Pokémon breeding

Pokémon breeding is a method of obtaining a new Pokémon by producing and hatching an 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 Day Care in Generation II and beyond, located on Route 34 in Johto, Route 117 in Hoenn, Four Island in the Sevii Islands, Solaceon Town in Sinnoh, Route 3 in Unova and Route 7 in Kalos.

Two Pokémon are compatible if they are of the same species (or share at least one Egg Group) and are of opposite genders; alternatively, breeding is usually still possible as long as one of them is Ditto, even if the other parent is genderless, and in fact, genderless Pokémon can breed only with Ditto. Pokémon in the Undiscovered egg group cannot breed whatsoever, and Ditto cannot breed with itself. In Generation II only, Pokémon with similar IVs cannot breed, due to the likelihood of familial relation.

Breeding rate

• Same species, different ID numbers

The chance of getting an Egg is 69.3% (has a value of 70). The Day-Care Man will say: "The two seem to get along very well."

This chance is raised to 87.8% when wielding an Oval Charm (has a value of 88).

• Same species, same ID numbers

The chance of getting an Egg is 49.5% (has a value of 50). The Day-Care Man will say: "The two seem to get along."

This chance is raised to 79.5% when wielding an Oval Charm (has a value of 80).

• Different species, different ID numbers

The chance of getting an Egg is 49.5% (has a value of 50). The Day-Care Man will say: "The two seem to get along."

This chance is raised to 79.5% when wielding an Oval Charm (has a value of 80).

• Different species, same ID numbers

The chance of getting an Egg is 19.8% (has a value of 20). The Day-Care Man will say: "The two don't seem to like each other."

This chance is raised to 39.3% when wielding an Oval Charm (has a value of 40).

• Different Egg Groups, same genders or Undiscovered group

The Pokémon are incompatible and therefore will not make an Egg. The Day-Care Man will say: "The two prefer to play with other Pokémon than each other."

In Generation II, the compatibility is instead checked by interacting with Pokémon:

• Same species, different ID numbers

"It appears to care for <other's Pokémon nickname>"

• Same species, same ID numbers

"It's friendly with <other's Pokémon nickname>"

• Different species, different ID numbers

"It's friendly with <other's Pokémon nickname>"

• Different species, same ID numbers

"It shows interest in <other's Pokémon nickname>"

• Different Egg Groups, same genders or Undiscovered group

"It has no interest in <other's Pokémon nickname>"

• Same Defense IV and Same Special IV or 8 apart from each other

"It's brimming with energy"

Receiving the Egg

When there are two compatible Pokémon in the Day Care, for every 255 steps that the player takes, the game will decide whether the man has found an Egg, with chances depending on the exact compatibility of the two Pokémon. If there was an Egg produced, the man will be outside (Generation II), out of line with the fence (Generation III), facing the road (Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, X, and Y), face left or right instead of down and call the player over the Pokégear (HeartGold and SoulSilver), or call the player from a distance when passing by on the road below (Generation V). However, in Black and White, the man will not call out to the player if the player's party is full, even if he has found an Egg. 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". If the player selects "Yes" but does not have a spare slot, the man will keep it until the player returns and offer it again. Otherwise, there is no way to refuse the Egg and receive it later.

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 onward) first-stage Pokémon of the female species' (or non-Ditto parent's) evolutionary chain.

Parents		Offspring
Ditto breeding
Garchomp	Ditto	Gible
Same species breeding
Chandelure♂	Chandelure♀	Litwick
Same evolution family breeding
Electivire♂	Electabuzz♀	Elekid
Same Egg Group breeding
Luxio♂	Bibarel♀	Bidoof
Undiscovered Egg Group breeding
		None
Heatran♂	Heatran♀	None
Different Egg Group breeding
		None
Honchkrow♂	Wigglytuff♀	None
Same gender breeding
		None
Sunflora♂	Sunflora♂	None

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; The pairs are the following:

Parents		Offspring
Poison Pin Pokémon
Nidoran♀	Any compatible Pokémon	Nidoran♀
		Nidoran♂
Nidoran♂	Ditto	Nidoran♀
		Nidoran♂
Firefly Pokémon
Illumise	Any compatible Pokémon	Volbeat
		Illumise
Volbeat	Ditto	Volbeat
		Illumise*

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 incense while breeding.

