Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: How to Hyper Train

While Pokemon Scarlet and Violet can be relatively simple games if all you do is catch ‘mons and follow the story, but if you dig into the numbers beneath the surface, and you’ll find a rabbit hole that keeps going. Hyper training is one such entrance to said rabbit hole and is one of the primary — and easiest — ways to improve your team’s individual values or IVs. IVs are hidden traits that determine how their stat grow and are unique to each Pokemon.

No two Pokemon will have the same IVs, not even those of identical species, level, and type. That means you need to farm for a proper set of IVs based on your Pokemon’s base stats; then, if you want it to be endgame-ready, hyper train its best IVs to their maximum. We’ll cover how to actually do hyper training in this guide.

How to IV Train in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

You gain access to hyper training midway through the story. There’s an NPC just north of the Montenevera Pokemon Center standing next to an Abomasnow who, when you talk to him, offers to hyper train a member of your team in exchange for a Bottle Cap.

Bottle Caps are a rare and expensive item you can only find in large quantities late in a playthrough or through high-star Tera Raids. Their easiest to come by once you complete the campaign and head to any Delibird Presents store in the General Goods section.

The catch? One Bottle Cap costs 20,000 Poke Dollars, a princely sum unless you’ve been farming Raids for sellable materials. Worse, the NPC will only train one Stat per Bottle Cap, so if you want to max out multiple stats on your perfect team, you’ll either be spending a massive amount of money or hoping for Cap drops from Raids.

There is also an exceptionally rare item available at the Port Marinada Auction house: a Gold Bottle Cap. When used, Gold Bottle Caps immediately max out all of a single Pokemon’s IVs, making every one of its stats able to reach its maximum possible value. Don’t expect to see these very often; you’ll likely spend a small fortune getting just one or a few of them.

And that’s about it for how to hyper train in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. It’s a game of priorities: Which team member do you want to take to their limits, and how much are you willing to spend to do so?

If you have a good Iron Hands for Raids, you’ll want to focus on its HP and Attack stats, which is at least 40,000 Poke Dollars down the drain. You can easily make that money back with a few Raids, but it feels like a lot at the start.

For more Pokemon content, check out our guides on how to get Tera Shards, the best Pokemon for Tera Raids, and how to beat 6-Star Tera Raids. Our guides hub has more.