Individual values

IV redirects here. For the fourth generation of Pokémon games, see Generation IV.

Individual values, IVs for short, sometimes also known as determinant values, DVs for short, are the Pokémon equivalent of genes. They are instrumental in determining the stats of a Pokémon, being responsible for the large variation in stats among untrained Pokémon of the same species.

Overview

Each of the six battle stats has an IV associated with it, with that IV coming into calculation alongside the Pokémon's base stats and EVs to determine the actual stat number. A Pokémon's IVs are determined when it is generated by the game; when it is obtained as an egg from the Pokémon Day Care, encountered in the wild, or given to the player by an NPC.

Generation I

In Generation I, there were only four IVs stored for each individual Pokémon: Attack, Defense, Speed, and Special. Each of these covered the respective stat, with the HP IV determined from the IVs stored for the other four. IVs had a range from 0-15, in binary 0000-1111, with the HP IV taking the final binary digit of the Attack, Defense, Speed, and Special IVs and placing it, in that order, for its own IV. As such, a Pokémon with an odd-number Attack IV had 8 added to its HP IV, Defense had 4 added, Speed had 2 added, and Special had 1 added.

The IVs' determination of stats follow the below formulas:

For two Mewtwo caught in Cerulean Cave:

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Defense	Speed	Special
Mewtwo A	234	178	138	198	229
	4 (0100)	14 (1110)	5 (0101)	8 (1000)	6 (0110)
Mewtwo B	228	161	139	201	237
	0 (0000)	2 (0010)	6 (0110)	10 (1010)	12 (1100)

Generation II

To maintain backwards compatibility with the Generation I games, IVs remained unchanged, though now the four stored IVs covered for six stats. Whereas the HP IV's matter of determination went unchanged from the original games, the Special IV now covered for both Special Attack and Special Defense, being used in the calculations for both of them.

Several things aside from stats came to be based on the randomly-generated IVs, however, in Generation II. While most of these would, in Generation III and later games, go on to be determined instead by the personality value of the Pokémon, the type and power of the move Hidden Power remains to the present based on a Pokémon's IV set.

Gender

A Pokémon's gender was determined based solely on its Attack IV when compared to a specific value native to each Pokémon species. If the Attack IV was less than the gender code associated with the Pokémon's species, it would be female, whereas in all other instances, the Pokémon would be male. For species of only one gender, or those with no gender, the calculation based on the Attack IV is ignored.

Due to this calculation, it is impossible to obtain a female Pokémon with high Attack, unless the Pokémon is a member of an all-female species like Jynx or Chansey. Starter Pokémon and others with a gender ratio of seven males to one female suffer the most, with the maximum Attack IV for a female Pokémon of those species being 1.

For two Cyndaquil obtained from Professor Elm:

Pokémon	Gender	HP	Attack	Defense	Speed	Sp. Atk	Sp. Def
Cyndaquil A	♀	20	10	9	12	11	10
		13 (1101)	1 (0001)	3 (0011)	10 (1010)	9 (1001)
Cyndaquil B	♂	19	11	10	12	11	10
		6 (0110)	14 (1110)	7 (0111)	11 (1011)	2 (0010)

Shininess

Whether a Pokémon is Shiny is also determined by IVs, though in a much more specific manner than its gender is. A Shiny Pokémon, in Generation II only, must have IVs of 10 in Defense, Speed, and Special, as well as an IV of 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, or 15 in Attack. Such a lineup only has a 1/8192 chance of occurring, the standard rarity of a Shiny Pokémon to this day.

Due to the lineup excluding Pokémon with a 0 or 1 IV in Attack, female Pokémon of species with a seven male to one female ratio can never be Shiny in Generation II.

For two Sandshrew caught in Union Cave:

Pokémon	Gender	HP	Attack	Defense	Speed	Sp. Atk	Sp. Def
Sandshrew A	♀File:ShinyGSStars.png	22	14	16	11	8	9
		8 (1000)	7 (0111)	10 (1010)	10 (1010)	10 (1010)
Sandshrew B	♀	22	14	17	10	8	9
		7 (0111)	6 (0110)	15 (1111)	7 (0111)	5 (0101)

Hidden Power

Main article: Hidden Power calculation

The calculated type and power of the move Hidden Power is based on the IVs of the Pokémon. Hidden Power can be of any type aside from Normal, as well as have a power between 30 and 70.

Unown's Letter

Unown's letter in Generation II is taken from the combination of the center two bits of the Attack, Defense, Speed and Special IV nibbles. This combination is then divided by ten, and the result is rounded down (floor[]) to only include the integer part of the number. This integer will range from 0-25, corresponding to a letter in the Latin alphabet, which will be the Unown's letter (where 0=A, 1=B, 2=C, ..., 23=X, 24=Y, 25=Z, and not including '!' or '?', which were introduced in Generation III).

In Generation II, due to this method of calculating Unown's letter and the way that Shiny Pokémon are determined, a Shiny Unown can only exist in the shape of the letter I or V.

From Generation III onwards, Unown's letter is determined by the Pokémon's personality value.

