Video Games

Palworld IVs Explained: How to Calculate, What They Mean & More

Pals looking down in Palworld.

At first glance, Palworld might just seem like a straightforward, simple survival crafting game, but there’s quite a lot going on under the hood as well. Here’s everything you need to know about IVs, or Individual Values, in Palworld.

Recommended Videos

What IVs Do in Palworld

Individual Values, more commonly referred to as IVs in Palworld, determine how much of a stat increase a Pal gains when it levels up. There are three main stats in Palworld: HP, Attack, and Defense. So if a Pal has a high HP IV, this means that its HP will go up a lot more than usual, compared to its Attack and Defense stats.

While PvP isn’t really a big part of Palworld just yet, Pokemon enthusiasts will recognize how important IVs can be if you’re planning on assembling a perfect team of Pals. Getting the right IVs and Passives on a Pal can make a huge difference even in the context of PvE. While this isn’t at all necessary for progressing through the game and its solo content, IVs can be seen as an endgame goal for you to chase once you’ve cleared out everything else.

How to Calculate IVs

lifmunk stats in palworld
Screenshot captured by The Escapist

So now that we know what IVs do in Palworld, let’s go over how we can calculate them in more detail.

Big shoutout to u/blahable on the Palworld subreddit, who’s done extensive research into the level gains and values for Pals in the game.

First, it’s important to note that every Pal has the same base stats at level 0, as listed below:

  • HP: 500
  • Attack: 100
  • Defense: 50

As mentioned previously, the stat increases that each Pal gets when they level up will differ based on their IVs. At a minimum, Pals will gain 50% of their HP value, and 7.5% of their Attack and Defense values when they level up. When you take IVs into account, that percentage goes up.

For instance, if a Pal has an IV bonus of 15% in Attack, then you can calculate its gains as follows: 100*0.75*1.15.

Now comes the tricky part. Palworld doesn’t straight up tell you what a Pal’s IVs are, which means that you have to manually calculate them yourself. You can do this by looking at the stats of a level 1 Pal, and doing the math backwards from there. But to make things easier for you, Paldex.io has released an IV calculator so you don’t have to deal with the math.

Plus, the calculator ensures that you don’t have to worry about an accounting error either.

paldex palworld ivs calculator
Screenshot captured by The Escapist

To use the Paldex calculator, simply enter the Pal’s information including its level, HP, Attack, and Defense stats, as well as its Passives. The calculator will then give you the numerical percentage value for each IV, and you’ll know whether this is a Pal you want to invest in.

One final thing to note is that IVs are randomized across all Pals in Palworld. This means that it can take you a lot of time to finally find the perfect Pal with your ideal IVs. Doing so will either require you to breed Pals, or just capture them continuously in the open world. Either way, it’s an arduous task, so keep that in mind before you fall into the IV rabbit hole.

And that’s all you need to know about how IVs work in Palworld.

About the author

Zhiqing Wan
Zhiqing is a History undergrad from the National University of Singapore. She started playing video games in 1996 when her dad first came home with Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, and Resident Evil -- and the rest, as they say, is history. When she's not obsessing over Elden Ring and Dark Souls lore theories, you can find her singing along loudly and badly to Taylor Swift's latest bops. Formerly the Reviews Editor at Twinfinite, she joined the Escapist team in 2024. You can reach her at [email protected].
Zhiqing Wan
Zhiqing is a History undergrad from the National University of Singapore. She started playing video games in 1996 when her dad first came home with Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, and Resident Evil -- and the rest, as they say, is history. When she's not obsessing over Elden Ring and Dark Souls lore theories, you can find her singing along loudly and badly to Taylor Swift's latest bops. Formerly the Reviews Editor at Twinfinite, she joined the Escapist team in 2024. You can reach her at [email protected].

All Palworld Console Commands

Previous article

What Is Ranked Resurgence in MW3 Warzone?

Next article