Pocket Monster Quality
Every pocket monster rolls a Quality tier — from Unstable to Absolute — shifting its performance by about 10%.
Alongside IVs, every pocket monster you obtain — starter or catch — rolls a permanent Quality from 0.00% to 100.00%. Quality scales ALL of its effective stats (HP, Attack, Defense, Sp. Atk, Sp. Def, and even its movement Speed in the farm arena): an Unstable specimen performs about 10% below the species baseline, while an Absolute one performs about 10% above it. Between the two extremes of the same species lies roughly a 20% power gap.
The roll is weighted toward the low end, so a tier's range is NOT how often it comes up: Unstable covers the narrowest slice of the scale yet is the most common result by far, and the top tiers are genuinely rare. Each tier below lists the range it occupies and how often it actually lands.
Unstable (0–15% of the scale, ~39% of rolls): their energy is wild and chaotic; their physical form might flicker or look slightly faded. Hard to train.
Diluted (over 15–40%, ~25% of rolls): average, everyday specimen. Their magical lineage is a bit watered down, resulting in standard stats.
Refined (over 40–65%, ~17% of rolls): a healthy, well-balanced monster. Their elemental energy is clear and stable.
Potent (over 65–85%, ~12% of rolls): bubbling with vibrant energy. Their colors might be slightly more saturated, and they learn skills faster.
Pristine (over 85–98%, ~7% of rolls): a flawless physical specimen. Immaculate fur, scales or feathers, perfect symmetry, and exceptionally high base stats.
Absolute (over 98–100%, ~1% of rolls): a legendary ideal of their species. They radiate a soft elemental aura and possess maximum possible stat growth — roughly 1 in 100 pocket monsters reach this tier, and a flawless 100.00% is rarer still: about 1 roll in 40,000.
You can see a pocket monster's Quality tier on its card and in its detail view — hover the tier to read its exact roll, what it does to the stats, and how rare it is. Quality never changes — not by leveling, and not by evolving — so a Pristine Charmander becomes a Pristine Charizard. When hunting for a keeper, weigh Quality together with IVs: Quality sets the overall multiplier, IVs shape the individual stats.