Are all 3 star Pokémon good?
Not necessarily. While 3 star Pokémon have strong IV potential, IVs alone don‘t determine battling viability or real world performance. Factors like typing, moves, rarity, and sentimentality all impact a Pokémon‘s usefulness. So don‘t put too much stock in stars alone.
What do the stars actually mean?
The appraisal stars rate a Pokémon‘s IVs on 3 stats: Attack, Defense, Speed. Each stat is rated 0-15, with higher better. The total IV percentage gives them their rating:
0-50% IVs = 0 stars
51-65% IVs = 1 star
66-80% IVs = 2 stars
82-98% IVs = 3 stars
100% IVs = 4 starsIVs help determine CP potential. But Max CP estimates can be misleading when choosing Pokémon. Here‘s why…
CP calculations hide diminishing returns
| Percentage IVs | Atk IV | Def IV | HP IV | CP @ L40 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100% | 15 | 15 | 15 | 3581 |
| 91% | 14 | 14 | 14 | 3556 |
| 82% | 13 | 13 | 13 | 3530 |
| 73% | 12 | 12 | 12 | 3505 |
| 64% | 11 | 11 | 11 | 3480 |
| 51% | 10 | 10 | 10 | 3450 |
The above table shows how marginal extra IVs become for boosting CP past a certain point. Yet the appraisal stars round percentages, so a 91% dragonite gets 3 stars like a 100% one.
How rare are 3 star+ Pokémon?
According to analysis from Pokémon Go researchers [1], the percentages of catching Pokémon with different IV star ratings in the wild are:
- 0 stars = 25.7%
- 1 star = 41.4%
- 2 stars = 23.2%
- 3 stars = 8.8%
- 4 stars = 0.9%
So 3 stars are quite uncommon, and perfect 100% IVs especially so. Yet Pokémon with 0 attack IVs are caught 3.4x more frequently than 15 attack ones.
Movesets and typing matter more
While IVs influence CP potential, factors like movesets and especially typing decide matchups. According to PvP analysis, 0 star Pokémon with the proper counters can reliably beat 3 star Pokémon in Trainer Battles [2].
For example, a 100% Vaporeon will almost always fall easily to even a 0% Electric or Grass type like Ampharos or Venusaur. And while rare, a 0% Dragonite with Dragon moves can demolish an unprepared 3 star defending Pokémon.
Community Day FOMO drove bad habits
Exclusive Community Day moves created fear of missing out around evolve chances. Players began obsessing over IVs, ignoring movesets and viability.
Initially I made this mistake, trashing useful Pokémon focused only on stars. This irrational behavior demonstrates how overvaluing IVs causes suboptimal decisions.
Common myths around 4 star Pokémon
The Pokémon Go community propagates several rumors around getting coveted 4 star Pokémon:
Myth #1: Hatching Pokémon have better odds for high IVs.
Reality: Egg and wild catch IV odds are actually the same. Hatched Pokémon get a temporary CP boost leading to confusion.
Myth #2: Raid boss Pokémon have guaranteed 10/10/10 IV minimums.
Reality: The IV floor rumor emerged after an unverified claim and selective bias in small samples. Actual rate tracking found it‘s not true [3].
Myth #3: Weather boost spawns have better IV odds.
Reality: While weather boosting does impact level and CP, it hasn‘t been proven to influence IV rates thus far.
I‘ve caught one perfect Pokémon in 4 years
After catching 27,230 Pokémon since 2019, I‘ve encountered exactly one 4 star catch. This reinforces just how incredibly rare 100% IV Pokémon truly are.
My perfect catch was a random Sunny Cherrim appearing mid-event with no weather boost. And unfortunately Cherrim is useless in battle! This goes to show IVs simply indicate potential, not real performance.
Should we only raid 3 star and higher bosses?
Many players now cherry pick which raid bosses to attempt based on star ratings. But is this a logical approach?
High rated raid bosses have a mere 2-4% chance or less to catch with perfect IVs. And catching multiple to trade hoping for luckies just results in transfer fodder.
Meanwhile useful Meta Pokémon get ignored despite having the right movesets just because their IV floor is 10/10/10 for raids. In reality, those catches are likely more useful than a 3 star version of a non-viable Pokémon.
Takeaways – What really matters
- IVs help determine CP potential but don‘t perfectly correlate to battle performance
- Movesets and especially typing are key to matchups
- Star ratings are just loose groupings – a 91% dragonite is not 11% worse than a perfect one
- Stat product is generally a better measure than IV percentage alone
- Raid boss IV floors being raised hasn‘t been conclusively proven
- While satisfying, perfect 4 star Pokémon are incredibly negligible
- Luckies provide stardust discount more so than boosting power
- Sentimentality, shinies, and trophies are all valid reasons to keep Pokémon!
So while 3 star Pokémon have potential, don‘t get overzealous about IVs. Keep high level encounter Pokémon with strong typing as well for raid attacking. And 0 star Pokémon are still useful when powered up or matched advantageously.
