There are tons of statistics in the Pokémon series, but perhaps the most cryptic and confusing are Independent Values. These secret stats, also known as IVs, give a slight boost to your Pokémon’s stats to increase its potential, with low IVs meaning decreased natural stats regardless of how well they’re trained through Vitamins and battling.

Pokémon Sword & Shield has made understanding these much easier by having an IV Checker you can unlock to use in your PC, letting you identify powerful Pokémon quicker than ever. Here’s how you can access this convenient IV Checker, and everything else you need to know about these numbers hiding in every Pokémon.

10 Unlock The IV Checker In The Battle Tower

Rather than prior games where the IV Checker is a character that you talk to, Pokémon Sword & Shield makes it much easier to access. Instead, it remains in the PC so that you can quickly look up any sort of stats. This is the only way to view IVs, as no other character discusses them with you.

As for unlocking this function, you receive it automatically after you’ve achieved five wins in a Battle Tower Challenge, defeating Leon and reaching the Pokéball Tier. Once it’s activated, simply enter your PC and you can bring up the IV window by pressing Plus on your controller while looking at a Pokémon.

9 They’re Necessary For Perfect Stats

For those unaware of how these stats work, they’re essentially a Pokémon’s hidden and natural potential. Each Pokémon has a secret number behind their stats from 0-31, and this will provide boosts to a Pokémon’s stats as they level up.

If you wish to make a competitive Pokémon, having as many maximized IVs is important to be able to outrun or overpower your opponents. They aren’t vital in a standard playthrough of a Pokémon game, but you’ll find they have a significant edge against an average Pokémon, especially when they reach higher levels.

8 Specific IV Numbers Are Always Hidden

One tradition that has remained with the IV Checker is that it remains quite cryptic and unclear, as the game doesn’t directly state any Pokémon’s IV stats numerically. The game will provide you with some words to illustrate how good they are, but their specific values are still mostly a mystery.

If you wish to maximize a Pokémon’s stats, though, it’s rare that you’ll want anything besides the highest number. You’ll know if a Pokémon’s IV stat is a perfect 31 if it lists “Best”, while “Fantastic” is exactly 30. If you need a stat even lower, any listed as “No Good” means the IV is absolute zero.

7 IVs Can Pass Through Breeding With Held Items

One of the easy ways to guarantee IVs in a Pokémon is through breeding, but it requires more than just two strong parents. Stats are mostly random when breeding for an egg, and getting a Pokémon with full IVs usually requires dealing with some luck. Thankfully, there are multiple ways of making this process more consistent through a variety of held items while breeding.

Using a Destiny Knot on either parent will make sure that five of the IVs among the two Pokémon pass down to its child. For even more consistency, equipping Power Items like the Power Lens and Power Anklet will always cause the holder to pass down the IV of the stat their item is associated with, eliminating variability altogether.

6 Hyper Training Maximizes IVs

If you aren’t interested in breeding, another alternative for improving your Pokémon’s stats is to use Hyper Training. This was first introduced in Pokémon Sun & Moon, where an NPC could provide Pokémon at level 100 with maximized IVs in exchange for new items called Bottle Caps. Pokémon Sword & Shield made this even easier by making them purchasable for Battle Points in the Battle Tower.

If you want to max out all of a Pokémon’s stats, you can also more easily make Golden Bottlecaps if you have three Bottle Caps and the Isle of Armor DLC. With the Cram-O-Matic in the Master Dojo, simply feed it a Bottle Cap in the first, third, and fourth slot with any item in the second. It will provide you with a Golden Bottlecap in exchange, getting you far more value.

5 Hyper Training Won’t Pass Through Breeding

One downside of Hyper Training is that it is entirely specific to the Pokémon that receives it. What it actually does is increase its stats to resemble a Pokémon with perfect IVs, but the actual numbers in the Pokémon haven’t completely changed. As a result, Hyper Trained Pokémon cannot pass their new IVs to new eggs.

What this means is that Hyper Training should always be done cautiously. Between Nature Mints, Ability Capsules to change abilities, and the ability to pass Egg Moves without breeding, it’s easier than ever to make any Pokémon a perfect competitive battler. That said, it’s still important to not use your Bottle Caps without being sure that you want to invest resources in a particular Pokémon.

4 Wild Pokémon Usually Have Terrible IVs

The reason that IVs are so valuable is that they’re typically quite hard to find naturally. Your average wild Pokémon is likely to have quite poor IVs, with each being fully randomized with each encounter. This also includes many gift Pokémon, including your Starter at the beginning of the game.

There’s still technically a chance of running into an incredibly high-tier Pokémon in the wild, but it’s slim enough that it’ll hardly ever happen. If you want an especially strong Pokémon, you’re unfortunately going to have to work for it.

3 Pokémon From Max Raid Battle Usually Have High IVs

There are several other ways to obtain Pokémon than just in the wild, though, and the new Max Raid Battles are a great way to do this. Alongside potentially having Hidden Abilities, Pokémon caught after completing Max Raid Battles will almost always have several high IVs.

This usually depends on the star-rating at the beginning of the battle, with five-star Max Raid Battles having at least five perfect IVs. They still can vary on other qualities like Natures and Abilities, but this is another great alternative to getting strong Pokémon without breeding or Hyper Training.

2 Brilliant Aura Pokémon Have Some High IVs

One other odd way to get a Pokémon with guaranteed IVs is through Brilliant Aura Pokémon roaming in the Wild. If a Pokémon has a yellow glow around it, this means it’s charged with two or three maximized IVs and one rare Egg Move that’s only learnable otherwise through breeding.

These are far from perfect fighters, but they can be a great starting point if you want a strong Pokémon without too much effort. Battling and catching tons of a specific Pokémon will also result in higher rates of it spawning with a Brilliant Aura in the wild, so it’s far from the worst way to grind if you want a Pokémon with naturally high IVs.

1 Pokémon From Virtual Console Games Have Several High IVs

The last way Pokémon can have guaranteed high IVs is by transferring them from far older games. These include the Virtual Console releases on the 3DS of Pokémon Red & Blue, Pokémon Yellow, Pokémon Gold & Silver, and Pokémon Crystal. Any Pokémon transferred from these games will have at least 3 perfect IV stats, as well as a chance of having their Hidden Ability.

This is because games this old didn’t have IVs originally, so their natural stats are increased in exchange for the inability to send them back after they’ve been transferred. It can be a chore to get these from Pokémon Bank on the 3DS to your Pokémon Home app on your Switch, but given their strength, it can be worth the effort.

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