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Hidden Power Revealed
So what is hidden power anyway? The answer is a whole lot more complicated than you might expect.
Hidden power is actually not normal in type although that's what is stated on the move submenu. Hidden power can take on
any moves type except for normal. Like it says in the game it's type and power depends on the individual pokemon that uses it.
For example if you had caught three different pidgeys and you taught them all hidden power(TM 10)
It's likely that they would all have a different one. One might be a fire type the other fighting or even ghost.
The way you can figure this out in the game is fighting against lots of different types of pokemon and
observing when the game tells you that the move is super effective or not very effective.
But how exactly is the
is the move type determined?
To understand this you must understand Diversification values or DVs as most people call them.
Whenever you catch a wild pokemon it is given a certain sort of bonus that is added to each stat.
These bonuses are given values anywhere between 0 and 15. These bonuses determine how high it is possible to
raise your pokemon's stats, attack, defense, speed, special(In gold and silver special attack and defense have the same DV)
If your pokemon had 0 as a DV in every stat it would only be possible to raise it to the lowest stat potential for that pokemon.
Conversely if a pokemon had all 15s for DVs then it would be able to rise to the maximum for the species.
Whether you max out your pokemon's potential is entirely dependent on your training of it.
Most pokemon have varying DVs getting pokemon with very good DVs is difficult. Shiny pokemon in gold and silver have 10
as their DV in every stat except attack which can have several values. Shinies can have an attack DV of 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, or 15. So it's possible to have have HP DVs of either 0 or 8. They also all have one of four Hidden Powers
Grass 50
Dragon 50
Grass 70
Dragon 70
Remember DVs CANNOT be changed except thtough a Game shark so evolving, training or trading your pokemon won't make any difference in being shiny
or in your pokemon's hidden power.
How do I find my pokemon's DVs?
This is a VERY hard thing to do. There are three ways of doing it. If your pokemon has been raised to level 100 and has
been fully boxed. Otherwise you must have a pokemon that has never gained experience in a battle
or had any stat enhancers used on it. It also must be at level 50 WITHOUT leveling up in ANY battles. This is pretty easy for pokemon you can cathc
above level 50 like the legendary birds but for lower level pokemon it is more difficult.
In a lot of ways this defeats the purpose of finding out a pokemon's DVs before you train it. The best
way is to copy rare candies. Get 50 rare candies any way you can(I used my mega memory card)Or you can find them out on the original 150 by using the missingno
trick on red and blue, I hear there is also a cloning trick on G/S It's something like the pokemon cloning trick in R,B,Y. Take your pokemon and level it up to 50 using rare candies. Once it's at level 50 write down it's stats.
Then reset your game so your pokemon isn't at level 50. Then go to a STAT calculator and type in it's stats.
For every 1 stat point your pokemon is lower than the WILD caught maximum subtract one from 15. If the pokemon has the same number for the wild caught maximum then that
means it has a DV of 15 in that stat. Now that you've found your pokemon's DVs, you can do the calculation below,
How does the DV relate to Hidden power?
Be aware this section requires MATH!
Okay to be able to do any of these calculations you must be able to convert regular numbers to binary numbers.
| Binary | Regular |
| 0000 |
0 |
| 0001 | 1 |
| 0010 | 2 |
| 0011 | 3 |
| 0100 | 4 |
| 0101 | 5 |
| 0110 | 6 |
| 0111 | 7 |
| 1000 | 8 |
| 1001 | 9 |
| 1010 | 10 |
| 1011 | 11 |
| 1100 | 12 |
| 1101 | 13 |
| 1110 | 14 |
| 1111 | 15 |
Okay first If you know your pokemon's DVs you can use this formula ((X × 5 + Y) ÷ 2) + 31
to find out the power of the attack. The X value is the first digit of each 4 digit binary DV. For X to be at it's maximum,
The first digit in binary of each DV must be 1. For this to be true all of the DVs must be 8 or above
to get a 70 base power which is the maximum possible base power for a hidden power attack. If the attack DV is less than
8 then the power of the attack will be much lower since the X term cannot be higher than 7. Speed and
special can be lower than 8 and still give a halfway decent base power however it is best to try for the 70
base power.
