[GUIDE] A Kahuna's Guide to EV Training in Sun & Moon!

[0kamii]

Hey, everybody! It's 0kamii, and today I perform my first duty as a newly appointed PokémonForever kahuna!

The mod team noticed that there wasn't an updated guide on how to EV train in the 7th generation, and since I have experience in competitive battling (which requires a lot of EV training), the team reached out to me and asked if I'd make a quick, comprehensive guide on how and where to super charge all your pokémon around Alola. As flattering as that is, let me start with a touch of humor. Truthfully, I don't like EV training. It can be tedious if you get really unlucky, and just mildly inconvenient at best. However, it is ultimately necessary if you want to have the best possible pokémon for competitions, online tournaments, or even in-game events like the Battle Tree. Breeding too, but that's a guide for a different day. So for the sake of this guide, let's assume that you already have the exact pokémon you need. Perfect IVs, nature, ability, egg moves, the works. But before we just jump in, I think a little vocabulary words are in order.
 

The Vocabulary of EV Training

EVs - short for Effort Values, they are semi-invisible numbers that change a pokémon's stats upon growth and subsequent level-up

Investment - this is the amount of EVs trained into a stat, there is a maximum of 510 trainable EVs, but only 252 can be put into a single stat

Power Items - these are the items that heighten the growth of what EV corresponds to the item held, i.e. the Power Anklet will increase Speed EVs

Pokérus - the incredibly rare occasion when your pokémon gets a pink bar next to its name and all EVs are thereafter doubled, this phenomena is contagious, easily obtainable on Wonder Trade

Those are the basic words that you'll need to know in order to understand the bulk of what is going to be discussed. EV training is not something to fear, and it can be done passively as soon as you understand the principles. But your probably wondering, how exactly are EVs obtained? It's quite simple really.
 

The Basics of EV Training

+ 1 Attack EV

 

Much in the same way that pokémon gain experience after defeating another pokémon in battle, pokémon also have their total number of EVs increase with every battle. Every battle where experience is gained, that is. Not only that, but every pokémon has a fixed EV value determined before the battle begins. You can find these numbers on popular pokémon fan sites like Bulbapedia, or Serebii. For sake of time however, let's use Pikipek as an example. Pikipek is worth 1 EV in the Attack stat, so by defeating it and gaining experience from the battle, the pokémon you're training now has 1 point in Attack, and a remaining 509 EVs in total. This can be enhanced with the use of Power Items and Pokérus. Let me explain.

 

= 1 Attack EV
= 2 Attack EVs (with Pokérus)
= 9 Attack EVs (holding Power Bracer, no Pokérus)
= 18 Attack EVs (holding Power Bracer, with Pokérus)

 

As you can see, the Power Items and Pokérus make a massive difference in the amount of EVs gained at once. This means that if you wanted to maximize your pokémon's Attack EVs (again, 252 max), you would only have to knock out 14 wild Pikipek as opposed to 252 without any sort of enhancement. However, there is a way to increase this number to 36 EVs per knockout. Making it so that you only have to knock out 7 wild Pikipek to maximize your Attack EVs, or any stat for that matter. That method is through S.O.S. Chaining, or Ally Chaining, whichever term you prefer.

 

EV Training Using S.O.S Chaining

 

Surely everyone that has played the 7th generation understands by now the mechanics of S.O.S. Chaining. When you enter a wild pokémon battle, that pokémon has a chance to call an ally pokémon to the battle against you, and it can either be the same species, or a different species altogether. Each pokémon has a different call rate, and this can determine their usefulness in EV training. Unevolved pokémon are more likely to call for help, whereas fully evolved pokémon usually don't call for help, and others don't call for help at all. This call rate can be increase if the pokémon at the front of your party has one of the following abilities:

1) Unnerve: → Bewear, Haxorus, and Aerodactyl have this ability

2) Intimidate: → Tauros, Arcanine, Gyarados, and Granbull have this ability

3) Pressure: → Weavile, Absol, and Aerodactyl have this ability

You can also increase the chances of the wild pokémon calling for an ally by using an Adrenaline Orb. While the exact percentage of increase is currently undetermined, Adrenaline Orbs don't get used up if they fail, so it's a good way to waste turns waiting for the wild pokémon to call an ally. Adrenaline Orbs can be purchased at almost every Pokémon Center, so they're not hard to find. Also worth noting that wild pokémon are more likely to call for help if they have lowered HP.

