Every Pokémon has six visible stats: HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Behind those numbers are two hidden systems that competitive players care a lot about: Individual Values (IVs) and Effort Values (EVs). Understanding them is the first step toward building teams that feel consistently strong instead of randomly underperforming.
IVs are like genetics. For each stat, the game secretly rolls a value—usually from 0 to 31—when the Pokémon is generated. A higher IV in a stat means a higher final number at level 50 or 100. A Garchomp with 31 Speed IVs will always outrun an otherwise identical Garchomp with 10 Speed IVs at the same level. You cannot change a Pokémon's IVs through normal leveling, which is why players care so much about breeding and bottle caps in modern games.
EVs are training. Whenever your Pokémon gains experience, it also gains small amounts of EVs based on the species it defeated. Over time, these EVs add up and are converted into extra stat points. The game caps how many total EVs a single Pokémon can have, and how many it can pour into a single stat, which is why competitive spreads tend to look intentional: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP, for example.
In practice, you can think of IVs as setting a Pokémon's potential, while EVs decide how it actually grows into that potential. A competitive guide might tell you to use a “Jolly 252 Atk / 252 Spe” Garchomp; that shorthand is just specifying a nature plus an EV plan. Once you internalize this pattern, reading sets on popular sites becomes much less intimidating.
If you enjoy planning spreads, the same mindset that powers random team building can also inspire your stat distributions. Try giving defensive Pokémon unusual Speed benchmarks, or distributing bulk so that specific important attacks never quite knock you out. Once you see IVs and EVs as creative levers instead of homework, they become one of the most satisfying parts of the game.