How to decide: keep or transfer

The 30-second checklist

1. Is it special? Shiny, costume, Legendary, Mythical, Ultra Beast, regional form, Lucky, Purified, Gigantamax, or a form that no longer spawns: keep at least one regardless of stats. Hundos (4★) and nundos (0/0/0) are trophies.
2. Does it (or its evolution) have a battle role? Check the tiers on its page. S and A tiers are worth several copies; B and C tiers are worth one good copy.
3. Do the IVs fit the role? Great and Ultra League want a rank ≤ 100 spread (≤ 500 is fine), which usually means low Attack. Raids, Max Battles, and Master League want 15 Attack and 91%+ overall. The IV checker rates the copy Good, Fair, or Bad against the roles it actually has.
4. Otherwise, transfer. Candy and bag space are worth more than a mediocre duplicate. Trade instead of transfer when a friend needs the dex entry, or a Lucky trade could reroll the IVs.

How the IV verdict works

The checker scores every role the species has (including roles of its final evolution) by how well your IVs fit it:

• Capped leagues (Little, Great, Ultra): the spread's rank among all 4,096 combinations. Rank 1–100 is excellent, 101–500 good, 501–1,000 usable, worse is poor. Rank 1 is rarely more than 2% stronger than rank 100, and rank 500 is typically 3–5% behind.
• Uncapped play (Master League, raids, Max Battles): 15 Attack with 91%+ IVs is excellent, 14+ Attack with 82%+ is good, 82% overall is usable. A 3★ versus a 4★ is under 1% raid damage; level and moves matter far more.
• Shadows get a lower IV bar: a mediocre-IV Shadow still out-damages a normal hundo in raids.
• Good = a hundo, a nundo, or a strong fit for an A/S-tier role. Fair = a usable fit for some role, or 3★ on a species with a role. Bad = nothing to build for. Legendary, Mythical, and Ultra Beast copies are kept one tier more generously because they are hard to replace.

Example: Parasect is a C-tier Great League pick. A 4★ Parasect is a Keep (hundo trophy, and fine for raids at level 40). A 2★ Parasect with a rank-800 Great League spread is a Transfer.

PvP (GO Battle League)

Tiers come from PvPoke's overall rank within each league: S = top 3%, A = top 8%, B = top 18%, C = top 35%. PvPoke rankings simulate matchups against the current meta, so they shift with every move rebalance and season.

• Great League (1500 CP) and Ultra League (2500 CP) are capped, so the best IVs are low Attack with high Defense and HP, letting the Pokemon reach a higher level under the cap. Rank-1 Azumarill is closer to 0/15/15 than 15/15/15. Never auto-transfer 0★ and 1★ catches of PvP species.
• Where good spreads come from: wild catches have a 0 IV floor; weather-boosted 4; raids, eggs, and research 10; Rocket leaders 6; trades 1/2/3/5 by friendship; Lucky trades 12. Set the catch source in the IV checker and the rank is computed among only the spreads that source can give.
• Master League has no cap: hundos at level 50 win, and XL candy (296 from level 40 to 50) is the real cost. Some 15/15/14 spreads are "functional hundos" with an identical stat product, because HP is rounded down.
• Shadow Pokemon hit 20% harder and take 20% more damage; they get their own row on each page because that trade-off changes their ranking.
• Little Cup (500 CP) is only for unevolved Pokemon; rank 1 is almost always 0/15/15.

Raids and gyms

Raid rankings are computed here with the comprehensive DPS/TDO model used by DialgaDex and the old GamePress spreadsheet: a level 40, 15/15/15 attacker against a neutral 180-defense target that deals damage back and interrupts with charged moves. Moves are scored by ER = DPS^0.75 × TDO^0.25, which rewards damage first and durability second. Every Pokemon is ranked within each attacking type by the type of its best charged move.

• Tiers: S = top 3 of a type, A = top 8, B = top 15, C = top 30.
• IVs matter less than level. A 10/10/10 at level 40 out-damages a hundo at level 30, and level 50 is only about 6% better than level 40 for 296 XL candy. Build many level-40 attackers before one level-50.
• Shadows and Megas are ranked separately. A Shadow is usually the best non-Mega version of a species; keep any Shadow of a top raid species regardless of IVs.
• Elite TM moves are flagged. A Pokemon whose best moveset needs an Elite TM is only that strong if you are willing to spend one.
• Gym defenders want bulk, not DPS: Blissey, Chansey (decays slowest because its max CP is low), Snorlax, Togekiss, Metagross. One or two are enough.

Max Battles (Dynamax and Gigantamax)

• Only Pokemon caught in Max Battles at Power Spots (or from Max research) can Dynamax; they are separate from regular catches, so a Max copy is never a duplicate of a normal one.
• Each Max Pokemon gets one attacking Max Move per fast-move type (250 / 300 / 350 power at level 1 / 2 / 3), plus Max Guard (a +20 / 40 / 60 HP shield) and Max Spirit (heals 8 / 12 / 16%). Gigantamax forms swap in a signature G-Max move at 350 / 400 / 450 power.
• Attackers that matter: Gigantamax Inteleon, Gengar, Kingler, Rillaboom, Cinderace, Machamp, Crowned Sword Zacian, and Eternatus. Tanks: Registeel, Crowned Shield Zamazenta, the Regis, Metagross. Healer: Blissey. See the rankings.
• Gigantamax copies only come from Gigantamax Max Battle Days and cannot be re-obtained, so keep every one.

Special events and collection value

• Costumes cannot be obtained after their event ends, usually cannot evolve, and cannot Mega Evolve, so they are pure collection value: keep the best one or two per costume.
• Mega-capable species: keep your highest-Attack copy even if it is not a top raider; Mega Evolving it boosts your whole raid group and earns candy bonuses.
• Lucky Pokemon have a 12 IV floor and cost half the Stardust to power up; a Lucky Friends trade guarantees one. Purified copies gain +2 to each IV and cost 10% less, but lose the Shadow damage bonus.
• Legacy moves: anything found by @special would cost an Elite TM to re-learn, so keep it.
• Unreleased shinies are flagged, so you know a shiny of that species would be new.
• Trading: Legendary, Mythical, and shiny trades are Special Trades (one per day). Transferring a high-level Pokemon can drop Candy XL, which softens the loss.

Useful in-game search strings

Operators: & and, , or, ! not, # tagged. Workflow: tag keepers first (KEEP_PVP, KEEP_RAID, MAX), then review !#.