So, now that I've beaten the game and started to try my hand at Pokemon breeding... what are these IV things that everyone's talking about? All I know is it stands for "Individual Values" or something. Are they like random stat boosts that your Pokemon have? How do you know if they have them, apart from memorizing the stats of every Pokemon in the game at every level with every nature? How do they affect breeding?
Also, about breeding: Do you need to breed two Pokemon of the exact same species? Or are there related groups of Pokemon species that can interbreed? And how do you breed Pokemon that come in only one gender, or are genderless?
Oh, and that reminds me. Is there any way to see what your Pokemon's stats "would be" at level 50, so you can compare your Pokemon on an even keel when it comes to online battles? Can I just divide my Pokemon's stats by their level, then multiply by 50, or are stat gains nonlinear?
Take a hatched pokemon, and put it in an online battle. That'll raise it to 50, which will let you get their basic stats, unchanged by EV.
Then, take it to the pokemon centre in Kiloude Town, where there is a guy who judges the 'potential' of your pokemon.
If he says that a stat
can't be beat, that generally means it has a
perfect IV in it.
For each pokemon, it's easy to assume which IV is best for it - eg, a glass cannon like Alakazam only needs good SpAtk and Speed IV, and as low Attack IV as possible (lower your attack, less damage from confusion, though special glass cannons don't really last long enough for confusion).
Baby pokemon found in the wild, and pokemon hatched from eggs are always guaranteed to have at least two perfect IVs. Same with the level 30 mons you get from Friend Safari. They're all guaranteed to have to perfect IVs.
Now, you also want to make sure they have the correct nature. This is probably the most important part - a low IV, well EV'd, beneficial natured pokemon can perform better than a high IV, well EV'd neutral natured one.
What natures do is raise one stat by 10% and drop another by 10%. HP is not factored into this.
EG: Brave raises attack, but lowers speed.
Adamant raises attack, but lowers special attack. This is good on pokemon that don't use special attack at all, eg Rhyperior or Excadrill.
For each stat (atk/spatk/spdef/def/speed) there is a stat that boosts it, and drops one of the others.