EV Training Hotspots in Pokémon X & Y
Hello! My name is Konrad “Gonzo” Janik also known as your favourite EV training aid! This time, I want to share with you a list of good hotspots for Pokémon X and Pokémon Y. The code of the games cannot be decrypted yet, so I am not listing any Pokémon introduced in 6th Generation games because their EV yields remain unknown. The rarity of listed Pokémon is estimated and not 100% precise. Unfortunately, it is all we can get so far. This guide will be updated as soon as we get more information.
I stated Pokémon’s locations, their approximate levels, encounter rate (well, not really) and method of encountering. I also put EV gain from battling each Pokémon and calculations for EV gain modifiers so you’ll know exactly how many EVs you’ll get. A new type of wild Pokémon encounters — horde battles — are also listed. There are many other hordes, but I picked the most common ones, made of a single Pokémon species with the lowest possible levels. The guide is divided into four sections: Introduction, Hordes, Friend Safari and alternative methods.
1. Introduction
Important changes in EV Training compared to older games:
- The maximum amount of EVs in a single stat prior to XY was 255. In 6th Gen it was reduced to 252, so now you don’t have to worry when maxing out a single stat.
- Horde encounters are the fastest way to EV train your Pokémon.
Ways to Modify EV Gain:
- Pokerus – doubles EVs gained, can be combined with Macho Brace and Power Items
- Macho Brace – doubles EVs gained, halves holder’s Speed, can be combined with Pokerus
- Power Items – give 4 additional EV points to a corresponding stat, halves holder’s Speed, can be combined with Pokerus
In XY, you can find Macho Brace lying on the ground at Route 15, Power Weight (+HP), Power Bracer (+Atk), Power Belt (+Def), Power Lens (+SAtk), Power Band (+SDef) and Power Anklet (+Speed) can be purchased in Battle Maison (Kiloude City) for 16 BP each.
Calculations for EVs per Battle (Don’t forget to multiply by 5 for horde encounters!):
Base 3 points:
- Pokérus / Macho Brace: 6 EVs
- Pokérus + Macho Brace: 12 EVs
- Pokérus + Power Item: 14 EVs
Base 2 points:
- Pokérus / Macho Brace: 4 EVs
- Pokérus + Macho Brace: 8 EVs
- Pokérus + Power Item: 12 EVs
Base 1 point:
- Pokérus / Macho Brace: 2 EVs
- Pokérus + Macho Brace: 4 EVs
- Pokérus + Power Item: 10 EVs
Tips:
- Avoid Pokémon introduced in 6th Generation when EV training, as their EV yields are currently unknown.
- If you need simple 252/252/4 spreads, use Hordes. Using vitamins is unnecessary – two Horde encounters give you the same amount of EVs as 10 Vitamins.
- If you need a more complicated EV spread, use Hordes + Friend Safari or find wild Pokémon that can give you the amount of EVs needed.
2. Hordes
In XY, if you use Sweet Scent or Honey, you have 100% chance to encounter a horde. A horde is a group of 5 Pokémon at a level around one half of the Pokémon you can encounter at the same location in regular one-on-one encounters. Method is not listed as this works in tall grass and caves only. Recommended for fast and easy maxing stats.
HP
Location: Route 5
Encounter Rate: common
Level: 5
EVs: 1 HP per each
or:
Location: Connecting Cave
Encounter Rate: common
Level: 7
EVs: 1 HP per each
Attack
Location: Route 14
Encounter Rate: common
Level: 16
EVs: 1 Atk per each
or:
Location: Route 19
Encounter Rate: common
Level: 24
EVs: 2 Atk per each
In case it’s raining on Route 14 or 19, you can’t use Sweet Scent and Honey to encounter hordes. Alternatively use:
Location: Frost Cavern
Encounter Rate: common
Level: 20
EVs: 1 Atk per each
Defence
Location: Route 10
Encounter Rate: common
Level: 11
EVs: 1 Def per each
or:
/
Location: Route 18, Terminus Cave
Encounter Rate: common/uncommon
Level: 23/23
EVs: 1 Def per each/2 Def per each
Special Attack
Location: Frost Cavern
Encounter Rate: Common
Level: 20
EVs: 1 SpAtk per each
Smoochum horde can be found in Frost Cavern as well. It’s very rare, but the EV yield is the same as Vanillite’s, so you can just use them if you find them.
