Individual Values, typically referred to as IVs, are unseen elements that affect a Pokémon’s base stats. They’re generally hidden from the player but can be viewed in Sword and Shield thanks to the Judge feature.
This feature isn’t regularly available to the player, though. In fact, you don’t receive the Judge feature until you complete Sword and Shield’s main story mode. You must then travel to the Battle Tower where you’ll compete against some of the most challenging trainers in the game. You must achieve six consecutive victories and then defeat Champion Leon. This will earn you Rank 4 in the Battle Tower and will unlock the Judge feature for you to use.
Once you’ve unlocked the Judge feature, find a PC or go to your party and open your Pokémon box. Then scroll over to whichever Pokémon’s stats you’re curious about and press the + button on your joycon.
The amount of IVs a Pokémon has range from zero to 31, but the game doesn’t explicitly tell trainers this. Instead, Sword and Shield uses terms to describe how many IVs a Pokémon has.
Here are the terms and what they translate to in quantity of IVs.
- No Good: Zero IVs
- Decent: One to 10 IVs
- Pretty Good: 11 to 20 IVs
- Very Good: 21 to 29 IVs
- Fantastic: 30 IVs
- Best: 31 IVs
The IV rank of each stat describes the potential of each stat and helps determine how you should Effort Value (EV) train your Pokémon. For instance, if a Charmander has a high IV count in Special Attack, then it’ll benefit greatly from receiving EV training in Special Attack.
Understanding IVs will help you best train your Pokémon for them to reach their greatest potential.
