eXpo Guide: Horde Training

Here’s the third and final part of our three-part series on EV training from Volaro… this one on Horde Training!

Greetings, challengers of the PPL,

As I write this message to you, Roselia and I are covered in the sap of many angry Weepinbells, hence the delayed update. Why, you ask? Because battling multiple Pokemon at once is the premier way to train! This method can be a bit dangerous and tricky, but once you’re properly prepared, it’s without equal: the speediest method of EV training, without a shadow of a doubt. Interested yet, challenger? Then let’s dive right in, shall we?

Horde Battles are new to Pokemon and may seem like a frustrating addition at first. Why fight against a group of 5 weaker Pokemon, after all? But with a goal in mind, it becomes one of the most valuable training regimens in a Pokemon Master’s arsenal. To recap what we learned in our intro to EVs, any Pokemon that you defeat rewards your Pokemon with EVs, as well. However, they’ll only usually give one or two EV per Pokemon. Now that’s not a lot when you take into account the fact that it takes 252 EVs to max out a stat, even when you’re battling five at a time. And even then, you’d have to find a Horde of Pokemon every time in order to train effectively! So how helpful could Horde Training really be? Well, with a few helpful assistants and a few items, Horde Training becomes a snap.

The first thing you’ll want to do if you’re looking to train this way is get ahold of some training weights. These are items that you give to a Pokemon to boost the EVs they gain from winning a battle. You may even have one already in your bags: The Macho Brace, found on Route 15 behind a wall that can be rock smashed. That doubles the EVs you get, but reduces the holder’s speed. Sounds pretty helpful, but it’d still take too long for our tastes. If you’ve beaten the Elite Four and have access to Kiloude City and Battle Maison, here’s what you’ll want to do: challenge the Maison with your toughest Pokemon. It doesn’t matter what method you pick: Singles, Doubles, etc, each win in the Maison will give you Battle Points or BP, with the amount of BP rewarded increasing the further in you go. You can redeem these BP at the ladies just outside of the arena. They both have valuable items, from TMs to powerful hold items like Life Orb and Choice Scarf, but the ones we’re interested in are the Power items. There are six of them in total:

• Power Weight gives 4 HP EVs to the holder for each Pokemon defeated.
• Power Lens gives 4 Sp. Attack EVs to the holder for each Pokemon defeated.
• Power Bracer gives 4 Attack EVs to the holder for each Pokemon defeated.
• Power Anklet gives 4 Speed EVs to the holder for each Pokemon defeated.
• Power Band gives 4 Sp. Defense EVs to the holder for each Pokemon defeated.
• Power Belt gives 4 Defense EVs to the holder for each Pokemon defeated.

They cost 16 BP each, so getting them all may take a while, but if you’re lacking in a certain power item the Macho Brace can be useful as a backup. The EVs given by these items also stacks with the EVs you’d regularly earn in battle, so if you beat a Whismur that gives 1 HP EV and your Pokemon is holding a Power Weight, then they’d earn 5 HP EVs for the win. Or, say, if you were fighting 5 Whismurs, who each give 1 HP EV and your Pokemon is holding a Power Weight, then they’d earn 5 HP EVs from each of them, giving a total of 25 EVs! Not too shabby!

Getting the power items is just the first step, though. The next is finding a proper spot to find the Pokemon that give out the EVs that you’re looking for. When EV training through battle, you’ll want to run from the Pokemon that give out the EVs that you don’t need, or else you may find out your stats are a bit more diluted at the end than you’d like. Rather than listing every single Pokemon’s EV rewards for you, I’ll just give you a little cheat sheet of the best places I find to train up in a certain stat:

• If you’re looking for Special Attack, you’ll want to head to the Frost Cavern, north of Dendemille Town. Both the Vanillites and Smoochums there give out 1 Sp. Attack each. However, you’ll want to avoid any Cubchoos that start sneaking your way: They’ll only give out Attack EVs.
• If you’re looking for Speed, Route 8’s the place to be, north of Ambrette Town. The grass you’ll need to be in is up on the cliff itself, not on the beach. Here’s where you’ll find Taillows and Wingulls, who both give out 1 Speed EV. You’ll also find hordes of Seviper and Zangoose, who you’ll want to avoid.
• If you’re looking for HP, head to Route 5, north of Camphrier Town (which is close to the Day Care, if you happen to be breeding Pokemon as well). Here you’ll find Gulpins. Many Gulpins! They’ll give out 1 HP EV each. However, you may come across Plusles, Minuns and Scraggys and they won’t do you much good.
• If you’re looking for Defense, Terminus Cave is the place to be! That’s north of Couriway Town. The Geodudes and Arons there both give out 1 Defense EV each, but the even more common Durant gives out two Defense EVs per win. That combined with your Power Belt will give you 30 EVs instead of just the usual 25!
• If you’re looking for Special Defense, Route 7 or the Reflection Cave will be your stop. They’re west of Camphrier Town and south of Shalour City respectively. In Route 7, you’ll be hunting for Hoppips. In the Reflection Cave, you’ll be on the eye out for Mime Jrs. Either will give you 1 Sp. Defense EV each. If you find any other Pokemon besides those two: Steer clear!
• If you’re looking for Attack, well, this is where it gets a little tricky. The prime place to train here is Route 19, east of Snowbelle City. You’ll find those dastardly Weepinbells here as well as Arboks, who both give out 2 Attack EVs each. However it often rains here, so you may be forced to search for another place. Route 14 is a good backup, featuring the unevolved forms of the two: Bellsprout and Ekans, who give out 1 Attack EV each.

