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Hidden Power and DVs

 

Hidden Power and DVs

Before you calculate Hidden Power, you need to know your Pokémon’s DVs, which can also be called IVs or Genes. For the purposes of this guide, I will refer to them as DVs. When it comes to figuring out Hidden Power, having taken Algebra 1 is a prerequisite.

~~ DVs ~~

DVs are not found on the stat screen, but they exist in every Pokémon. They determine quite a few things, most notably the Pokémon’s gender, determining weather the Pokémon will be ‘shiny’ or not, and the Pokémon’s Hidden Power type and power.

DVs also determine what your maximum attainable stat will be in any given category. There is a range for every Pokémon of what they can attain legally, and the limit on that is set by DVs. The maximum stat for the species of Pokémon and the maximum stat for your individual Pokémon are not always the same. The highest DV is 15, lowest being 0, meaning there are actually 16 different DV values possible, them being 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14, and 15.

Each stat (Hit Points, Attack, Defense, Special, and Speed) have a DV assigned to them. The Special stat has the same DV for Attack and Defense, even if the special attack and Special Defense do not have the same maximum attainable stat. For instance, an Arbok has a Special Attack of only 228, but a Special Defense of 256. However, the DV for Special will determine how far off from the max stat both Special Attack and Special Defense are.

Stats have a 30-point range from maximum to minimum possible on the species. DVs are determined, simply, by taking how far the stat is off the maximum possible and dividing by two (at level 100). So if it was 10 off the max stat, the DV would be 15-5, or 10. If it was 16 off the max stat, the DV would be 7, because 15-8 = 7.

Your Hit Point DV (HP DV) is affected by all the other DVs.

If…

Your Attack DV is odd, add 8 to the HP DV.
Your Attack DV is even, do nothing to the HP DV.
Your Defense DV is odd, add 4 to the HP DV.
Your Defense DV is even, do nothing to the HP DV.
Your Speed DV is odd, add 1 to the HP DV.
Your Speed DV is even, do nothing to the HP DV.
Your Special DV is odd, add 2 to the HP DV.
Your Special DV is even, do nothing to the HP DV.

A simple formula for figuring out DVs:

(M – P) / 2 = D

Where M = Max stat for species
Where P = Your Pokémon’s stat
Where D = Your DV.

I’ll give a few examples of figuring DVs below.

*Example 1*

The Dragonite Species has a maximum attack of 366. If your Dragonite has an attack of 358, the DV is 11, because 358 is 8 off the max stat, and if you divide 8 by two, and you have how far off the 15 DV you are, which is 4. 15 - 4 = 11, so your Attack DV is 11.

*Example 2*

The Lanturn species has a maximum Special Attack AND Defense of 250. If your Lanturn has a Special of 220, you are 30 off the max stat. 30 / 2 is 15, and 15 – 15 = 0, giving you a Special DV of Zero.

~~ Box Trick ~~

The box trick is a very simple way to max out your stats. Whatever stat you get at L. 100 may or may not be the highest attainable stat for you, because of another invisible value called ‘stat experience’. Stat Experience is given in every battle, but you can’t see how much you get. Stat Experience values are assigned to every species; if you battle a L. 3 Pidgey and a L. 100 Pidgey, the Stat Experience will be the same, although the level experience (What you need to level up) will change dramatically.

Box Tricking does not raise your DVs; simply, your stats are not always the highest they can be at L. 100 when you first get to L. 100. You can get the highest possible stat for your Pokémon by doing the box trick.

The technique is very simple: You battle a number of Pokémon (The Elite 4 is a good place) with a L. 100 Pokémon. After completing 15-30 battles, you put the Pokémon in Bill’s PC, save the game, and turn it off. When you turn the game back on, the Pokémon may have stats raised by 1-3 points in one or more categories. You can do this repeatedly to reach your Pokémon’s maximum stats in every category. Battling various types of Pokémon with varied stats helps get diverse Stat Exp., which is why I like using the Elite 4. A pair of good routes to get balanced stat EXP on is Route 34 and 35 in Johto.

~~ Calculating Your Hidden Power ~~

~ Background on Hidden Power ~

Hidden Power is a move that’s type and power varies with the Pokémon using it. The power can be anywhere from 35 to 70, and the element can be anything but Normal. It has an accuracy of 99.6%, and can be learned by almost every Pokémon in the game via TM10 in Gold/Silver/Crystal. TM10 can be found in the hut next to the Lake Of Rage (North of Mahogany Town) or bought in the Celadon City Department Store. Regardless of the Element of Hidden Power, Mirror Coat will not affect it, because a glitch makes the move read as a Normal-Type move for the sake of Counter and Mirror Coat. Therefore, to ‘throw back at them’ Hidden Power, Counter is needed, and Mirror Coat will fail if used after Hidden Power.

