Pokedex. They have data for all the other games as well. For more content from us on the game, including how to breed, the complete TM list, and how to check IVs, check out our other Pokemon Scarlet and Violet guides.