Part 46: Side Notes #02: How Pokemon Tick (DVs and Stat Exp)

Side Notes #02: How Pokemon Tick (DVs and Stat Exp.)

Pokemon at the base level is very simple, you attack using moves and make enemies faint. Some moves are stronger than others and they are themselves strong against different Pokemon. But go beyond that and you'll see a system that is designed for min-maxing for PVP matches, including the first Generation, if a bit limited in scope.

There will be quite a few of you familiar with the system that was introduced in the 3rd generation, but the system in both the 1st and 2nd isn't too different. So, let's look at how our starter started out.



Firstly, it's definitely set as a Pikachu in both how we see it via its sprite and how the game sees it by its class. We could change these if we wanted to, I have full control, I am like a God, mwahaha. Er, we can change the nickname at any time and will do so between updates if people come up with good ones.

The OT is in all games, but there are no Secret IDs, making it much easier for more than one person to have such a number. We can also change its level or exp, something I might do later to complete the dex. I also like that Electric/Electric typing. Very useful (if a type repeats the game only counts it once, no Pokemon truly has one type).

Then there's the current HP, what statuses it has (no BRN for whatever reason, or confusion for obvious reasons) and the catch rate, which no longer applies since we have it.

We can also give it any move I fancy, or give it the maximum PP for every move. You should only do that for PVP in the very, very slim chance it matters (it won't). Each PP Up increases the moves points by 20% up to 60%, so Thundershock's 30 would become 36, 42, then 48. Don't waste them on moves you'll replace anyway, they're of limited supply in nearly every game.

But down at the bottom is what we're actually interested in. Firstly, we have the Individual Value, which can range between 0-15, or 0000-1111 if you know your binary. It's also called Determinant Values to differentiate it from the later system, which I'll be using. DVs are given when you catch the Pokemon and cannot be changed, so if yours suck (which will be pretty likely), too bad!

To begin with, they don't effect a stat that much (an increase of around 2 in a stat with 15DV, instead of 0DV), but at level 100, it's an increase in 30, so for competitive, you have very little reason for it not to be straight 15s across the board. You may also notice that HP doesn't have a value. That's because it uses the last value for Attack, Defense, Speed and Special for its respective numbers, so if you're lucky enough to have 1 in those places, then HP will be 15, which it seems like it is, since the max value is 22 for HP, but there's a lot of rounding. You may also remember that Pikachu started with a HP stat of 19, which is pretty low, so it's probably just as bad as everything else. But I'll pretend it's good because I need this. Don't take it from me.

So you can see that we have nearly maxed Special and HP (good), mediocre Speed and Defense (bad) and low Attack (eh). I could change these, but hey, might as well work with what lemon coloured rats I'm given. (Pikade?)

Next up we have the Stat Experience, this is slightly different to Effort Values, but the application remains the same. Every Pokemon starts with 0 and can be increased to a maximum of 65535. For ALL STATS. The reason it's such a high number is because when you defeat a Pokemon, it doesn't have a set number of EVs to give you, instead it uses its base stats. Those numbers match up to the base stats of Eevee, so to max them out quickly, you must defeat the strongest Pokemon. Literally! (The most even way to do it is defeat Mew 656 times).

Stat Exp also has the largest change in stats, obviously, but again, not as much as lower levels, increasing only be 3. But at level 100, it's a difference of 65. Together with DV, you can increase a stat by nearly 100 by having everything maxed. So it really pays to do this for PVP. I could change all these if I wanted, but it'll be interesting to see if Pikachu maxes anything out by the end of the game. The max our Special can get is 198, so we should get pretty close.

And that's everything your Pokemon is about. There's still plenty more mechanics.