Pokemon B/W: Battle Subway
Table Of Contents
1. Introduction to the Battle Subway
2. IV Breeding / EV Traning
3. Know what to expect
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Part 1 - Introduction to the Battle Subway
~ Hello everyone, welcome to my Pokemon White: Battle Subway guide. Hopefully, at the end of this guide, you will have a better understanding of the Battle Subway, and rack up those battle points / streaks. First off, Pokemon White introduced a new place called the Battle Subway. The Battle Subway is designed for you to take your Pokemon, and win as much as possible. Once you enter the Battle Subway, you can participate in Singles, Super Singles, Doubles, Super Doubles, Multi, SUper Multi, and of course, Wifi. Sadly, this guide will not be focusing on Wifi, and will be focusing only on Singles, and Doubles. When you enter the Battle Subway, go to which mode you prefer to play, for me, it's Super Singles. You must take note that you can't play the Super Single / Doubles mode until you finish the regular singles / doubles mode. Go inside one of the Subways, talk to the lady that's wearing a green hat, and a green outfit, she's located by the actual train itself. Once you talk to the lady, she will ask you if you want to save, press yes, then she'll let you enter 3 Pokemon for Singles, 4 Pokemon for Doubles, and 2 Pokemon for Multi. Once you're ready, you will board the actual train. The Battle Subway is a win or die type of game, if you win, you face the next challenger, but if you lose, you get no second chances and your streak will be over. You face 7 people, if you beat your 7th opponent; you get battle points, the longer your streak last, the harder it gets, and the more battle points you get for spending. Once you get a 20 game winning streak, you will face the Battle Subway boss, so you should prepare.
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Part 2 - IV Breeding / EV Traning
~ You won't last long in the Battle Subway if you don't pay much attention to IV Breeding / EV Traning. IV Breeding is a bit complicated if you've never done it before, but once you learn the basics it's pretty easy, especially in this generation. Of course it takes time and effort, but it's worthwhile in the end, trust me. First off, let's introduce EV Traning.
- EV Traning
1. I have no idea how evs are obtained, help?
Have no fear youngster, for i will teach you how to ev train. When you battle a Pokemon, your Pokemon will earn Effort Points each time it earns experience. What kind of Effort Points you recieve depends fully on the type of Pokemon that you gained the experience from. For example, if i battle one lillipup, i wil lrecieve one attack ev because lillipup distribute attack evs. You can go up to 510 evs, 252 in each stat. Let's say i'm ev traning my Sawsbuck, i want to train it in attack, and speed. First off, i would battle 252 lillipup to receive 252 attack evs, and i would battle 126 basculin to recieve 252 Speed evs. Well, why 126 instead of 252 you ask? Well, Basculin gives 2 speed evs instead of one. Once i have 252 in each stat, which is Attack and Speed, i have 6 more evs left to distrubute, since extra HP is nice, i can go battle 6 stunfisk for the extra evs.
2. Do i actually have to battle that many Pokemon to obtain my evs? That will take forever!
Well, you're correct, it will take forever, and that's why gamefrreak introduced us to new items that will fast-forward our process to obtain these evs.
Macho Brace - Double evs obtained in a battle. For example, if i battle one lillipup, which gives out 1 attack ev, instead of getting 1 attack ev, i would be getting 2 attack evs for every lillipup that i defeat. It's pretty simple. If you want another example, let's say i want to get some HP evs, Stunfisk gives out 2 HP evs, instead of getting 2 HP evs for every stunfisk i defeat, i would recieve 4 HP evs because the Macho Brace doubles whatever i get in battle. I hope you understand what i'm trying to say here.
Power Items = Last Gen, gamefreak introduced Power items to process ev traning. There's a Power Item for every stat. HP, Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Defense, and Special Attack. Each Power item gives out 4 evs. So, let's say if i battle lillipup for attack evs, and i have a Power Bracer equipped, i would recieve 5 evs for every lillipup that i defeat. 4 attack evs from the Power Bracer + 1 attack ev given by lillipup.
Vitamins = For every vitamins you give your Pokemon, you're recieving 10 evs in that stat in which the vitamin was. Protein gives you attack evs, calcium gives out Special Attack evs, Iron gives out Defense evs, Zinc gives out Special Defense evs, Carbos gives out Speed evs, and HP UP gives out HP evs. As stated before, for every Vitamin you take, you recieve 10 evs. You must note that you can only recieve up to 100 evs in Vitamins for each stat. For example, i want to train my Garchomp, and i don't want to spend as much time ev traning in battles. Hey, how about i give my Garchomp 10 Proteins so he can have 100 evs in his attack stat! 1 Protein taken = 10 evs. 10 Protein taken 100 evs. Alright, i have 100 evs in attack, now i want to give my Chomp some speed, so i give it 10 Carbos so it can have 100 evs in speed. Now that that's done, i have 100 evs in attack, so i only need 152 more evs to max out it's Attack evs, same for Speed. Vitamins are an asy way to speed up the process if you don't have much time on your hand.
