Individual values: Difference between revisions

IV redirects here. For the fourth generation of Pokémon games, see Generation IV.

It has been suggested that this article be moved to Individual strengths. Please discuss whether or not to move it on its talk page.

This article is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this article to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Missing Chinese and Korean name and when IVs are determined for eggs and roaming Pokemon

Individual strengths (Japanese: 生まれつきの強さ innate strengths), commonly referred to by fans as individual values (Japanese: 個体値 individual values) and abbreviated as IVs, are the Pokémon equivalent of genes. They are instrumental in determining the stats of a Pokémon, being responsible for the large variation in stats among untrained Pokémon of the same species. In the context of Generations I and II, which have a different IV system, IVs are also referred to as determinant values (DVs).

Each of the six stats has an IV associated with it, with that IV coming into calculation alongside the Pokémon's base stats, Nature, and EVs to determine the actual stat number. A Pokémon's IVs are fixed when it is generated by the game (i.e. when it is encountered in the wild or given to the player by an NPC), and cannot be changed (although Hyper Training causes stats to become values corresponding the maximum IVs).

In the games, the term potential is often used to allude to IVs, such as by the stats judge. Shigeru Ohmori has stated that the reason EVs and IVs are hidden is because he prefers to think of Pokémon as "real, living creatures".^[1]

Generation I and II

In Generation I and II, only four IVs are stored for each individual Pokémon: Attack, Defense, Speed, and Special. Each of these is used to determine their associated stat, with the HP IV determined from the IVs stored for the other four. IVs range from 0-15 (in binary 0000-1111).

The HP IV is calculated by taking the least significant bit (the final binary digit) of the Attack, Defense, Speed, and Special IVs, then creating a binary string by placing them in that order. As such, a Pokémon with an odd-number Attack IV has 8 added to its HP IV, an odd-number Defense IV has 4 added, an odd-number Speed IV has 2 added, and an odd-number Special IV has 1 added.

In Generation II, due to the Special stat being split into Special Attack and Special Defense, the Special IV is used for both Special Attack and Special Defense.

In Generation II, several things aside from stats are also based on stats IVs. From Generation III onward, all of these except the type and power of Hidden Power are determined by other variables, such as the Pokémon's personality value.

In Generation I, due to correlations between pseudorandom numbers, Pokémon encountered in those games in tall grass, in caves, or by surfing on water have a limited pool of possible sets of IVs, with the exact pool of possible sets of IVs depending on the encounter rate of the location they were encountered. Most significantly, any Pokémon encountered in any of these ways cannot be Shiny. Conversely, Fishing encounters, gift Pokémon (including from Pokémon Stadium), stationary Pokémon (such as Snorlax and Mewtwo), and in-game trades can have any set of IVs.^[2]

Usage

Determination of stats

In Generation I and II, a Pokémon's stats are determined according to the following formulas.

${\displaystyle HP=\left\lfloor {\left((Base+DV)\times 2+\left\lfloor {\tfrac {\left\lceil {\sqrt {STATEXP}}\right\rceil }{4}}\right\rfloor \right)\times Level \over 100}\right\rfloor +Level+10}$

${\displaystyle OtherStat=\left\lfloor {\left((Base+DV)\times 2+\left\lfloor {\tfrac {\left\lceil {\sqrt {STATEXP}}\right\rceil }{4}}\right\rfloor \right)\times Level \over 100}\right\rfloor +5}$

Example

For two Mewtwo caught in Cerulean Cave:

Gender

In Generation II, a Pokémon's gender is determined based solely on its physical Attack IV when compared to a gender ratio. A Pokémon is female if its physical Attack IV is less than or equal to its species' gender ratio, otherwise it is male. For species that are exclusively one gender or have no gender, the calculation based on the Attack IV is ignored.

Due to this calculation, it is impossible to obtain a female Pokémon with high physical Attack, unless the Pokémon is a member of an all-female species like Jynx or Chansey. First partner Pokémon and others with a gender ratio of seven males to one female are the most affected, with the maximum physical Attack IV for a female Pokémon of those species being 1.

