Eeveelutions PvP IV Deep-Dive

Eevee Community Day is making a reprise this weekend, August 13th-16th. Instead of having Last Resort this time around, each individual Eeveelution will be receiving a unique attack upon evolution. Of these attacks, Psychic Umbreon and Psyshock Sylveon are the most notable upgrades in both Great and Ultra League PvP. Vaporeon is also receiving Scald, a Charge Move that is currently weak, but may be buffed in the future. 

The article below highlights the most optimal IV spreads for Great League Umbreon, Ultra League Sylveon, and Great League Vaporeon. It also covers the “minimum” IV requirements for XL Umbreon in the Ultra League, should you lack the hundo.

If you don’t understand the significance of PvP IVs, check out this video:

If you want to check the stats or “rank” of your Pokemon, the GO Stadium Rank Checker is a good tool.

Eevee Community Day spans over Friday August 13th until Monday August 16th

• The event period is for the special event moves
• Boost Spawn time is on Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 5pm local time

The following Evolution changes will be in place

• Evolving Sylveon requires 7 Buddy Hearts instead of the usual 70
• Evolving Espeon and Umbreon only requires them to be your buddy during day or night respectively, instead of having to walk 10km with them
  • This isn’t officially announced, it would be good to test on a “test” Eevee before evolving your “Good IV” Eevee

Evolution aspects not changed

• Evolving Vaporeon, Flareon, or Jolteon is still random
• Leafon and Glaceon require Mossy and Glacial Lure Modules respectively

Other Event Bonuses

• Eggs will require one quarter their usual Hatch Distance
• Incense activated during the event will last for three hours
• Lure Modules activated during the event will last for three hours

Great League Umbreon 

Umbreon is one of the greatest bulky generalists in the Great League. For Umbreon’s moveset, Foul Play is its bread and butter, Last Resort can allow it to beat or at least hurt opposing Dark-types, and Psychic can flip the script against Fighting and Poison-types. Ideally, you’ll want to build 2 Umbreon, 1 for Foul Play + Psychic and 1 for Foul Play + Last Resort. Last Resort + Psychic is also an option, although not very good if you can’t make use of the surprise factor. 

When it comes to IVs, the Rank 1 (0/15/15) and 2 (0/15/14) Umbreon are the ideal for any moveset combination. If you are lacking the Rank 1 or 2, you’ll want to favor high Def splits over high HP ones. When you drop Def, you will often pick up Charge Move Breakpoints from most Pokemon. While this extra damage is only 1 damage per Charge Move, Umbreon is the type of Pokemon that will be eating multiple Charge Moves. To put it simply, 2 HP vs 2 Def, the HP often loses its advantage after Umbreon is hit by 1 Charge Move. 

Below are 17 “ideal” IV spreads in regards to Def vs HP. High Def Umbreon can also confer breakpoint advantages over Shadow Machamp (flipping the 2-1), Shadow Victreebel (flipping the 2-2), a few Medicham (the range is rare), Pidgeot, and Zweilous if their Atk stat is low enough.Therefore, high Def Umbreon would be more ideal for Psychic Umbreon compared to Last Resort Umbreon if you had to make the choice. 

Another benefit to the higher Def spreads are that they have slightly higher Atk. This slight Atk weight can grant a breakpoint against Vigoroth (flipping the 2-1) and can give a post-Super Power breakpoint against Melmetal (flipping the 1-1). All 17 sets below can get most of these breakpoints. The highlighted Atk ones have near 100% consistency for the Vigoroth BPs, the highlighted Def have significantly increased odds for the Def BPs, and the Rank 88 (0/13/0) is the most “premium” in regards to breakpoint consistency. 

This high Def phenomena doesn’t mean lower Def Umbreon aren’t good. Of the top 25 Stat Product Umbreon, the table below features 14 spreads not already shown that are also very good.The highlighted Atk ones having increased consistency for the Vigoroth breakpoints (76% of the Top 25).

If you need a tie breaker between Umbreon splits, 88.54+ Atk Umbreon can hit breakpoints on most Vigoroth, Pidgeot, and Zweilous. Of these matchups, there is potential to flip the Vigoroth 1-2 shield scenario. This Atk weight doesn’t make the Rank 20 or 5 better than the Rank 1, but the Rank 1 isn’t necessarily better than the featured IV spreads either.

Ultra League Umbreon

XL Umbreon is arguably the greatest threat in both the Ultra League and the Premier Cup Ultra League. While XL Umbreon is better here with Last Resort + Foul Play, opposed to a Psychic set, the Psychic set is still good and you may want to build both Umbreon for Ultra League at some point. Whatever the moveset, you’ll want to make sure your Umbreon has good IVs for Ultra League before making the big XL dive. 

Best Buddy XL Umbreon caps at 2445 CP; therefore, the hundo, 100%, 15/15/15 Umbreon is the ideal. However, if you want to use Umbreon in the Ultra League and are lacking the 15/15/15, the 14/14/13 is the lowest you can go in each IV before XLing is a “bad” idea. To give a sense of priority: Atk > Def >> HP. Usually Atk doesn’t have this kind of weight on Snarl Pokemon, but given how important the 13 and 14 Atk breakpoints are for Best Buddy XL Umbreon, being able to hit those same breakpoints as a non-Best Buddy can’t go ignored.

