Pokemon Sword & Shield EV Training: How to Raise & Increase EVs

Effort Values or EVs may be one of the biggest mysteries in the Pokemon world to the casual fan. However, massive steps have been taken to simplify the process. Here’s how to raise and increase EVs in Pokemon Sword & Shield.

How to Raise and Increase EVs in Pokemon Sword & Shield

If you’re new to EV training then this will get you up and running. If you’re a veteran in this space, then it’s still worth checking out the new ways you can raise your Pokemon’s EVs in Sword & Shield.

Here’s a quick bit of info about EVs before you get started on training your Pokemon. The maximum number EVs your Pokemon can get for a single stat is 252. The total number it can get for all stats is 510.

The formula for calculating your stat boost divides the number by 4, so you’ll usually see most people raise two stats to 252 and toss 4 onto a third stat so you’re not wasting any EVs.

Now that you know what target you want to hit, let’s take a look at the different ways that you can EV train your Pokemon in Sword & Shield.

Battling

This is the good old fashioned way of raising your Pokemon’s EVs. Each creature in the game has an EV yield that determines what you get for defeating them. These yields range from one to three and can be boosted by certain held items.

If your Pokemon is holding a Macho Brace when it gains EXP, then it’ll earn double the amount of EVs. It’s nice since it works for any stat, but power items are going to be the best option to boost your yields.

The power items (Power Weight, Power Bracer, etc.) all focus on boosting your EV yields for specific stats. These items will yield an additional eight EVs on top of what you would normally get from a single battle.

All these items make your Pokemon in Sword & Shield move more slowly while in battle, but they have no permanent impact on lowering your speed stat in any way.

Here are the bonuses you can get from using held items in battle:

One last thing worth noting for battling is the existence of Pokerus. This virus can spread rapidly through a party of Pokemon. Fortunately, this virus doubles EV yields from battle and has no adverse effects.

Unfortunately, the chances of finding a Pokemon in Sword & Shield with Pokerus is exceedingly low. If you find a friend who has it, then you may want to trade with them to help speed up your training.

If you want to learn more about this mysteriously helpful disease, then just check out our Pokerus guide.

Consumable Items

Even if you’re new to EV training, then you’ve likely already done this part of it. Most people are familiar with vitamin items like Carbons, Protein, Iron, etc. Surprise, they’re actually used for boosting EVs!

Better yet, they’re the fastest way to max out EVs since a single item adds 10 to a stat. That’s why these things are always so expensive compared to most other consumable items in the game.

Just pop 26 of these bad boys into your Pokemon and you’ll have a single stat fully boosted. The only drawback is that it’ll cost you 260 thousand Pokedollars (or 52 BP) for all those bottles of vitamins.

Here’s a breakdown of what each vitamin does for EVs:

Wings in Pokemon Sword & Shield can be used similarly, but they’re much less effective. You’ll only get one EV for each wing as opposed to the 10 you get from a single vitamin.

Here’s what you can get from each type of wing:

Sometimes you might mess up when giving your buddy some items. Luckily, if human error finds its way into your training process, then you can just give it certain berries to fix the problem.

Pomeg, Kelpsy, Qualot, Hondew, Grepa, and Tamato berries can all decrease the number of EVs that a mon has. They’re like the inverse of vitamins since they’ll drop each stat by 10 until you reach 0. Keep in mind that no stats can go into the negative.

The table below breaks down which EVs are decreased by these berries in Pokemon Sword & Shield:

Poke Jobs

Finally, we’ve made our way to the newest way to EV train your Pokemon in Sword & Shield. You can send your mons to study certain stats at Hammerlocke University for up to a full day for a total of 96 EVs.

Pair up these Poke Jobs with the power items mentioned earlier to make this process as efficient as possible. Thanks to Serebii, we can figure out what gains we can expect based upon their timetable.

Check out the table below to see how many EVs you can expect to earn from each Poke Job:

If this sounds like your preferred method of EV training, then here’s a handy little guide on how to send your Pokemon on Poke Jobs.

That’s all there is to know about how to raise and increase EVs in Pokemon Sword & Shield. If you need to learn anything else about this game, then just check out our Sword & Shield Guide Wiki.