Example

For two Cyndaquil obtained from Professor Elm:

Shininess

In Generation II, whether or not a Pokémon is Shiny is determined by its IVs.

A Pokémon is Shiny if and only if both of the following conditions are met

• Its Defense, Speed, and Special IVs are all 10.
• Its Attack IV is 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, or 15.

Normally, when the player encounters a Pokémon in the wild or receives a Pokémon as a gift in Generation II, all possible sets of IVs have an equal probability. Since there are 8 possible sets of IVs for Shiny Pokémon of the 65,536 distinct sets of IVs, there is a 1/8192 chance of a Pokémon being Shiny when its IVs are selected at random. This is the same probability of a wild Pokémon being Shiny in Generation III, IV, and V.

Due to correlations between pseudorandom numbers in the Generation I games, Pokémon encountered in those games in tall grass, in caves, or by surfing on water cannot have a set of IVs that would allow them to be Shiny in Generation II. Fishing encounters, gift Pokémon (including from Pokémon Stadium), stationary Pokémon (such as Snorlax and Mewtwo), and in-game trades can have any set of IVs, so they always have the same 1/8192 chance of having a Shiny IV combination.^[2]

The Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage, which is guaranteed to be Shiny, has predetermined IVs, with an Attack IV of 14 and all other stats being 10, except HP which is 0. When breeding Pokémon, because IVs are inherited from the Pokémon's parents, the probability of the bred Pokémon being Shiny is highly dependent on the parents' IVs.

Due to HP IV being calculated from the other IVs, a Shiny Pokémon's HP IV can only be 0 (if the Attack IV is even) or 8 (if the Attack IV is odd). Since 0 and 1 are not possible Attack IVs for a Shiny Pokémon, female Pokémon of species with a seven male to one female ratio can never be Shiny in Generation II.

Example

For two Sandshrew caught in Union Cave (Sandshrew A is Shiny, Sandshrew B is not Shiny):

Pokémon	Gender	HP	Attack	Defense	Speed	Sp. Atk	Sp. Def
Sandshrew A	♀	22	14	16	11	8	9
		8 (1000)	7 (0111)	10 (1010)	10 (1010)	10 (1010)
Sandshrew B	♀	22	14	17	10	8	9
		7 (0111)	6 (0110)	15 (1111)	7 (0111)	5 (0101)

Unown's letter

In Generation II, Unown's letter is taken from the combination of the center two bits of the Attack, Defense, Speed and Special IV nibbles. This combination is then divided by ten, and the result is rounded down (floor[]) to only include the integer part of the number. This integer will range from 0-25, corresponding to a letter in the Latin alphabet, which will be the Unown's letter (where 0=A, 1=B, 2=C, ..., 23=X, 24=Y, 25=Z).

In Generation II, due to this method of calculating Unown's letter and the way that Shiny Pokémon are determined, a Shiny Unown can only exist in the shape of the letter I or V. Additionally, due to this method of calculating Unown's letter, only 6 combinations correspond to Unown Z, whereas 10 combinations correspond to every other Unown, making Unown Z less common.

In Generation III, Unown's letter is determined by the Pokémon's personality value. From Generation IV onward, it is determined by a separate form identifier. Generation III also introduced Unown '!' or '?'.

Example

For two Unown caught in the Ruins of Alph:

Magikarp's size

Main article: Size and weight variation → Generation II

At the Lake of Rage, there is a Fishing Guru who requests to see large Magikarp after the player defeats Team Rocket at their hideout in Mahogany Town. If the Fishing Guru is shown a Magikarp bigger than the previous record, he gives the player a prize.

The size of Magikarp is calculated from its IVs and its Original Trainer's Trainer ID number. Sizes were intended to follow a normal distribution, but due to various bugs and oversights in the code, the sizes only roughly follow it.