Parents		Item	Offspring
Marill and Azumarill
		Sea Incense
		No item
Marill	Azumarill	Azurill
		Marill
Wobbuffet
		Lax Incense
		No item
Wobbuffet		Wynaut
		Wobbuffet
Roselia and Roserade
		Rose Incense
		No item
Roselia	Roserade	Budew
		Roselia
Chimecho
		Pure Incense
		No item
Chimecho		Chingling
		Chimecho
Sudowoodo
		Rock Incense
		No item
Sudowoodo		Bonsly
		Sudowoodo
Mr. Mime
		Odd Incense
		No item
Mr. Mime		Mime Jr.
		Mr. Mime
Chansey and Blissey
		Luck Incense
		No item
Chansey	Blissey	Happiny
		Chansey
Mantine
		Wave Incense
		No item
Mantine		Mantyke
		Mantine
Snorlax
		Full Incense
		No item
Snorlax		Munchlax
		Snorlax

Hatching Eggs

The time it takes for Eggs to hatch depends on the Pokémon's species' required number of Egg cycles. Magikarp is the fastest hatching Pokémon with the fewest Egg cycles required for hatching. 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, Gible, Aerodactyl, Snorlax, Spiritomb, Chansey, and Eevee, among others, take a long time to hatch due to high numbers of Egg cycles required for hatching.

"Time" is actually determined by Egg cycle completion, which is determined by in-game steps or biking. An Egg cycle is a counted number of steps that activate breeding related programs in the game. One Egg cycle lasts 256 steps in the third generation and 255 steps in the fourth generation. After 255/256 steps are taken, the game recognizes the completion of the cycle and does a few things; the step counter for the cycles is reset to zero, the game randomly decides if an Egg is to be found at the Day Care (if compatible Pokémon are present in the Day Care at the time), and all (or only a few) Eggs currently in the player's team are taken down one Egg cycle count. If the Egg cycle count for an Egg reaches zero or a negative number, the Egg will begin to hatch. If an Egg hatches, the game stops subtracting an Egg cycle count from the rest of the Eggs in the team. Due to this, since the third generation, no two Eggs can hatch at the same time.

The other way to reset the game counter is to receive an Egg from the Day-Care Man (or in the Manaphy Egg's case, from the Mystery Gift delivery man in the Poké Mart). Every time an Egg is received, the game automatically resets the Egg cycle step counter to zero, and counts as another Egg cycle completion. This can effectively cut 254 (255 in the third generation) steps off the Egg hatching process for every Egg accepted from the Day-Care Man (the Egg must be accepted, not rejected or denied due to a full team to reset the step counter). Although this detracts an Egg cycle from the Eggs, any Eggs ready to hatch upon this type of Egg cycle completion will be denied the ability to hatch until the next Egg cycle completion by steps, perhaps due to the dialogue between the player and the Day Care man following the pickup of an Egg.

For example, a Gligar Egg requires 21 Egg cycles to hatch, a minimum of 5355 steps if not interrupted by an Egg hatching or Egg pickup. After each Egg cycle is completed, this Egg will drop one Egg cycle count, down to 20, then 19, then 18, so on and so forth until the Egg count hits zero. If nothing restricts the Egg from hatching, the Egg will hatch into Gligar. If it is restricted, it will continue dropping into the negative numbers from the Egg cycles, and will continue to try hatching if the Egg is stopped from another Egg pickup.

