What makes the difference?

[Storm]

I just visited the battletower and tried a WiFi-challenge. Eventough all pokemon are then level 50 the other trainer's pokemon were considerably stronger than mine. Does that mean a high level Pokemon will still be stronger than a lower level one, even if they're both made to level 50 in the battletower?

[Negrek]

Nope. The difference would probably be IV's, EV's, and natures--not to mention moveset and simple strategy. There is no difference between a pokémon scaled down to 50 from a higher level than one raised to level 50 and left at that.

[mr_pikachu]

The other issue might be evolutionary stages. If you're using Pokemon that are still in their first or middle stages, it shouldn't come as a shock that you might lose to a fully evolved team. Think of it this way... who would you expect to win a battle between a Lv. 50 Squirtle and a Lv. 50 Blastoise? So if your Pokemon aren't fully evolved, you probably shouldn't be challenging the Battle Tower.

[Sceptile_Master]

Don't tell me the battle tower has gone back to the akward level of difficulty I remember crystals having (haven't tried the battle tower in d/p yet). Oh well... if that's the case I suggest you Ev train you're pokemon up and make sure they have good natures and movesets and so forth. What team do you have at the moment?

[Storm]

lvl 65 Alakazam, Infernape and Luxray

It was just strange that the level 50 pokemon the game generated I could one-hit KO with moves that did not even have an advantage, and when i played against some trainers downloaded from wifi I got one-hit KO'd, even if the moves weren't super effective.. My Alakazam got one hit KO by a Gyarados's Aqua Tail, that was barely effected by my psychic..

By the way, Sceptile, how about that Larvitar egg ?

[Sceptile_Master]

Okay I'll just have to breed one then I'll be online. Do you know about Ev training btw and the way natures can effect stats?

[Storm]

not really I guess

[Storm]

ah, some are docile and quirky, those natures do nothing. my luxray is rash, which raises special attack but lowers special defense..

i also now read about EV training.. hmm..

this explains though the low attack of my TIMID milotic..

[Elec Man EXE]

An Alakazam getting KO'd by Aqua Tail from a Gyarados isn't too much of a stretch. Aqua Tail is physical, Gyarados has a beastly attack stat, and Alakazam's defense is pitiful. It also has a high special defense, which explains why you didn't do that much to it.

Its possible even without EV training. Add in EV training, a good nature, and good IV's, and its probably a gaurantee.

I'd stick to the regular Battle Tower trainers rather than the WiFi ones unless you're doing EV training, natures, and all that "advanced" stuff.

[Sceptile_Master]

Timid isn't really a bad nature for a milotic as if I remember right when i used to use mine it was used mainly as a special attacker. But milotics have fairly low attack physically anyway. Oh and I hatched that lavitar for you... took ages to hatch lol.

[Storm]

I'm in your debt forever ! Hey, do you have my msn, so than you can tell me a bit on how to optimally train larvitar.. Does it have a good nature :p?

[Sceptile_Master]

Sorry bad nature but it took ages to hatch... it's female though so you can breed it if you want. It's a modest nature. I could get you another egg if you want but it'll take ages to hatch. I'll be on msn in a minute.

[Storm]

I was reading this guide about EV's and all, and they keep mentioning IV. Is that something that was in R/S but didn't return in D/P?

[Sceptile_Master]

IVs (sometimes also called DVs) are also in Diamond and Pearl. All games since Ruby and Sapphire have used the same method of working out stats.

[Storm]

one more stupid question then... what is the IV? can't figure that out really from the guides (get on msn man !)

[Dark Scizor]

It's basically a range of stats. IVs go from 0-31, with 31 being the maximum stat. The lower the IVs, the further away from the maximum and therefore lower it is.

[Storm]

hm.. my adamant larvitar has

* HP IV: 28 [25 ~ 31] 15%
* Attack IV: 26 [23 ~ 30] 12%
* Defense IV: 3 [0 ~ 7] 6%
* Sp.Atk IV: 10 [4 ~ 17] 5%
* Sp.Def IV: 16 [13 ~ 19] 14%
* Speed IV: 28 [25 ~ 31] 15%

pretty nice.. also with that dragon dancing in mind. also the special attack is low on nature and IV (so as long i don't use special attacks...).. but the defense is really low, almost too low. shall i breed and wait on something better? or shall i spend allot of EV-points on defense?

i mean... imagine one physical fighting move and it's down (or aqua tail)... altough the hp is quite high again..

