Pokemon X and Y EV Training Guide – How To Earn Fast, Assign and Reset

Everything you need to know about EV 'Effort Value' in Pokemon X and Y. How you can earn it fast, how you should spend it and how you can reset it.


Spending and managing Effort Value Points in Pokemon X and Y can be really frustrating and confusing at times. Keeping this in view, we have compiled this guide so as to help you with any confusion that you might have.

For more help on Pokemon X and Y, read our Super Training, Sylveon Evolution and Fairy-Type Pokemon Guide.

Pokemon X and Y EV ‘Effort Value’

In Pokemon X and Y, each Pokemon has six stats i.e. Spec. Defense, Spec. Attack, Speed, Attack, HP, and Defense. Now, every time you encounter a Pokemon, the EV points for these stats will increase by a bit. Earning 4 EVs will increase a particular stat by 1.

However, any stat can’t have more than 255 EVs. Another thing you should keep in mind is that a Pokemon with 255 EVs for a particular stat will have 63 more points than another Pokemon with 0 EVs for that very stat.

Furthermore, for all the six stats, every Pokemon can’t have more than 510 EVs. Therefore, you can max out any of the two stats depending upon your choice.

  • HP – Can’t surpass 255
  • Attack – Can’t surpass 255
  • Speed – Can’t surpass 255
  • Defense – Can’t surpass 255
  • Special Attack – Can’t surpass 255
  • Special Defense – Can’t surpass 255

How to Assign and Reset EVs

Distributing these 510 EVs among six stats of a particular Pokemon is known as EV Spread. It is good idea to know everything about your Pokemon especially moves before assigning these points.

These points can either make your Pokemon really strong or quite useless. You should not assign EVs to Defense of a Pokemon with decent attacking capabilities so that you can destroy your enemies before they can kill you.

If you have several useless EV points, you can either go by the reset approach or start EV training as soon as you catch a Pokemon to avoid investing these points in worthless stats.

Earning and Keeping Track of EV

Earning EVs is a simple task and as I have mentioned above; involves nothing else except battling wild Pokemon or training Pokemon. To put it simply, you earn EVs along with experience while fighting during a battle.

How to Earn EVs Fast
Farming EVs can be really frustrating at times. However, there are a number of ways which can make this process smooth as silk. Read below to know more:

Macho Brace
Macho Brace is a really helpful item when you are farming for EVs as it doubles the amount of EV per Pokemon defeated. There is, however, a catch and i.e. your Pokemon’s speed will get lowered while holding this item.

Along with this, there are other Power Items which seem to increase the EV farming speed. However, these items seem to affect the Speed of your Pokemon.

Power Weight
It grants your character 4 HP EVs after a battle is over.

Power Bracer
It grants your character 4 Attack EVs after a battle is over.

Power Belt
It grants your character 4 Defense EVs after a battle is over.

Power Lens
It grants your character 4 Special Attack EVs after a battle is over.

Power Band
It grants your character 4 Special Defense EVs after a battle is over.

Power Anklet
It grants your character 4 Speed EVs after a battle is over.

Vitamins
Vitamins are a much quicker way of earning EVs than Power Items and Macho Brace as they grant you with instant EVs. Below, you will find a quick breakdown of these Vitamins with their effects:

  • Calcium enhances the Special Attack by 10 EVs.
  • Carbos enhances the Speed by 10 EVs.
  • HP Up enhances the HP by 10 EVs.
  • Iron enhances the Defense by 10 EVs.
  • Protein enhances the Attack by 10 EVs.
  • Zinc enhances the Special Defense by 10 EVs.

How to Earn Vitamin
Now that we know all about the effects of Vitamins, let’s get to how to earn them. There are a number of ways using which you will be able to earn these Vitamins. Some of the Vitamins can be found as the Hidden Items scattered throughout the world.

Note: After beating the Elite Four, these can be bought at half the price for a limited time.

Along with that, Berries can be crushed to be traded at the Medicine Store. And lastly, Battle Points can be exchanged for 1 BP per Vitamin.

You can try any of these methods above mentioned to get Vitamins and eventually EVs.

EXP Share
In our previous guides, we have talked about EXP Share which grants your Pokemon experience even if it doesn’t take part in battles. This not only works for EXP but also for EVs.

PokeRus
Just like Macho Brace, you can equip your character with PokeRus and double up the amount of EV earned. PokeRus and Macho Brace can be stacked meaning that equipping both Macho Brace and PokeRus will allow you to earn four times the regular amount of EVs.

Found anything missing or confusing? Do let us know in the Comment Section below!

Haider is a freelance contributor, who loves video games, playing guitar, and aviation. He is a competitive FPS player and also enjoys exotic RPG games like Diablo and Xenogears (his favorite game of all time) ...