USER GUIDE | written by Steve on July 5 2017
How Good Is that Pokémon?
With the appraisal system that exists in Pokémon GO, it is often tempting to just accept that a specific Pokémon is a Wonder (or best or amazing), and just move on from there. That would be a mistake! Just because the appraisal is great, doesn’t mean that the Pokémon in question is really all that great. There are a lot of factors that play into it, and people have figured out how to delve deeper into it. In general, there are two main ways to get that deeper evaluation of your Pokémon. You can use an online web page to enter the data, or you can use an app.
I am going to talk about the Apps first. If you go to the google store (or Apple Store too I suppose), and search for IV evaluator, you’ll get a lot of them. I’ve downloaded several of them, and had varying levels of success with them. The common theme I discovered with all of them is that you need to still enter a lot of data (or give access to your account).
Calcy IV Review
GO Hub review
It’s true that Calcy IV can be very, very finicky on various smartphones, but if you manage to get it up and running, it works like a charm. Although we are aware of problems Trainers encounter while setting it up, we would recommend this app never the less, as it truly works great, without risking a ban.
The app works as an overlay, rarely requires any manual input and it’s overall a very reliable IV Checker.
Author’s review
“This app runs while your game is running as well. Sadly, I have never got this app to actually do what it says it will. Basically it advertises to work like IV Go in-game, and give you the ratings. You need to be on the actual Pokémon screen with CP, HP, Stardust cost, etc. up and go through a rating to get your results. Again, I never got it to work, so I uninstalled it, and have no real screenshots of it for you.”
PokeGo Master
This is an overlay app. It runs while you are playing your game, and will allow you to rate your Pokémon right in the game. My main complaint about this app is that you really aren’t saving anything over entering the same information on a web page. You still need to type in the CP, HP, select what stats are called out in the rating, and keep your trainer level up to date. Also, I do question if it is totally accurate as you don’t enter Stardust needed to power it up, or what the appraisal level really is.
ToolKit Main App Review
This is another floating app that runs while the game runs. Don’t even bother to download this app. While it gives you all sorts of good information about various Pokémon while you are playing the game, they want you to pay for the good stuff.
Other Apps
Since I run Android, I can’t tell you what the Apple Store has, but the Google Store lists quote a few IV Calculators. I am not going to review each and every one of them because I have found they are all rather similar. You either give it access to your Pokémon GO account and it reads the data for you, or more commonly, you need to appraise and rate it by entering the data yourself. So that leaves you with two basic options.
- Do you risk Niantic banning you or in other ways hindering your account
- Or do you manually enter all your info?
If you are manually entering your info, then why use an app at all? Why not just go to a web page?
IV GO Review
GO Hub note
IV GO is a powerful app, but a number of users have reported being temporarily banned for using it. The app requires you to login with a Pokémon GO account, which makes it a risky choice. Use at your own risk!
This is an interesting app. What you do is get it downloaded, and once you start it, you log in with your Pokémon GO account through the app. It will then query the database or something, and give you a listing of all your Pokémon with their IV ratings. It even gives an overall “grade” to them.
For instance, a perfect Pokémon (100% IV) will get scored SSS, one that has 95% to 99.9% will get an SS, 90% to 94.9% will get an S (I assume it stands for Superior). If the rating is in the 80s, the Pokémon gets an A, in the 70s and 80s, it gets a B, and below that a C. If you are in the list view, it also gives you a summary of the move-set, how many candies you have, and when you caught it.
Overall I like the way this app works, and the information it gives you. My main worry is:
- you have to sign in to your Pokémon GO account! How will Niantic react to this?
So far I have not seen anything on the account I am using and experimenting with, however, a number of other players have reported getting banned for using it, as Niantic doesn’t allow third party app logins.
You can also have this app run while you are playing, however I have not had much luck getting it to actually work.
Web Pages
Just going to Google and searching for a “Pokémon GO IV Calculator” will also give you a ton of results. Of all the results, I do have a favorite. Keep in mind, this is my favorite, you may have different tastes.
- Game Info IV Calc allows you to enter everything pertinent to your Pokémon on the page, and then rate it. I like it better than others because it allows you to put in all the info from your appraisal, helping narrow down your possible results.
- PokéAssistant IV Calc is another page where you enter the basic information, and the appraisal results. One thing is you need to know what the statement regarding your stats mean to select it from the drop down menu.
I think after these two web pages, it would just be redundant to try to go over more. Suffice it to say that they all appear to be generally similar, and give similar results.
The good thing about entering all this information on a web page is that you are never running the risk of Niantic deciding that they think you are cheating, and banning you.