The reason it's so important to get into an S.O.S. battle with a while pokémon, in our case Pikipek, is because ally pokémon give double the EVs that regularly encountered pokémon do. Take our Pikipek from earlier:

= 18 Attack EVs (holding Power Bracer, with Pokérus)

 

 Now, if you were to use False Swipe or Hold Back on that Pikipek (bringing it down to 1 HP), use an Adrenaline Orb, and wait for it to call an ally Pikipek, knocking out that called Pikipek instead of the original will look something like this:

 

= 36 Attack EVs (holding Power Bracer, with Pokérus, ally defeated)

 

And just like that, by knocking out six more of the summoned allies, your pokémon has reached a perfect 252 in its Attack stat. Thankfully, it seems Nintendo knew that 252 was the magic number because 36 • 7 = 252. And just like that, rinse and repeat until you have exactly the EVs in each stat you need. Of course, it's rare that you'll always trained a pokémon to have 252 EVs in a stat exactly, and you may have weirder numbers like 116 EVs. For situations like this, I recommend using a calculator to judge the number of pokémon that will have to be knocked out using various methods. Here's an example:

 

116 Sp. Defense EVs
36 + 36 + 36 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 116 EVs

 

In this case, you would have to find a pokémon that yields 1 Sp. Defense EV upon being defeated and giving experience, knock out three ally pokémon with a Power Item (the Power Band in this case), and make sure your pokémon has Pokérus. This will give you 36 x 3 = 108 EVs in Sp. Defense. Then, flee the battle, remove the Power Band, and knock out four more regular pokémon of the same species. This will give you 2 EVs each, with Pokérus, and after the fourth one you should have 116 EVs.

 

Resetting EVs (if necessary)

 

Let's say for some reason you messed up your EVs and you need to do them over again. Do you need to breed a whole new pokémon and start from scratch? No, thankfully not. Sun and Moon was very kind to errors, and implimented a way to reset EVs should the need arise. The secret lies in berries. Each one reduces EVs by 10 points, and all can be found at various berry piles and grown easily in Poké Pelago. The required berries are the following:

Pomeg Berry - reduces HP EVs by 10 points, 26 needed for a compete reset

Kelpsy Berry - reduces Attack EVs by 10 points, 26 needed for a complete reset

Qualot Berry - reduces Defense EVs by 10 points, 26 needed for a complete reset

Hondew Berry - reduces Sp. Attack EVs by 10 points, 26 needed for a complete reset

Grepa Berry - reduces Sp. Defense EVs by 10 points, 26 needed for a complete reset

Tamato Berry - reduces Speed EVs by 10 points, 26 needed for a complete reset

 

Power Item Locations

 

I've talked a lot about the various Power Items, and why they're so important to maximizing the EVs gained during training. But one thing I haven't mentioned is where to find them in the 7th generation. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but they're not the most fun in the world to obtain. All of the Power Items, as displayed above, are only available though gaining Battle Points (BP) at the Battle Tree or Battle Royale Dome and are found at the Battle Royale Dome counter. Each one is 16 BP, making the total number of necessary BP for all six an exhausting 96 BP.

If you're like me, you'll know that both the Tree and Dome are quite difficult, even for experienced trainer, and I had to grind the lowest level of difficulty in the Battle Royale Dome over and over to get the required BP. Believe me, the grind is worth it in the end. If you have a generous friend, they may lend you their Power Items, but it's more convenient to have your own, trust me on that. Each Power Item corresponds to a stat. That list is as followed:

Power Weight = HP

Power Bracer = Attack

Power Belt = Defense

Power Lens = Sp. Attack

Power Band = Sp. Defense

Power Anklet = Speed

So now that we've gone over the various ways of EV training your pokémon, and the necessary tools and items needed to make it as fast and efficient as possible, let's go over the specific areas you'll need to go in order to speed up the process even more.

 

EV Training Hotspots

 

As you may have noitced, there are six stats that can be trained. That means each stat has a designated spot ideal for training that EV specifically. Three of the six spots are found on Melemele Island, one is on Akala, one on Ula'ula, and the final one is on Poni Island. Because most of these spots, sans Poni Island, have relatively low-leveled wild pokémon, any moderately leveled pokémon with False Swipe can take hits and deal the necessary damage in the wild encounters. Let's go over the stats in order, just for simplicity's sake.

 

Grimer - Ula'ula Island, Malie City Outer Cape

Yield: 1 HP EV
Encounter Chance: 30%

 

My only suggestion for dealing with Grimer in the proper way is to watch out for that pesky Poison Touch ability. Having a Steel-Type with False Swipe, like Scizor or Kartana negates this and makes training off Grimer a lot easier. Another suggestion would be Caterpie on Route 1, but the encounter rate is only 20%, so I wouldn't recommend it.

 

Pikipek, Yungoos, Spinarak - Melemele Island, Route 1
 
Yield: 1 Attack EV
Encounter Chance: Day - 60%, Night - 50%

 

Sun and Moon was very generous to EV trainers, as Route 1 sports some of the best EV training we've seen in years. Much to our delight, both Pikipek and Yungoos yield 1 Attack EV, meaning that between the two of them, you have a 60% percent chance to find the necessary pokémon on the first try. At night, Pikipek and Spinarak are the ones to look for, as they both yield 1 Attack EV as well. Obviously, daytime is preferred, but nighttime is very doable as well. This really is the best place for Attack EVs, day or night, no question.