[Elec Man EXE]

IV's are basically additions to the base stats of a pokemon. They are determined on hatching/capture and never change after that. Its basically what makes each pokemon slightly better/worse than other pokemon of its species. Ideally, you want a pokemon with high IV's.

The pokemon has an IV value for each of the 6 stats. They go from 0 to 31, and there will be a pretty considerable difference between a pokemon that has a 31 in a certain stat and a pokemon thats got 0. For illustation, I've been breeding Carnivine for the past few nights trying to get an excellent one. A Carnivine with an IV of 30 in attack has 44 attack at level 17. With a low IV (not sure the exact number, but low) it only has an attack of 39 at level 17. And that difference will get even more apparent as the level raises. I haven't trained any pokemon to 100 nor have At level 100, the full value comes out, so there could be a 31 point difference between 2 pokemon at level 100

[Storm]

For illustation, I've been breeding Carnivine for the past few nights trying to get an excellent one.

how can you see at level 1 if it's an excellent one? you can't really say anything about it before atleast level 10 right?

[Negrek]

how can you see at level 1 if it's an excellent one? you can't really say anything about it before atleast level 10 right?

You generally need to level up to about fifteen or twenty or so for decent accuracy. At level 1 the range is just too large.

Metalkid's IV Calculator is considered one of the best; it gives accurate results if you chart growth over several levels, and it can narrow down stat ranges fast if you know the pokémon's hidden power type (harder to do in D/P since I think kecleon are harder to come by).

[Elec Man EXE]

No, you're right. Level 1 is completely useless to get IV ratings. I'd breed a group of Carnivine, pick the ones that I thought might work (based on the description thing mentioned in another topic... Vain and whatnot). Then I'd pick 5 from that group, go into the grass near the Resort Area, save the game. Attach Exp. Share to the pokemon, put it first, get into a battle and switch out to my level 60 Lucario (with Lucky Egg attached). It'd get up to level 8 from that battle alone. Then, I'd use my 9 Rare Candies to get it up to 17, and take down the stats. 17 is a fairly decent level to get to and get a pretty good idea of your IV's. Reset the game (no save), repeat with the next one, and so on. After a while, I got used to what IV's would resault in what stats at 17, and then I didn't even have to use the IV Calculator. I knew I was looking for 44 attack, 34 special defense, and so on. And somewhere in between I also realized that if I hadn't gotten a +3 in Attack at level 4, then I didn't carry over my 31 Attack IV.

An incredibly annoying and time consuming experience, but at least I finally got a good one. To give an idea of just how long it took, both the "parent" Carnivine were level 43 at the end of it all. They both started at level 1.

And for the record, I don't plan on being nearly as obsessive with other pokemon. Carnivine is my favorite pokemon of D/P so I really wanted to make it as good as possible, within reason of course. It'd be practically impossible to get a "perfect" pokemon.

[Storm]

And for the record, I don't plan on being nearly as obsessive with other pokemon. Carnivine is my favorite pokemon of D/P so I really wanted to make it as good as possible, within reason of course. It'd be practically impossible to get a "perfect" pokemon.

Hm, it does make the difference in online battle
I was telling my girlfriend the past two weeks every time she got pissed I played too much that now with wifi there is a chance I could get rich, like starcraft and counterstrike players.. don't know if it's true, but she liked the idea and would let me alone for a few moments again

[RattataGuy]

When it comes to lower level pokemon and finding out IVs, couldn't you just go into a WiFi battle set to scale up the pokemon to level 100, take a look at its stats and calculate from there?

[Negrek]

When it comes to lower level pokemon and finding out IVs, couldn't you just go into a WiFi battle set to scale up the pokemon to level 100, take a look at its stats and calculate from there?

You could; you'd just need someone willing to battle with you (or rather, let you look at their stats, calculate, and then the both of you disconnect your games so the match wouldn't count).

[rinku]

By the way - this is one reason to NEVER use your rare candies untill you have at least 20-30 of them. In RSE you could rely on using pickup to get a lot of them (Zigzagoon were available from the first route), but my understanding is that pickup is a bit rare in DP.

Rare candies are the breeder's essential tool!