How to Increase Your Pokemon’s IVs in Pokemon Sword and Shield

Itching to be the very best like no one ever was in Pokemon Sword and Shield? You definitely can by improving your Pokemon’s stats!

Individual Values, or IVs as dubbed by the community, are like your Pokémon’s genes. These are essential in determining the stats of your Pokémon. IVs are hidden stats that affect each of the six stats, HP, Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Defense, and Special Attack. These hidden stats range from 0 to 31, and they are unique for each individual Pokémon.

You can take a look at your Pokemon’s IVs by going to your Pokemon Boxes. How would you know if your Pokemon’s IVs are actually good? For this, you would need the IV Checker, which you can unlock by beating the game’s main storyline then participating in the Battle Tower.

After unlocking the IV Checker, simply go to your Pokémon Boxes and press the + button to toggle the Judge function. Your Pokémon’s IVs will be rated by adjectives and not the actual number. This is what the adjectives mean: Best is 31, Fantastic is 30, Very Good is from 29 to 21, Pretty Good is from 20 to 11, Decent is from 10 to 1, and No Good is 0.

Now you know your Pokemon’s IVs. Now what? Well, if your Pokemon’s IVs are not as high as you want them to be, you can increase them! In this guide, you will learn how to raise your Pokemon’s IVs.

Breeding

You can breed your Pokemon until you get one with great IVs! Here are the basics of breeding in Pokemon Sword and Shield:

1. Choose two Pokémon of the opposite sex or the species you want and a Ditto
2. Leave the Pokémon in the hands of the Pokémon Nursery (located in Bridge Field in the Wild Area and Route 5)
3. After some time, come back to the Pokémon Nursery and pick up the egg.
4. Put the egg in your party and walk a certain number of steps to hatch the egg.

Do this a number of times until you get a Pokemon with the IVs that you like. It would definitely help if the parent Pokemon themselves had great IVs.

It is also possible to pass down the parent Pokémon’s IVs or Individual Values stats. Let the parent Pokémon hold the Power Weight to pass down the parent Pokémon’s HP IV, Power Bracer to pass down the parent Pokémon’s Attack IV, Power Belt to pass down the Defense IV, Power Anklet to pass down the Speed IV, Power Band to pass down the Sp. Def IV, Power Lens to pass down the Sp. Atk IV, or Destiny Knot to pass down five random IVs (in contrast to only three random IVs without the Destiny Knot item). 

Hyper Training

The only way to really increase your Pokemon’s Individual Values is through Hyper Training. Hyper Training is a method of Pokémon training that allows you to improve a Pokémon’s IVs with intensive training. Hyper Training your Pokemon’s IVs will change it to the maximum value!

However, Hyper Training isn’t available to players from the get-go. You must first finish the main storyline and unlock the Battle Tower, just like the IV Checker to unlock Hyper Training. Another requirement for Hyper Training your Pokemon is that the Pokemon you want to Hyper Train must be Level 100. Additionally, you must have a Bottle Cap or a Gold Bottle Cap to Hyper Train your Pokemon.

To obtain Bottle Caps, you can purchase them from one of the shops in the Battle Tower for 25 BP. You can earn Battle Points or BP by participating in the Battle Tower, either in the Single or Double Battles. Gold Bottle Caps, unfortunately, cannot be purchased.

Bottle Caps can also be obtained in the Battle Tower every time you rank up to the next tier, be it in Single or Double Battles. However, upon reaching the Master Ball Tier, you will be rewarded with a Gold Bottle Cap.

You can also employ the services of the Digging Duo to obtain Bottle Caps. The Skill Brother, the brother on the left, has a higher chance of getting Bottle Caps or even Gold Bottle Caps as these are considered rare and rare items are his specialty. This is an unreliable method for obtaining Bottle Caps as there is no telling what the Digging Duo will dig up. If you still want to try, the Digging Duo can be found near the Pokemon Nursery in Bridge Field and costs 500 Watts per service.

If you have the Isle of Armor DLC, you can actually create Bottle Caps or Gold Bottle Caps in the Cram-o-Matic. You can create a Bottle Cap with three Rare Candies and a Wishing Piece. You can create a Gold Bottle Cap, which has the effect of six Bottle Caps, using only four Bottle Caps.

Once you have done these, it is now time to Hyper Train! To Hyper Train your Pokemon, this is what you must do:

1. Go to the Battle Tower.
2. Next, talk to the League Staff attendant on the rightmost part of the front desk (beside the Pokemon Rental NPC).
3. Then, choose the Pokemon you want to Hyper Train.
4. After that, you will be asked whether you’ll use a Bottle Cap or a Gold Bottle Cap. Select the option you want.
5. Next, select the Pokemon’s stats you want to Hyper Train. You can select more than one, depending on how many Bottle Caps you have.
6. Then, proceed by selecting Let’s start training!
7. And just like that you have Hyper Trained your Pokemon’s IVs! You can continue on Hyper Training your Pokemon if you have enough Bottle Caps.

Upon checking your Pokemon’s IVs using the Judge function after Hyper Training, you will see that one of Pokemon’s IVs will be tagged Hyper Trained! instead of best. That Pokemon’s IV is now at the maximum value!

With all these methods mentioned above, there is no more excuse not to become the very best like no one ever was!