Find The Best Pokèmon To Evolve Using IV Stats In Pokèmon Go [Guide]
Evolving Pokèmon in Pokèmon Go takes a long time for most of them. There are very few Pokèmon that can be evolved with a small number of candies. The only way to get candies is of course to catch the same Pokèmon again and again. Once you have the required number of candies you are ready to evolve your Pokèmon. The question is, with so many of the same Pokèmon, which one do you evolve? If you’re not one for fighting battles and helping to take over gyms, then it won’t matter but if you plan to evolve a Pokèmon so that it lasts well in a fight, you need to figure out which is the best one to evolve. To do so, you need to figure out which Pokèmon of all the ones you’ve caught has the best defense, attack, and stamina stats. There is a science, a proper formula to this. Here’s what you need to do.
For the sake of this guide, we are taking Rattata as an example. This Pokèmon is very common and requires only 25 Rattata candies to evolve. You can collect 25 Rattatas in one trip to the grocery store. We will also be explaining a few concepts about a Pokèmon’s stats with the Rattata as an example.
Combat Power
When you catch a Pokèmon with a high CP, it is reason to rejoice. To increase the CP of a Pokèmon, you power it up which takes candies and startdust. A Pokèmon that already has higher CP when you catch it means you’ve won’t have to invest stardust and candies to power it up. With CP, you have an arc appearing over your Pokèmon. The more an arc is filled up, the higher is the CP.
Minimum and maximum CP for a Pokèmon is limited according to a player/trainer’s level. You will come to a point where, despite having candies and stardust, you cannot power your Pokèmon further because it has reached its limit for your level. Until you level up, you cannot increase the CP any further.
Health Power
Health Power or HP is how much damage a Pokèmon can take during battle. This too can be increased by powering up a Pokèmon, and like the CP, it has upper and lower limits based on trainer level.
Evolve First, Power Up Later
It’s always better to evolve a Pokèmon first and power it up later. You might be powering up a weak one and not know it. Plus, when a Pokèmon evolves to the next phase, it will have its own CP that you will need to increase through power ups. It’s best to delay powering up until you have evolved the right one.
All Pokèmon Are Not Created Equal
Lets say you have about 6 Rattatas. They all have different combinations of CP/HP. To simply evolve the one with the highest CP or HP isn’t smart. You aren’t necessarily evolving the best Rattata you have. In fact, you might be evolving the worst one and never know it because you don’t know what the Pokèmon’s IVs are.
IV or individual values give you a Pokèmon’s attack, defense, and stamina stats. You want to get the highest possible stats for your Rattata before you evolve your it. The HP and CP give you some clue as to which is the best Pokèmon but if you look at only these values when you decide to evolve a Pokèmon, you might not be making the best choice.
Take the following example of six Rattatas. The CP and HP is given.
| Combat Power (CP) | Health Power (HP) | |
|---|---|---|
| Rattata 1 | 106 | 26 |
| Rattata 2 | 53 | 17 |
| Rattata 3 | 50 | 15 |
| Rattata 4 | 23 | 12 |
| Rattata 5 | 21 | 10 |
| Rattata 6 | 20 | 10 |
If you go by the CP and HP values, Rattata 1 looks like a good choice to evolve. Here’s where you make use of the IVs. You need to find out which Rattata has the best IV. To do that, you need an IV calculator and we recommend Pokèmon Go IV Calculator. It was used to write this guide, has accurate results, is incredibly easy to use, and it explains the concept of IVs excellently.
Picking The Right Pokèmon
Using Pokèmon Go IV Calculator, you can find out which Rattata has the best attack, defense, and stamina stats. Ideally, you want each of these stats to be 100% but that is going to be a super rare one to catch. Based solely on the Rattata selection we had available, here is how Rattata 1 fared and how Rattata 4 fared. Pay close attention to when you adjust the arc. It can make a huge difference in the stats. The arc position must be accurate. We cannot overstate this enough. Be careful with the arc position. It must correspond to the position you see in the game for the respective Pokèmon.
Here’s Rattata 1;
Here’s Rattata 4;
Rattata 4 is pretty amazing once you look at its stats; the HP is already 100%, and both CP and battle ratings are above 50%. This is a good Pokèmon to evolve.
Using the IV calculator we can expand the above table and fill in the following information for it.
| Combat Power (CP) | Power Level | CP Range | Health Power (HP) | HP Range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rattata 1 | 106 | 7.5 | 86-122 | 26 | 21 – 27 |
| Rattata 2 | 53 | 4.5 | 49 – 69 | 17 | 16 – 20 |
| Rattata 3 | 50 | 4 | 43 – 60 | 15 | 15 – 19 |
| Rattata 4 | 23 | 2 | 18 – 25 | 12 | 10 – 12 |
| Rattata 5 | 21 | 2 | 18 – 25 | 10 | 10 – 12 |
| Rattata 6 | 20 | 2 | 18 – 25 | 10 | 10 – 12 |
Again, look at Rattata 4. The highest CP value a level 2 Rattata can have is 25. Rattata 4 has 23 which is very close to the highest limit. The highest HP value a a level 2 Rattata can have is 12 and this one has an HP value of 12. In contrast, none of the other Rattats’s fare as well. There are two other level 2 Rattats in the above table but all have a lower CP.
Pokèmon Post Evolution IV Stats
We went ahead and evolved our Rattata to Raticate. We put the new values we got for the evolved Raticate into the IV calculator and here’s is what we got;
This Raticate is perfect for both battles and defending gyms. You can power it up and take it to a fight. For the sake of comparison, here’s a Raticate we caught and its IV stats. The stamina is terrible and this one will faint in a fight. The battle stats and CP rating is just barely above average.
Conclusion
It’s always better to catch a smaller, un-evolved Pokèmon than to go hunting for evolved ones. If luck is on your side, you might catch an evolved one with excellent stats but Pokèmon Go isn’t much about luck as far as battles go. If there’s a particular Pokèmon you want to power-up or evolve for battle, try and find its un-evolved form. Catch one with the best stats possible and then evolve it.
HP stands for Hit Points, not Health Power.