 

Exeggcute - Poni Island, Exegutor Island

Yield: 1 Defense EV
Encounter Chance: 40%

 

Before I started training Defense EVs on Exeggutor Island, I used Alolan Geodude on Ula'ula Island, but because of their tendency to explode, the EVs always came out too inconsistent. I realized soon after that Exeggcute gives the same yield, it doesn't explode, and its moveset actually helps you because you can't fall asleep thanks to Worry Seed. The only issue was that Exeggute was hard to encounter, until I realized that Exeggutor Island was full of them! Exeggute has a 40% encounter rate on the island, which is huge compared to its encounter rate of 10% in the Poni Wilds. The only drawback is that the Exeggute are going to be in their 40s. But any pokémon you used throughout the game should be aptly leveled. Decidueye gets False Swipe and is super-effective against Exeggcute. Food for thought.

 

Psyduck - Akala Island, Brooklet Hill

Yield: 1 Sp. Attack EV
Encounter Chance: 30%

 

I know that 30% doesn't seem like a lot compared to some of the other pokémon we've talked about, but either it's Psyduck with 30%, or Magnemite in Hau'oli City with a 50%, but with an annoying ability called Sturdy, which wastes everyone's time. If you have a pokémon with Mold Breaker, you can surpress this, but your S.O.S. pokémon will usually have Unnerve, Intimidate, or Pressure instead. Psyduck's 30% is actually the highest encounter rate in Brooklet Hill, outside of surfing and fishing, and the number of times I've found Psyduck on the first try is immense. Take my word on this one, Brooklet Hill is the best place for training Sp. Attack.

 

Tentacool - Melemele Island, Hau'oli City Beachfont

Yield: 1 Sp. Defense EV
Encounter Chance: 40%

 

Here's my least favorite of the EV training locations. It's not that this location is bad, but rather that there's another pokémon at this location with the same encounter rate, being Finneon. Finneon gives Speed EVs, so you can't simple knock them both out. By comparison however, this is still the best place to find Sp. Defense EVs. Tentacool will appear 40% of the time, so just glide around on Lapras for a while until you have the necessary stats. It will be annoying, but it's far from the worst thing in Sun and Moon.

 

Spearow - Melemele Island, Route 3

Yield: 1 Speed EV
Encounter Chance: 70%

 

After years of causing Shiny hunters and speedrunners grief, Spearow finally becomes useful in the 7th generation. Here, we abuse the mechanic of ambush encounters to find our bird 70% of the time. The other 30% will be Rufflet or Vullaby depending on which version you're playing. Do not look for Spearow in the grass. Fly to Melemele Meadow. That will put you on Route 3, just outside the meadow. Then immediate run up towards the rocks. You'll see shadows drifting across the ground. Run under those, and you'll find a Spearow 70% of the time. Ambush pokémon do call allies, hence the reason Spearow is finally useful.

 

Miscellaneous Information

 

Other things I should mention before I wrap up this guide are the various things that were mentioned in the previous version of this post for ORAS and XY. You can use Vitamins to EV train stats (Carbos, HP Up, Iron, et cetera) instead of S.O.S. Chaining, but these items only go up to a certain number before becoming ineffective. I believe the number is 100 EVs of the maximum 252. However, S.O.S. Chaining is so much faster and less costly than buying vitamins, so I really think there's no point. Ally chaining is better, faster, and more cost effective. After all, we all know how hard it is to make money in Alola.

Another thing to mention is the item, the Macho Brace. It's really irrelevant thanks to Pokérus, which doubles EV gains anyway, and as far as I know, it's not even obtainable in Sun and Moon.

I said earlier that Pokérus is easily obtainable on Wonder Trade, and frankly it is. But even if you are unlucky and don't find one this way, there are plenty of people on this site that have more than enough infected pokémon to spare. Ask around, and you'll find one fairly quickly.

Last thing before I close, you can EV train multiple pokémon at once, but that requires the Exp. Share to be turned on, and for each pokémon trained to have the respective Power Item and be infected with Pokérus. Keeping track of more than one at a time though can be daunting, and you'll likely lose your place. I wouldn't recommned doing more than one at once.

 

Conclusion

 

Well, that's all. Thank you all so much for reading and taking the time to understand and appreicate the steps and effort that goes into EV training. Hopefully, I've convinced you all that it's important and made it seem less intimidating. EV training isn't the most fun thing to do in pokémon, but the results are always worth the effort you put in. In a way, experiencing EV training train you the player as well, and opens up a whole new side to pokémon that younger players likely never understand. And by the end, it is your EVs that are maxed...in knowledge!

That's it! I'll read you all soon everyone. My first duty as a kahuna has concluded! Battle onwards, friends!

- 0kamii