Wait, what was that about rain? Rainy routes actually do influence the effectiveness of your Horde Training. Why? Well, it all comes down to how you actually lure those hordes of Pokemon out to battle. There are two methods to guarantee you a Horde battle, but they’re functionally the same: The move Sweet Scent and the item Honey. To lure those Pokemon out, you simply use Sweet Scent in tall grass (or in a cave) as you would an HM or use the Honey from your bag. Instant Horde Battle! But the Pokemon who’d be lured out by your bait won’t come running if they can’t smell it through the heavy rain. So if it’s raining in your route, you’ll need to go elsewhere. If all your routes are rainy, you are terribly unlucky! You can either change the time in your 3DS and hope for better conditions or buckle down and hit the gym in Super Training. There are a lot of Pokemon who can learn Sweet Scent, so finding one won’t be too much trouble. Bellsprout, Oddish, Bulbasaur, Spritzee, Foongus and Swirlix are just a few, but those are the most common and easy to get.

So there you are: You’ve got your Horde lure (a Pokemon with Sweet Scent), you’re on location and your Pokemon to be EV trained holding a power item. You summon up your courage and bring out the horde. Now you could slowly take them all down individually, but that sure does take a while with up to six Pokemon taking action per turn. So why not speed things up and take them all down at once? A strong Pokemon with an attack that hits multiple Pokemon at once is key to keeping things quick. There are a lot of moves that can work here, but the best ones you can get from TMs are Rock Slide, Earthquake, and Surf as they’re the most accurate and powerful.

So now that you’ve got a Pokemon that can take down many Pokemon at once, you let them do all of the fighting, switch on Exp. Share and the EVs will be given to your entire party. It’s best to limit your party to fully trained Pokemon and the Pokemon you want to train when EV training this way. For example, if I wanted to train my Roselia in HP EVs, I bring a party consisting of Venusaur (who has access to Sweet Scent), Charizard (who can Fly and has Heat Wave, another attack that hits all enemies) and Roselia, holding a Power Weight. Charizard would be in front so that he leads off the battle. At Route 5, I would use Venusaur’s Sweet Scent and summon a horde. Charizard gets sent out, uses Heat Wave on the five Gulpins. Since both Charizard and Venusaur are already maxxed out in EVs, only Roselia is getting the HP EVs from the Exp. Share and the Power Weight. Since each battle gives the power item holder a minimum of 25 EVs, it would only take 11 battles to max out a stat completely. Pretty quick, eh?

One final thing before we end our talks of EVs, a quick look at the Pokerus. Whenever you capture or hatch an egg of a Pokemon, there’s a 1 in 21, 845 chance of it being infected with the Pokerus. That’s even rarer than a shiny Pokemon. However, a Pokemon with Pokerus can spread the infection to other Pokemon in its party as it battles. Now this all sounds unpleasant, but it’s not actually! You want the Pokerus, as it doubles the EVs gained from battle to its carrier. Yes, that includes the ones you get from the power items. If you happen to be lucky enough to find a Pokemon with Pokerus, spread it to as many Pokemon as you can and make sure to stick its carrier in the PC afterwards. Normally a Pokemon would be cured of Pokerus after a little bit of time, but it can keep it indefinitely, so long as it’s in a PC. Just remember that the Pokerus doesn’t affect Super Training, just battles!

And that’s about it for EV Training. Phew! I hope I managed to help a few of you learn a thing or two with my rambling in these guides. It’s my hope that you can use EV Training to get even closer to your Pokemon and make them stronger than ever. Even though my ninja skills will be absent from this year’s PAX, I hope you all become fierce competitors and even champions there. Oh, and if you see him, make sure to say hello to a certain gentleman in a silver top hat. You could say he’s a friend of mine…

-Volaro, the Elusive Rose