Special attackers have long dominated the competitive Pokemon scene, but their power can be offset by building up the Sp. Defense stat. Pokemon Scarlet & Violet players can farm Sp. Defense EVs in a few different locations.
Stats work the same way as ever in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. Base stats define a Pokemon’s strength, IVs differentiate Pokemon of the same species from one another, and then there are EVs. EVs allow players to fine-tune their Pokemon and make them move faster, hit harder, or tank more hits.
Sp. Defense allows players to more comfortably take on hard-hitting special attackers like Roaring Moon, Hydreigon, and Gholdengo. Here’s how to farm Sp. Defense EVs and the best place to do so.
How to Farm Sp. Defense EVs
Players can Sp. Defense EVs by giving a Pokemon a Power Band and having them in their party during battles. While a Pokemon is holding a Power Band, they receive an extra eight Sp. Defense EVs with each time they get EVs from battle. This can be improved further by defeating Pokemon that offer Sp. Defense EV yields.
The optimal way to approach this is by fighting Pokemon that offer pure Sp. Defense yields. This makes the process of maxing a Pokemon’s Sp. Defense quicker and prevents the Pokemon from gaining EVs in stats that they don’t otherwise need. Pokemon from these evolutionary lines offer pure Sp. Defense EVs when defeated:
- Drowzee
- Spoink
- Swablu
- Gothita
- Cryogonal
- Flabebe
- Skrelop
- Goomy
- Oranguru
- Mimikyu
- Toedscool
- Tinkatink
There are other Pokemon that offer Sp. Defense EV yields, but many offer a mix of EVs like steel-psychic Pokemon Bronzong that gives one Defense and one Sp. Defense when defeated. Players should stick to these Pokemon and their evolutions in order to get pure Sp. Defense yields.
Best Place to Farm Sp. Defense EVs in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet
Players can quickly farm Sp. Defense EVs in the northern reaches of Paldea around the Team Star Fairy Crew base. This is by far the best place to farm Sp. Defense EVs due to the sheer number of Floettes that can be found in this area.
The entire Flabebe line offers pure Sp. Defense yields and the area surrounding the Team Star Fairy Crew base, and Floette can easily be found around this area. Floette offers two Sp. Defense EVs normally, which is boosted to 10 by a Power Band. Floette's evolution Florges also has a chance of spawning in this area, offering 11 with each knockout.
Players can easily max the stat out in this area, but it’s also easy to get a precise number of Sp. Defense EVs. Each Floette can be defeated for 10 EVs with a Power Band which is dropped to two without it, making it easy to get an exact number of EVs for precise builds.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are available now on Nintendo Switch.