Special Defence
Location: Route 7
Encounter Rate: common
Level: 6
EVs: 1 SpDef per each
Speed
Location: Route 8
Encounter Rate: common
Level: 9
EVs: 1 Speed per each
Taillow horde can be found on Route 8 as well. It’s very rare, but the EV yield is the same as Wingull’s, so you can just use them if you find them.
In case it’s raining on Route 8, you can’t use Sweet Scent and Honey to encounter hordes. Alternatively, use:
Location: Connecting Cave
Encounter Rate: common
Level: 8
EVs: 1 Speed per each
3. Friend Safari
After you beat Elite 4, you’ll gain access to Kiloude City where you can find Friend Safari. Each of your 3DS friends generates three Pokémon of one type that can be encountered there. At the beginning, you can find just two species, and a third can be found after your friend beats the Elite 4, so non-Pokémon 3DS players will give you just two Pokémon. The list of Pokémon depends on Friend Codes you have, so after you go and discover your friends’ species, just check their EV yields. The best way to do this is to use Bulbapedia’s, Serebii’s or Veekun’s Pokedex, as all of them list the EVs you can get from beating specific Pokémon. This method is recommended for adding smaller amounts of EVs, impossible to get via Hordes.
4. Alternative Methods
(this section will be expanded when we have accurate encounter rates)
Poke Radar
If you don’t want to use Hordes or Friend Safari, you can try something old-fashioned. Finding random Pokémon in grass quite inconvenient, so you can try using Poke Radar to chain specific Pokémon with desired EVs. When 100% accurate encounter rates are found, I’ll expand this section. For now, I need to leave you with the idea.
Fishing
Attack
Location: Route 3
Encounter Rate: 100% combined
Level: 25
EVs: 1 Atk per each
Rod: Good Rod
Speed
/
Location: Route 3/Route 8
Encounter Rate: 100%
Level: 15
EVs: 1 Speed
Rod: Old Rod
Magikarp is on Route 3, Luvdisc is on Route 8
Surfing
Special Defence
Location: Route 8
Encounter Rate: very common
Level: 20-30
EVs: 1 SpDef
The other Pokémon is Wailmer with very low encounter rate. In case you find it, just run away.
Speed
/
Location: Frost Cavern (outside)
Encounter Rate: 100% combined
Level: 38-40
EVs: 2 Speed per each
That’s all we can get so far. I’ll keep an eye on any EV Training related information and will update the guide as soon as possible. Meanwhile, good luck with your EV training!
About the Author
Gonzo gave VGC a shot during Autumn Friendly in '11, fell in love with it and never looked back. World's #1 Stunfisk fan.
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Really cool how you got this up quickly! I only wished you covered Super Training because I’m still a little iffy on that topic. Like how do Power Items / Pokerus affect your Super Training or will it stay the same? Again, nifty guide for some good old fashioned EV training
the spot i use for fast special attackers is route 12, it has wingulls for 1 spe, and mareeps for 1 spa
This job getting this up! One minor nitpick though, would you mind switching the spellings of “Defence” and “Special Defence” to the Americanized spelling “Defense” and “Special Defense”? It’s bothering me 😀 Otherwise, this is fantastic Gonzo, way to get this up so early!!!
Last time I checked, this was a global website, not an American-only one
True, true. I’m not sure on Nugget Bridge’s policy on how we like to spell things, it’ll be fine, just me being OCD lol.
Isn’t it spelled the American way in the games? I think sticking to what it is in the games would make sense, pretty much. (And apparently, EVs in the games are now “base stats”, what do we even do about that…)
Time to develop the perfect training method then.
Amazing Job! Gonzo, you work at the speed of light. I found this to be most helpful.
Thanks everybody!
