Prior to Sun and Moon, a Pokemon’s Individual Values (IVs) were fixed when you encountered them in the wild (or from an egg). While you could (and still can) manipulate IVs via breeding and other means, if you ended up with a Pokemon with less than stellar IVs, there was nothing to be done about it.

But not anymore! Brand new to these games is the ability to increase your Pokemon’s IVs to their maximum values via Hyper Training.

Once you’re the Champion, Hyper Training can done by speaking to Mr. Hyper at the far end of the Hau’oli City Shopping Mall, to the east of the Battle Buffet. If you’ve never been to the Shopping Mall, it’s the building east from the Pokemon Centre, which only opens its doors after clearing the 1st Grand Trial.

Mr. Hyper is the obvious guy in the middle of the stall, sporting the bright-red shirt. Speak to him and he’ll kindly offer to Hyper Train your Pokemon, but–as with all good things–only if you give him some incentive and the required conditions are met.

Hyper Training is done one at a time for each Pokemon, so if you have multiple Pokemon in need of Hyper Training, you’ll need bottle caps for each of them. If playing normally, bottle caps are pretty hard to come across, making Hyper Training somewhat of a rare luxury.

If it wasn’t clear by now, Hyper Training is fantastic, but depending on how resourceful you are, it can be extremely time- and resource-consuming. Or perhaps even completely out of your league…

Therefore, we only recommend using Hyper Training for Legendary or Mythical Pokemon–basically, Pokemon that cannot breed. Or perhaps some random Shiny Pokemon you found. Instead, you’re better off using your time and resources to breed Pokemon with naturally high (or perfect) IVs.

Fast Leveling Tips¶

Obviously, the first hurdle is getting your Pokemon to Level 100. Sadly, with the absence of Blissey Bases, which were an insanely fast way of reaching Level 100 in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, you’ve got your work cut out for you.

The best place bar none to gain experience points is the Pokemon League. After becoming Champion, the Elite Four and Title Challengers use Pokemon whose average Level is around 63–about the highest you’ll find. A run of the Pokemon League will provide the most experience in the quickest amount of the time.

Eventually, even with all the experience boosts, the experience gain will start to slow to a grind, as your Pokemon get further and further away from the League’s average Level. If you’re determined, you can definitely continue this way; perhaps grind away while watching TV or something.

Alternatively, you can consider grinding the Festival Plaza until you have two 5-Star Rare Kitchens. We’ll discuss the grinding method in the Festival Plaza - Tips and Tricks , but once you have two such kitchens, you can get a Level 66 Pokemon to Level 98 in a matter of minutes. Not hours!

First, feed the same Pokemon a Rare Dinner from both 5-Star Rare Kitchens. A Rare Dinner increases a Pokemon’s Level by 7 if they’re Level 79 or under. So the first Rare Dinner will boost the Pokemon to Level 73 while the second will boost it to Level 80. Doing so will cost 200 FC.

Next, feed the same Pokemon a Rare Buffet from both 5-Star Rare Kitchens. This scrumptious feast increases a Pokemon’s Level by 9 if they’re Level 89 or under. If you do the Maths, the first Rare Buffet will boost the Pokemon from Level 80 to 89, which is the upper threshold, while the second boosts it to 98.

After that, just feed your Level 98 Pokemon two Rare Candies. Well, we say “just”, but you do need a reliable source of them.

Bottle Cap Farming¶

During a normal playthrough, you’ll probably only have two Bottle Caps–one from the Magaerna QR Code and another from thrashing Mina at the Poni Gauntlet. Which isn’t a lot, huh?

Here are the other ways you can earn Bottle Caps:

We’re going to perfectly honest: most of these methods are incredibly tedious or luck-based. Therefore making it that much harder for the average Joe to make use of Hyper Training. Which is frankly bizarre since Hyper Training was introduced to make things easier. …But you’re no average Joe, right?

What you can do instead is grind for Festival Coins in Festival Plaza and make use of a clever trick to consistently receive Bottle Caps for 150 FC . Although 150 FC sounds like a lot, it’s not really once you’ve done a fair amount of grinding. Likewise, the method will be discussed in Festival Plaza - Tips and Tricks .

First, you need to reach Festival Plaza Rank 8 naturally, so you can ask guests for a recommended facility. Next, scout your plaza for a guest that recommends the 2-Star Treasure Hunt . This is the toughest and most monotonous part–and can be gut-wrenching if none of your guests have it, so don’t hesitate to get outside help.

To save on costs, only scout for the 2-Star Treasure Hunt, not the ones with more stars. Also, if you happen to have your own 2-Star Treasure Hunt, as a result of increasing your Plaza Rank, demolish it. Once you’ve found a guest with 2-Star Treasure Hunt, make him or her a VIP.

Afterwards, speak to the VIP and request for the 2-Star Treasure Hunt. Assuming you did everything correctly, it will cost 100 FC. Now for the magic… Visit the newly-constructed 2-Star Treasure Hunt and ask for a lottery ticket. You’ll receive the 2nd prize, a Bottle Cap, which is guaranteed to happen.

Having gotten your first Bottle Cap, find a guest with any 1-Star facility that you don’t have and request it for 50 FC. When prompted, replace the 2-Star Treasure Hunt with this facility. Finally, repeat the process by speaking to your VIP with the 2-Star Treasure Hunt and overwriting the 1-Star facility with the 2-Star Treasure Hunt.

You see, the very first time you visit a 2-Star Treasure Hunt, you’ll always win a Bottle Cap. However, there’s no restriction on how many times a day you can build a 2-Star Treasure Hunt. So you can abuse this knowledge to keeping building a new one at the cost of 100 FC for the facility itself and 50 FC for the dud facility.