Everyone’s been having a great time playing Pokémon GO. Most of you are probably already battling it out at gyms and representing your team (Team Instinct, all the way!). But some pokémon have more potential than others. How is a pokémon’s potential determined, and why does this matter to you? Well, let’s let Professor Oak explain in this comic strip posted by Imgur user, Maphrox.
That seems straight-forward enough. Don’t really agree that any pokémon is “worthless” but okay, Professor Oak. Fans of the Pokémon game series have long known about IVs–individual values–which determine the attack, defense, and stamina values of each pokémon. Where are you going with this, Oakie?
Okay, that is a bit more complicated. So what does it mean? Basically, there’s a formula that Niantic uses to determine each pokémon’s CP. This formula can be reverse-engineered to figure out your pokémon’s abilities. This is what sites like PokeAssistant.com do to let you know the most likely stats of your pokémon. CP is also dependent on the level of your pokémon. Unfortunately, you can’t numerically see your pokémon’s level, but you can get an approximate understanding based on where it lands on that half circle shown in the image above. The further right on the half circle, the higher its level.
Furthermore, not all pokémon are equal. Different species and different evolutions have different potentials. For instance, a rattata fully leveled up will never be as good as a fully leveled arcanine. The evolutions of pokémon also have more potential than their base forms, which is why it’s important to collect all the candies and evolve those pokémon if you want to be a battle master. You’d never expect a magikarp to be better than a gyarados. The same holds true for all base pokémon.
Okay, what else?
Now some players may care about how their attack, defense, and stamina lines up if they want to be really particular about the system. Most, however, just need to pay attention to the IV score, represented as a percentage. The higher the percentage, the closer your pokémon is to the ideal stat breakdown and the more potential it has. This difference usually only comes down to a few hundred CP when the pokémon is fully leveled, but it can make the difference between being the very best and telling another trainer how much you like shorts as they pass by on their awesome adventure.
So if you want to be the very best, figure out your pokémon’s IV scores before evolving them. However, don’t bother with these calculations if your pokémon is CP 10. Turns out, CP 10 pokémon are the lowest CP available, so values are actually rounded for pokémon this low. This means that you can’t figure out the exact potential of these pokémon. Save your calculations for pokémon above that CP 10 benchmark. This will give you the best chance of having a super awesome pokémon like no one ever was. Let’s all take a moment to sing the theme song.
And, we’re back! Right now my best pokémon is a 93.1% ghastly. What’s your pokémon with the most potential? Have you max leveled any 100 percenters? Let us know in the comments.
IV Explanation Images Credited To: Maphrox
Featured Image Credit: Pokémon Company International