For two Unown caught in the Ruins of Alph:

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Defense	Speed	Sp. Atk	Sp. Def	Combination	Integer	Letter
Unown A	20	13	10	9	13	11	67 (01000011)	6	G
	6 (0110)	10 (1010)	9 (1001)	1 (0001)	14 (1110)
Unown B	21	12	11	10	12	10	182 (10110110)	18	S
	13 (1101)	5 (0101)	15 (1111)	10 (1010)	5 (0101)

Generation III

In Generation III, the IV system was completely overhauled. Now, rather than having a range of 0-15, IVs would have a range of 0-31, with HP and Special Defense getting their own individually-determined IVs. The formula for calculation of stats by IVs was also changed, as with the IV system the EV system was also modified, and Natures, newly-introduced, now modified certain stats either by raising or lowering them by 10%. The personality value handles a Pokémon's gender, Shiny status, and several other aspects.

This new system is part of the reason why it is impossible to trade between Generation II and Generation III games.

The Generation III-on determination of stats follows the following two formulas:

The IVs are now all stored together as a single 32-bit integer, separate from the equally-large personality value, which is used to determine other aspects of a Pokémon. This integer's highest bits, single numbers, determine which of two Abilities a Pokémon has (if it has potential to have more than one) and whether or not the Pokémon is an unhatched egg or not. The remaining 30 bits are the IVs, five bits apiece, in the order of Sp. Def, Sp. Atk, Speed, Defense, Attack, and HP.

For two Marill caught on Route 120:

Pokémon	Ability	Egg?	Sp. Def	Sp. Atk	Speed	Defense	Attack	HP
Marill A	Thick Fat	No	46	22	40	47	22	101
	0 (0)	0 (0)	19 (10011)	8 (01000)	21 (10101)	20 (10100)	9 (01001)	20 (10100)
Marill B	Huge Power	No	48	24	34	50	23	97
	1 (1)	0 (0)	23 (10111)	17 (10001)	4 (00100)	30 (11110)	12 (01100)	10 (01010)

If the Pokémon's species can have only one Ability in Generation III, the Ability bit is forced to 0 by the game, as being 1 in this instance would cause the Pokémon in question to have "No ability" listed as their ability. This number is rechecked against the personality value upon evolution in Generation IV, allowing for a Zigzagoon with Pickup to retain the Ability if it is sent through Pal Park regardless of its personality value, but changing its Ability to Gluttony upon evolution into Linoone if the personality value does not match what the Ability should be.

In Pokémon Emerald, an elderly man in the house north of the Battle Frontier's Pokémon Center will inspect a Pokémon in the player's party and give information about its IVs, revealing which of them is the highest in a vague manner.

Generation IV

In Generation IV, much like in Generation II, the IV system was, for the most part, retained from the previous incarnation. Slight alteration was made to the meaning of the highest bit, which now, rather than indicating the Ability of the Pokémon, indicated whether or not it was nicknamed, and thus, made certain that a Pokémon traded to a foreign game without this bit set would evolve and change its name to that language's species name. For example, a Caterpie caught in a Japanese game and named キャタピー, when traded to an English game and evolved into a Metapod, would be named METAPOD, rather than getting the name トランセル, as happens in Generation III games when trading between languages. This bit's restriction can be circumvented, however, if a Pokémon is nicknamed the species name of its evolved form.

Additionally, a small blurb was added to Pokémon status screens that indicates the highest IV in a roundabout way. Rather than explicitly stating it, one of 30 of these short sentences is chosen, depending on which of the six stats the highest IV is in and how much more than a multiple of five it is.

Pokémon	Nicknamed?	Egg?	Sp. Def	Sp. Atk	Speed	Defense	Attack	HP	Characteristic
Dusclops A	"Reaper"	No	161	77	36	158	89	107	"Strong willed"
	1 (1)	0 (0)	30 (11110)	14 (01110)	9 (01001)	25 (11001)	16 (10000)	0 (00000)	30 (Sp.Def) mod 5 = 0
Dusclops B	"DUSCLOPS"	No	149	86	35	160	93	115	"Mischievous"
	0 (0)	0 (0)	7 (00111)	31 (11111)	6 (00110)	28 (11100)	24 (11000)	15 (01111)	31 (Sp.Atk) mod 5 = 1

A man who will check a Pokémon's IVs again appears in the games, this time in the Battle Tower or Battle Frontier. Much like his Generation III counterpart, he will state the Pokémon's IVs in only a roundabout way.

Generation V

In this generation, a man who checks the Pokémon's IVs appears in the Battle Subway.

(The first statement) If the IV total is between 0 and 90: "This Pokémon's potential is decent all around." If the IV total is between 91 and 120: "This Pokémon's potential is above average overall." If the IV total is between 121 and 150: "This Pokémon has relatively superior potential overall." If the IV total is between 151 and 186: "This Pokémon has outstanding potential overall."

(The second statement) If the highest IV is between 0 and 15: "It's rather decent in that regard." If the highest IV is between 16 and 25: "It's very good in that regard." If the highest IV is between 26 and 30:"It's fantastic in that regard." If the highest IV is 31: "It can't be better in that regard."

See also

• Effort values
• Pokémon data structure:
  • in Generation I games
  • in Generation II games
  • in Generation III games
  • in Generation IV games

External links

• veekun's IV calculator
• Legendary Pokemon's IV calculator
• Metalkid's IV calculator
• Psypoke's IV calculator
• Serebii.net's IV calculator

Pokémon individuality
Level • Stats • Friendship • Gender • Ability (Hidden Ability) • Nature • Characteristic Effort values • Individual values • Go Power • Effort level Condition • Performance • Affection • Memory

This game mechanic article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.