~ Binary-Style ~

Before you start, you must know your Attack, Defense, Speed, and Special DVs for the Pokémon you want to calculate the Hidden Power type and Element. Also, having taken Algebra 1 helps enormously.

Now, with your DVs, you must convert them to Binary. If the DV is equal to or greater than 8, the number becomes 1. If the number is less than or equal to 7, the number is 0. The Binary System must be done in an order: Attack DV/Defense DV/Speed DV/Special DV.

So let’s try it out with the DVs of my Typhlosion:
Attack = 13, Defense = 1, Speed = 10, and Special = 15. My binary code for Typhlosion would be 1011 (1,0,1,1)

Now refer to the below to find out what your Binary means. It is the X value for the calculation.

Binary X Value
0000 : 0
0001 : 1
0010 : 2
0011 : 3
0100 : 4
0101 : 5
0110 : 6
0111 : 7
1000 : 8
1001 : 9
1010 : 10
1011 : 11
1100 : 12
1101 : 13
1110 : 14
1111 : 15
So my 1011 turns into an X value of 12. If you had a 0011, your X value would be 3. You get the idea.

Figuring out Y is significantly easier.

Y = The special DV with a maximum of Y = 3. Y must be less than or equal to 3. If the special DV is 0,1, 2, or 3, Y equals that value (0,1,2, or 3). However, if your DV is greater than 3, Y becomes 3 anyway. So even if you had a 15 Special DV, your Y value would still be 3. I can put it into a quick table.

Your Special DV / Y

0 / 0

1 / 1

2 / 2

3 / 3

4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15 / 3

Here’s the Hidden Power Formula. Note that / means to divide, * means to multiply, and + means to add.

31 + (2 / (X * 5 + Y))

For figuring out my Typhlosion’s Hidden Power, following what I said above, that formula would read:

31 + (2 / (11 * 5 + 3)

Following the order of operations, I would multiply 11 by 5 to get 55, and add 3 to get 58. Then, I would divide by 2, giving me 29. Then, the final step would be adding 29 and 31 to get 60, which would be the Base Power for my Hidden Power.

But we’re missing something, right? How do you figure out what element your Hidden Power is?

~ Hidden Power’s Element ~

There are two ways to do this. The quick way, and the not-so-quick way.

The quick way is to simply battle various types of Pokémon and use a basic guess-and-check. For instance, if your Arcanine used Hidden Power against a Skarmory and it was not very effective, you could eliminate all types that were super-effective and normally effective to Skarmory, leaving only a few types left. Then, you battle a Goldeen, and Hidden Power is super-effective. By the process of elimination, your Hidden Power is of the Grass-Element.

The other way:

You take the binary for the number of the attack DV (For instance, on my Typhlosion it’s 13, 1101) and use the last two numbers of that binary. So, for your ‘part one’ Attack Binary, you would have 01. You would do the same for the defense DV (My Typhlosion’s is 1, which is 0001 in binary.). The last two numbers would be 01, for the defense ‘part one’ binary. You’d put the Attack ‘part one’ in front of the defense ‘part one’ for the binary 0101. You would then refer back to the original Binary Table. So, 0101 is 5. Then you look at the table below:

Value / Type
15 / Dark
14 / Dragon
13 / Ice
12 / Psychic
11 / Electric
10 / Grass
9 / Water
8 / Fire
7 / Steel
6 / Ghost
5 / Bug
4 / Rock
3/ Ground
2 / Poison
1 / Flying
0 / Fighting
So, my Typhlosion would have a Hidden Power that’s Bug-Type with a Base Power of 60.

*** DISCLAIMER / Credits ***

This FAQ is Copyright © 2002 Evan K, ‘evkl’. If you want to use this FAQ on any Pokémon site, E-mail me asking for permission first, please. I will usually allow it, but I don’t want people using my work and taking credit for it. If you need any further help, my E-mail is Lookinghawk557@aol.com. If the topic is Pokémon-related, please type in ‘Pokémon Help’ or something along those lines as the subject header so I don’t delete it as junk mail. Thanks to Fredrich51 for introducing me to this stuff way back, and to his current webpage for providing me with the Binary tables which i had searched so hard to find.

This site is in no way affiliated with Nintendo™ or GameFreak™ (disclaimer).  Marble Palace © 2001-2002, all rights reserved.