Due to changes in the way vitamins work in Pokémon Sword & Shield, and due to how easy it is to make money in the games, it’s now very easy to fully EV Train a Pokémon in just a matter of minutes, and the Isle of Armor from the Expansion Pass gives you even more ways to quickly and more efficiently EV Train.
Now in Pokémon Sword & Shield, you can use the vitamin items to raise your Pokémon’s Effort Values even after they’ve hit 100, meaning you can use 26 Protein to boost a freshly-caught Pokémon’s Attack EVs all the way up to the cap of 252.
This makes it a very effective, albeit very costly method of training up your Pokémon’s Effort Values very quickly. Thankfully, Sword & Shield also make it very easy to earn a LOT of money thanks to the Wild Area.
How To Make Money in Pokémon Sword & Shield
There are numerous ways to amass a lot of money in Pokémon Sword & Shield. In fact this might be helpful to you even if you aren’t EV Training your Pokémon. Here are just some of the good ways to make money in the game (keep in mind that there may be some gameplay spoilers below):
Max Raid Battle Farming & Buying/Selling Luxury Balls
After beating the game — which is really the only time EV Training should realistically be considered, as it’s not necessary beforehand — you will earn 200 W from uninhabited Pokémon Dens in the Wild Area and a massive 2,000 W from Pokémon Dens containing a Dynamax or Gigantamax Pokémon inside, regardless of if you battle them or not.
You can use these Watts to buy items from the Item Traders that appear throughout the Wild Area. There are several Item Traders in the Wild Area and you can see on the Wild Area map which area they’re in — easy ones to check are the ones at the entrance (Meetup Point), at the entrance to Motostoke, at the Nursery in the Bridge Field, and at the entrance to Hammerlocke. These are all easy to fly to, but there are a few others scattered around.
You’re looking for someone selling Luxury Balls. These can be purchased for 100 W each, but can be sold for 1,500 Poké Dollars each. Their inventory changes each day, so it might take a bit of searching to find one selling them, but this means every single Pokémon Den you encounter is 3,000 Poké Dollars and every single Den with a Max Raid is 30,000 Poké Dollars, or 30 EVs.
Once you run out of Dens to check, you need to cycle the Pokémon Dens. They change at midnight each day, but you can also fight each and every Pokémon in the Dens with the glowing beams in them and, once they’ve all been caught or defeated (or if they escaped), then all of the Dens will reset, so you’ll be able to farm up more Max Raid Battles and more Pokémon Dens in general.
Not only that, but you’ll gain a TON of Exp. Candies from this — enough for 50,000 EXP every fight from non-rare 5★ Raids, or even more from rare 5★ Raids. This makes it perhaps the best way to train Pokémon up to level 100, too, especially since you can use the Exp. Candies on whichever Pokémon you want rather than just the Pokémon that fought in the battle. You’ll also get TRs and other sellable items that can make you even more cash.
The only thing you’ll need to make sure of is that you have a Pokémon strong enough to consistently defeat Max Raid Battles. Having a Pokémon at level 100 should make this pretty easy, even if doing it solo. It’s recommended to have Eternatus, Zamazenta, or Zacian at level 100, using any Exp. Candies you earned before beating the game to power-level them up to 100 or as close to that as possible, then buying vitamins to EV Train their primary attacking stat — Calcium for Eternatus’s Sp. Atk or Protein for Zacian and Zamazenta’s Attack — to the max.
It’s a bit of an investment doing this, but Eternatus’s Dynamax Cannon does a ton of damage to Dynamaxed Pokémon, and Zacian and Zamazenta’s Behemoth Break and Behemoth Bash function similarly. You can also use high-level Dynamaxed Pokémon that have super-effective coverage against the wild Dynamax Pokémon, but having at least one of the big three legendary Pokémon is strongly recommended and will help you raise money and clear Max Raids very fast.
Digging Duo
Using the same methods to farm Watts as listed above, instead of buying Luxury Balls and selling those for a lot of money, you can instead pay either brother of the Digging Duo 500 W and that brother will dig up at least one random item from a preset list, but often times many more, rarely getting over 10 items per 500 W.
The one closest to the Pokémon Nursery says that “he has no lack of skill” and is the one you’ll want to talk to, as he’ll have better chances of getting you more valuable items. Rare Bones, which sell for 2,000 Poké Dollars, are quite common from him, but there are also rarities such as Comet Shards, evolutionary stones, Metal Coats, and more that can be sold for a good profit. You can even rarely get Wishing Pieces, Bottle Caps, and even Golden Bottle Caps.
The only downside is that it takes much longer to farm money this way, as you have to keep mashing A and saving your game. It’s also very random, so sometimes you’ll get a good haul, and other times it will be very disappointing.
