On Nearly Perfect Pokemon

When it comes to catching good Pokemon, there’s always a hope that you’ll get a Pokemon with 100% IVs. Getting a Perfect Pokemon is a rare thing, although there are certain ways to increase your chances. These ways include purifying Pokemon, opening research and trading Pokemon, especially with lucky trades. However, the chances are still very low, and even with these options, it’s unlikely you’ll get a hundo. Well, unless you purify a shadow Pokemon with stats at 13 or higher. But you often don’t want to purify Pokemon as shadow Pokemon are stronger.

But there are some Pokemon that get forgotten about, or ignored because they’re not quite perfect.

While there’s only one chance for a Pokemon to be 100%, there are three chances for a Pokemon to have 98% IVs. And I feel these Pokemon get underestimated a lot. Sure, they’re not perfect Pokemon, but they’re still good, right?

In fact, the difference is so small that you don’t notice it at all.

Really, the only place you will see a difference is in PvP. And even then, you only see it in Master League, where you want the best Pokemon possible. For Great League, you actually don’t want perfect Pokemon at all. Why? Because you ideally want your Pokemon to be as high a level as possible without going over 1500 CP. A perfect Pokemon reaches 1500 CP at a lower level than a non-perfect Pokemon, and thus has less health and defense. On the flip side, a Pokemon with stats similar to 0-15-15 hits a higher level and thus has more health.

For Ultra League and Master League though, you do want as perfect a Pokemon as possible. In Ultra League, things are a bit different thanks to the cap (which you want to get to as close as possible), but some Pokemon (potentially like Sableye and Stunfisk) can reach CP 2500 (or close to it) by having perfect stats and being leveled up to level 50 (or level 51 with a Best Buddy boost). For example, you don’t want a perfect Giratina in Ultra League, the same way you do in Great League, but a perfect Stunfisk has a chance to reach CP 2500, where a non-perfect Stunfisk wouldn’t.

But all that being said, a 98% Pokemon functions pretty much identically to a 100% Pokemon. The attack and defense are essentially the same. The only thing you might miss out on is 1 health, but you’re so close to a 100% Pokemon that it simply doesn’t matter. The only time

And in PvP, there’s no different at all either. Again, you might miss out on 1 health, but that 1 health won’t save you in a raid, due to how much damage raid bosses actually do. In fact, IVs don’t really matter that much at all, as long as you have a good, rounded party of Pokemon, who all have a high CP, and, thus, higher stats. Yes, a 100% Giratina will work in a Mewtwo raid, but so will a 98% or even a 70% Giratina, as long as you’ve leveled them up to at least level 30.

It’s also worth noting that, no matter what, a shadow Pokemon is almost always better than a normal Pokemon, even if the normal Pokemon has 100% IVs. Shadow Pokemon are just that strong.

Sure, a 98% or even a 96% Pokemon isn’t the same as a hundo when it comes to showing off a Pokemon, but they are still just as good as a hundo when it comes to practicality.