X = aeim
Y = mnop (maximum value is 3)
Here's what all of the letters refer to. Use the 4 digit binary conversion table above to find out what
each digit is. Basically the type is determined by the last two digits of the attack and defense DVs.
| Attack | Defense | Speed | Special |
| abcd | efgh | ijkl | mnop |
Once you figure out what the type number is in binary convert it back to regular numbers and look at
the table below to see which one it is:
| Value Type |
| 15 | Dark |
| 14 | Dragon |
| 13 | Ice |
| 12 | Psychic |
| 11 | Electric |
| 10 | Grass |
| 09 | Water |
| 08 | Fire |
| 07 | Steel |
| 06 | Ghost |
| 05 | Bug |
| 04 | Rock |
| 03 | Ground |
| 02 | Poison |
| 01 | Flying |
| 00 | Fighting |
Okay If you want to try to get a pokemon with a certain power here are the DVs that will give you
a hidden power of a particular type that has a 70 base. To have a seventy base power hidden power,
speed and special DVs simply need
to be 8 or above. They do not affect the type of the move so they are not included. Remember
in gold and silver special defense and special offense are determined byt the same DV. I have not included
DVs that do not give a 70 base power. However these can be determined by using the given equations.
| Move type | Attack DV | Defense DV |
| Dark | 15 or 11 | 15 or 11 |
| Dragon | 15 or 11 | 14 or10 |
| Ice | 15 or 11 | 13 or 9 |
| Psychic | 15 or 11 | 12 or 8 |
| Electric | 14 or 10 | 15 or 11 |
| Grass | 14 or 10 | 14 or 10 |
| Water | 14 or 10 | 13 or 9 |
| Fire | 14 or 10 | 12 or 8 |
| Steel | 13 or 9 | 15 or 11 |
| Ghost | 13 or 9 | 14 or 10 |
| Bug | 13 or 9 | 13 or 9 |
| Rock | 13 or 9 | 12 or 8 |
| Ground | 12 or 8 | 15 or 11 |
| Poison | 12 or 8 | 14 or 10 |
| Flying | 12 or 8 | 13 or 9 |
| Fighting | 12 or 8 | 12 or 8 |
You can have any combination of the above DVs and still get the move type. You can have a pokemon with an attack DV of 14 and a defense DV of 10
and it will have grass power. It would also have grass power if they were 14 and 14 or 10 and 10 well you get the idea.
There's a lot of people floating around saying Don't use *insert hidden power type here* because it will make your pokemons stats bad.
Generally this isn't true however there are Some hidden power types for which this is somewhat true.
Hit Point DVs come from the other DVs. They are determined by The last bit on each DV in Binary. Odd DVs have a one there
while even ones have a zero. So the game takes the zeros and ones in order from attack, defense, Speed and special. So a pokemon that had
an even attack and defefense stat and and odd speed and special stat would have zeros for the firs two digits and ones for the last two.
If you look up at the binary table again you'll see that 0011 is 3 which is a really bad DV. SO any hidden power type that has
both the attack and Defense DVs Even will only be able to get a max HP DV of 3. When choosing your hidden power type take this into account as a pokemon with an
HP DV of 3 will have 24 hit points less than it's maximum at level 100. In battle this could make a BIG difference.
Powers that this is true of are: Fire, Grass, Fighting, and Poison. Even powers that have only the attack or Defense DV as even will not be able to get
maximum HP but this is far less severe of a loss when compared to that oth those with both DVs being even. I'm not saying don't use hidden powers of the above mentioned types
just make sure it's worth it before you go slapping a particular hidden power on your pokemon.
Now that you know what you're looking for I'll give you a strategy on how to get pokemon with the right DVs for a power that you want.
The easiest pokemon do do this with are the legendary birds. Just save right before you battle them(hopefully you've saved a masterball or copied some)
Throw your masterball. You should make sure you have an empty spot in your party and look at it's stats. Write them down and look up the DVs
Don't save yet! If the pokemon doesn't have the right DVs just reset it. The same thing can be done with pokemon that you get from the game corner or a person
you'll just need to get 30 or 50 rare candies to find out what it's DVs are problem is though you have to save before you use the rare candies otherwise you'll
lose the pokemon you just got by resetting and you'll have to get more coins or start over to get another. To increase your chances of success the first few times you do it
write down the pokemon's stats when you get it and after you've used your rare candies. That way you can figure out which starting stats give you which DVs.
Typically each starting stat at level 20 or so will give you one of two DVs. IE an untrained eevee of level 25 that has an attack stat of 37 will usually have an attack DV of either 9 or 10.
Just use your rare candies at first to figure out what stat numbers you'll need to get the DVs you want remember keep an eye on speed and special that they aren't below 8 or the
attacks power won't be 70. Once you have that figured out keep resetting your game until you get a pokemon
that has the stats that should give you the DVs you want. Then save your game and test the pokemon with your rare candies. Because the stats usually have one of two options there is a 1 in 4 chance that you will get
the proper DVs on your first try but If you are determined enough you can get a pokemon with the power you want.
Now in addition to the reset method there is also a method for breeding fo hidden powers. This works very well because of the fact that
When breeding with Dittos the Ditto's Defense DV is ALWAYS passed to the offspring exactly. Since Defense Dvs are a big determiner of the hidden power's type.
You just have to keep breeding until you get the right attack DV. Here's a Site that tells you exactly how this is done:
Meowth 346's Guide to breeding for Hidden powers
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