Question

Does the Macho Brace work if the Pokémon holding it was not in the battle, but in the party, where the EVs were gained?

Answer 1

Yes, the Pokemon will gain EVs. This also applies to Power Items.

To test this, I attached a Macho Brace to one Gible, a Power Band to another Gible, and had a Gible with no item. After defeating four Altaria with a Magnezone, the Gible with items had more Special Defense EVs than the one without an item (I used Super Training to compare the EVs).

I also tested this in ORAS, and the results are the same, although my way of testing was different.

To test, I used my Whismer. I gave it the Macho Brace, defeated 3 Mantine with my Manectric, and used a Grepa Berry on Whismer. Whismer still had EVs. I reset it's EVs and repeated the process with Whismer holding the Power Band, and it still had EVs after I used the Grepa Berry.

Hoped this helped!

Answer 2

According to User Xvielia, the Pokémon must at least participate in the battle for the Macho Brace to provide the double EVs. If you found this useful, upvote his answer in question "If I switch out a Pokemon holding a macho brace, will the double ev gain still apply?". I just stole his answer.

Comments

what (filler)

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What do you mean what?

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The question you linked talks about if you switch out the Macho Brace Pokémon. I asked how it works if the Macho Brace Pokémon stays in the party.

If you could find a more reputable source such as Bulbapedia, since the answer you linked doesn’t have a source, I’ll BA.

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Well Xvielia said to receive the boost the Pokémon must participate in the battle, not just sit in the party.

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I can't find much information about it on Bulbapedia.

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It's driving me crazy trying to navigate through it.