How To Check IVs And EVs In Pokemon Legends: Z-A

While playing through Pokemon Legends: Z-A, one thing you'll want to keep in mind, especially if you plan to participate in ranked battles, is your Pokemon's stats. For the most part, if you're just hoping to get through the game, this isn't something you'll need to worry about, as leveling your Pokemon high enough can help you complete most Main Missions.

That being said, if you do find yourself wanting to make your team as strong as it can be, then you'll want to take a look at the Pokemon's nature, IVs, and EVs. All of these play an important role in boosting the baseline stats of your Pokemon and can make all the difference when facing a tough opponent.

What Are The Six Pokemon Stats?

Every Pokemon in any Pokemon game will have a stat breakdown of six different stats. The six stats are:

• HP — Total health. Represents how much damage can be taken before fainting.
• Speed — How fast a Pokemon's moves recharge.
• Attack — The strength of your Physical Attack moves.
• Special Attack — The strength of your Special Attack moves.
• Defense — Physical Attack resistance.
• Special Defense — Special Attack resistance.

Overall, each one is important, but you can't always focus on all six, so you will have to decide what's more important for your team and each Pokemon. For example, if you're using a Pokemon with a Special Attack stat and only Special Attack moves, then it's probably not as important for you to worry about that Pokemon's Attack stat.

How Does Speed Work In Legends: Z-A?

In terms of Pokemon Legends: Z-A, every other stat in this game works the same it always has, but Speed is the only one that has changed significantly. Since Z-A is not turn-based, you no longer need to worry about who attacks first.

Instead, Speed is going to determine how fast your cooldowns are. When you look at a move, it will typically list a cooldown time. This time is not how long it is actually going to take for your Pokemon to be able to use this move again. The time listed on the move is the baseline, or maximum time required to recharge, so you will never take longer to recharge than the time listed.

At the moment, it's speculated that the cap for Speed is a 3s cooldown. This means that a Pokemon with incredible Speed could theoretically get a move with a 9s cooldown down to only a 3s cooldown. So, whether that's important for your team is up to you, but it is something to keep in mind when facing opponents.

What Are Pokemon Natures, And How Do They Impact Stats?

When you first catch a Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Z-A, it will automatically have a specific nature. You can think of this almost like a personality, but what it actually does is increase one stat and lower another. For example, an Adamant Nature will boost a Pokemon's Physical Attack stat while lowering their Special Attack stat. That said, no Nature changes HP.

Since there is a Nature for every combination of stats, this also includes Natures that impact the same stat. For example, a Serious Nature increases and lowers Speed. For that reason, and because there are five stats, excluding HP, there are five neutral Natures that cancel out their own impact.

There are 25 different Natures in total, one for every combination you can think of, and they include:

How To Change A Pokemon's Nature

Considering it's pretty likely that the wild Pokemon you catch won't have the exact nature you'd like it to have, you're probably going to be looking for a way to change it. Thankfully, there is a way to change it to whatever you want, and it's relatively simple to do.

All throughout Lumiose you've probably seen vendors selling various things at market stalls. One of the items they sell is Mints, which can be used to change a Pokemon's nature. Each Mint will have the same name as the nature that it changes a Pokemon to, so an Adamant Mint will change a Pokemon's Nature to Adamant.

Not every vendor sells all the available Mints, so you will need to go to a specific one depending on which Mint you're interested in. Additionally, regardless of what Mint you buy, all Mints will cost you 20,000 Pokemon Dollars each. So, if you're hoping to change the nature of your entire team, you'll need at least 120k.

Mint Vendors will always have a stall that is covered in flowers, which can be an easy way to identify them.

As for where you can find the 12 different Mint vendors, please see the table below:

* The vendors in Jaune Plaza will only be available before the area becomes Wild Zone 8. Once you've unlocked the Wild Zone, you will need to shop elsewhere.

What Is The Best Pokemon Nature?

Unfortunately, there isn't a single best Nature, as each Pokemon needs to be evaluated individually. That being said, there are a couple of common routes people take, and those are Modest and Adamant Natures. For these, you're essentially boosting either Special Attack or Physical Attack and debuffing the other based on your Pokemon.

If you're using something like Feraligatr, then you're going to prioritize Physical Attack moves. So, your best move there is to then play into that by boosting Physical Attack even more with an Adamant Nature. Since you'll only be using Physical Attack moves, or at least should be, there's no real loss in lowering your Special Attack, and it's the same concept for Special Attack Pokemon.

Of course, there are benefits to boosting Speed as well, especially in Z-A, but ultimately, there's no wrong choice. It's simply a matter of what works best for you, and you can always change it with another Mint if need be.

What Are IVs And EVs?

Now that we've discussed stats and Natures, it's also important to know the last two, more complex ways you can mess with a Pokemon's stats. IVs, or Individual Values, are a Pokemon's unique stats. This is what makes a Pokemon unique from others like it, and unfortunately, they can either be near-perfect or absolute garbage.

While playing through Z-A, there's unfortunately no way to check this. However, once you reach Z-A's post-game, that changes. After finishing what is considered the end of the story, you'll receive a prompt in your menu indicating that you're now able to check Pokemon IVs.

While you won't get the exact number of 0 to 31 that each stat is, you will see a phrase letting you know whether the IV for that stat is good, bad, or the best it can be. The values and corresponding phrases are as follows:

While it would be ideal if your Pokemon had perfect IVs, it's pretty rare for that to be the case. That being said, there is a way to fix it. If you've been playing through Z-A for a while, then you've probably begun to accrue Bottle Caps. These are nothing new in Z-A, but if you're unfamiliar with them, they are items that can be exchanged for training to fix your Pokemon's IVs.

You can earn a few Gold Bottle Caps through Mable's Research and a Side Mission. These will Hyper Train all of a Pokemon's IVs at once if used, rather than one stat at a time.

With all of that in mind, it's now time to talk about EVs. EVs, or Effort Values, are the part of each stat that you have direct influence over. To check these, you'll go to the same place where you would check IVs in the Pokemon Summary and then use your right stick to toggle down.

Several berries will have a description stating what stat they can remove points from, so if you're unhappy with points in a particular stat, simply consume that berry. That being said, if you want to wipe the slate clean, an easier method is to visit the Rust Syndicate. Right inside the office building, there will be a counter to the right with a clerk who will reset your EVs for you.

Once everything is reset, you can use feathers, which are found throughout Lumiose, to begin increasing a stat. More effectively, however, you can also use vitamins, which are harder to obtain, but can be bought from the Pokemon Center after beating the game.

There is also the classic method of training EVs, which includes using a held item that boosts the EV points earned from defeating a Pokemon. Each Pokemon in the game rewards a specific stat point when defeated, so depending on what stat you're looking to boost, you can hunt down a wild Pokemon that rewards that stat and repeatedly spawn and defeat it until your EV for that stat is maxed out.

As mentioned, there are held items known as training items that give you double the EV points when defeating Pokemon. These can be acquired through Side Missions or bought from Quasartico Inc. in the post-game.

With all that in mind, you're ready to get to work with your team and make them the best they can be for future battles and the Pokemon Legends: Z-A DLC.