In some circumstances, when encountering a wild Magikarp, the game can regenerate its IVs once in order to try to make it smaller or larger. In the non-English versions, Magikarp initially bigger than 160 cm may have their IVs regenerated, in an effort to make large Magikarp more rare; in the English versions, this fails to occur at all due to a unit conversion error. Magikarp caught in the Lake of Rage were intended to be larger on average than Magikarp caught elsewhere, by regenerating the IVs of wild Magikarp that are initially 4'0" (122.0 cm) or smaller in English games, or 102.4 cm (3'4") or smaller in non-English games, 60% of the time; due to a programming error, all wild Magikarp that meet the threshold have their IVs regenerated this way except for those in the Lake of Rage and Routes 20, 43, and 44.

Smeargle's patterns' colors

In Pokémon Stadium 2, the patterns on Smeargle's back and tail can be red, green or blue depending on its IVs.^[3]

The games takes the Special, Defense, Speed and Attack values in that order, and makes them the digits of a 4-digit hexadecimal number. The colors are determined from the result of modulo 9 on that number. The colors are cycled through in order of red, green and blue, with the back pattern changing every 3; that is 0-2 will give the same color for back pattern but different colors for the tail pattern.

The colors are affected by Shininess; due to the fact that both the pattern colors and Shininess is determined by IVs, a Shiny Smeargle will only have pattern ID of 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 or 8.

Example

For two Smeargle caught in the Ruins of Alph:

Hidden Power

Main article: Hidden Power (move)/Calculation

The calculated Type and Power of the move Hidden Power is based on the IVs of the Pokémon. Hidden Power can be of any type aside from Normal, and can have a power between 31 and 70. The formula used in Generation II is different to the one used in later generations.

The move's type is determined by the two least significant bits of the Attack and Defense IVs. The move's power is determined by the most significant bit of each of the Pokémon's IVs, as well as the two least significant bits of the Special IVs.

NPC's Pokémon

• In Generation I, all NPC's Pokémon have the same DVs:
  • Attack = 9
  • Defense, Special, Speed = 8
• In Generation II, all Pokémon owned by the same NPC share the same DVs.
  • See List of NPC's Pokémon's DVs (Generation II)

Generation III onward

In Generation III, the IV system was completely overhauled; now, IVs range from 0-31 rather than 0-15, with HP and Special Defense getting their own independent IVs.

Since IVs now have twice the range, they now have half the influence on a Pokémon's stats. The EV system overhaul and the addition of Natures also result in small changes to formula used to determine stats. The personality value was introduced in Generation III, which handles a Pokémon's gender and Shiny status instead, as well as several other properties; in Generation III, Unown's form was also handled using the personality value, but this is stored separately in Generation IV onward.

The overhaul of the Pokémon data structure is one of the reasons why it was not made possible to trade between Generation II and Generation III games.

Usage

Determination of stats

From Generation III onward, a Pokémon's stats are determined according to the following formulas.

${\displaystyle HP={\Bigl \lfloor }{(2\times Base+IV+\lfloor {\tfrac {EV}{4}}\rfloor )\times Level \over 100}{\Bigr \rfloor }+Level+10}$

${\displaystyle OtherStat={\Biggl \lfloor }{\biggl (}{\Bigl \lfloor }{(2\times Base+IV+\lfloor {\tfrac {EV}{4}}\rfloor )\times Level \over 100}{\Bigr \rfloor }+5{\biggr )}\times Nature{\Biggr \rfloor }}$

Example
For two Marill caught on Route 120:

Hidden Power

Main article: Hidden Power (move)/Calculation

The calculated Type and Power of the move Hidden Power is based on the IVs of the Pokémon. Hidden Power can be of any type aside from Normal and Fairy, and prior to Generation VI, have a power between 30 and 70.

The least significant bit of each IV determines the move's Type, and the second-least significant bit of each determines the move's Power.

Evaluation

Stats judge

Main article: Stats judge

From Pokémon Emerald onward, there is a stats judge in the game in the region's battle facility or the city it is in. They give qualitative evaluations of the Pokémon's IVs.

