How to EV Train in Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green (FRLG)

What is an EV? To keep things super simple, these are imaginary points that influence Pokemon’s stats. The more EVs a Pokemon has in a certain stat, the more stats this Pokemon will have at level 100. 

Pokemon naturally gain EVs when they defeat Pokemon while a trainer progresses through their adventure. However EV training is typically a post game activity since this process can be expedited with items, in game money, and access to the entire region.  This post is catered to trainers that are far into their adventure.

The total amount of EVs a Pokemon can have is 510. However, technically 508 is the maximum number because 4 EVs equals 1 additional stat gain. Two EVs can be considered useless so be sure to EV train in denominations of 4.  Each stat can only have a maximum of 252 EVs. A Pokemon is typically trained in 2 stats with 252 EVs, which leave 6 remaining EVs to put into another stat. 

Important Notes:

• If you want your Pokemon to be the STRONGEST, you will need to IV breed before EV training. IV breeding MUST be done prior to EV training since IVs are innate to the Pokemon when captured or hatched. I will eventually post an article on IV breeding however for now, please see this video or check out Smogon’s in-depth articles. 
• While EV training, keep track of your progress on a sheet of paper how many EVs are attained and in which stats. There is no way to track this progress in the game.
• Once a Pokemon gains an EV, this cannot be removed or altered. 

Items you need:

1. Macho Brace: Doubles EVs gained when defeating Pokemon. This can be found after defeating Giovanni in the Viridian City Gym in Fire Red and Leaf Green. This item is essential since it speeds up the EV training immensely. This item can also be found in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald on Route 111 by defeating the family in the yellow house. 
2. Vitamins can be purchased in the Celadon City Store on the 5th floor for 9,800 pokecoins each. Vitamins can only be used within the first 100 EVs of each stat and only 100 EVs total for each stat. So basically you need to use Vitamins first when EV training. You need a lot of money to buy Vitamins however there is an easily way to make money. Check out this article on the trainers to farm for money.
   • HP Up: +10 HP EVs
   • Protein: +10 Attack EVs
   • Iron: +10 Defense EVs
   • Calcium: +10 Special Attack EVs
   • Zinc: +10 Special Defense EVs
   • Carbos: +10 Speed EVs
3. EXP Share: Not NEEDED but item can be helpful. EVs are gained when the EXP share is attached to a Pokemon. If you have registered at least 50 Pokemon in your Pokedex, go to the second floor in the building between Route 15 and Fuchsia City in Fire Red and Leaf Green. One of Professor Oak’s Aids will give you this as a gift.

Where to EV Train:

There are several efficient locations for gaining EVs however to keep things simple, the best places I go will be listed below. You can check which EVs are gained when defeating a certain Pokemon by going to Serbii.com and looking up the Pokemon of interest. As a reminder, defeating Pokemon from Pokemon Trainers also gains EVs.

Example: Caterpie EVs can be seen on Serbii’s website towards the bottom of the page in the section called “Effort Points from Battling it”. For Caterpie, it says “HP: 1 Point” so 1 HP EV will be gained when a Caterpie is defeated. Bulbapedia also has a list of all EVs a Pokemon gives when defeated.

• HP: Caterpie in Viridian Forest (40% spawn rate) +1 EV
• Attack: Paras in Mt. Moon Basement intermediate floors (100% spawn rate) +1 EV
• Defense: Tangela in Route 21 Grass near Pallet Town (need surf) (100% spawn rate) +1 EV
• Special Attack: Ghastly and Haunter in Pokemon Tower 2nd Floor in Lavender Town. (91% spawn rate between both Pokemon) Ghastly gives 1 EV and Haunter gives 2. 
• Special Defense: Tentacool (many surfing locations) Surfing in Vermillion City has 100% spawn rate. +1 EV
• Speed: Pidgey and Rattata in Route 1 (100% spawn rate) +1 EV 

Example:

I recently trained a Salamence to use for the Battle Froniter and will use this as a prime example on the process. Salamence is a great Pokemon for a team since it has high base stats compared to other Pokemon. You can check these stats by using a website such as Serbii and scrolling to the bottom of the page. Salamence makes for a great “sweeper” for a team so naturally an attack stat along with speed would be the ideal EVs to train. Typically before the EV training, the Pokemon should have been IV bred, have a fitting nature, and have any desired egg moves. Since IV breeding can take a LONG time, at a minimum, I recommend your Pokemon to have a beneficial nature before EV training.

Since Salamence has a higher Physical Attack stat than Special Attack, I wanted to train it in Physical Attack and Speed. After EV training, this Salamence will have 252 EVs in Attack, 252 EVs in Speed, and 6 EVs in HP. Before EV training, I will ensure the Bagon has a beneficial nature so for this specific case, either Adamant or Jolly. 

First, I gave appropriate Vitamins to my Bagon. I will give Bagon 10 Protein Vitamins and 10 Carbos Vitamins which will put our EVs at 100 Attack and 100 Speed. I will not use any HP Vitamins since I will be wasting 4 EVs to this stat.

Next, I equipped the Macho Brace to Bagon and headed to Mt. Moon. Each Paras this Bagon defeats will give our Pokemon 1 EV and since we have the Macho Brace on, it will instead yield 2. Since each stat can have 252 EVs and we applied 10 Vitamins which puts us at 100 Attack EVs, we need 152 more EVs to max this stat out. Since each Paras yields 2 EVs, we need to defeat a total of 76 Paras. After each Paras defeat, I will tally on a notepad on how many are beat.

After 76 Paras are defeated, I will typically defeat 5 more to be sure I did not miss count. This will not affect your EVs since once 252 EVs are reached in an individual stat, no more can be gained. Next, I headed over to Route 1 and defeated 76 Pidgeys/Rattatas to get all the Speed EVs. 

After 76 Paras and 76 Pidgeys/Rattatas are defeated, we need 6 more EVs to complete this Pokemon. I headed over to Viridian Forest and defeated 3 Caterpie to get 6 Hp EVs. 

And then that completed the EV training! Now this Bagon should have 252 Attack EVs, 252 Speed EVs, and 6 Hp EVs which will make these stats much higher as you level up to 100 when compared to a non-EV trained Pokemon! Now you have to train up the Pokemon to level 100 to check out how high its stats are!