Hello and welcome to my Article, I am the not known Scarletsun and this is my guide to the Elite 4 Effort Points!







First off, some of you may be asking what effort points are, well, they are a very special value that determines in what sense a pokemon grows.
For example, if your pokemon battles a pokemon that exceeds in attack, then it's effort value will grow towards its attack, it's that simple! Effort
Points have existed for some time, in fact, they are one of the main reasons that all pokemon grow differently, unless they are cloned and then 
fight the same pokemon... But that's beside the point. On top of effort points, there are a few other contributing factors to how a pokemon grows, but
we won't worry about those right now. Now then, there is a way that effort ammounts to statistic, for every 4 effort points gained, a pokemon will advance
1 stat point in the specific effort area. Well, all in all, that's the main point about effort points... Heh-heh, point about effort points, I crack me up...








Now that you know that, you might think that after battling hundreds of the same pokemon that give you attack, you'll have 999 attack points, this is
not true. Yes, effort points do help with stat gain, but there is a limit. First off, there is a total of 510 effort points that can be gained, which
means that you can only train a stat to 127.5, rounded to 128 points, granted there is one more restriction, a total of 255 effort points can be devoted to
one area, that means that you can only train a stat to 63.75 points, which is rounded up to 64 points in any one stat. Yes, it's that serious, but, you also 
have to think of how you want to train your pokemon whether it's some extra defense for a Palkia or some extra speed for a Snorlax, it's all math, deal
with it.








The dreaded Rare Candies, a pokemon trainer's worst enemy... Or are they...? Okay, most pokemon trainers know that Rare Candies do not raise stats as
high as training with experience, this is true to an extent. Rare candies are a relatively cheap way to get to higher levels, and they do not raise stats as
high as training with experience. There is but one reason for this; Rare candies do not take effort points into account when raising a pokemon's level, in
other words, they just boost the level itself without any extra stat boosts! This means that Rare Candies are not at all evil! Here's the thing,
just save those rare candies until your pokemon gets it's full effort point ammount, it's that simple!








Stat boosting medicine, which includes iron, carbos, zinc, etcetera. These add a whole 10 effort points to their assigned area, so there's another way
to help reach that area where rare candies are perfectly fine! Okay, as many trainers would know, those stat boosting "pills" aren't so potent, often
raising a stat by one point, or even none, this is because they work with effort points, not stats! That's basically it on Stat Boosting items as mentioned.








Next, the Experience Share, nice way to train weak pokemon. In fact, it's the best way to make a pokemon grow! Yes, the experience is devided between
the pokemon that was sent out to battle and the pokemon that had the Exp. Share, and most people would think that effort points would be too, right?
WRONG! Effort points are never divided! It's that great! This means that any pokemon with an experience share would get the same effort points as a
pokemon sent out to battle! Always! Well, the only exception is non-experience battles, effort points are only gained in battles where you gain
experience.

That's all I know on effort points, so bear with me if this is too much...


As a good example, I chose the Elite Four and Champion because they are a string of five battles, all with experience points.

So then, each pokemon's effort points are listed here, the order that I listed the pokemon in was the order they appeared in front of me when I went
through the elite four, but they are still the same pokemon. Okay, following is the list of effort points gained.

Dustox- 3 sp defence
Heracross- 2 attack
Beautifly- 3 sp attack
Vespiquen- 1 def, 1 sp def
Drapion- 2 def

Quagsire- 2 hp
Whiscash- 2 hp
Hippowdon- 2 def
Golem- 3 def
Sudowoodo- 2 def

Rapidash- 2 spd
Infernape- 1 spd, 1 atk, 1 sp atk
Lopunny- 2 spd
Steelix- 2 def
Drifblim- 2 hp

Mr. Mime- 2 sp def
Medicham- 2 spd
Bronzong- 1 def, 1 sp def
Alakazam- 3 sp atk
Girafarig- 2 sp atk

Spiritomb- 1 def, 1 sp def
Lucario- 1 atk, 1 sp atk
Gastrodon- 2 hp
Milotic- 2 sp def
Garchomp- 3 atk
Roserade- 3 sp atk

The Totals for this list are:
HP: 8
ATK: 7
DEF: 14
SP ATK: 13
SP DEF: 10
SPD: 7

The Overall Total of effort points gained: 59

The Total Stats gained:

17 Hit Points
14 Attack
31 Defence
25 Special Attack
21 Special Defence
15 Speed

510 / 59 = 8.6440677966101694915254237288136

Final Note: 9 times through the Elite 4 will earn all possible effort points, note that this is my appearence order, your's will likely be different,
	    but in any case, your pokemon should reach 510 at the second pokemon of the fourth battle on the ninth time through. And remember, this
	    shows the stats gained for a newly hatched pokemon, a fresh virtual life that has absolutely no effort points, results may vary depending
	    on the history of the pokemon trained, all numbers in this guide were checked at least twice for precision.