• In Pokémon Emerald, elderly man in the house north of the Battle Frontier's Pokémon Center will evaluate the Pokémon's IVs in a roundabout way.
• In the Generation IV games, a man in the Battle Tower or Battle Frontier will evaluate the Pokémon's IVs in a roundabout way.
• In the Generation V games, an Ace Trainer in the Gear Station will evaluate the Pokémon's IVs in a roundabout way, after the player enters the Hall of Fame.
• In Pokémon X and Y, an Ace Trainer in the Kiloude City Pokémon Center will evaluate the Pokémon's IVs in a roundabout way.
• In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, an Ace Trainer in the Battle Resort Pokémon Center will evaluate the Pokémon's IVs in a roundabout way.
• In Pokémon Sun and Moon, if the player has hatched 20 Eggs, an Ace Trainer standing by the Battle Tree receptionist will upgrade the Pokémon Storage System with the Judge program. The Judge program will show a graph of how IVs are placed and a comment on the overall numbers.

Starting in Generation VI, the stats judge will also specifically note 0 IVs.

Starting in Generation VII, players can view a Pokémon's IVs directly using the Judge Function.

Characteristic

Main article: Characteristic

From Generation IV onward, each Pokémon has a characteristic, a small blurb that indicates which of the Pokémon's IVs is the highest in a roundabout way. Rather than explicitly stating it, one of 30 short sentences is chosen, depending on which of the six stats the highest IV is in and how much more than a multiple of five it is.

Example

Camera view

In Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, the camera view might show the player before the wild Pokémon. In that case, the wild Pokémon has two or more IVs of 31.

Influence

In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, all Pokémon found in the Safari Zone and during the Bug Catching Contest will have their IVs rerolled up to 4 times if none of the generated IVs are 31.

In Pokémon X and Y, all Pokémon in the No Eggs Discovered Egg Group are guaranteed to have a perfect 31 in at least three of their individual values when caught in the wild or obtained as a gift (except via Mystery Gift). In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, this only applies to Legendary and Mythical Pokémon. Starting in Generation VII, this applies to Legendary Pokémon, Mythical Pokémon, and Ultra Beasts.

Starting in Pokémon Sun and Moon, Hyper Training allows the player to make a Pokémon's stats act as if the Pokémon had maximum IVs. However, this does not actually change the IVs, so its true IVs are still used for the purposes of Hidden Power and breeding.

In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, all Alpha Pokémon are guaranteed to have a perfect 31 in at least three of their IVs.

In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Pokémon caught in Tera Raid Battles are guaranteed to have perfect 31 in their IVs. They have one guaranteed perfect IV in one- and two-star raids, and then one extra for each star beyond the first two. The IVs of Gouging Fire, Raging Bolt, Iron Crown and Iron Boulder are set.

Breeding

Main article: Pokémon breeding → Inheriting stats

Starting in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, a parent holding a Power item will pass the IV corresponding to the same stat to its children.

Starting in Generation VI, if either of a Pokémon's parents were holding a Destiny Knot, the child will inherit 5 of its 6 IVs from its parents.

Storage

IVs are now all stored together as a single 32-bit value. Since IVs require 30 bits to be stored, the two most significant bits of this value are used to store other data.

In Generation III, the most significant bit specifies which of two Abilities a Pokémon has (if it has potential to have more than one). If the Pokémon's species can have only one Ability in Generation III, the Ability bit is forced to 0 by the game (if it is forced to be 1, "No ability" will be listed as the Pokémon's Ability).

In Generation IV onward, the most significant bit instead specifies whether or not the Pokémon is nicknamed, while the second-most significant bit fulfills the same role as in Generation III. This allows an unnicknamed Pokémon traded to a game of a different language to retain its name in the language of the previous game, but still change its name upon evolution.

The second-most significant bit specifies whether or not the Pokémon is an unhatched Egg or not.

The remaining 30 bits are the IVs, five bits apiece, in the order Sp. Def, Sp. Atk, Speed, Defense, Attack, and HP.

Conversion from other systems

Generation I and II

Pokémon can be transported from the Generation I and II core series games to Pokémon Bank using the Poké Transporter. Due to these games having a different IV system to later generations, the IVs of transported Pokémon are regenerated, but it is guaranteed to have at least three IVs of 31 (five if it is Mythical). There is no relationship between the Pokémon's IVs in the Generation I or II game and in Pokémon Bank.

