Pokemon Nature Guide!
A Pokemon nature determines a significant amount of a Pokemon’s potential. Now most of that is for EV’s and IV’s, which are part of a different guide.
Here’s some history: Pokemon Nature made their debut in RUBY and SAPPHIRE. Natures were introduced in these games since the core audience of the first two generations were growing older. This was to give the game some more competitive merit, which older gamers are usually into. Now, the first two generations had some competitive merit, but it was the bare minimum, and those mechanics only served a basic purpose.
Natures on the other hand, are fun. It gives the player an idea of what makes a competitively viable or breed-able Pokemon. Casual players, from my experience with friends, use it to associate a personality to the Pokemon. A sassy Samurott sounds fun, but it is not competitively viable. Still, do what you want. This chart will provide a list of strengths and weaknesses for Pokemon of certain natures.
One stat gets 10% growth in one stat, and a 10% stunt in another. Some natures are neutral.
If you want to pass down a specific nature to a Pokemon hatched from an egg, have the parent Pokemon with the nature you want hold an Everstone. So a Ditto with an Adamant nature will pass down the Adamant nature to, let’s say, a Torchic. By the way, before Generation V, there was only a 50% chance of the Pokemon nature being passed down.
Nature and things like shininess are passed down by a “personality value” and that is randomly generated and difficult to ascertain. Unless you are a math genius, don’t bother trying to manipulate it. It is present in Generations III and IV, and slightly different in Emerald and Generation V.
Since contests are coming back, Natures determine what flavors your Pokemon like for PokeBlocks and other things. For Generation IV, it’s the wonderful Poffins. The guide for flavor preferences will be BELOW the Stats Chart.
Natures Chart: How it Affects Stats!
^ means growth in that stat, x means stunt in that stat. Nothing means the nature is neutral. Notice how I organized everything in a nice order, where the natures’ names are in order of the growth stat represented by the column, and then split by a neutral nature.
Pokemon Nature Chart
| Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed | |
| Hardy | |||||
| Lonely | ^ | x | |||
| Brave | ^ | x | |||
| Adamant | ^ | x | |||
| Naughty | ^ | x | |||
| Docile | |||||
| Bold | x | ^ | |||
| Relaxed | ^ | x | |||
| Impish | ^ | x | |||
| Lax | ^ | x | |||
| Serious | |||||
| Modest | x | ^ | |||
| Mild | x | ^ | |||
| Quiet | ^ | x | |||
| Rash | ^ | x | |||
| Bashful | |||||
| Calm | x | ^ | |||
| Gentle | x | ^ | |||
| Sassy | ^ | x | |||
| Careful | x | ^ | |||
| Quirky | |||||
| Timid | x | ^ | |||
| Hasty | x | ^ | |||
| Jolly | x | ^ | |||
| Naive | x | ^ |
FUN FACT: In Generation VI and likely ORAS, you can see how the nature affects the growth of your Pokemon on the Pokemon status menu and move list. Red means growth, and blue means stunt. No colors means you have a neutral nature.
Do’s and don’ts –
1. DO find a Pokemon with a neutral nature or nature that benefits its best stat. Practice until you are ready to train a stronger version of that Pokemon.
2. DON’T raise a Pokemon with a detrimental nature. An Abra with an Adamant nature is terrible, for instance.
3. DO research a Pokemon’s base stats and move lists. This will help you determine the best nature for your Pokemon.
4. DON’T ignore a Pokemon’s stunted stat. An Abra with a Quiet nature, despite having a boost in Special Attack, is still bad because it has a stunt in its second best stat: Speed.
Tastes and dislikes
*This is important because of Contests. A Pokemon’s contest stats are influenced by by whether or not they like the food. Likes and dislikes are specifically determined by nature. Sometimes this can be quite annoying. Instead of a chart, a quick reference is the chart already shown. Here’s how to utilize it.
Okay, so Pokemon with neutral natures (Hardy, Docile, Serious, Bashful) will happily eat anything.
1. Pokemon with growth in Attack (Adamant, Brave, Naughty, Lonely) like Spicy food.
2. Pokemon with growth in Defense (Bold, Relaxed, Impish, Lax) like Sour food.
3. Pokemon with growth in Special Attack (Quiet, Modest, Rash, Mild) like Dry food.
4. Pokemon with growth in Special Defense (Careful, Gentle, Calm, Sassy) like Bitter food.
5. Pokemon with growth in Speed (Timid, Hasty, Naive, Jolly) like Sweet food.
Now, how do you determine dislikes? Easy, whatever the stunt in their stat is is their dislike. So a Pokemon with an Adamant nature likes Spicy food, right? Since its stunt is in Special Attack, it would dislike Dry food.
Here are three other examples: Timid (likes Sweet, hates Spicy), Rash (likes Dry, hates Bitter), Relaxed (likes Sour, hates Sweet).
PokeBlock and Poffin flavors are the items affected by taste. This in turn affects the Contest Categories. This is the annoying part (at least in Generation IV, where the Physical/Special split happened).
Cool contest enhancing PokeBlocks/Poffins are SPICY (Red).
Beauty contest enhancing PokeBlocks/Poffins are DRY (Blue).
Tough contest enhancing PokeBlocks/Poffins are SOUR (Yellow).
Smart contest enhancing PokeBlocks/Poffins are BITTER (Green).
Cute contest enhancing PokeBlocks/Poffins are SWEET (Pink).
Remember that the elusive Feebas needs Beauty/Blue/Dry Pokeblocks to evolve in Generation III; this will be the case in ORAS as well.
*The name PokeBlocks may change in ORAS, by the way.
Use these for your Competitive and Contest advantage!