When you catch a Rattata and a Pidgey in the wild, you'll see that their stats tend to vary. Rattata's Attack stat is usually a bit higher, for example. However, you could catch two Rattatas that have slightly different stats. Why is this if Pokémon supposedly have the same stats?

It's all down to DVs. "DV" stands for Diversity Value, which are exactly that; they're values that make Pokémon different. Some people call them IVs (for Individual Value) and some people call them genes. For this section, I'll be calling them DVs.

There are sixteen possible DVs, ranging from 0 to 15. They are coded in the game in hexadecimal, therfore some like to use letters A-F to represent 10-15, but for simplicity's sake, I'll use numbers for now.

Each statistic has a different DV - HP, Attack, Defense, Special and Speed. In Gold/Silver/Crystal, the Special stat has been split into Spcl. Attack and Spcl. Defense; however, these share their DVs. The HP DV is determined by the other DVs, depending on whether they are odd or even numbers - I will cover this in more detail in the future.

So what do DVs actually do? They basically determine how much the stat varies. For example, a Rattata with an Attack DV of 8 will have a slightly higher Attack rating than a Rattata with an Attack DV of 7. In most cases, high DVs are desirable, because they lead to high stats. Overall, there isn't much of a difference between each DV. At it's maximum, the Rattata's 8 DV Attack will only be two stat points above the 7 DV's Attack. However, this means that a 15 DV stat will be thirty stat points above a 0 DV stat! This is a huge difference, as I'm sure you can tell.

Now comese the problem of calculating DVs. To do this, you either need your Pokémon to be at :L50 or higher with no stat experience at all (that is, one that has not fought any battles or had use out of the Exp. All/Exp. Share or used any drugs such as Protein, HP Up or Calcium) or at :L100 with the maximum stat experience possible. This defies the purpose of finding the DVs in the first place, but it is possible to tell which Pokémon is best.

Let's imagine you have two Squirtles at :L5, with the following stats:

Squirtle 1
HP: 19
Attack: 11
Defense: 10
Special Attack: 9
Special Defense: 10
Speed: 10

Squirtle 2
HP: 20
Attack: 10
Defense: 9
Special Attack: 10
Special Defense: 10
Speed: 11

The first Squirtle has better Attack and Defense stats, and the second Squirtle has better HP, Special Attack and Speed stats. Although the second may seem like the better choice because it has three better stats, it may be worth your while to breed a third Quirtle to see if you can get them higher. Also, you would have more reference to see which stats are good and which are bad; with these two Squirtles, you cannot tell whether a Special Defense of 10 is good or not. Judging from these, you'd want the following Squirtle:

Squirtle 3
HP: 20
Attack: 11
Defense: 10
Special Attack: 10
Special Defense: 10
Speed: 11

Because you want all stats to have a DV as close to 15 as possible, take the time to catch or breed multiple Pokémon to see which have the best stats. The third Squirtle may not have the maximum possible DVs (that is, 15 for each stat), but it'll be closer than any others.

One last point; high DVs are not always good. Consider this Alakazam:

Alakazam

Psychic
Ice Punch
Thunderpunch
Recover

The Alakazam has no physical moves, so a high Attack DV would be wasted on it. Also, if it became confused, the damage it caused itself would be based on the Attack stat. Because of this, an Attack DV of 0 would be good.

Consider next a Blissey with Bide. This move pays double the damage you receive back after two or three moves. Because of this, having a low Defense DV would be good, as you would ensure that you receive as much damage as possible and therefore be able to pay back maximum damage.

Make sure you plan ahead when you pick out a Pokémon to train. Do you want it to have great stats all round? Do you want it to have physical as well as special-based moves? Is Speed important to the Pokémon?

One final note; the most important Pokémon to try and get at maximum DVs is Ditto. Ditto can breed with almost every Pokémon, so its DVs are important as they will be passed down as well.

Page written by Psythor.

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