Understanding Pokémon Stats

How to read the in-game appraisal screen without getting confused.

When you click Appraise on a Pokémon, you will see three bars: Attack, Defense, and HP. Each bar ranges from 0 to 15 points. These are called Individual Values (IVs).

How you value these bars depends entirely on how you want to use the Pokémon.

Gyms and Raids (Player vs. Environment)

When fighting Raid Bosses, your main goal is to beat the clock.

• What you want: High stats overall, with a perfect 15 in the Attack bar (the top bar).
• Why: A maxed-out Attack stat allows your Pokémon to deal its maximum damage per second, saving valuable time during raids.

The GO Battle League (Player vs. Player)

This is where the rules get a bit backwards. In the Great League (1500 CP limit) and Ultra League (2500 CP limit), perfect stats are actually bad.

• What you want: Low Attack, High Defense, and High HP (for example: 0 Attack, 15 Defense, 15 HP).
• Why: The game's CP formula values the Attack stat heavily. A low Attack stat allows your Pokémon to reach a much higher physical level before it hits the CP limit, making it much bulkier and able to survive longer in battle.

* Note: The Master League has no CP limit, so you want perfect 15/15/15 stats there.

Let Apps Do the Heavy Lifting

You do not need to memorize any of this. Use these two free resources to make your stat checking easy:

• Poke Genie (Mobile App)
  • What it does: Scans your screen and gives your Pokémon a definitive stat grade.
  • How to use it: Take a screenshot of the appraisal screen. The app will explicitly tell you: "This is the #1 best stat combo for Great League."
• PvPoke.com (Website)
  • What it does: Ranks every Pokémon species from best to worst based on their stats and moves.
  • How to use it: Cross-reference your Poke Genie results here to see if that specific Pokémon is actually useful in the current competitive meta.