Pokémon GO

Pokémon can be transported from Pokémon GO to Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! at the GO Park complex, or to Pokémon HOME through the GO Transporter. Due to these games having a different IV systems, the IVs of transported Pokémon must be converted.

The Pokémon's HP, Attack, and Defense IVs in the core series game are its corresponding stats in Pokémon GO, multiplied by 2, plus 1. Its Special Attack IV is always equal to its Attack IV, and its Special Defense IV is always equal to its Defense IV. Its Speed IV is randomly generated upon being caught in the GO Park complex or transported through the GO Transporter.

In spin-off games

Pokémon GO

Appraisal screen in Pokémon GO since version 0.149.0

In Pokémon GO, IVs have a range of 0 to 15. Pokémon have an IV for each of their three base stats: HP, Attack, and Defense. With the absence of other mechanics such as Nature and EVs, IVs are the only factor that can distinguish one Pokémon's stats from another's of the same species and form at each Power Up level. A Pokémon's IVs can be evaluated using the appraisal option on the Pokémon screen, which will display a bar chart indicating the IV for each of the three stats and a sticker that rates its IV total.

If a Pokémon is traded, its IVs will be randomly redetermined, with possible values depending on Friendship level. If a Shadow Pokémon is purified, the IVs for all its stats are increased by 2.

Tyrogue evolves based on its highest IV (chosen at random from all of its highest IVs if there is a tie).

• Attack → Hitmonlee
• Defense → Hitmonchan
• HP → Hitmontop

A Pokémon's IVs are randomly assigned and uniformly distributed, but with guaranteed minimum values for certain types of encounters. The following shows the minimum IV guarantees for each of the listed encounters. Unlisted encounter types have no guaranteed IV floor.

Encounter	Minimum IV	Perfect IV probability
Trade (Good Friend)	1	1 in 3375 (0.0296%)
Trade (Great Friend)	2	1 in 2744 (0.0364%)
Trade (Ultra Friend)	3	1 in 2197 (0.0455%)
Weather-boosted wild spawns Weather-boosted Shadow Pokémon	4	1 in 1728 (0.0579%)
Trade (Best Friend)	5	1 in 1331 (0.0751%)
Shadow Pokémon from Giovanni Shadow Raids	6	1 in 1000 (0.1%)
Pokémon Egg Raid Battle Research encounter	10	1 in 216 (0.463%)
Lucky Trade	12	1 in 64 (1.56%)

Determination of stats

IVs in Pokémon GO are simply added onto the base stat, and then the sum is multiplied by the CP multiplier.

${\displaystyle Stat=(base+IV)\times cpMult}$

If a Pokémon is transferred from Pokémon GO to Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! or Pokémon HOME, the IVs will be recalculated directly based on the IVs it had in Pokémon GO.

• IV for HP will equal ${\displaystyle 2\times IV_{HP}+1}$
• IVs for Attack and Sp. Atk will both equal ${\displaystyle 2\times IV_{Attack}+1}$
• IVs for Defense and Sp. Def will both equal ${\displaystyle 2\times IV_{Defense}+1}$
• IV for Speed will be randomly determined

Pokémon Conquest

Main article: Stat (Conquest)

Pokémon in Pokémon Conquest can have 0 to 31 IVs, with stat determination similar to that of the core series.

A Warrior's default Pokémon will have 15 IVs in every stat, while any further wild Pokémon they link with can have the full range of 0 to 31 IVs.

In other languages

Language Title French Stats individuelles German Individuelle Stärken Italian Punti individuali Russian Индивидуальные характеристики Individual'nyye kharakteristiki Spanish Fortalezas individuales

See also

• Effort values
• Stats judge
• Pokémon data structure:
  • Generation I
  • Generation II
  • Generation III
  • Generation IV
  • Generation V
  • Generation VI
  • Generation VII
  • Generation VIII

External links

• Legendary Pokemon's IV calculator
• Metalkid's IV calculator
• Psypoke's IV calculator
• Serebii.net's IV calculator
• PGOIV's Pokémon GO IV calculator

References

This game mechanic article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.