Appraise your Pokémon to find the best IVs possible!

Appraisal is a function in Pokémon Go that lets you get an idea of how strong an individual Pokémon can become beyond just its "CP," or Combat Points. While Combat Points (which are effectively a Pokémon's "level") can tell you how strong a Pokémon is at the moment, they don't give the entire picture. You need to understand something called "IVs" to know how strong they can become over time. Appraisal lets you do that.

IVs, or "Individual Values," are invisible stats that determine how much a Pokémon's stats (HP, Attack, and Defense) will rise each time they are Powered Up. Each Pokémon has a different IV for each of the three stats, and the best and strongest Pokémon have "100%" IVs, meaning all of their IVs are at the highest they can possibly be. Short of trading a Pokémon away forever, you cannot change its IVs either, so most players will choose to send low IV Pokémon off to Professor Willow in exchange for candies.

How to check for 100% IVs in Pokémon Go

It used to be pretty difficult to figure out a Pokémon's IVs. Players had to interpret a number of descriptions about a Pokémon, along with its current CP, HP, and Stardust/Candy cost, and even then, might only have a rough guess. Now, Appraisals are much simpler. You just ask your Team Leader to Appraise your Pokémon and they will give you a rating, along with three bars that display exactly where your Pokémon's IVs fall.

1. Open Pokémon Go.
2. Tap the Poké Ball icon on the bottom of the screen.
3. Select "Pokémon".
4. Select the Pokémon whose IVs you want to check.
5. Tap the three bars "Menu" icon in the bottom right.
6. Select "Appraisal".
7. Your team leader will tell you your Pokémon's IVs. You'll see IVs represented as bars for HP, Attack, and Defense, as well as an overall "star" rating that tells you how good the Pokémon is in general.
8. To understand the star rating and bars, you should know that one full bar represents 15 total points. Between the three stats, that's 45 potential IVs. The star rating for a Pokémon is broken down by the total percentage of a possible 45 IVs a Pokémon has as follows:

• 50% or less - 0 Stars
• 51% - 64.4% - 1 Star
• 66.7% - 80% - 2 Stars
• 82.2% - 98% - 3 Stars
• 100% - 3 Stars plus a red border

You can also scroll through Pokémon quickly by tapping the arrows to the left or right of a Pokémon, letting you search for Pokémon with high IVs quickly. Use this method to find the strongest Pokémon you can, power them up, and use them in Gyms and to battle in raids!

How to use Search Terms as a short cut

While manually appraising each Pokémon gives you a breakdown of its three stats, when you're trying to go through a lot of Pokémon - say, on Community Day - Search Terms are a short cut you can use to narrow the field. Pokémon Go has a number of Search Terms you can use to sort through your collection of Pokémon, but when it comes to IVs, there are five: "0" for 50%, "1", "2", "3", and "4*". Each corresponds to the Appraisal ratings above and they can be combined using "&" with a Pokémon's species, as well, to narrow the field even more.

1. Click on the Poké Ball icon to open your Main Menu.
2. Select Pokémon.
3. Click on the Maginifying Glass.
4. Type in the Search Term.
5. Voila! the specific Pokémon that fit your Search Term are the only ones displayed.

Questions about Appraisals and IVs?

Do you have any questions about how to use the Appraisal system in Pokémon Go? Want to show off some of your best IV Pokémon? Drop us a comment below and be sure to check out our Complete Pokédex as well as our many Pokémon Go Guides so you too can become a Pokémon Master!