How to EV train in Pokemon Sword and Shield

pokemon-sword-shield

In previous Pokemon games, I was able to EV Train by defeating certain types of Pokemon with my team I wanted to train.
This involved going to certain routes with my team and defeating certain Pokemon.
Whichever Pokemon participated in the battle and gained EXP would also gain EVs for the fight.

In Pokemon Sword and Shield, all Pokemon in your party gain EXP after anyone defeats an opposing Pokemon.
The ones who actually participated in the battle noticeably gain more EXP than the "bench warmers".

Does this impact how much EVs they obtain, do the "bench warmers" still gain EVs at all?

My true question is, what are the methods of EV training in the Galar region, and how do I effectively do it?

In case it matters, I have beaten the main story, but thats about it, I have not yet caught my version legendary (playing on Shield)

Best Answer

From what I have found, each party member will gain EVs even if they did not participate in battle,
If you don't want to be constantly updating your party, this leads two effective strategies to be:

  1. Farming money to buy Vitamins.
    Vitamins are items that increase EVs all the way up to the max amount.
    But they do cost quite a bit, so you will need to farm up some money in game to buy them all.
  2. Sending Pokemon on seminars from the Job Board in Pokemon Centers.
    This allows you to train up to 10 Pokemon per stat at once, but it takes real world time to do.

More detailed information can be found in my source, but I have also now tried all of this myself to confirm.

So the most effective way mostly depends on your play-style:

With lots of play time you can just farm up money with an Amulet Coin (found behind the Motostoke outskirts sign) and buy all the vitamins,
you can also play the Battle Tower and buy vitamins with BP.
Vitamins purchased can instantly fully EV train a Pokemon, you would need 25 for your two stats, bringing them to 250 each, then either a 26th vitamin or one hour with the below method to hit the 252 max.

Or you can log in daily and send up to 10 Pokemon off on a seminar, then return the next day and do it again. From my experience sending a Pokemon off for a whole day rewards 96 EVs. There are however mulitple time options to suit your playstyle, all awarding 4 EVs per hour: 

Timeframe Text  Actual Time   EVs Obtained   With PowerItem
Whole Day       24 hours      96             288
Half Day        12 hours      48             144
Very Long       8 hours       32             96
Long            4 hours       16             48
Short           3 hours       12             36
Very Short      2 hours       8              24
Just a little   1 hours       4              12

As noted on Serebii, having your Pokemon hold one of the Power Items will also increase the EVs obtained from the jobs.
Buying these power items is a great investment, each adds +8 EVs per hour to the Pokemon holding it, effectively tripling the amount of EVs gained per hour!
It will not take much game time, but this method could be more real world time as it will take several days to fully train a Pokemon, unless you have the power items, then it can take just over two days (one full 24 hours for each of the two stats, then you use another hour for the remaining third stat for 4 EVs).

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