I made the breeding guide before the IV one, so they kind of follow sequence. Do tell if you have any ideas for improvement, I wrote these up fairly fast. They're meant to be read together.
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So, you want to compete in the Video Game Championships. Well, you should know now, you don’t have great of chances at winning if you just go with your trusty Level 100 Gyarados and Level 75 Landorus. EVs are important (see this guide for details), but before EV points are added, you need to cultivate a Pokemon to be the best it can be.
How do you do this? Breeding. Yeah, the Daycare center on Route 3 plays a very important role. Before you get into the deep mechanics of IVs and other things, you need to know the basics (as a note, IVs are in the next post).
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Let’s start with Egg groups. Not every Pokemon can breed with every Pokemon. Each Pokemon is in one or two of 17 egg groups. This makes it so that, say, a Druddigon (Dragon and Monster) can’t breed with a Bisharp (Human-like).
The most important of these 17 are Undiscovered, Genderless, and Ditto. Everything in Undiscovered is completely unable to breed. If you want to use something in battling from that group, look into methods aside from breeding.
Genderless Pokemon can only breed with Ditto, but Ditto can breed with everything (except Undiscovered, of course, and other Ditto). Ditto is genderless, but it can breed with other genderless, male, and female Pokemon. Ditto is the go-to Pokemon if you’re trying to get a Tepig egg to trade to your friend.
But for situations outside of Ditto, the female’s basic form will be the Pokemon in the Egg (note that incenses affect this). This is one reason 1-in-8 chanced female starter Pokemon are a bit coveted. So if you don’t have a Ditto and only want to breed to get a multiple of a species, keep this in mind.
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Let’s see... Oh, the chances of getting an egg. After depositing two Pokemon into the daycare, talking to the Daycare Man will prompt a message. The specifics of it can be a bit complicated, but this table is a good summary of what you need to know:
So after you’ve put in two compatible Pokemon, the next thing to do is to start bicycling! Just go back and forth, along the long road, until the man calls out to you with news of an egg. Collect it, and rejoice. Now start cycling again, until the egg hatches. Too slow? Put a Pokemon with the ability of Flame Body or Magma Armor into your party, and enjoy half the time needed to hatch the egg (Pokemon with these abilities are commonly the Magcargo, Magmortar, Chandelure, and Volcarona evolution families). Note that the time needed to get and hatch an egg is not actually time; it is measured in steps.
Those are the basics, for just getting a multiple of your species. But if you’re breeding for battling, read on.
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Often, when you look at the moves of a Pokemon that’s meant to be used competitively, you’ll see moves that can’t be learned by levelling up, nor by TM. These are called Egg moves. If you’re trying to breed a fearsome Haxorous, and you want it to know the only Steel-type move it can know, Iron Tail, levelling up won’t work (also, good luck finding a TM for it). The only way to get it is to breed it with a species from the Aggron family. So, let’s go to an example.
Ok, so I want a Haxorous. That means I need a male Haxorous-family species, and a female Aggron-family species that knows Iron Tail. They’re both share an egg group, so they’ll breed. Everything seems to in order... except that I swapped the genders. Learn from this. If the genders are right, everything will go smoothly and you’ll have a baby Axew that knows Iron Tail. Nifty.
Alternatively, I could have used a male Haxorous-family with Iron Tail and just have bred it with a Ditto. Of course, this would require the Haxorous to already know Iron Tail, but it’s useful if you, again, need multiples of a species (but with a special egg move).
Another thing: Hydreigon, a popular species to use in battle, is faced with a bit of a conundrum that some other species share: Two of its best moves, Earth Power and Dark Pulse, are both egg moves and are the result of parents of different egg groups. This means you can never legally have a Hydreigon with both Earth Power and Dark Pulse. Just something to keep in mind. This applies to a bunch of other species as well, but Hydreigon is arguably the most infamous. As of BW2, Game Freak has pretty much solved these illegal move combos with move tutors.
A Male Smeargle is a way to sometimes get around this seemingly impossible situation. If the Pokemon you want is in the Ground egg group, you could take a Smeargle and battle it against two Pokemon with the moves you want (on separate occasions, not at the same time). Have it Sketch both, and then breed it with the Female of the species you want to get, and have fun.
