Talk:Base stats

Question

I came looking for an answer to Base Stats and how evolution affects them. I checked the evolution page as well and found nothing. After googling "pokemon base stats evolution" I found this: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090323201124AA3kRL2

Pokemon Evolution and Base Stats? Will a pokemon that evolved earlier be stronger, or have different stats (i.e., maxing out a Riolu's happiness and evolving it at level 2 as opposed to levelling it to raise its happiness and having it evolve at, say, 20) simply because of base stats? Riolu's base Attack is 70 while its base Special Attack is 35, while Lucario has 110 and 115, respectively. So if I evolve Riolu at level 20, will it have more attack than special attack, but lower overall stats than had I levelled it at 2?

Answer 1: it doesn't matter what level you evolve it because stats are retroactively recalculated after evolution to fit the new base stats

Answer 2:they would be exactly the same, not counting IVs, EVs and nature a riolu that evolved at level 2 and raised to level 20 will be exactly the same as a riolu which evolved at level 20

First off, is it true that "stats are retroactively recalculated after evolution"? And can someone try to add the answer to this article or the evoultion article (or both). -Thanks --Lnk2128 17:29, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Base stats are inherent to a species. Every Lucario has the same base stats. IVs are different (those are determined at the Pokémon's in-game creation time, whether it's an encounter in battle, given by an NPC, or received in an egg), and EVs are determined by what Pokémon it battles.

To put it simply, if you cloned a level 1 Riolu, maxed its happiness, and rare candied it to level 2, evolving it and then battling six Bibarel, four Magneton, and two Pikachu to get it to level 20, it would be exactly the same as the level 1 Riolu you maxed the happiness of, trained it to level 20 against the EXACT SAME NUMBER of the EXACT SAME POKÉMON, and then evolved it. The problem is that cloning is really the only plausible way to have two Pokémon that start out the same, by having the exact same IVs, and training against the exact same Pokémon, aside from just using Rare Candies, is the only way to make sure EVs don't cause fluctuation in the stats (by level 20, EVs count for an up to 12-point difference in stats).

In short, no, it does not matter when you evolve a Pokémon. If it ends up at the same endpoint, that's always how it will be at that endpoint provided the same things are done on the way there (use Sun Stone, train against 50 Gastly, or train against the Gastly first, you'll still have the same Bellossom).

As for what the "retroactively recalculated" means, it means that the stat your Trapinch has in Attack does not carry over into its Vibrava form. For an Adamant natured Trapinch at level 35, with an IV of 26 in Attack and EVs of 200 in the same, its Attack is [((26 + 2 * 100 + (200/4)) * 35/100) + 5] * 1.1, or 111. This is just by leveling up, as you see that the stats are calculated when you do (though usually you just scroll through them without a thought, don't you? I do...). Now, on attaining level 35, its evolution into Vibrava is induced. Vibrava has only 70 base Attack, which causes your Pokémon to actually have a lower Attack stat until its evolution into Flygon (who has the same base Attack as Trapinch). As Vibrava, at level 35, the Pokémon has an Attack of [((26 + 2 * 70 + (200/4)) * 35/100) + 5] * 1.1, or 88.

It's only complicated because you can't see the values; you have to know them. Too bad there's no real way to tell your IVs except through online calculators. TTEchidna 21:59, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Now I understand it. The Trapinch example was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks alot ---Lnk2128 15:32, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Shouldn't the blunt points of this info be included in the article? I've always tried to evolve my pokemon ASAP thinking they would gain better overall stats, and after specifically looking for this info I only found it after going though the pages on "forms," "evolution," "base stats" and their respective talk pages. --Barakku 17:46, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Just another question: Was it always like that, or has it changed through Generation? Yohrd 06:55, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

It was always like that. The major discrepancy people see is the difference due to so many hidden values, such as IVs and EVs. Every Pokémon of a species has the same base stats, but it is highly likely that no two Pokémon of the same species which a particular trainer has will have the exact same stats, due to differences in those hidden values. Werdnae 07:55, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

