Defining an IV :: Game Mechanics Individual Values - Third Gen and Beyond

For purposes of EV training, and general strategy it's important to find out what IVs your Pokemon has. Let's use my case study, Silly the Metagross.

My Metagross' IVs

Nature	HP	Attack	Defence	S. Attack	S. Defence	Speed
Adamant	28	31	29	12	27	5

I'm happy with this, it has a perfect attack, excellent HP defence, and special defence, which fits in with my playstyle of Metagross as a slow moving powerful attacker who can take a few hits. Special Attack is low and it's not a concern as I don't plan on using any special moves and speed is unimportant to me because I don't plan it to outrun much. However, other players would argue that speed is important even if it isn't a fast Pokemon as it would allow it to potentially out run other things sharing it's base speed, but this all depends on your play style and how much time you would want to dedicate. There will be more on this later.

Characteristics

Gen 4+

On the status screen of your Pokemon, since DP, there has been a little bit of information that tells you a small bit about your Pokemon, like 'offer dozens off' and those sort of thing. Besides being potentially funny (Like's to Relax Primeape? they can give you a vauge idea about single IV and sometimes your Pokemon's IV's overall.

The characteristic is basically assigned on the dominant stat, that is the stat that has the highest IV in compression to the rest (In the event of a tie, the game chooses one based on an in-game formula that's not necessary to know.) These include Pokemon that have been transferred from a third ge game where characteristics didn't exist.

Let's take my Silly the Metagross, as explained before his attack IV is 31, thus he will have the characteristics 'likes to thrash around' (amusing image I'd think.) Likes to Thrash around however isn't used just for an attack stat that is the highest, but from a selection.

Likes to Thrash Around potential IVs: 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31

Let's assume that we don't know Metagross' IVs and the characteristic is still Likes to Trash Around. Whilst it may well be 31, thus the highest, it is possible that it could be 26 â€“ that would mean that no other IV is over 26, those being either lower or equal to 26, because attack is the or either one of the dominant IV because of the characteristics, meaning it's not beaten. . It could even be 1, the second lowest it could be, and thus meaning my Pokemon's IV's are very lower

Below is a table of what characteristic mean what IVs.

Characteristic	Potential IV
Loves to eat	0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30
Often dozes off	1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31
Often Scatters things	2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27
Scatters things often	3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28
Likes to relax	4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29

Attack

Characteristic	Potential IV
Proud of its power	0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30
Likes to thrash about	1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31
a little quick tempered	2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27
likes to fight	3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28
quick tempered	4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29