In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Individual Values – IVs are crucial in building the perfect team. Therefore, we’ll want you to learn how to unlock Judge Function and check IVs in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Let us explain how to check and train IVs in Pokemon SV so you can get the most out of the game.
How to unlock the IV checker
You need to unlock the Judge function like in previous Pokémon games to check IVs in Pokemon SV.
This will take some doing because you’ll need to defeat all Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, and Champion Geeta. It means you will basically need to complete the Victory Road path of the game.
Once you’ve beaten the Pokémon League and earned the title of Pokémon Champion, all that remains is to visit the nearest Pokémon Center.
When you arrive at the Poke Centre, speak with the attendant there, it’ll be a lady. She’ll notice your Hall of Fame Badge and grant you access to the Judgment Feature.
IV ratings explained
IV is a randomly generated stat of your Pokemon, directly proportional to your Pokemon stats. Higher IV means your Pokemon will have higher stats and vice versa. You will find complete details about increasing the Pokemon IV in the IV train section of this guide.
Now, you’re all set to check the IVs of your Pokemon! In order to check your Pokemon IV, open up the Pokemon Box and hover over to the Pokemon you want to check the IV of.
Then, while hovering over the Pokemon, press the + button twice on the Nintendo Switch controller. This will bring up the IVs for that specific Pokemon. It’s really that simple.
The IVs will be marked as the following
- Best
- Fantastic
- Very Good
- Pretty Good
- Decent
- No Good
How to IV train
Increasing your Pokémon’s IV means increasing their stats overall. Although your Pokémon’s base stats rise as they level up, you can still improve their IV through other in-game methods.
After you have beaten six Pokémon Scarlet and Violet gyms, you can visit any Delibird Presents and purchase a Bottle Cap. The cap is under the General Goods section of item lists, and one Bottle Cap costs 20,000.
After you have acquired a Bottle Cap, visit an NPC in Montenevera with your level 50 Pokémon, for which you want to increase the IV. Here, you can trade your Bottle Caps to increase your Pokémon’s IV by one level, as listed above.
So, since one Bottle Cap upgrades your Pokémon for only one level, you need 5 Bottle Caps to get your Pokémon from No Good IV to Fantastic IV.
Besides the regular bottle caps you can purchase, you can also find a Gold Bottle Cap. However, the Gold Bottle Cap is less than 1% likely to drop from Academy Ace Tournaments. But a single Gold Bottle Cap allows you to upgrade your Pokémon IV through all five levels simultaneously.
You may also find a Gold Bottle Cap for sale in the auction at Porto Marinada.