There are ways to speed this system up. Riding a bicycle (for example) would reduce the Egg's actual hatching time by traveling quickly, raising the step count faster, and completing Egg cycles faster. From Pokémon Emerald onward, if a Pokémon with Flame Body or Magma Armor is in a player's party, it doubles the Egg cycle count reduction, effectively halving the steps needed to hatch the Egg. In the Gligar example, the Egg would start at 21, and with Slugma in the party, the Egg would drop 2 Egg cycle counts after each Egg cycle, from 21 to 19 to 17 and so on. Pokémon X and Y introduced the Hatching Power, which effectively decreases the time it takes to hatch an egg to up to twice as fast as usual. This can also stack with the effects of either Flame Body or Magma Armor, allowing the player to further speed up hatching time.

Passing moves down

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

• By default, the baby Pokémon will start with any moves that it learns at level 1. (In Generation II and Generation III, they knew all moves that are level 5 and below in their learnset.)
• If both parents know a move that the baby can learn via leveling up, the Pokémon will inherit that move.
• Prior to Generaton VI, if the father knows any TM or HM moves (and in Crystal, Move Tutor moves) that the baby is also compatible with, it will inherit the move.
• If either parent (only the father prior to Generation VI) knows any specific Egg moves that the baby can learn, the baby will inherit the move.
• From Pokémon Emerald onward, for a baby Pichu, if either parent is holding a Light Ball, the Pichu will know Volt Tackle. Volt Tackle cannot be passed down as a normal Egg move.

If this would result in the baby possessing more than four moves, the moves take priority in the order listed: Volt Tackle, mother's Egg moves, father's Egg moves, TM and HM moves, inherited level-up moves, baby's default moveset.

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 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 having the same IVs as its opposite-gender parent is therefore 1/512.

If the Defense IVs of two partners are the same, and the Special IVs are either the same or differ by 8, 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 its parents (e.g. if one parent contributes two IVs, its mate will contribute the third). The other three are determined at random, though it is possible that some of these may coincide with those of its parents without actually being inherited.

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 passed from either parent to the baby; if it is the same stat (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.

Generation IV

Inheriting IVs in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is determined in the same way as in Pokémon Emerald.

From Pokémon Platinum on, the baby will inherit three IVs, each from a different stat and from a random parent. In addition, now if either or both parents hold an EV-enhancing item (excluding the Macho Brace), the baby will instead receive the IV of the corresponding stat from one of those parents, then inheriting two other random IVs each from a random parent. For example, if a parent is holding the Power Anklet, the baby will inherit the Speed IV from that parent, and it will also inherit two other different IVs from its parents, such as Attack and Special Defense. As another example, if one parent holds a Power Anklet and the other parent holds a Power Weight, the baby will inherit either the Speed IV from the first parent or the HP IV from the second parent, and it will also inherit two different IVs from its parents other than Speed or HP. This system is retained in HeartGold and SoulSilver.

Generation V

Inheriting IVs in Generation V is determined in the same way as in Pokémon Platinum, HeartGold and SoulSilver.

Generation VI

From Pokémon X and Y onward, if either or both parents hold a Destiny Knot, the baby will inherit five IVs instead of three. This can be combined with an EV-enhancing item to select the IV that is transferred.

Inheriting Natures

In Pokémon Emerald, if the mother (in a male-female pair) or Ditto (in a pair that includes Ditto) is holding an Everstone, the baby has a 50% chance of inheriting that Pokémon's Nature.

In Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, inheriting Natures remains the same as in Emerald, except that passing on Natures via an Everstone will not work if the Pokémon are from different real-world countries (e.g. Argentina and Spain).

In HeartGold and SoulSilver, whichever Pokémon is holding an Everstone will have a chance of passing down its Nature, regardless of gender, or whether it is breeding with a Ditto.

In Black and White, inheriting Natures remains the same as in HeartGold and SoulSilver, except that passing on Natures via an Everstone will now work even if the Pokémon are from different real-world countries.