Fighting in the Champion’s Cup
After becoming the Champion, you can return to Wyndon and fight in the Champion’s Cup over and over again. You’ll have rematches against Gym Leaders and a few other characters that appeared throughout the game, as well as some random Trainers that want to become Champion.
You’ll earn a reasonable amount of money by fighting these Trainers over and over again, especially if you hold an Amulet Coin or Luck Incense on your lead Pokémon (or another Pokémon that you make sure is sent out in each fight).
You’ll also be able to rake in an incredible amount of money if you use a level 100 Gigantamax Meowth’s G-Max Gold Rush move for three turns. Each fight will earn you 
99,999 plus whatever the Trainer gives normally. This takes a bit more set up and you’ll need to have received the event Gigantamax Meowth, but it’s a good way to earn a lot of money very fast — about 320,000+ in just a few minutes.
If you missed out on getting Gigantamax Meowth but have the Expansion Pass, you can feed a normal Kantonian Meowth the Max Soup on the Isle of Armor to give it the ability to Gigantamax.
EV Training Your Pokémon
There are a few ways to EV Train your Pokémon in Sword & Shield, but here are some of the best methods.
Spending LOTS of Cash on Vitamins
After you’ve got the funds to EV Train your Pokémon, buying Vitamins from the shop in Wyndon should be your next step. (NOTE: If you’ve purchased the Expansion Pass and have cleared the Isle of Armor, there’s an even better way to buy these vitamins!)
Assuming you have a Pokémon with 0 total EVs, you’ll want to buy 1 of the respective vitamin for every 10 EVs you need.
- HP Up raises HP.
- Protein raises Attack.
- Iron raises Defense.
- Calcium raises Special Attack.
- Zinc raises Special Defense.
- Carbos raises Speed.
So if you want a spread of 252 Attack and 252 Speed, you’ll want to buy 25 Protein and 25 Carbos for a total cost of 500,000 Poké Dollars. You’ll also need to top off the stats by either fighting a wild Pokémon that gives the EVs you’re looking for (see below), use the corresponding Feather item (obtained on bridges) to raise it by a single point, or if you’re just trying to hit the cap, you can by a 26th Protein and Carbos and use them.
Although 500,000+ Poké Dollars is not exactly cheap, it’s also far, FAR easier to get than in previous games, so this is definitely a reasonable method.
If you’re into the Battle Tower, you can also buy vitamins for 2 BP each by talking to a Pokémon League Staff in the central Hammerlocke Pokémon Center. BP is usually better spent on items like Mints and other useful things, but these are pretty affordable as far as items go, so it’s another option if BP is your preferred farming method.
Cheaper Vitamins on the Isle of Armor
If you’ve purchased the Expansion Pass and have progressed far enough in the Isle of Armor’s storyline, you can talk to Honey in the Master Dojo to pay Watts (W) for her to bring conveniences such as a hairdresser, vending machines, Rotomi, etc. to the Master Dojo. These start off rather inexpensive, but later on they will cost 100,000 W per upgrade.
After you’ve given a total of 300,000 W, she will build a vitamin vending machine for Protein and Calcium; at 400,000 W total, she will add Iron and Zinc to the selection; and finally, at 500,000 W total, she adds HP Up and Carbos.
You can buy these from this vending machine and get a bulk discount, so if you buy 10 at a time, they cost only 7,000 each instead of the usual 10,000, but the best value is if you buy a set of 25, which costs only 5,000 each, costing you a total of 125,000 per stat or 250,000 if you want to max out a Pokémon’s EVs — well, assuming you’re going for 252 EVs, you’ll still need to get +2 EVs after using the 25 vitamin for a stat, but there are a lot of the EV-raising feathers found in the seas around the Isle of Armor, so you should easily be able to top off a Pokémon’s missing EVs there.
Something to keep in mind: it does require an investment of 500,000 W to have the full selection of vitamins available. If you were to buy Luxury Balls and sell those, you would end up getting 7,500,000 for your efforts, which could have been used to buy enough vitamins to EV Train 15 Pokémon without the discount. That means you won’t break even unless you buy enough from the vending machines to EV Train 30 Pokémon, and only after that point does it result in savings.
If you need to get Watts, the Isle of Armor has a character known as the Digging Pa who will dig up a lot of Watts — sometimes in excess of 100,000 W — for some Armorite Ore, which can be earned by fighting in Max Raid Battles on the Isle of Armor. This can be a good way to earn the Watts necessary to pay off the vending machines and you can even use the surplus to buy Luxury Balls and sell them for to use to buy vitamins.
Fighting Wild Pokémon
If you’re in need of just a few EVs in order to top off an EV spread after using vitamins or if you’d rather not spend money on vitamins, you can do it the old fashioned way by fighting against wild Pokémon.