Wings = Newly introduced in Generation 5, is ev wings. For every wing you give your Pokemon, you will recieve 1 ev. There are wings for each stat. Unlike Vitamins, there is no limit for how many Wings you give your Pokemon. Yes, i can give my Garchomp 252 Attack Wings to recieve 252 Attack evs. You can find Wings on Marvelous Bridge. This technique to ev train isn't the greatest considering it's pretty time consuming getting 252 wings for two desirable stats.
Pokerus = A Pokemon "virus" that doubles the Effort Values your Pokemon earns in Battle, it acts like a Macho Brace without the effect of lowering in-battle speed. Not only does Pokerus doubles Effort Values in battles, you can pair it up with a Power item to get twice as much Effort Values as you would get. Sadly, Pokerus is very rare, however you can catch it by obtaning other Pokemon through GTS.
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Part 3 - IV Breeding
This is a bit tough, but it's worth it. Every Pokemnon you encounter either in the winld or thorugh eggs have their IVs randomly assigned to them. You can however, thorugh breeding, increase the odds of breeding a Pokemon with high IVs if it's parents has high Ivs in the same stat. You would want both parents to have the same IV in the same stat. This was how IV breeding was done in the past generations, and to some extent still for those who want multiple "perfect" IV Breeds. Having parents with the same IVs isn't necessary if you're after only one IV. You can simply have one of the parents with the desired IV carry a power item. This has made IV breeding in Generation 5 much easier, especially if youi're after only having two "perfect" IVs on an offspring. If you take a look at your Pokemon summary page, each Pokemon has a phrase like "Alert to sound" or "Likes to Trash About". If you take a look at mutliple sources around the internet, the different characteristics that you see apply to multiple Individual Values of a Certain stat. Here is a chart to better explain what i'm talking about.
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HP
0/5/10/15/20/25/30 - Loves to Eat
1/6/11/16/21/26/31 - Often Dozes Off
2/7/12/17/22/27 - Often Naps
3/8/13/18/23/28 - Often Scatters Things
4/9/14/19/24/29 - Likes to Relax
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Attack
0/5/10/15/20/25/30 - Proud Of it's Power
1/6/11/16/21/26/31 - Likes to Trash About
2/7/12/17/22/27 - A Little Quick Tempered
3/8/13/18/23/28 - Likes to Fight
4/9/14/19/24/29 - Hot Tempered
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Defense
0/5/10/15/20/25/30 - Sturdy Body
1/6/11/16/21/26/31 - Capable Of Taking Hits
2/7/12/17/22/27 - Highly Persistent
3/8/13/18/23/28 - Good Endurance
4/9/14/19/24/29 - Good Perseverance
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Sp. Attack
0/5/10/15/20/25/30 - Highly Curious
1/6/11/16/21/26/31 - Mischievous
2/7/12/17/22/27 - Thoroughly Cunning
3/8/13/18/23/28 - Often Lost in Thought
4/9/14/19/24/29 - Very Finickly
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Special Defense
0/5/10/15/20/25/30 - Strong Willed
1/6/11/16/21/26/31 - Somewhat Vain
2/7/12/17/22/27 - Strongly Defiant
3/8/13/18/23/28 - Hates To Lose
4/9/14/19/24/29 - Somewhat Stubborn
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Speed
0/5/10/15/20/25/30 Likes to Run
1/6/11/16/21/26/31 - Alert To SOunds
2/7/12/17/22/27 - Impetuous and Silly
3/8/13/18/23/28 - Somewhat of a Clown
4/9/14/19/24/29 - Quick to Flee
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Whichever characteristics appear in your pokemon's summary page, applies to only the IV value that is the highest. If your Pokemon whas multiple highest IV values that are the same, that the caracteristic phrases are totally random. There is no sure way even if you do have "Alert to Sound" that that IV is a 31, so in generation 5, gamefreak introduced the IV Checker, but we will get to that later. You can also check your ivs on a IV calculator which will be provided at the end of this guide.