I wish I was faster and more accurate but I had to do some manual research. Compared to my B2W2 guide, I’m Munchlax slow. I had that one done 2 months before international release.
For those wondering how to get the Power items quickly, do the Battle Institute. Apparently winning three matches and forfeiting the other two gives you 9 BP. I know winning 2/5 gets you 7. If you forfeit all 5 you get 3 so if you’re really, really bad at Pokemon…
There’s the Battle Maison but that’s significantly slower until you get some “proper” mons and can get a good winstreak going consistently.
That said, <3 this guide.
omg I wish I could hug you right now. I’ve wasted so much time using my in-game team going through Battle Maison to get TMs and items and didn’t know that you only had to win TWO matches in the Battle Institute to get a meaningful amount of BP. Thank you so much!
so, the power item gives +4 EVs. but EVs are received when experience is received, so does it make a difference if all the Pokémon in the horde are finished at once, and experience is only received once rather than 5 times?
It doesn’t matter in what order or how many Pokemon get KO’d at once. The game gives you all EVs regardlessly.
thank you! I was disappointed because Super Training doesn’t work for left-handed people, but this strategy is way better.
I have the same problem, hahaha! Lefties FTW
First World Problems for the left handed people.
Lefties = win.
Try holding the 3DS upside-down, maybe it works, lol.
Also known as Gonzywonzy. You forgot to add that Gonz.
I am so glad I am not the only one having issues with super training and left handed-ness.
I ended up ev training the gift Ralts you get for clearing E4 with a 252 sp atk/ 248 spe/ 10 HP and it did quite well on my trial run of the battle mansion. I got to 16 or so before being wiped by a Skrelp evolution.
An XY breeding guide for ivs and such would be amazing! This was a solid read though. Thank you!
For Speed. All the pokemon surfing outside Frost Cave give Speed.
Attack, all pokemon fishing with the Good and Super Rods give Attack EVs on Route 22.
I might add Speed. Good Rod on Route 3 has weaker Pokemon and constant 1 EV per Pokemon, so I’ll add that. Pokemon Village isn’t a good option, the levels are pretty high.
Does the level of the opponent Pokemon matter? Exp Share lets you EV train a Pokemon while they sit on the bench the whole time holding a Power item. Higher level may even be better since it lets you train normal exp while EV training and you are OHKOing everything with a Lv100 anyways.
Exp Share.
Very easy for training on high level mons. and also, since when has every mon that’s been trained been weak? (legendaries being one example)
Great article!
Very, helpful, thanks! However, for Attack EVing, at least one Bellsprout in the horde on Route 14 always uses Sleep Powder, which makes it somewhat inconvenient…
You should be knocking every Bellsprout in the horde out with one spread attack (Heat Wave, Earthquake, Surf, etc). Have the Pokemon you’re EV training out of the first slot with a power item attached and turn on Exp Share.
For Route 8 for the Speed EV’s you have a chance to encounter a tailow too and it yields the same speed EV as wingul does, possible add that on there?
While raising SpA in Frost Cavern, I also encountered hordes of Smoochum in addition to Vanillite, which also provide 1 SpA, just so that’s known.
Also, the levels I’m seeing are typically 20 for Vanillite and 21 for Smoochum.
Apparently, I made a list. XD
Heatmor (route 18) = 2 SPA
Roselia (route 7) = 2 SPA
Plusle/Minun (Route 5) = 1 SPA
Vanillite (Frost Cavern) = 1 SPA
Lombre (Pokemon Village) = 2 SPD
Hoppip (route 7) = 1 SPD
Noctowl (Pokemon Village) = 2 HP
Gulpin (route 5) = 1 HP
Weepinbell (route 19) 2 ATK
Scraggy ( route 5) = 1 ATK
Cubchoo (Frost Cavern) = 1 ATK
Sudowoodoo (route 20) = 2 DEF
Gligar (route 19) = 1 DEF
You just have to use Sweet Scent and then attack them all. XD
@Hajime (can’t quote on mobile)
The Plusle/Minun give off Speed, not SpA :]