For the non-Best Buddy Umbreon, or if you want increased Buddy flexibility, you’ll want a 15 Atk IV. The 15 Atk non-Best Buddy Umbreon has an equivalent Atk stat as the 13 Best Buddy, so if 13 is a big deal for BB XL Umbreon, then 15 is a big deal for non-BB XL Umbreon.

You are welcome to ignore this advice and build whatever non-hundo XL Umbreon you want to. It’s just unfortunate when you have luck, skill, lag, and deficient IVs to contend with when trying to win. In all honesty, Umbreon is the type of Pokemon to make full use of all of its stats in Ultra League, so the Hundo 100% should be the goal. 

Ultra League Sylveon

On release, Sylveon looked like another generic Charmer with no advantages over Clefable, Slurfpluff, and Aromatisse, aside from not having to XL to meet its potential. Psyshock having a 45 energy cost has given Sylveon a distinct speed advantage over the other bulky, generic Charmers, and puts Sylveon ahead of the Rank 1 Best Buddy Clefable in performance. The best moveset for Sylveon is Charm + Psyshock + Moonblast, so no need to Elite TM Last Resort to reach this potential. 

One unique quality Sylveon has is its ability to 2-1 XL Skarmory, if Sylveon has a 160.25 Def stat (161.21 Def for Best Buddy XL Skarmory). The table below highlights the 11 IV spreads that are able to meet this while also maintaining at least 170 HP (an important hard consistency cut off for most of Sylveon’s matchups).

If you’re lacking the aforementioned 11 IV spreads, then it may be best to shift gears and focus on Sylveon’s Atk stat. With a slight Atk weight, Sylveon can get game flipping breakpoints on Shadow Politoed, Abomasnow, and Snarl Alolan Muk. All these Atk breakpoints can be trivialized if the targets have a low enough Def stat (aside from A-Muk) and are therefore a lower priority than the 11 Def IV spread.

Below are the 18 IV spreads that meet these Atk Breakpoints while also maintaining at least 170 HP. Special highlight to the Rank 9 (1/12/14) which hits these breakpoints while also maintaining the non-Best Buddy XL Skarmory matchup and the Rank 53 (1/6/13) which has the most potential to meet the Alolan Muk breakpoint. Please note that none of these splits are “better” than the Def weighted IV spreads. Aside from Skarmory, they’re not exactly “worse” either. 170+ HP is the big ticket item here. 

GL Vaporeon

Vaporeon isn’t all that great in the Great League right now and usually doesn’t stand out much in Cups. That said, there is a “gut feeling”/”FOMO fear” that Scald may be buffed in the future. Therefore, while Scald Vaporeon isn’t exactly a priority, you may want to secure a good Vaporeon for the Great League now, just in case.  

Unless you haven’t used the “Eevee Name Trick” yet,  evolving Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon is completely random. Therefore, getting the “Rank 1” Vaporeon, or any specific Vaporeon IV spread, is a special challenge. When looking at Vaporeon candidates to evolve, pay special attention to Vaporeon that will hit 116+ Atk, 99.7+ Def, and have at least 159 HP. A 116 Atk can net you a breakpoint on Alolan Ninetales, enabling the 0-0 and 1-2 shield scenarios vs Powder Snow Alolan Ninetales. Big Def Vaporeon has the potential to flip Froslass and Vigoroth matchups. 159 HP is the bare minimum to maintain general consistency. 

The table below highlights the 52 spreads that meet the above stipulations. It’s worth noting that even greater Atk stat Vaporeon can get breakpoints on Toxicroak (118.89 Atk) and potentially on lower Def Medicham, and are therefore highlighted. None of these spreads are exactly “better” than the Rank 1, nor are they “worse” either. The table is meant to give you a wider range of Vaporeon to shoot for in case your Rank 1 Vaporeon ends up a Jolteon. 

Given the uncertainty with Scald’s potential future buff, you’ll likely want to build 2 Vaporeon: 1 to have Scald + Hydro Pump/Aqua Tail and 1 to have Scald + Last Resort (Elite TM required). Do note that you shouldn’t 2 Move and use Elite TMs on Scald Vaporeon to meet these goals until a) Scald is buffed and b) the Scald buff makes Vaporeon actually good. Just 2 Vaporeon, with just 1 Charge Move, waiting in the back for an uncertain future.

Overall, when it comes to the ideal IV spreads, all highlighted Eeveelutions here are pretty flexible. The goal of this article isn’t to make you stress about getting any of the highlighted IV spreads, but rather to direct you to alternative spreads should you not get the “Rank 1.” In some cases, these alternative spreads can be as good as and even pose unique advantages over the “Rank 1.” 

At the end of the day, having a Pokemon to use itself can be significantly better than not having one at all. This is especially true regarding the Great League Umbreon. If you miss out on the 31 highlighted IV spreads over the event, just go for the best stat product Umbreon you got. When it comes to the Ultra League XL Umbreon; however, you really ought to aim for perfection, given the stardust investment and important breakpoints.