This is much easier now that you can see wild Pokémon wandering around in the overworld, guaranteeing you’ll be able to fight what you want (unless something pops up as you’re running to it, of course!) in order to EV Train.
Picking up the Macho Brace will double the amount of EVs your Pokémon gains while battling, but temporarily halves its Speed while it’s held. Additionally, the Power Items work even better, giving +8 of the corresponding EV while it is held (it also temporarily lowers Speed). You can buy all of these items in the central Pokémon Center in Hammerlocke by talking to the Pokémon League Staff, although they cost BP, which you must earn in the Battle Tower.
As for which Pokémon to fight to gain EVs, there are many different possibilities, especially with the Wild Area to consider. However, as the Wild Area’s weather changes each day, it’s better to look at more reliable options that aren’t affected by weather, which you’ll find below.
Also, keep in mind that the EV yield listed is the base EV yield — if you’re using the Macho Brace, that amount is doubled; if you’re using a Power Item, add +8 to the stat the Power Item raises; and if you have the Pokérus, that number is doubled yet again. You can find a listing after this section showing how much you’ll actually get with every configuration of these.
Where to EV Train HP
- Skwovet (+1 HP) is very common in the overworld on Route 1.
- Noctowl (+2 HP) is quite common in the Motostoke Outskirts, although it is at a much higher level.
Where to EV Train Attack
- Timburr (+1 Attack) is reasonably common inside of the Galar Mine.
Where to EV Train Defense
- Rolycoly (+1 Defense) is almost guaranteed on Route 3, directly south of the Galar Mine.
Where to EV Train Special Attack
- Although it’s in the Wild Area and not available in all weather conditions, both Oddish (+1 Special Attack) and Budew (+1 Special Attack) are common in the Dappled Grove under most weather conditions.
- Vanillite (+1 Special Attack) is also very common in almost every part of the Wild Area while it’s snowing or during a blizzard.
- Gastly (+1 Special Attack) can be found in the Watchtower Ruins part of the Wild Area under several weather conditions.
Where to EV Train Special Defense
- Blipbug (+1 Special Defense) is available on Routes 1 and 2, but only as random encounters.
- Duskull (+1 Special Defense) can be found in the Watchtower Ruins part of the Wild Area under most weather conditions.
Where to EV Train Speed
- Rookidee (+1 Speed) on Route 1 or Route 2 as overworld encounters are pretty common and give Speed.
- Galarian Zigzagoon (+1 Speed) on Route 3’s western part near Motostoke is also pretty common.
How Many EVs You’ll Actually Gain
It’s important to keep in mind that all of the numbers listed above for how many EVs each Pokémon give are their base yield, so that’s before any multipliers or bonuses. The actual number you’ll get should be much higher than that.
Here’s a little cheatsheet for how much EVs you’ll gain (the base EV yield is the number you see listed in the recommended encounters above):
- If you have no Power Item or Pokérus…
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 1, you’ll get 1 EV each..
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 2, you’ll get 2 EVs each.
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 3, you’ll get 3 EVs each.
- If you have the Pokérus/Macho Brace but no Power Item…
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 1, you’ll get 2 EVs each.
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 2, you’ll get 4 EVs each.
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 3, you’ll get 6 EVs each.
- If you have a Power Item but no Pokérus…
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 1, you’ll get 9 EVs each.
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 2, you’ll get 10 EVs each.
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 3, you’ll get 11 EVs each.
- If you have a Power Item and the Pokérus…
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 1, you’ll get 18 EVs each.
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 2, you’ll get 20 EVs each.
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 3, you’ll get 22 EVs each.
- If you have the Macho Brace and the Pokérus…
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 1, you’ll get 4 EVs each.
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 2, you’ll get 8 EVs each.
- If the Pokémon’s base EV yield is 3, you’ll get 12 EVs each.
Resetting a Pokémon’s EVs (Isle of Armor)
Although the EV reducing berries described in the main EV Training guide can be used to lower Pokémon’s EVs, the problem is these are not easy to farm. They can only be shaken from trees that respawn every day, and there’s no guarantee of how many you’ll get. You’ll need over 50 berries to completely reset a fully EV Trained Pokémon’s EVs.
Thankfully, the Isle of Armor from the Expansion Pass has a fix for it, although it is a little pricey.
There’s a man on one of the small islands off the southeastern coast of the Isle of Armor that will fully reset a Pokémon’s EVs to 0 for the cost of 10 Armorite Ore. This can be an effective way to make sure your Pokémon has a clean set of EVs, especially if it was a Pokémon you took with you throughout your journey through the Galar region, where you weren’t keeping track of what EVs it gained. You can earn Armorite Ore by fighting in Max Raid Battles on the Isle of Armor.