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Breeding: A Handy How To guide (Work in Progress)

For all the people wondering how Breeding works, I'm here to explain.

First off, The 'Charms Pokedex is a great tool to use. There are others, but I like the This is Pokecharms, so That's the one I'll link.

Lets start on the Egg Groups.

Bug
Ditto
Dragon
Fairy
Flying
Land (Field/Ground)
Human Shape
Indeterminate
Monster
Mineral
Plant
Water 1
Water 2
Water 3
Pokemon that can't Breed (No Egg).

Those are the 13 egg groups. Pokemon fit either into one or two of the groups. These egg groups are sometimes marginally based upon physical features. (Example. Birds should be able to breed with other Birds right?)

Also, Ditto is the only Pokemon that belongs in the Ditto Group.

It takes about 240-260 steps for a new egg to appear at the Daycare.

When you talk to the man, he'll say one of four phrases, and the four phrases correspond to the chance of an egg appearing.
"They seem to get along very well" (Roughly 70% chance of having an egg)
"They seem to get along" (Roughly 50% chance of having an egg)
"They don't seem to like each other" (Roughly 20% chance of having an egg)
"They prefer to play with other Pokemon" (0% chance of having an egg)

Terms: (Work in Progress)

Chain Breeding - It's a process of two or more breeding steps to get moves onto one Pokemon. (Example: Chimchar Can Learn Facade. I breed it with a Farfetch'd so I can breed Facade onto Starly so It can Lear Brave Bird and Facade. Then I can breed A Starly with Brave Bird and Facade onto Swellow so it can Have Facade and Brave Bird with out using my Facade TM.)

Moves

Now, Female Pokemon are the ones who pass on the species of Pokemon. (Example: A female Swellow and a Male Pidgeotto are in the Day Care. Swellow, being the Female Pokemon, will make the Hatched Pokemon be a Swellow).

Male Pokemon determine what moves the New Pokemon will have when they hatch. There are three types off Moves Male Pokemon can pass on. They're Egg Moves, TM Moves and, Level-up Moves.

Egg Moves are moves that the Male knows and moves that the Male can pass on to the Newly Hatched Pokemon. (Example: Swellow can learn Brave Bird through breedin with Staraptor. Therefore it's an Egg Move. The Male Staraptor knows Brave Bird and is breeding with the Female Swellow)

TM Moves are moves that the Male knows that can be taught to Pokemon Via TM. TM 51 (Roost) is a good example. There's only 1 TM 51 in the game (Barring trading and hacking). Many Pokemon Learn Roost naturally and you don't have to waste the TM to use it on a Pokemon that can breed with the Pokemon. This saves you TMs and can actually be useful in a Breeding Chain. (Example: Swellow can Learn Roost via TM 51. On the other hand, Pidgeot learns it naturally and can Breed with Swellow. With some breeding, we can save a TM and Swellow will know Roost when the new baby hatches. Note that Pidgeot is the Male Pokemon and Swellow is the Female Pokemon). *Note: TM Moves can only be passed down of the Baby Pokemon can learn it through the TM. (Example: A Male Farfetch'd and a Female Chimchar are in the Daycare. The Farfetch'd knows Roost. Some may think that Chimchar will get Roost. Reality, it won't. Chimchar can't learn Roost through TM, so it can't learn the TM Move through breeding.)

Level-Up Moves are moves that both parents currently know (Like it's in the moveset right now). If both parents know the attack, it will be with the Pokemon when it's born. (Example: A female Swellow and a Male Pidgeot both know Wing Attack. Both of them learn the move naturally. If they both have the move when they're breeding, they will pass Wing Attack onto the baby when it hatches.)

Now if you're using Ditto, It either takes the place of the Male or Female. If Ditto is breeding with a Female, It takes the Place of the male. Therefore, no Egg Moves will be passed.

If Ditto is taking the place of the Female, it will still pass on the Male's species but no Egg Moves will be passed.

Also, if the female is holding an Everstone, that Pokemon has a 50% chance of passing the nature it has to its baby. Having Dittos with good natures can make it easier.

*From Ruko:

-Another tip for this, if you want egg moves, is to breed the nature you want onto a female with a few tries, then give the everstone to the female and breed it with whatever you want it to learn egg moves from. A long process, but worth it in the end.-

You can also breed IVs. (Work in Progress)

Egg Hatching

When Hatching eggs, they can take anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 steps. These Steps can be cut in half if the lead Pokemon in your party has the abiliy Flame Body or Magma Armor. (So 8,000 would go to 4,000)

Special Pokemon

Now, there's one special Pokemon. This Pokemon is Smeargel and can learn any move in the game with Sketch. It's egg group is Ground. It can pass any move that a Pokemon can Learn as an Egg move, TM Move or a Level-Up move. This Pokemon is a god when you need moves passed on and are needed to go through the Ground Egg Group. (Example: Smeargle is the only Pokemon that can breed Ice Shard onto Phanphy/Donphan.)

Phione is the Pokemon that is from a Legendary Pokemon. No other Legendary Pokemon have egg Pokemon. Phione is born from Manaphy and can be obtained from Breeding Manaphy with a Ditto. Phione will be in the egg and Phione cannot evolve into Manaphy.

Ditto is special in the way that it's the only Pokemon that can breed with the Genderless (No Egg) Pokemon. It can either replace the Male or Female Pokemon when breeding. Ditto is the only Pokemon that can breed with genderless (other than Pokemon of the same species). When breeding with Pokemon, Ditto will always act as the mother Pokemon.

