Guide: Training The Ultimate Pokémon In Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire

Effort Values effortlessly explained

So, you've had Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire for a few days now and the time has come to get past the story and into the competitive area once more.

These games have not had much change in terms of the Effort Values over the previous offering — Pokémon X & Y — which came out last year, but there are a few things that have been tweaked. As such, we're updating our previous guide to reflect this. First, we're going to do a run-down of Effort Values for those of you not familiar with the term.

Effort Values

Effort Values, known in game as "base stats", are essentially training. As with most RPG games, you have the ability to manipulate the stats in order to make the characters even stronger than ever before, and Pokémon is no different.

Since the original Ruby & Sapphire, each Pokémon has the ability of having a total of 510 Effort Points with, as of X & Y, a maximum of 252 in each stat. These are all gained through various means which we shall get to.

The difference between Effort Points and Individual Values other than training is that it's a combination. For every 4 Effort Points a Pokémon has, it is equal to 1 stat point at Level 100. Due to this, it can be very beneficial as it means that, if you max a stat, it can add a massive 63 points to the final stat total. This can change the tide of battle with your Pokémon considerably, but you have to think about the best places to use it. While you could spread it across all six stats, with 85 in each stat meaning a 21 point boost, this is not the best course of action. Instead, you'll want to monopolise on your Pokémon's stats. If it's fast and hits hard, you'll want to boost Attack and Speed. If you're using a Pokémon as a tank, you'll want to boost defences, but we'll come to this in depth later. Using a Level 100 Sceptile with max Individual Values, and a neutral nature the stat changes are as follows:

So, how do you get these Effort Points on your Pokémon? Simply put, you battle Pokémon. In the main game, when you face up against wild Pokémon or trainer-owned Pokémon, you will gain Effort Points when you defeat them. All Pokémon used in the battle against the Pokémon will get the Effort Points, and they will also be given through EXP. Share.

Each Pokémon species will give between 1 and 3 Effort Points, sometimes in one stat, other times across up to three. This means if you're training your Pokémon for competitive battle, you'll want to be very careful with what you face. The stats are recalculated with the Effort Points after each battle. You can find lists of what Pokémon gives what Effort Point online such as on Serebii.net.

Now, this seems pretty grindy, but there are ways to increase it. First, there is the rare PokéRus virus. This virus has the effect of doubling every Effort Point the Pokémon obtains in battle, so if the opponent gives 2, it will instead get 4. PokéRus is obtained randomly, and you'll get notified of it when you heal your Pokémon. At this point, PokéRus can spread to other Pokémon in your party. There are multiple strains of PokéRus which last for one day, two days, three days or four days, meaning the Pokémon is no longer contagious once it hits midnight, but you can prolong this by placing the Pokémon in the box. After the Pokémon has recovered from PokéRus, it will get a small face icon in its summary screen, but it will still receive double Effort Points.

There are various items that give boosts as well. The Macho Brace, for example, will double all Effort Points gained and the Power items will always add 4 Points of the specific stat.

• Power Weight: Hit Points
• Power Bracer: Attack
• Power Belt: Defense
• Power Lens: Special Attack
• Power Band: Special Defense
• Power Anklet: Speed

Each of these item's effect is stackable with PokéRus, so if you were facing a Pokémon which gives 1 Effort Point in the stat you're training as standard, you'd get 4 with the Macho Brace and a massive 10 with the Power items.

Super Training makes a return when you receive the PlayNav from Wally in Petalburg City. This feature allows for you to not only track your Pokémon's Effort Value progress, but to augment it yourself through various mini-games.

• Level 1 training gives you boosts of +4
• Level 2 training gives you boosts of +8
• Level 3 training gives you boosts of +12

In addition to that increase, you will be given various punching bags, with different bags for each stat. When you equip these bags, you can tap them on the touch screen at any time to make your Pokémon gain even more Effort Points. Each of the bags is categorised into:

• Small, Medium and Large.
• Small bags give you +1
• Medium bags give you +4
• Large bags give you +12

Now, here's where the change has come in with Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire. Like Pokémon X & Y, you have the ability to encounter hordes in the game. Hordes are where you face up against 5 Pokémon at once, and thus get a massive boost for the stat, especially if teamed with PokéRus and a Macho Brace or Power item. These can be activated randomly, or buy using the move Sweet Scent or the item Honey, which can be obtained daily in Fallarbor Town.

In X & Y, there was often the fear of accidentally taking down the wrong horde in the area or, and worse, there being a shiny in the wrong horde while you're training. Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire have remedied that slightly in that they have provided several areas where the hordes are just one Pokémon 100% of the time, making them very useful. This means you'll never have to worry about those things again and you'll clear EV training in plenty of time.

• Hit Points: Rusturf Tunnel - Whismur Horde
• Attack: Mt. Pyre - Shuppet Horde
• Defense: Route 111 Desert - Sandshrew Horde
• Special Attack: Route 119 - Oddish Horde
• Special Defense: Route 115 - Swablu Horde
• Speed: Cave of Origin - Zubat Horde

Each of these hordes will give you 5 EVs per horde normally, 10 with PokéRus, 20 with PokéRus and Macho Brace attached to the Pokémon in training and 50 with PokéRus and a Power Item attached to the Pokémon while training. It's super fast to do now, and even quicker if you lead with a Pokémon with say, Surf, to take out all the opponents in one hit.

Finally, there is also a way to remove unwanted training from a Pokémon, if you did the wrong thing or forgot to turn EXP Share off while you had it in your party. If you give the Pokémon the berry, then the specific stat will be reduced by 10. You can do this until it's at 0, so be sure to grow as many of these berries as possible:

In addition to that, you can randomly find a Reset Bag in Super Training. These bags are quite rare, but they will completely remove all Effort Points on your Pokémon.

That's pretty much all there is to know about Effort Values, and the slight changes brought by Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire. IVs and Natures remain unchanged, as does breeding. Good luck training!

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