Demystifying IVs: Your Complete Guide to Appraising Pokémon in Pokémon Go

Hey fellow trainer!

If you‘ve been playing Pokémon Go for any length of time, you‘ve probably wondered what the deal is with those stars and stats when you catch Pokémon. Well, you‘ve come to the right place!

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll cover everything you need to know about Individual Values (IVs), what they mean, and why they‘re so important to make your Pokémon stronger for battles and gyms. Let‘s dive in!

What are IVs?

Each Pokémon in Go has three separate IVs, one each for Attack, Defense, and Stamina (or HP). These are hidden stats that range from 0 to 15, with 15 being the best. The higher the IVs, the better that Pokémon‘s performance will be in battle!

It‘s similar to how the main series Pokémon games have used IVs and EVs (Effort Values) as part of their hidden "genetic" stats since the beginning.

The Meaning of Appraisal Stars

Those stars you see when catching or appraising represent broad IV ranges:

• 0* = 0-49% overall IVs
• 1* = 50-64%
• 2* = 65-79%
• 3* = 80-98%
• 4* = 100% perfect IVs!

Getting a 4* appraisal is always exciting – it means you found a perfect Pokémon!

The more stars, the higher that Pokémon‘s IV total will be.

Why High IVs Matter

Higher IVs increase a Pokémon‘s CP limit, HP, and strength of attacks. For example:

• A 100% Dragonite has over 100 more max CP than a 0% Dragonite at the same level.
• A 15/15/15 Machamp can deal over 15% more damage per Rock Slide than a 0/0/0 Machamp.

I‘ve powered up perfect legendaries like Mewtwo to over 4000 CP, when they‘d be stuck in the 3000s at Level 40 if they had poor IVs.

Having high IVs makes a huge difference in performance!

IV Distribution Percentages

But how easy is it to find those perfect Pokémon? Based on research from The Silph Road community, here are the rough chances:

As you can see, perfect 4* Pokémon are incredibly rare – only about 1 in 250 will have 100% IVs!

Raids, eggs, and research encounters boost those odds up to around 1 in 60 though, which is why it‘s so important to do them.

Here are the IV distributions from different encounter types:

How to Check Exact IVs

To see the exact IV numbers, you need to use a 3rd party app like PokeGenie or CalcyIV. I personally use PokeGenie to scan all my new catches.

There‘s also the in-game appraisal system which gives you a general idea based on your team leader‘s comments.

Once you have the numbers, you can input them into battlefield simulators like Pokebattler to see just how much of a difference those IVs make.

Real-World Performance Gains

I ran some Pokebattler simulations to compare a perfect 15/15/15 Moltres versus a 50% 11/11/11 Moltres against a Solar Beam Groudon raid boss:

• The 15/15/15 Moltres finished with 65% total health remaining
• The 11/11/11 Moltres finished with 53% total health

That‘s a huge difference in survivability, directly thanks to those perfect IVs!

When powering up raid counters, you always want to focus on your high IV Pokémon first.

Optimizing IVs for PVP Battles

IVs work a bit differently in PVP battles compared to raids. Generally:

• High ATK is good for dealing damage
• High DEF helps survive attacks
• Low ATK at Great/Ultra League lets you "power up" more

I tend to aim for IVs in the 80-98% range for the best stat products. Some of my tournament-winning teams have had perfect legendaries, while others had IV spreads specifically picked to hit certain breakpoints.

It takes a lot of experimenting to see which IVs perform best!

Keep Hunting, Trainer!

Hopefully this guide has helped explain what IVs are and why they make such a big difference for building your best battle teams.

IV hunting can feel like a grind, but stay determined! Those elusive 4* Pokémon are out there waiting to be found. And you‘ll catch ‘em all!

Let me know if you have any other questions. Happy hunting and may your Pokémon be blessed with perfect IVs!