Nidorina and Nidoqueen are considered part of the No Eggs groups. And yes, Nidoran isn't part of the No Eggs Group. So Nidorina and Nidoqueen cannot breed with any Pokemon.

When Nidoran is bred, the egg will either be Nidoran Male or Nidoran Female (50% chance for each).
When Illumise is bred, the egg will either be Illumise or Volbeat (50% chance for each).

Incense Pokemon:

The following Pokemon need incense to breed. The following table will show which Pokemon need what Incense to give which Baby Pokemon.

Parent Incense Baby
Roselia Rose Incense Budew
Roserade
Marill Sea Incense Azurill
Azumarill
Wobbuffet Lax Incense Wynaut
Chimecho Pure Incense Chingling
Sudowoodo Rock Incense Bonsly
Mr. Mime Odd Incense Mime Jr.
Chansey Luck Incense Happiny
Blissey
Snorlax Full Incense Munchlax
Mantine Wave Incense Mantyke
 

KoL

Expert FPS Player
Staff member
Moderator
I have a question: I was breeding a Starmie with the moveset Surf/Psychic/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt with a Ditto, and the baby Staryu I received had Surf/Psychic/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt as well. If both Staryu and Ditto are genderless...what's going on?
 

Ruko

Bearded Trout Warrior
When breeding a genderless pokemon with ditto, the genderless one will be treated as male... so egg moves, and TM moves can be passed on.

When breeding a gendered pokemon with Ditto, however, the pokemon must be Male to pass on moves.... I believe ;D
 

KoL

Expert FPS Player
Staff member
Moderator
Ahh...I like that, it'll definitely save a lot of cash and Battle Points. Thanks Ruko.
 
I have one question, I am breeding eevee's. I have two vaporeons and both know water gun, will the eevee in the egg learn it too?
 
Nope. Eevee can't learn Water Gun naturally, breeding two Vaporeons that know Water Gun won't make it that Eevee will know it. If Eevee could learn it naturally in Leveling up, then it would, but since Eevee can't, it wont and never will know Water Gun.
 
Your comment about Nidoran male & female and Illumise & Volbeat also goes for Tauros & Miltank I believe. I haven't tried though.
There's also another but I can't remember it.
 
Tauros and Miltank don't work that way. All Tauros, and I mean all Tauros are male. And likewise, all Miltanks are female. Therefore, the only way to get a Baby Tauros is to breed it with a Ditto.
 
It may just be my game (Which I've hacked a few times) but I've noticed that when I leave my pokémon in the daycare, the daycare man is either facing up or down, but when a egg appears, he faces the right(Helped me a lot too, not having to talk to him every 5 seconds).

And another thing, you say that putting 1 pokémon with Flame Body or Magma armour in your party with an egg will half the steps it takes for the egg to hatch. Well, maybe its just me not keeping track of time, but my eggs seem to hatch faster with two Flame Body/Magma Armour pokémon...
 
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Nice guide - it gave me luck!
I left 2 Pokémon at the Day Care Centre a few days ago, and it said ''They don't seem to like eachother''. I came to this topic and went to the Day Care Centre and found an egg !!
 
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If I were to breed a ditto with a male pokemon would it be a ditto or the same species as the male? what about Legendaries like Latias and Latios that have genders?


Edit(sort of): Thank you Fachion, that helped a lot!
 
Same species as the male.

And even if the Legendary has a gender, it still won't breed. Except for Manaphy, but even then, it only has Phione eggs and Phione can't evolve into Manaphy.

All legendaries fall under the No Egg breeding group.
 
I don't think I've seen anything on this, but I was wondering is someone knew something I didn't.
Is there any way to influence what ability is passed down, or is it based entirely on luck?
 
You've got three main options:
1) Get a Male Smeargle with Ice Punch and breed it with your Delibird.
2) Get a Hitmonchan or Medicham with Ice Punch and breed that with a Buneary and breed the babies with Delibird.
3) Get an Abomasnow with Ice Punch to breed with a Totodile and breed the babies with Delibird.

If you catch any Abomasnow or Medicham, a heart scale will buy Ice Punch on it. Hitmonchan gets it at level 31.

Personally I feel that Smeargle is that best way to go as you can put other egg moves for Delibird on him as well.
 
Wow Thanks. I've never bred for egg moves but I've gotten them by chance every now and then. Now I know how to do it purposely. This was a big help. Thanks. It makes me excited to think of the possibilities.
 
Now, Female Pokemon are the ones who pass on the species of Pokemon. (Example: A female Swellow and a Male Pidgeotto are in the Day Care. Swellow, being the Female Pokemon, will make the Hatched Pokemon be a Swellow).
I actually found out on my own that the females are the ones that dictate the breed of pokemon. It really p*ssed me off to no end when i found out since i had to catch the female for it when i already had the male. But i normally manage either way. >.>;;

Now that my comment is out of the way, is it possible to breed two shinies together and get another shiny? That question just came to mind, plus i have no shinies on my Pearl version (will soon though cuz im going to transfer the shinies from my sapphire and emerald to Pearl when i feel like finding those dern games. yes dern. dont ask XD) and i have no way of testing it out.
 
After Gen 2, it doesn't matter who the parents are, your odds of getting a shiny egg is the same.

In other words, you have the same shot of getting a shiny egg with two shiny parents as you do with two normal parents...1/8192.
 
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