I remember hearing about something like this as a kid, with my gen 1 Red. Everyone kept telling me it's all about the homegrown pokemon from a low level, hearing vaguely about how "no two pokemon are the same in stats," fearing my pokemon were screwed forever. Reading over IVs, EVs, eevees, whathaveyous makes me think there really needs to be a section to bring all of this together. I don't want formulas for powergaming/ect, I want a simple understanding that THIS is something simple to ensure extra points in X stat, and THIS is all the crap you don't need to worry about (form changes instantly change stats, so you don't need to worry about evolving ASAP)--Barakku 02:50, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Level

As to what level are the base stats on this site calculated? Xtreme Dragon Master 23:15, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

They aren't that stats of a Pokémon at a particular level, thay are a base value taken from the game data. The game then puts the base stats into an equation (I don't know exactly what it does), which results in the stats you see when you check the Pokémon. BTW, you should sign on the same line as your comment, rather than on the next line. Werdnae 04:38, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Move

User SnorlaxMonster has suggested moving this page to Species Stat. I strongly oppose this. The term "base stat" has been in use by the community for over a decade and is the primary name for these stats, while the term "species stat" has never seen any kind of widespread usage, not by the community nor by official sources. It is unfortunate that Nintendo refuses to officially acknowledge the existence of EVs and instead called EVs base stats, but although that may cause some ambiguity, far more confusion will be caused by moving the article to a name that's not even in usage. Viskiv (talk) 19:00, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

We should be using official terms regardless of their use in fandom. For example, despite happiness being the term used and preferred by the fandom, once Friendship was shown to be the official term, it was changed. I don't know if I necessarily agree with Species Stat as this page's title, I do believe that if base stat is the official term for EVs (and they've been using this term for vitamins for quite a while), then that should be used as the title instead of EVs. Confusion can be mitigated by adding a "if you want the term used by fandom etc etc" at the top of the page. --It's Funktastic~!_{話してください} 19:14, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

Oppose. We have used unofficial terms over official ones before (shiny Pokemon were officially "alternately colored" in Gen III) and moving the EVs article to a term that has widely been used for five generations to mean something else entirely would create more confusion than simply going with a disambiguation at the top of this page. In other words, in this case, switching creates confusion instead of curing it. Bwburke94 (talk) 21:00, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

I don't believe it matters what the community calls it; a disambig notice should be plenty to avoid confusion from people typing "base stat" into the search bar. As for the suggested move itself, I strongly agree that this article needs to be moved away from "base stats" because that term now officially refers to something else. I'm not all that fond of "species stat" in particular, but I can't think of any better alternatives. Pumpkinking0192 (talk) 21:09, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

The difference in this case is that the the term "base stats" has both a fan meaning and an official meaning, while there was never anything officially called Shiny Pokémon back in Gen III. If a term has 2 meanings that contradict each other, surely the official meaning should take priority? - Blazios _talk 21:12, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

There is no official term for what is currently referred to as base stats. This is an important point. Another fundamentally different point between this and happiness/friendship is that there was no existing use for Friendship that would easily be confused with something else. Yet another fundamentally different point is that friendship actually describes what happiness was - the meaning of base stats is actually the exact opposite of EVs. Viskiv (talk) 21:27, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

It's not about people entering base stats into the search bar. It's the fact that every other website, and just about every single member of the entire Pokemon community who knows about EVs, uses the term EVs to refer to EVs. Bulbapedia referring to EVs as Base stats will certainly cause confusion whilst EVs are still the term in complete widespread use. Viskiv (talk) 21:27, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

...and when Gen 6 gets released and early adopters start using the official terms, others will gradually hop on board with them and when critical mass is reached, nothing will be confusing any more. It'll be exactly the same situation as previous generations when people got used to the Japanese names and then complained when they were updated to the English names. Boo hoo, whine whine, and then they got over it. Insisting on using old fan terms instead of new official terms will just prolong the whining; it won't make the official term go away. Pumpkinking0192 (talk) 21:38, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

No, it's not even remotely close to the same situation at all. See the three points I made about the happiness/friendship change - they all apply. In addition, English/Japanese names are a terrible comparison - it's really blatantly obvious that you wouldn't keep Japanese Pokemon names on an English database, there's not even a discussion to be had there. The definition of the words base and stats in this context mean the exact opposite of what the term EVs refer to, and on top of this there's already an existing term with an opposite meaning that causes overlap, which doesn't have any other term by which it could be referred to. THAT is what causes confusion, I'm not saying "never change anything because change causes confusion", which is what you seem to be arguing against. Viskiv (talk) 21:48, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

