Pokemon Platinum EV Training Guide

I copied and pasted this becasuse im too lazy <_< if u dnt wanna read heres the site- http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=946308&topic=49249173

Welcome to my EV guide. It'll hopefully let you know exactly what an EV is and how they work!

1. What is an EV?
2. What is an EV Spread and how do EVs effect my pokemon?
3. Training itself and making it all easier
4. More complex EV spreads and a step by step example of obtaining one
5. EV reducing berries
6. EV Training Hotspots
7. A few FAQs
8. Final notes.



1. What is an EV?



An EV, or effort value (sometimes referred to as effort points or EPs) is a point naturally gained by pokemon when they gain experience. So this means through the EXP Share as well as normal fighting. This point can be in any of the pokemon's stats: HP / Def / Atk / Spe / Spa / Sdef. To train, you KO pokemon that give you the specific number of EVs that you need in your desired stat to make your pokemon much more effective in combat. Each pokemon has an overall limit of 510 EVs, with a limit of 255 EVs per stat. For every 4 EVs a pokemon gains, that means an extra stat point at level 100. Keep reading, it'll become less complicated



2. What is an EV Spread and how do EVs effect my pokemon?



The way an EV set is set out is called a spread, obviously referring to how you distribute the EVs around your stats. There is one standard set for sweepers and the like, which looks like this:

252 Atk / 252 Spe / 6 HP (For physical attackers)

252 Spa / 252 Spe / 6 HP (For special attackers)

That should look quite straightforward. The special attack EVs mean the pokemon will hit harder with it's attacks and the speed will make it much faster. Usually, the remaining 6 EVs are dumped into HP meaning one more hit point at level 100. I'll show you the difference between a pokemon with this EV spread, and a pokemon without this EV spread. That should show you how it works. We'll use Heracross.

I have here an Adamant Heracross. It hasn't been EV trained at all. For simplicity's sake we're assuming perfect IVs (individual values. Google them if you don't know what they are)

Heracross
Adamant
NO EVs

HP: 301 <-
Atk: 314 <-
Def: 186
Spa: 104
SpDef: 226
Spe: 206 <-

And now with the 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP EV spread that becomes...

Heracross
Adamant
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP EVs

HP: 302 <-
Atk: 383 <-
Def: 186
Spa: 104
SpDef: 226
Spe: 269 <-

Hopefully you can see that there's quite a difference. Okay, so not in HP, but attack has received a 69 point boost. From that you should be able to see the immediate benefits of EV training itself.



3. Training itself and making it all easier



It's all very well just typing this stuff in if you're using Shoddybattle, but for in game getting desired EV spreads can be tricky but rewarding. To obtain the desired
EVs, you have to obtain the 252 EVs (for example) in which ever stat you'd like by battling.

For example, Gastly gives you 1 Special Attack EV every time you kill one. So wahey, you kill 252 Gastlys and you're on your way...

Luckily it's not quite like that. The good people at Gamefreak have added several ways for you to obtain EVs much faster than 1 per kill with the help of Vitamins, Power items and Pokerus.

Vitamins:

These are the $9800 items available in Veilstone shopping centre. Each Vitamin gives a boost of 10 EVs per stat, with a maximum possibility of using 10 per stat on one pokemon. In other words, you can't use Vitamins once a pokemon has 100 EVs in the stat you are training. I'll quickly tell you what each Vitamin gives you...

HP-UP = 10 EVs in HP
Protein = 10 EVs in Atk
Iron = 10 EVs in Def
Calcium = 10 EVs in Spa
Zinc = 10 EVs in SpDef
Carbos = 10 EVs in Spe
---
I can then the close quarter beats them.

So let's use the Adamant Heracross from earlier. Before I go out and massacre wild pokemon for sport, I want to make sure I have a boost in Attack and Speed to minimize the number of wild pokemon I have to KO. So I buy 10 Protein and 10 Carbos and feed them to my Heracross. His EV spread has gone from nil to...

100 Atk / 100 Spe

Giving you a nice base to work off. Note how you don't buy a HP-UP as that would give you 10 EVs in HP, which is not what we want for the sweeper spread. That shows you how to get started with your training.

Power Items:

After the elite 4 you gain access to the battle tower / frontier, where you earn points to be spent at the market place etc etc. Here you can buy Power items that your pokemon hold to gain more EVs. Each power item gives you 4 EVs in whatever stat the item itself specializes in, the only downside is a TEMPORARY loss of speed. For example, every time my Heracross gains an EV in ANY stat the Power Anklet he is holding will give him 4 extra EVs. So you can be gaining experience off pokemon that give you SpDef EVs and still be getting your Speed EVs, but I don't recommend doing that. This is crucial to quickly and efficiently training EVs. I'll give you a quick list of what each power item is called and what it does.

Power Weight: + 4 EVs in HP
Power Bracer: +4 EVs in Atk
Power Belt: +4 EVs in Def
Power Lens: +4 EVs in SpA
Power Band: +4 EVs in SpDef
Power Anklet: +4 EVs in Spe

They all slash your speed remember, but this wears off. It's like holding the Iron Ball. Lowers your speed, but stops when you take the item off the pokemon.

As I have said, I don't recommend EV training without the appropriate power item or it takes MUCH longer.

Pokerus

This is the virus that your pokemon can catch. There is a 1 in 21845 chance that a wild pokemon will be carrying this disease when you catch it. I've only ever received two pokemon from my own games with Pokerus. One was on silver so that doesn't count, the other was on a Mewtwo that I soft reset for on Leaf Green (It was timid and it had pokerus).

How do you know your pokemon has pokerus? Well Nurse Joy tells you when you heal your pokemon and a massive great purple PKRS sign appears on your pokemon in the summary screen. Pokerus is removed from any pokemon in your party when the clock passes over (so midnight). Pokerus stays indefinitely on any pokemon in your PC box, so it's good to have at least one pokemon in your PC box with Pokerus at any time.

To spread the virus, you must go into battles. The best way of spreading it is running from battles so as not to add any unwanted EVs to your pokemon.

What Pokerus actually does is doubles the amount of EVs you receive... Except those received via vitamins. So pokemon that would give 1 EV per kill now give 2 and power items now give you 8 EVs per KO instead of 4. This is pretty much crucial to EV training... If you don't have a pokemon with pokerus, get one. If you do have one, spread it to others and keep one in the PC. You don't want to leave your only pokemon with Pokerus in your party overnight and loose the virus forever, that'd be pretty silly.

Once a pokemon has been cured of Pokerus, it can never receive the virus again, so make the most of it (or stick it in the PC for later...).

Pokerus is quite magical when you're EV training. I'll show you why. Let's use Heracross again. I'd like to train speed with Heracross. I've given him his Carbos and he's ready to go. I use the old rod and up comes a magikarp (or you use the VS seeker on the 6 magikarp trainer... I'll do hotspots later...)

---I can then the close quarter beats them.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=946308&topic=49249173