One last thing about egg moves: You'll sometimes see cases where a parent can only learn an egg move by being egg moved itself. One may ask why that would be possible, and why not just breed with the theoretical grandparent. This longer process is taken in order to bridge egg groups; the grandparent doesn’t have a compatible egg group with the grandchild, but the parent does. This process is known as chain breeding.
One popular example is in trying to get an Eevee with Wish. One would start by taking a Male Togetic, getting it Wish, and would then breed it not with an Eevee-family Pokemon, but first with a Female Skitty. After getting a Male Skitty with Wish, one would breed it with a Female Eevee, and that would result with the Eevee with Wish. Obviously, some research is required on this, but it is possible.
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There’s one more key thing that needs to be known for competitive breeding (haha): Nature inheriting (as a quick summary, natures boost certain stats and negatively affect others. This is used to the advantage of battlers to boost key stats of a Pokemon). If the female you breed is holding an Everstone, there’s a 50% chance that it’s nature will be passed down onto the offspring. This is a lot easier than using the 1-in-26 chance randomness you normally get to get the nature you want. Use it well.
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As a footnote to the competitive side of breeding, there is one last thing (I promise!). You may see Pokemon with odd abilities floating around here and there, like a Haxorous with Unnerve. These are hidden abilities that can only be obtained by finding the Pokemon in the Dream World... unless, that is, you’re breeding. Females with these abilities have a 60% chance of passing down their hidden ability to their offspring. This doesn’t work at all with Ditto, but it can be mighty useful.
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BONUS SUPERFLOURUS MAGICAL PRETTINESS SECTION:
Shinies. Those sometime beautiful beasts that are incredibly hard to find. A few years ago, it was discovered that you could increase the chances of getting one while breeding 6 times with something that is now known as the Masuda method: Breed two Pokemon from games a different language*, and revel in the... slightly improved chances. Oh well, go for it!
*Your Canadian buddy’s Pokemon won’t cut it; that’s a different country, not a different language. Go for Japanese Pokemon from the GTS, those are always a safe bet.
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So, you want to compete in the Video Game Championships. Well, you should know now, you don’t have great of chances at winning if you just go with your trusty Level 100 Gyarados and Level 75 Landorus. EVs are important (see this guide for details), but before EV points are added, you need to cultivate a Pokemon to be the best it can be.
How do you do this? Breeding. Yeah, the Daycare center on Route 3 plays a very important role. Before you get into the deep mechanics of IVs and other things, you need to know the basics (as a note, IVs are in the next post).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let’s start with Egg groups. Not every Pokemon can breed with every Pokemon. Each Pokemon is in one or two of 17 egg groups. This makes it so that, say, a Druddigon (Dragon and Monster) can’t breed with a Bisharp (Human-like).
The most important of these 17 are Undiscovered, Genderless, and Ditto. Everything in Undiscovered is completely unable to breed. If you want to use something in battling from that group, look into methods aside from breeding.
Genderless Pokemon can only breed with Ditto, but Ditto can breed with everything (except Undiscovered, of course, and other Ditto). Ditto is genderless, but it can breed with other genderless, male, and female Pokemon. Ditto is the go-to Pokemon if you’re trying to get a Tepig egg to trade to your friend.
But for situations outside of Ditto, the female’s basic form will be the Pokemon in the Egg (note that incenses affect this). This is one reason 1-in-8 chanced female starter Pokemon are a bit coveted. So if you don’t have a Ditto and only want to breed to get a multiple of a species, keep this in mind.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let’s see... Oh, the chances of getting an egg. After depositing two Pokemon into the daycare, talking to the Daycare Man will prompt a message. The specifics of it can be a bit complicated, but this table is a good summary of what you need to know:
| What he says | Why he’s saying it | What it means |
| ”They seem to get along very well” | You put in Pokemon of the same species, and they have different ID numbers (they’re from two different games) | A high chance of getting an egg quickly |
| ”They seem to get along” | You put in Pokemon of either the same species and same ID number, or different species and different ID numbers | A medium chance of getting an egg quickly |
| ”The two don’t seem to like each other” | You put in Pokemon of different species with the same ID number | A low chance of getting an egg quickly |
| The two prefer to play with other Pokemon | You either put in Pokemon from Undiscovered, put in two of the same gender, or put in two from different egg groups | NO EGG FOR YOU |
So after you’ve put in two compatible Pokemon, the next thing to do is to start bicycling! Just go back and forth, along the long road, until the man calls out to you with news of an egg. Collect it, and rejoice. Now start cycling again, until the egg hatches. Too slow? Put a Pokemon with the ability of Flame Body or Magma Armor into your party, and enjoy half the time needed to hatch the egg (Pokemon with these abilities are commonly the Magcargo, Magmortar, Chandelure, and Volcarona evolution families). Note that the time needed to get and hatch an egg is not actually time; it is measured in steps.