From Black 2 and White 2 onward, if one parent holds an Everstone, its Nature will always be passed down. If both parents are holding an Everstone, a parent's Nature will still always be passed down, but both parents have 50% of being inherited.

Inheriting Abilities

In Generation V, female Pokémon with Hidden Abilities have a 60% chance of passing on the Hidden Ability to their offspring when bred with a male Pokémon from the same Egg Group. For example, if a female Darmanitan with Zen Mode breeds with a male Simisage, the offspring Darumaka may have Inner Focus instead of the usual Hustle, and would evolve into a Darmanitan with Zen Mode (instead of Sheer Force). Hidden Abilities cannot be passed down from male or genderless Pokémon, and will not be passed down if the female was paired with a Ditto.

In Generation VI, any Pokémon, including male and genderless Pokémon, can pass down their Hidden Ability when bred with Ditto. Ditto's Ability is irrelevent to inheritance.

Starting in Generation V, there is an 80% chance that the Ability slot of the female will be passed to the baby. For example, when breeding a female Venomoth with Shield Dust, the resultant Venonat has an 80% chance of having Compoundeyes rather than Tinted Lens. This chance does not apply if Ditto is used as either parent.

Inheriting Poké Balls

Prior to Generation VI, all hatched Pokémon will be obtained in standard Poké Ball.

Starting in Generation VI, the Poké Ball of the female Pokémon will be passed down to its offspring. Genderless and male Pokémon, as well as Ditto, have no impact on the Poké Ball passed down. The Master Ball and Cherish Ball cannot be passed down.

Breeding for Shininess

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Generation VI

Generation II

In Generation II, a player can breed for "Shininess." Due to the method the Generation II games use for calculating whether a Pokémon is Shiny or not, an Egg bred from an alternately-colored Pokémon has a chance as high as 1/64 of being alternately colored itself, but only if the offspring is of the opposite gender as the Shiny parent. This does not apply in later games, however.

Generation III

In Generation III, a bred Pokémon has the same chance of being Shiny as any Pokémon met in the wild.

Generation IV

In Generation IV, there is now a 5/8192 (~1/1639) chance of hatching a Shiny Pokémon when both parents are from games from different countries, a five times increase of the usual rate. This mechanic is known as the Masuda method, after Junichi Masuda.

Generation V

In Generation V, the Masuda method's success rate increased from 5/8192 (~1/1639) to 6/8192 (~1/1366).

In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, the Shiny Charm was introduced, which if owned by the player will increase the chance of hatching a Shiny Pokémon by a further 2/8192, to 3/8192 (~1/2731) for a regularly bred Pokémon, or 8/8192 (1/1024) if at least one parent is of a game from a different 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 Swamp from A Mudkip Mission. There are also a few farm-like facilities that produce Pokémon Eggs of various species. Ash received his Eggs from such locations, 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 unusual pairings of Pokémon can be found within the Egg Groups, such as Seviper and Zangoose (which are even said to be mortal enemies), and the most famous pairing Skitty and Wailord. However, the characters in the game make special mention of the fact that no one has seen Pokémon breed.
• Nidorina and Nidoqueen cannot breed, despite the fact that their pre-evolution Nidoran♀ and the Nidoran♂ line can.
• Although legendary Pokémon except Manaphy (and debatably Phione) cannot breed in the main series games, Eggs containing 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 the Generation IV games.
• When a Pokémon hatches from an Egg during both Generation II and Generation III, it is at level 5. However, many Pokémon from the wild can be found between levels 2 and 4, which is below the level of newly hatched Pokémon. This oddity had since been addressed in Generation IV, where all hatched Pokémon started at level 1.
• The Pokémon Mansion journals (which predate Generation II's introduction of breeding) describe Mew giving birth as opposed to producing an Egg. These were not changed in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. It is unclear as to whether this is meant literally or metaphorically.

External links

• Legendary Pokémon's advanced breeding information
• Smogon's detailed guide on breeding and Egg-hatching

This game mechanic article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.