Pokémon breeding

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Pokémon breeding is a method of making a new Pokémon by producing and hatching a egg. In the anime, it also refers to Pokémon grooming and caretaking.

In the games

How to breed

Pokémon can be bred by leaving two compatible Pokémon at the Pokémon Daycare in Generation II and beyond, located on Route 34 in Johto, Route 117 in Hoenn, Four Island in the Sevii Islands, and Solaceon Town in Sinnoh. Two Pokémon are compatible if they are of the same species, or share at least one Egg Group, and are of opposite genders (see below); alternatively, breeding is usually still possible as long as one of them is Ditto. Legendary Pokémon (excluding Phione and Manaphy), baby Pokémon, Unown, Nidorina and Nidoqueen cannot breed whatsoever. Pokémon with gender unknown (besides the aforementioned legendaries) can only breed with Ditto.

Receiving the egg

When there are two compatible Pokémon in the Daycare, for every 256 steps that the player takes, the game will decide whether or not the old man has found an egg, with chances depending on the exact compatibility of the two Pokémon. If there was an egg produced, the old man will be outside (Generation II), out of line with the fence (Generation III), or facing the road (Generation IV). The man will hand the player an egg if he or she replies to his question with "Yes" and has an empty slot in the party, and permanently keep the egg if the player responds "No".

What will hatch

After walking around for a while, the egg will hatch into a level 5 (Generation II and III) or level 1 (Generation IV) version of the bottom of the female's evolutionary chain (or the non-Ditto parent).

Examples:

Ditto breeding
	+		=
Metagross	+	Ditto	=	Beldum
Same species breeding
	+		=
Weezing♀	+	Weezing♂	=	Koffing
Same evolution family breeding
	+		=
Charmeleon♀	+	Charizard♂	=	Charmander
Same Egg group breeding
	+		=
Raichu♀	+	Wigglytuff♂	=	Pichu

However, there are two pairs of Pokémon species where the male and female are treated as different Pokémon. In these cases, an egg produced by the female species may hatch into either the male or female variant; however, breeding the male species with Ditto will not produce the female counterpart. The pairs are the following:

• Nidoran♀ and Nidoran♂
• Illumise and Volbeat

Note that while Miltank and Tauros are considered to be the female and male of the same species in the canon, for the purposes of breeding they are separate species, meaning there is no way to produce a Tauros from a Miltank egg, or vice versa; a Miltank always hatches from a Miltank egg. This means that despite the fact that Tauros is a gendered Pokémon, the only way to hatch one from an egg is to breed a Tauros with a Ditto.

There are also some Pokémon which will produce variable eggs. The Pokémon that is in these eggs will depend on whether or not the parents held a certain type of held item: Incense.

Parent		Holding	Child
Marill	Azumarill	File:SeaIncenseSprite.png Sea Incense	Azurill
		Anything else/Nothing	Marill

Other Pokémon like this include Wobbuffet in Generation III and beyond, and Roselia/Roserade, Chimecho, Sudowoodo, Mr. Mime, Chansey/Blissey, Snorlax, and Mantine in Generation IV and beyond. Each requires a different attached incense to breed the baby form.

Hatching eggs

The time it takes for eggs to hatch depends on the species. Magikarp is the fastest hatching Pokémon. Some baby fairies, such as Cleffa, Pichu and Igglybuff hatch quickly as well. Besides these, most Pokémon take considerable time to hatch. Rare and powerful Pokémon, like Dratini, Bagon, Beldum, Larvitar, Aerodactyl, Snorlax, Chansey and Eevee, among others, take a long time to hatch.

"Time" is actually determined in steps. For example, a Gligar takes 6364 steps to hatch. Therefore, riding a bike would reduce the egg's actual hatching time by traveling quickly. Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald allow players to use the Mach Bike, which is twice as fast as the Acro Bike. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen give players a harder time hatching their eggs, however, for there is no "Mach Bike" available. Additionally, in Pokémon Emerald, if any Pokémon with Flame Body or Magma Armor is in the party, it reduces the hatching time by half: A Gligar egg would take only 3282 steps if a Slugma is in the party. This feature became standard in Generation IV.

Passing moves down

The moves obtained by a Pokémon when hatching are as follows:

• The Pokémon will start with any moves that it would learn at a level of 5 or lower.
• The Pokémon will start with any moves that it would learn by leveling up only if both parents know the move.
• The Pokémon will start with any TM or HM moves that the father knows and the baby can also learn by machine.
• The Pokémon will start with any Egg moves that the baby can learn and the father knows.

The moves will take precedence in the order listed, and if there are more than four moves to learn, the moves will start being overwritten much like when leveling up at the Pokémon Daycare.

In Pokémon Emerald (and subsequently Generation IV), there is a specific method to produce a Pichu that knows the move Volt Tackle: When breeding a Pikachu or Raichu holding a Light Ball, the offspring Pichu will know the move Volt Tackle. It should be noted that the parent need not know the move itself, and is not required to be of any specific gender; however, a male Pikachu or Raichu has to breed either with a female counterpart or with Ditto so that the offspring is, in fact, a Pichu.