You still seem to be ignoring the point that "base stats" is now the official term for what was formerly known as EVs, so it doesn't matter whether it's confusing or does not accurately describe the topic; we must use it (unless, as was suggested on Talk:Effort values, the press release is inaccurate to what the game will call them). Pumpkinking0192 (talk) 21:53, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

The statement "official term for what was formerly known as EVs, so it doesn't matter whether it's confusing or does not accurately describe the topic; we must use it" reeks of utter bureaucratic inefficiency. There is no law of the universe dictating that that we must use it. If you believe we should use it, please focus on providing good arguments for why, not simply say that we must use it no matter what regardless of any downsides to using it - that is not even remotely conducive to the discussion. Viskiv (talk) 22:01, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

Here's a direct quote from the Bulbapedia Manual of Style, which determines how things work on Bulbapedia.

Formerly, the style was to name articles based on whichever name a character was most "well known by". However, this created debate as to who judges which name is most commonly known, and thus created unnecessary conflict given how rarely a character is known to the English-speaking fanbase more commonly by anything but their English name. Hence, the style has since been abandoned.

"Base stats" is the official English name as far as we currently know. "Effort values" is the name they are most well known by. Thus, according to policy, we must use "base stats". If you disagree with that policy, then that is a discussion with a much larger scope than this particular article, and should be taken up with the admins directly. Pumpkinking0192 (talk) 22:14, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

That manual of style entry was not made with something like this in mind, but rather characters of the anime. To blindly apply it to absolutely everything regardless of the circumstance, without stopping to consider whether it would actually improve Bulbapedia to do so, is exactly the kind of bureaucratic inefficiency I was talking about. Furthermore, why even have a discussion on this page? You could just move the page and be done with it, if it really is an absolute must. There's nothing to discuss here if that's how we're handling it. Viskiv (talk) 22:25, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

It was written with characters in mind, but I believe it applies here too — it boils down to official name versus commonly-used name, which is the same issue we're disagreeing about here. I am not an admin, nor was I the person to add the move template; but if I did have the authority, I would have simply moved the "effort values" page in the first place because, yes, there's nothing to discuss about that. The thing to discuss is what the target name for the former "base stats" page should be. SnorlaxMonster suggested "species stats"; that doesn't ring nicely in my ear, but I can't think of anything better. ("Base stats (fan term)" is the best I can come up with, but I'd rather not use a parenthetical disambiguation if we don't need to.) No one else has made any suggestions. Pumpkinking0192 (talk) 22:36, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

(resetting indent)I don't really think there is much of reason to discuss EVs-> Base stats. The official term should always take precedence. However, without a new title for this page, it can't happen. --It's Funktastic~!_{話してください} 22:41, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

The thing is this simply isn't like other situations. I've given three reasons why, compared to something like the Happiness --> Friendship change, it would be detrimental to the quality of Bulbapedia to make this change. What is the point of enforcing a manual of style if you can't provide any reasons for why it would be beneficial to Bulbapedia to do so in this instance? The individual circumstances need to be considered, because there are so many things different from a situation like this compared to a situation like Japanese/English names.

"While Wikipedia's written policies and guidelines should be taken seriously, they can be misused. Do not follow an overly strict interpretation of the letter of policy without consideration for the principles of policies. If the rules truly prevent you from improving the encyclopedia, ignore them. Disagreements are resolved through consensus-based discussion, not by tightly sticking to rules and procedures. Furthermore, policies and guidelines themselves may be changed to reflect evolving consensus."

I realise that this is Bulbapedia, not Wikipedia, but I see no reason that the same concepts shouldn't apply. There is nothing to be gained by enforcing rules for the sake of rules rather than for the sake of improving Bulbapedia. So far nobody has even tried to provide an argument for WHY using the official term would be better even with the downsides of the unique circumstances in mind. Viskiv (talk) 22:52, 9 August 2013 (UTC)