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Still on the hunt for the perfect Pokémon to become the best master in your town?! We have already given many tips on how you can improve your performance in Pokémon GO.
If you have already seen our article that teaches you how to guarantee stronger evolutions in the game, get ready, because now you will learn how to choose the best pokemon to evolve.
Now, with the use of attributes hidden in the game, learn to choose the Pokémon that will be stronger in its evolution. In this tutorial we will learn what the Pokémon cape IV is and what it influences. We will also find out to select the best one to evolve, even if you have two monsters with the same CP.
What is IV?
In the last game update it was announced that the leaders of each team will be able to evaluate which is the best Pokémon to train. Munfortunately your notes on each Pokémon are still very sketchy. They do not report exact values, only giving an idea.
Since the new update won't really help to find the best Pokemon to evolve, we're going to rely on IV. IV is the acronym for Individual Values (Individual Value). Explaining in a very simple way, each Pokémon is "born" with its own IV, that is, not even identical Pokémon, even with the same CP will have the same strength within the game.
Knowing the Pokémon with the best IV you can strengthen its CP, which is a combination of values of three attributes hidden in the game: attack, defense and stamina (energy), which range from 0 to 15. If you intend to be a master of battles, It is important to know this information, after all, IV can give you an advantage of up to 14% over an identical opponent. A creature can have a normal (standard), bad, or excellent IV. And it is the latter that we will seek.
A standard IV is between 40% and 60%, a bad IV is below that, or close to zero, and an excellent IV is as close to 100% as possible.
And how does that influence?
For example: In a battle between two Vaporeon, one of them can be 14% stronger than your opponent, thus making the strongest win and take the Gym, considering that we have the best and worst possible scenario in the game. In other words, even a Pokémon having a higher CP but lower attack stats than its opponent, it can still lose the battle.
That's why it's important to know each attribute of your Pokémon, to define whether it will be used to attack or defend gyms. In a future update, where PvP battles will be released, these attributes will be even more important.
How to calculate IV?
By playing the Pokémon's CP and HP values into an "IV calculator", it is possible to find out if that is a good little monster to invest or not. That way you'll find out which Pokémon are worth transferring to the Professor, and which ones you'll improve and evolve.
For this tutorial we will use the website Poké Assistant. First of all, you can have peace of mind when using the site, as it does not infringe the game's ToS (Terms of Service, from the English Terms of Service) and will not cause a ban. The data is filled in by you, not violating any rules.
In it you will fill in the following values.
- Pokémon – The type of Pokémon you want to calculate IV;
- CP – The CP of your Pokémon;
- HP – The healt Point, which is just below the Pokémon's name;
- Dust – In this field you put the necessary Stardust to improve the Pokémon;
- Powered – Here you define if the Pokémon has already been enhanced (Power Up) or not.
See in the image below where to find each value:
The 5th item, Powered, is not indicated in the game, so you have to remember whether or not you have upgraded that Pokemon. If you've changed your creature's name, and you don't remember, you can check the Pokédex to find out.
After filling in the values, click Calculate.
If you get the message: “No combinations found for those entries.” It means something is wrong. Chances are your Pokemon has already been enhanced, so change the “Powered' option from No to “Yes” and try again.
According to the calculations, my Starmie has a good IV, being able to reach the maximum of 73.3%, and at least 55.6%. That is, it is from normal to excellent, so it would be a good Pokémon to invest in.
You will also see the maximum level your Pokémon can reach, and even the number of Stardust and Candy will need for that.
Tip: Rename your Pokemon with its IV
After calculating the IV of your Pokémon, rename them and put their IV at the end of their name, to make them easier to identify and not have to recalculate when you need to find out which of those Rattatá is the strongest.
See how this simple tip can help you get the best and strongest Pokemon in the game? See also our other Pokemon GO tips and tutorials and also see this tips book and game tricks.