Inheriting stats

A Pokémon's Individual Values are also passed down. This is determined differently between Generation II and Generation III games.

Generation II

In Generation II games, the baby inherits its stats from the parent of the opposite gender, unless one parent is Ditto, and in that case it inherits the stats from Ditto. The Defense IV (Individual Value) is passed, and also either the Special IV or the Special IV plus or minus 8 (plus for values in the 0-7 range; minus for values in the 8-15 range); the Special IV has a 50% chance of remaining the same. Attack and Speed IVs are determined entirely at random, whereas HP is determined by the IVs of the other four stats, using the same formula for wild Pokémon. The probability of a Pokémon inheriting all of its opposite-gender parent's IVs is therefore 1/512.

When determining if two Pokémon are compatible, their egg group is only one criterion. For Pokémon of the same egg group, if the Defense IVs are the same, and either the Special IVs are the same or 8 off, they are incompatible. This is due to the high likelihood of a family relation, hence the inability to breed.

Generation III

In Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed and LeafGreen, exactly three of the baby's IVs are inherited from either parent (which is to say that one parent can contribute a number of IVs that ranges from 0 to 3, and its mate will contribute the remaining number of IVs from other stats). The other three are determined at random, in such a way that it is possible that more of the offspring's IVs will coincide with those of its parents.

In Pokémon Emerald, the process is similar but more complicated. First, a random IV is passed from one of the parents to the baby. Afterwards, a random IV of any stat other than HP, is inherited from either parent to the baby. If this IV is from the same stat as the first IV (not necessarily the same IV value, depending on whether or not the same parent passed it on), it will override it. Finally, another random IV of any stat other than HP and Defense, is passed from one of the parents to the baby. This IV will override any of the previous two if it is from the same stat. The remaining stats (a number ranging from 3 to 5) are determined at random, again with the possibility of one or more IVs coinciding with those of the parents.

Another change introduced in Emerald is the ability to inherit Nature, which also influences stats. If the mother (or Ditto) is holding an Everstone, the baby has a 50% chance of inheriting that Pokémon's Nature. When breeding a female Pokémon with Ditto, it is Ditto whose Nature has the increased 50% chance of being inherited in case it holds Everstone.

Generation IV

Inheriting IVs and Nature in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is determined in the same way as in Pokémon Emerald. The only minor exception is in the case of inheriting Nature, which is not influenced by Everstone when breeding two Pokémon that do not originate from games of the same language.

In the anime

In the anime, Pokémon breeding refers to an entire line of work practiced by Pokémon Breeders, such as Brock. So far, the anime has shown and discussed little about the literal breeding of Pokémon to produce eggs, but it is assumed this is part of a Pokémon Breeder's work. It has been shown that professors get their starter Pokémon from breeders who specifically raise and breed them, like Old Man Swampy from A Mudkip Mission. There are also a few farm-like facilities that produce Pokémon eggs of various species. Ash received his egg from such a location, as did May and her egg.

Pokémon breeding in the anime focuses heavily on raising healthy Pokémon and keeping them in top condition by grooming them well and feeding them nutritious food.

Trivia

• Some aspects and contradictions of breeding in the games have spawned debate and confusion. Pokémon which breed differently depending on whether or not they hold an Incense item, are particularly debated. Most fans perceive the necessity of the Incense items as a mere excuse for the fact that the baby Pokémon could not be previously obtained. Perhaps also surprisingly, these baby Pokémon have different egg move lists than those of their evolved forms.

• Some unusual pairings of Pokémon can be found within the Egg Groups, such as Sandslash and Arbok, Seviper and Zangoose (which are even said to be mortal enemies), and the most famous pairing: Skitty and Wailord. This has led fans to view Pokémon breeding as being quite different from real-life mating. Indeed, the characters in the game make special mention of the fact that no one has seen Pokémon breed.

• One particularly unusual oddity is that Nidorina and Nidoqueen cannot breed, despite the fact that their Template:P2 and male counterparts can. No reason has been provided for this.

• Although there is no way for legendary Pokémon to be bred, there is evidence that it can occur somehow, since eggs with Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres can be hatched in Pokémon Snap and a baby Lugia has been seen in the anime. Likewise, Manaphy can be hatched from a special egg from Pokémon Ranger in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Furthermore, Manaphy is the only legendary Pokémon who can breed with a Ditto. However, the offspring will always be Phione, who doesn't evolve into Manaphy.

• When a Pokémon hatches from an egg during both Generation II and Generation III, it is at level 5; however, Pokémon can be found in the routes around the player's hometown that are leveled lower than this, down to level 2. This oddity has been addressed in Generation IV, where all hatched Pokémon started at level 1.

• No negative effects occur from inbreeding Pokémon in Generation III and Generation IV, despite this being impossible in Generation II.

• Often, people believe breeding a shiny Pokémon will raise the chances of the offspring being a shiny Pokémon. This is true in the Generation II games, as the Pokémon within the egg may have as high as a 1/64 chance of being shiny, however, this doesn't apply to the newer Generations, where even if two shiny Pokémon breed, the chances of the offspring being a shiny is still 1/8192.

External links

• Smogon's very detailed guide on breeding and egg-hatching