How to Build a Perfect Pokémon

Last Updated: January 31, 2023

For some, Pokémon is about beating the Pokémon Champion. For others, Pokémon is about collecting every kind of creature. For others it's more than winning or collecting. To them, Pokémon is about being a trainer. To be a master trainer, you will need to plan ahead. Envision your Pokémon's potential before it is even born. If you train your Pokémon correctly, you will gain a perfect companion.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Design Your Pokémon

1
Choose a species. A perfect Pokémon can be from any species. If you choose Weedle, then you will train the best Weedle the world has ever known! Choose a Pokémon that you enjoy using. Note that it can be astronomically difficult to find Pokémon with perfect IVs if they can not be bred. Take this into consideration before choosing a species.
2
Design a move-set. Find a list of moves your species can learn. Plan what role this Pokémon will play and choose the best moves for the job. Consider your species' base stats and type. If you have high special attack consider using special moves even if they have lower base power than physical attacks. Attacks with the same type as the species get a 50% power boost. Egg moves are moves that can only be learned through breeding. Other moves can not be learned if you evolve too soon or too late. Plan how and when your Pokémon will learn each move.

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3
Choose a held item. Chose an item that will augment your Pokémon's strengths or cover its vulnerabilities. Choice Band, Leftovers, and Bright Powder are examples of powerful held items.
4
Choose an ability. Most Pokémon have two or three possible abilities. Hidden abilities are difficult or, in some cases, impossible to find, but they are inherited easily. Choose one that jives with your Pokémon's role.
5
Plan your individual values (IVs). You may have noticed that each Pokémon has different stats, even if it is the same type and has the same nature. This is because of some invisible numbers called Individual Values. Each Pokémon has an IV statistic associated with each battle stat (HP, Attack Defense etc.). IVs are determined when a Pokémon is caught or hatched and will never change. IVs range from 0 (weakest) to 31 (perfect). Generally, you will want all of your IVs to be 31, but sometimes this is not necessary. For instance you will not need perfect special attack IVs on a Pokémon that doesn't know special attacks. The best way to get perfect IVs is to breed Pokémon that you already know has some good IVs. You can find out what your IVs are by speaking to a stats judge NPC and/or using an IV calculator.
6
Plan your effort values (EVs). EVs are invisible stats just like IVs. However EVs can be changed. EVs all start at 0. EVs are earned by knocking out Pokémon, Super Training or Poké Pelago. Each Pokémon may earn up to 510 total EVs and no more than 252 EVs in a single stat. Put more EVs into the stats that your Pokémon will need most. An extreme example of an all-out sweeper spread would be 252 speed EVs, 252 attack EVs, and 4 special attack EVs.
7
Choose a nature. Your nature will usually raise one stat and lower another. However, there are neutral stats that do nothing. To choose a nature, pick your Pokémon's most important stat and least important stat then look up which nature will raise and lower the desired stats.
8
Design your Pokémon to the last detail. Perfection isn't just about beating your opponents. It's about defeating them with style! Just imagine that male shiny Mega Gengar in a Premier Ball named King Boo!
- Choose a cool Pokéball to contain all your perfection-ness. (Master Balls and Cherish Balls can't be inherited)
- Jot down a perfect nickname for your Pokémon!
- Pick a gender to match your nickname. It might not be super practical to be picky about gender, especially if you're going for a shiny with perfect IVs. But would it truly be perfect if you don't get the gender you want?
- Decide if it should be shiny. Some shiny Pokémon don't look as good as their mundane counterparts.

Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Produce the Perfect Egg

1
Prepare a secondary Pokémon game cartridge to produce the egg. You should breed your perfect egg on a secondary game cartridge so that your Pokémon will have a lifelong bonus of 50% more experience when traded to the cartridge you intend to use it on. For a perfect exp bonus of 70% more, you need to use a Pokémon game from a foreign language as your secondary game.
2
Prepare two parent Pokémon to Breed for desired traits. Pokémon can inherit traits from their parents. Therefore, it is important to choose suitable parents. The mother of a Pokémon is called a dam and the father is called a sire. Note that there are slightly different inheritance rules when breeding with Ditto.
- The dam must have the correct species and Pokéball.
- The ideal dam will have the desired nature and ability, .
- The sire must know all desired egg moves.
3
IV breed. Produce eggs until you hatch the perfect Pokémon you designed. You'll have to check each hatching's IVs If one of the hatchlings would be a better sire/dam than your current sire/dam, put the superior hatchling into the daycare in place of its parent. Inbreeding at its finest!
4
Give the parents items to speed up the process. The following items can help you influence what traits are inherited:
- Everstone: When given to the dam, there is a 50% chance of passing on its nature.
- Destiny Knot: When held by a parent, it ensures that five stats will be passed from either parent to the egg instead of the usual three.
- EV enhancing items: a power weight, power bracer, power belt, etc. Will ensure that the IV of the stat associated with that item will be passed on to the egg. This does not increase the number of stats inherited.
5
Use the Masuda Method. This is important if you want a shiny Pokémon. To use the Masuda Method, make sure the parents have different languages of origin. Example: one parent is from an English Pokémon game and the other is from a German game. This will greatly increase your chances of getting a shiny to about 1 in 682. Note that the everstone does not work while the Masuda Method is invoked.
6
Acquire a Shiny Charm. The Shiny Charm is a highly coveted key item that doubles the chance of encountering a shiny Pokémon. Combined with the Masuda Method, you would have a 1 in 341 chance of a shiny per egg. The Shiny Charm is acquired by completing the National Pokédex (or Alola Pokédex excluding mythical Pokémon). This is very difficult to accomplish.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Train the Perfect Pokémon