Those are the basics, for just getting a multiple of your species. But if you’re breeding for battling, read on.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Often, when you look at the moves of a Pokemon that’s meant to be used competitively, you’ll see moves that can’t be learned by levelling up, nor by TM. These are called Egg moves. If you’re trying to breed a fearsome Haxorous, and you want it to know the only Steel-type move it can know, Iron Tail, levelling up won’t work (also, good luck finding a TM for it). The only way to get it is to breed it with a species from the Aggron family. So, let’s go to an example.
Ok, so I want a Haxorous. That means I need a male Haxorous-family species, and a female Aggron-family species that knows Iron Tail. They’re both share an egg group, so they’ll breed. Everything seems to in order... except that I swapped the genders. Learn from this. If the genders are right, everything will go smoothly and you’ll have a baby Axew that knows Iron Tail. Nifty.
Alternatively, I could have used a male Haxorous-family with Iron Tail and just have bred it with a Ditto. Of course, this would require the Haxorous to already know Iron Tail, but it’s useful if you, again, need multiples of a species (but with a special egg move).
A Male Smeargle is a way to sometimes get around this seemingly impossible situation. If the Pokemon you want is in the Ground egg group, you could take a Smeargle and battle it against two Pokemon with the moves you want (on separate occasions, not at the same time). Have it Sketch both, and then breed it with the Female of the species you want to get, and have fun.
One last thing about egg moves: You'll sometimes see cases where a parent can only learn an egg move by being egg moved itself. One may ask why that would be possible, and why not just breed with the theoretical grandparent. This longer process is taken in order to bridge egg groups; the grandparent doesn’t have a compatible egg group with the grandchild, but the parent does. This process is known as chain breeding.
One popular example is in trying to get an Eevee with Wish. One would start by taking a Male Togetic, getting it Wish, and would then breed it not with an Eevee-family Pokemon, but first with a Female Skitty. After getting a Male Skitty with Wish, one would breed it with a Female Eevee, and that would result with the Eevee with Wish. Obviously, some research is required on this, but it is possible.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There’s one more key thing that needs to be known for competitive breeding (haha): Nature inheriting (as a quick summary, natures boost certain stats and negatively affect others. This is used to the advantage of battlers to boost key stats of a Pokemon). If the female you breed is holding an Everstone, there’s a 50% chance that it’s nature will be passed down onto the offspring. This is a lot easier than using the 1-in-26 chance randomness you normally get to get the nature you want. Use it well.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a footnote to the competitive side of breeding, there is one last thing (I promise!). You may see Pokemon with odd abilities floating around here and there, like a Haxorous with Unnerve. These are hidden abilities that can only be obtained by finding the Pokemon in the Dream World... unless, that is, you’re breeding. Females with these abilities have a 60% chance of passing down their hidden ability to their offspring. This doesn’t work at all with Ditto, but it can be mighty useful.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BONUS SUPERFLOURUS MAGICAL PRETTINESS SECTION:
Shinies. Those sometime beautiful beasts that are incredibly hard to find. A few years ago, it was discovered that you could increase the chances of getting one while breeding 6 times with something that is now known as the Masuda method: Breed two Pokemon from games a different language*, and revel in the... slightly improved chances. Oh well, go for it!
*Your Canadian buddy’s Pokemon won’t cut it; that’s a different country, not a different language. Go for Japanese Pokemon from the GTS, those are always a safe bet.
