The Pokemón Company and Niantic Inc. just released an update for Pokemón Go on July 15, which revamps some key features of the mobile game as including Pokemón battling and Pokemón appraisal. This article will focus on the updated appraisal mechanic while battling changes can be found here. 

In previous versions of Pokemón: GO, players who wanted to get some details on their Pokemón would touch the appraisal icon on their screen and be greeted by their team leader who would point out some details about the Pokemón in question. Most of those details being clearly visible on the Pokemón’s stat page with maybe a comment about how cute or good at battling the Pokemón was. The system mostly provided a little color and flair to player’s Pokemón collections and helped reinforce the three teams, Valor, Mystic, and Instinct, introduced to the world of Pokemón in Pokemón:GO. The system became inadequate with recent updates to Pokemón:GO, especially the ones emphasizing Pokemón battling released in concert with Pokemon: Let’s GO for Nintendo Switch. 

Some players felt it necessary to use third-party apps to accurately track which of their Pokémon was strongest.

No More Vague Hints - Just Pure Data

But now, in the 0.149.0 update, the appraisal mechanic surfaces data on Pokemón that’s not in the base stat page as well as showing a star ranking of one to three. The new appraisal shows each Pokemón’s Attack, Defense and HP stats represented by a bar graph and, depending on how high or low those stats are. Now a number of stars appears on the appraisal which shows how well or poorly the Pokemón stacks up against others of the same type. Player’s team leaders still pop up with some color commentary on the Pokemón but the real show is all in the bars and stars. The new appraisal system also allows players to flip through their entire catalog of Pokemón without leaving the appraisal screen by swiping right and left on the screen or by touching scroll arrows to the sides of the screen.

As with any video game update, Reddit has descended upon Pokemón: GO, 0.149.0 and crunched some numbers on the system. In this case Reddit user Maxxetto has provided some clarity on what the new stats mean in the new appraisals mean. The breakdown relates the new appraisals to the Individual Values (IVs) that differentiate Pokemón of the same type in addition to their base stats. Basically, every Pokemón in Pokemón:GO is assigned a number from one to fifteen for Attack, Defense and HP which does not change as they level up and those are their IVs.

So, according to, Maxxetto, if a Pokemón’s Attack has all three bars filled and has a pinkish color that Pokemón has fifteen Attack IVs or 100% of the max Attack IVs and if the Defense bar were filled only to the halfway point of the second bar it would have a Defense of eight IVs or about 53% of the max Defense IVs. Another way to look at it is that each half filled bar is an increment of three and each fully filled bar is an increment of five: one half bar equals three, one full bar equals five, a bar and a half equals eight, two bars equals ten and so on until you get to fifteen.

What Do The Stars Refer To

The stars in the new appraisal relate to a Pokemón’s total IVs percentage, so a Pokemón that has three pink stars would have fifteen IVs in Attack, Defense, and HP or 100% IVs. A Pokemón with three yellow stars has 82% to 99% of max IVs. A two star Pokemón has 66% to 81% IVs. One star means 51% to 65% and no stars is less than 50%.

Even if they don't dig to the level of hardcore Pokemón Trainers like Maxxetto, the new appraisal put in terms of IVs is incredibly useful for players because it allows comparison of Pokemón of the same type regardless of their level. So if a player catches two Bulbasaurs, one at level one with three stars and another at level five with one star they can now appraise them and keep the three star to level up and battle with and transfer the one star to Professor Willow for the always in short supply Pokemón candy. The new appraisal also lets players hold off on leveling up not that great Pokemón and prioritize their best fighters. In a game like Pokemon:GO, which can sometimes be a bit of a resource grind, any tool to help not waste resources is a welcome addition.

Now if you’ll all excuse me I have a Pokemón collection to sort out.