There's a neat trick to highly increase the chances of finding a parent w/ the nature and max IV you want, without this trick, don't search for a parent w/ both the IV and nature you want in the wild, it takes too long. Synchronize is the ability you need. You can check different sources and see which Pokemon has acess to the ability Synchronize. To name a few off the top of my head; Abra, Elegyem, Ralts, Mew all has the ability Synchronize. Elegyem is the easiest Pokemon to find with Synchronize, it's found at the top of Celstial Tower. Synchronize makes it that half of the wild Pokemnon you run into have the same nature, as the Pokemon that has Syncronize, you must remember to keep the Synchronizer in front of your team. If your Synchronizer is a lowe level, and you don't think you will escape from a battle with a higher level Pokemon, you should give the Pokemon that has Syncronize a Smoke ball which allows the user to escape 100% of the time. You must remember, it's a 50/50 chance you will run into a Pokemon with the same nature as your Syncronizer. Hunting for an Adamant Pokemon? Put a Synchronizer w/ an Adamant nature in front of your party and go hunting, eventually you'll land one w/an Adamant nature and the IV you want, which should be "Likes to trash about" if you're aiming for 31 attack IVs.
Lets go back to what i stated earlier in this guide. If you remember, i was explaining about ways to check your ivs, and see if they're perfect. Generation 5 introduced the IV Check Man. The IV Check Man is located at the Battle Subway in Nimbasa City. He will make a statement about your Pokemon overall IVs and then he'll choose the highest IV to comment on, if you have more than highest IVs of equal value, he'll comment on all of them. He'll also say "It can't be better in that regard" which means that IV is 31.
So when you go out to capture the parents in mass, you can use the characteristics to "weed out" those who don't make the cut. For example, if you want a deerling father with maximum attack? Hunt for only males with "Likes to Trash About" and release those that don't have that particular IV, but you must take note that they might have other max IVs. Go to the Battle Subway, and have the guy check your pokemon to confirm the IV ins 31, or your Pokemon has multiple maximum IVs.
Here is a guide on what the IV checker says based on the Ivs of your Pokemon.
If the IV total is between 0 and 90:"This Pokemon potential is decent all around"
If the IV total is betwene 91 and 120:"This Pokemon's potential is above average overall."
If the IV total is between 121 and 150: "This Pokemon has relatively superior potential overall."
If the IV total is between 151 and 186: "This Pokemon has outstanding potential overall."
If the highest IV is between 0 and 15: "It's rather decent in that regard."
If the highest IV is between 16 and 25: "It's very good in that regard."
If the highest IV is between 26 and 30:"It's fantastic in that regard."
If the Highest IV is 31:"It can't be better in that regard.
You can use MetalKid's IV Calculator to check all of your Pokemon's IVs
Also, take note that it's not recommended that you try to extreme breed for 31 IVs in each stat because it would take months to perfect, two or three is enough.
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Part 3 - Know what to expect
Know what to expect at the Battle Subway, trust me when i tell you this, it isn't a pushover mode. The more wins you get, the tougher it gets, so that's why it's important to ev train / iv breed your Pokemon beforehand otherwise you won't be lasting lone. Also, make sure you have a clear strategy when going into the Battle Subway. Try to have a balanced team that covers each other weaknesses. For example, don't bring 3 Psychic types to the Battle Subway because you'll be sure to bump into a Pokemon that knows a dark type move and will defeat your Pokemon faster than your eye can blink. With the Improved AI, the Computer knows what to pick, and when to pick it. Instead of bringing the same types, try to balance things out and cover other Pokemon weaknesses. Let's examine. I want a nice balanced Battle Subway team so i can win as much as possible. First things first, i want to have a Pokemon that hits hard and is very fast, so i pick Durant. Durant is a Pokemon with execellent Speed, and great Attack. Durant is Bug / Steel so it's VERY weak to fire types, and trust me, the AI is going to be trying to exploit Durant's weakness, so the other two Pokemon that i have needs to cover for Durant. Suicune absorbs fire attacks like the beast that it is, and is a very powerful Calm Mind Sweeper, so i pair Durant up with Suicune for pretty good synergy. Now, i know the AI is going to target Suicune weakness through Electric / Grass type moves, so how about a Pokemon that pairs up with Suicune? Heatran is a good Pokemon to pair it up with, and it also works well with Durant. Rememeber, before you enter the Super Singles / Super doubles mode, make sure you bring good iv breeded / ev trained Pokemon so you can go further.
When you search for Parents to IV Breed, make sure to bring about 50-60 Ultra Balls, and try to bring a Pokemon that knows False Swipes, which is always helpful.
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Thanks for reading my guide, and hopefully you know more than you knew before this guide informing you about the Battle Subway, Farewell!
