With all of that being said, let’s walk through an example project. We’re going to tackle the big bad dragon of Alola: Kommo-o!

Kommo-o got a lot of new toys this generation, including (but not limited to) its new exclusive Z-Move: Clangorous Soulblaze. Based off of its signature move, Clanging Scales, it will attack all opponents in the field and then boost all of its stats by one stage. It’s quite the force to be reckoned with!

Ability and Nature¶

First step is, obviously, to decide on a Nature and Ability, so that those can be locked in as early as possible. Because Clanging Scales is a Special move, yet Close Combat is physical, we will have to pick a nature that doesn’t hurt either of Kommo-o’s attacking stats.

Kommo-o is rather slow with a base Speed stat of 85, and while Clangorous Soulblaze will boost its Speed up once used, we still want as much Speed as possible to help that much more. Let’s go for a Naive nature, which will boost Speed and lower Special Defense. Kommo-o has very good Defense so we will leave it intact.

Next up: Ability! This one might be even tougher to choose. Soundproof protects against all sound-based attacks including powerful hitters like Boomburst and stealthy but deadly whispers like Perish Song. Alternatively you can pick Bulletproof to shield against several damaging attacks like Aura Sphere and many others.

Finally, Overcoat will shield Kommo-o from any weather-related damage and from Powder-based moves like PoisonPowder. It’s up to you which one you would like to pick. We will be going with Soundproof for the resistance to Perish Song and its own signature move, Clanging Scales.

Egg Moves¶

Now we need to consider Egg Moves. This step, for Kommo-o, is very easy compared to the decisions we had to make in the previous step. Kommo-o can learn Counter, Reversal, and Dragon Breath as its Egg Moves. None of them are useful! Bo-oring!

Let’s move on!

Using Synchronize or a Naive Ditto, catch or breed a Jangmo-o that is Naive with the Ability that you want. Remember that if you want an Overcoat Jangmo-o, you will have to S.O.S. Chain.

IV Breeding¶

Now that we have a Naive Jangmo-o with our desired Ability (in our case, Soundproof) who is also ideally female, we can start IV breeding. Patience will win out over all else here, folks! Especially in this case, because we want a Jangmo-o with six perfect IVs .

Using what you learned in the previous part of this guide, start using your 4IV Ditto to gradually improve Jangmo-o’s IVs.

For a while you may run into 31 / x / 31 / x / x / x. Or something similar, which feels dissatisfactory. Be patient, switch the offspring when the IVs improve, and switch Ditto when need be.

At some point in time you might obtain two Jangmo-o’s with 4 - 5 perfect IVs that overlap, and one is male while the other is female. If that happens, throw them into the Daycare together with one holding Everstone and the other holding Destiny Knot.

You will improve your chances of getting eggs more frequently! 6 perfect IVs takes far, far longer sometimes than gunning for 5, so don’t give up!

EV Training¶

Now it’s time to start EV Training. You can either use Isle Evelup or battle wild Pokemon. Remember that in Isle Evelup, at max rank (level 3), each drink gives 4 EVs per drink. To max out a stat, you will need 63 drinks, which with Pokebeans active will take 16.5 hours to finish.

If you are going to battle, which is faster but will demand that you be paying attention and playing, make sure you have the Power Items and if you can get it, Pokerus, both of which can make EV training sessions take minutes, not hours.

Mixed Kommo-o really only needs its Attack stat for Close Combat, a move it will learn as it levels up. Close Combat packs a huge punch and will be mostly used to deal with Pokemon that have low Defense, so let’s focus on pumping as much firepower into Clanging Scales and its other moves instead.

First, we will max out Kommo-o’s Speed by putting 252 EVs into Speed. After this, we should focus on Special Attack next. The most obvious thing to do is to put 252 EVs into Special Attack, and then the remaining 6 EVs into Attack.

However, you can customize as much as you want. You could put 248 EVs into Special Attack instead, or 244, or 240. You get the idea. Shift around the EVs however you wish until you’ve achieved your desired balance of Attack and Special Attack for Kommo-o.

But if you want to keep things simple, let’s use this EV spread: 252 EVs in Speed, 252 EVs in Special Attack, and the remaining 6 EVs in Attack. Known as 252/252/6 it is a very popular and simple spread to use.

Remove any Pokemon in your party who are “EV sensitive” and don’t want Speed EVs. Go to Route 5 where there’s dust clouds that run around and start battling Alolan Diglett. S.O.S. Chaining increases your rate of EV gain, so chain the Diglett until you are done. If you are playing Ultra Moon, you can S.O.S. chain Alolan Rattata in Verdant Cavern instead.

A good Special Attack hotspot is Trainer’s School, where you can chain Zorua or Magnemite. Or, if you want to battle higher-leveled Pokemon, browse the rustling bushes in Poni Plains for Petilil in Ultra Moon.

Finally, to cap off Attack, you can either use Poke Pelago (6 EVs doesn’t take very long), or fight a few Crabrawler under Berry Trees. If you’re having trouble finding Crabrawler, Ultra Sun players can fight Yungoos in Verdant Cavern, and all players can fight Pikipek, Lillipup, Mudbray, Yungoos, and Grubbin on Route 4.

The game will cap off at 252 EVs instead of 255 as they did in previous games, so you don’t even have to worry about counting! Just S.O.S. Chain until you’re blue in the face.

Once you’ve finished, to go the Summary and press Y. You will see the EV spread of your Pokemon pop up and it will be a blue color. If you followed the 252/252/6 spread, you will see that Speed and Special Attack are also sparkly. This means they are maxed out.

Congratulations! You have finished breeding and EV training a perfect Jangmo-o! Evolve it into Kommo-o by leveling it up to Level 45! Kommo-o learns Close Combat at Level 75 but you can bypass that by simply going to the Move Tutor in Mount Lanakila’s Pokemon Center.

Clanging Scales can also be learned from the Move Tutor if you weren’t able to grab it upon evolution. The last two moves can be any special moves of your choice. Flash Cannon is popular because it dispatches Fairy-type Pokemon, and Flamethrower is another good option to hit Steel-type Pokemon.

For its hold item, you obviously want to make sure Kommo-o has the Kommonium Z.