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How Pokémon stats from Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold and Silver are recalculated

Find out how all the stats are calculated for your Pokémon from Red, Blue and Yellow when transferred to Pokémon Bank! Now includes updates and changes for Pokémon Gold and Silver.

Update (10:12 PM November 19, 2017): Poké Transporter now supports Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver. While Pokémon Crystal does not yet exist on the Virtual Console, support has been also added for the title.

Update (2:29 AM September 21, 2017): With Pokémon Gold and Silver slowly rolling out on the eShop, we’ve dug up our article on how stats are recalculated from the Virtual Console releases of the Pokémon Game Boy games. At the time of publishing, Poké Transporter has not been updated to support Gold or Silver, but this article has been updated to reflect changes from the recent 1.3 update. The information here will likely apply to the imminent Poké Transporter update coming soon, which will bring support for the games.

Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter’s new updates have been released, and with it the ability to transfer Pokémon from the first generation games Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow (RBY). A future update will allow the transfer of Pokémon from Pokémon Gold and Silver (GS) as well. One point of interest was how this would be made possible, given that for instance the first generation games had only one Special stat, a different IV system and no Natures or Abilities.

Dataminers such as SciresM on Twitter have held unravel the mysteries behind the transfer process. One can even be manipulated in your favour!

IVs

Individual Values (IVs) are determined randomly. However, at least three stats will have a perfect value of 31. That means that every transferred Pokémon from RBY or GS will have three good stats at least! The exception is Mew, who gets at least five perfect IVs instead.

EVs

Effort Values (EVs) are set to zero.

Nature

Nature is an interesting aspect. Bank determines what the new Nature is based on the gained EXP of the Pokémon:

Nature = EXP % 25

% represents the ‘modulo’  operator, and gives you the remainder when dividing by the number following it. If EXP was, say “1001”, the equation becomes 1001 % 25 = 1, as dividing 1001 by 25 gives you a remainder of 1.

Each number corresponds to a Nature, which is listed below (assuming the same system is maintained). If you’re determined to get a good nature for your RBY or GS Pokémon, you can give it some EXP to do just that!

Remainder
after EXP/25
Nature Stat Increase/
Stat Decrease
The last two digits of the Pokémon’s EXP
0 Hardy —/— 0 25 50 75
1 Lonely +Atk/-Def 1 26 51 76
2 Brave +Atk/-Spd 2 27 52 77
3 Adamant +Atk/-SpA 3 28 53 78
4 Naughty +Atk/-SpD 4 29 54 79
5 Bold +Def/-Atk 5 30 55 80
6 Docile —/— 6 31 56 81
7 Relaxed +Def/-Spd 7 32 57 82
8 Impish +Def/-SpA 8 33 58 83
9 Lax +Def/-SpD 9 34 59 84
10 Timid +Spd/-Atk 10 35 60 85
11 Hasty +Spd/-Def 11 36 61 86
12 Serious —/— 12 37 62 87
13 Jolly +Spd/-SpA 13 38 63 88
14 Naive +Spd/-SpD 14 39 64 89
15 Modest +SpA/-Atk 15 40 65 90
16 Mild +SpA/-Def 16 41 66 91
17 Quiet +SpA/-Spd 17 42 67 92
18 Bashful —/— 18 43 68 93
19 Rash +SpA/-SpD 19 44 69 94
20 Calm +SpD/-Atk 20 45 70 95
21 Gentle +SpD/-Def 21 46 71 96
22 Sassy +SpD/-Spd 22 47 72 97
23 Careful +SpD/-SpA 23 48 73 98
24 Quirky —/— 24 49 74 99
Table detailing Exp. Point remainders that determine natures. Adapted from image by @TheMantyke.

Ability

Almost every Pokémon from RBY and GS will gain its Hidden Ability. There are a few exceptions; Mew, Celebi, Metapod, Kakuna, Pupitar, Unown, the Weezing line, and the Gengar line. This is because these Pokémon have no Hidden Ability.

This means that Machop will not have the No Guard Ability when transferred. No Guard Fissure Machamp can’t exist! However, you can have most Legendary Pokémon with Hidden Abilities.

Is it Shiny?

This depends on the IVs (or determinant values – DVs) of the RBY or GS Pokémon. If they have a Defense IV of 10, a Special IV of 10, a Speed IV of 10 and a particular Attack IV, it will be shiny. (Note that in RBY, IVs went from 0 to 15, not 0 to 31 as in modern Pokémon games).

The Attack IV may be 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14 or 15 for the Pokémon to be given Shiny status.

Before Poké Transporter’s recent 1.3 update, this worked slightly differently for the RBY Pokémon compared to the second generation games (Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal – GSC). In that case, the Attack and Defense stats were swapped (that is, an Attack IV of 10 and Defense IV of any of the above numbers). This was changed in version 1.3, presumably to reflect how the recently released Gold and Silver games calculate shinyness.

So, if you know the IVs of your RBY Pokémon, you can tell beforehand if it will be shiny or not! And if it is shiny in Gold or Silver on the Virtual Console, it will remain shiny.

Gender

Gender was previously calculated to be completely random. Now it will depend on the species being transferred as well with their gender ratios factored in.

Mew and Missingno

Legitimate Mew (via a Japan or Europe event) can be transferred. Mew obtained via glitches in RBY sadly cannot.

Missingno and other glitch Pokémon (e.g. ‘M) cannot be transferred in their forms. If, however, ‘M is in the form of a Kangaskhan and has illegal moves removed (think Water Gun and Sky Attack), it can be transferred.

Edited by Jake.
Special thanks to monkeybard and HaxAras for additional contributions.