1
Infect your Pokémon with the D strain of Pokérus. Pokérus is an extremely rare beneficial virus found on about 1 in every 21,845 wild. The D strain in particular is only found on 1 in every 87,381 wild Pokémon. Pokérus doubles all EV yields. Catch a Pokémon with Pokérus or trade for an infected Pokémon. When that Pokémon is in your party, it will spread to the others in your party. The virus can die if it's host is in the party when midnight passes, so store infected Pokémon in the PC at night. After a Pokémon has been cured, it can not be infected again or spread to other Pokémon but retains the benefits. Once you have Pokérus experiment on an unimportant Pokémon in your party. Record how many mid-nights pass before the virus dies off. If it lasts until the fourth midnight, it is the D strain. Infect your perfect Pokémon with this perfect virus. Never let your perfect Pokémon fight it off. Don't taint your perfect Pokémon with an inferior A, B, or C strain of Pokérus.
2
EV train. Get all stats up with Vitamins such as Protein. Don't feed it what it doesn't need. Doing so will give a Pokémon 10 EV points in that stat, until it reaches 100 EVs, which is the highest you can reach with medicine. This is where EV-TRAINING plays a part! EVs, or Effort Values, are stat modifiers that improves different stats depending on which Pokémon you defeat in battle. For instance, a Pidgey gives a +1 EV point to Speed, whilst a Staraptor gives +3 EV points to Attack. Every 4 EVs in a particular stat is equal to 1 point in that stat. Also, every Pokémon is capable of having a maximum of 510 EVs with a maximum of 255 EVs in any one stat. Since neither 510 nor 255 are divisible by four, having 252 EVs in one stat is the most beneficial to you. Use this for your benefit, and train the stats you'd like to increase against Pokémon that gives the correct EVs.
3
Search for Pokémon that yield desired EVs. - Flying-types are usually fast (Speed), Rock-types are sturdy (Defense) etc. A Pokémon that hasn't evolved, or a Pokémon that doesn't evolve at all, gives 1 EV point. A 1rst stage evolution Pokémon gives 2 EV points, and a 2nd stage evolution Pokémon gives 3 EV points, along with legendary Pokémon. Items like a Macho Brace double the EVs earned in battle, and the elusive Pokerus, should you be so lucky to ever experience it, doubles EV gain too.
4
Teach it the moves. Know its weaknesses and teach it moves that can be used to hit Super Effective on the other Pokémon. Try to teach super tough moves like Earthquake. Teach moves that suit the Pokémon. Note that if an attacking move is used by a Pokémon of the same type, it will be significantly more powerful, thanks to Same Type Effect Bonus (STAB), which can be useful.
5
Use one PP Max on each move.
6
Level up to level 100. Simple and straight forward. Depending on which game you are playing, you may not want to use Rare Candies all the way to level 100; if you do, it might lose the possibility to gain EVs. That is 126 stat points lost at lvl 100. If you want to be safe, make sure you have finished EV training it until you finish leveling it to lvl 100 (normally, since a lot of battling is required to reach lvl 100 without Rare Candy-ing it, these will fill completely up by themselves).
7
Give your Pokémon the held item you chose.

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Perfect your Pokémon

1
Develop your friendship. In each game, there is an NPC that can tell you if your friendship is perfect or not. If you don't have a perfect friendship, walk around with it in your party, give it a massage, feed it special berries etc. You can earn a ribbon for developing a perfect relationship with your Pokémon.
2
Develop Affection. In Generation VI onward, affection can be gained by playing with your Pokémon, petting your Pokémon and feeding your Pokémon via Pokémon Amie. When your Pokémon is affectionate, it will behave differently in battle. Sometimes, it will even shrug off a status effect or avoid being knocked out for it's trainer.
3
Earn all possible ribbons. Some are easier to get, some are hard, some are impossible. You're perfect Pokémon deserves to be as decorated as possible.
4
Crown your Pokémon with the Leaf Crown. In Heart Gold and Soul Silver, your Pokémon can find rare shiny leaves when it follows you through certain routes. Collect all five to award your perfect Pokémon a glorious crown.

Community Q&A

Question

What is the mechanic that determines IV generation? Is it simply a random 0-31 with equal probability for each value?

Community Answer

If they are in the wild it is pretty random, same with received Pokemon. But the ones that you breed will inherit 3-6 IV from its parents.

Warnings

Don't play with Pokémon you don't like. Pokémon should be fun.

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These instructions are general for all generations. Because of this there will be generation specific nuances especially with breeding. For instance, Pokéballs are not inherited in generation III. You may want to research the mechanics of your specific generation.

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