Breeding & Egg Groups

Breeding happens at the Pokémon Day Care (called the Nursery or Picnic in some games). Leave two compatible Pokémon there and, given time, an egg will turn up (the games politely skip over the details). Two Pokémon can breed when:

• Neither is in the Undiscovered group. This rules out legendaries, mythicals, baby Pokémon, Unown, Nidorina and Nidoqueen.
• One is male and the other is female.
• They share at least one egg group (see the egg group list).

Alternatively, any Pokémon that passes the first rule can breed with Ditto, whatever its gender or egg group. Genderless Pokémon have no other option: Ditto is their only partner.

Carry the egg around and it eventually hatches into a level 1 Pokémon (level 5 in Generations 2 and 3). The baby is always the mother's species, rolled back to the first stage of its evolution line: a female Blastoise lays a Squirtle egg, for instance. With Ditto, the egg is always the other parent's species, so a male Charizard and Ditto produce a Charmander.

Two species pairs are really one Pokémon split by gender: Nidoran♀ / Nidoran♂ and Illumise / Volbeat. When one of them is the egg-producing parent, the egg can hatch as either half of the pair. A male Golduck with a Nidoran♀ might give you a Nidoran♀ or a Nidoran♂. In Generations 2–4, though, the male variant bred with Ditto only ever produced the male variant.

Some lines hatch differently depending on what the parent is holding. With the right Incense, the egg is the line's baby Pokémon; without it, you get the next stage instead. A female Roserade normally lays a Roselia egg, but hand her a Rose Incense and it becomes a Budew egg. The full list is in the baby Pokémon section below.

Manaphy and Phione are listed in the Water 1 and Fairy groups but can't actually breed with anything in them, only with Ditto. Either way the egg is a Phione, and Phione never evolves into Manaphy.

Moves are usually the reason to breed. When the father knows a move the baby is able to learn, the baby can hatch already knowing it. Up until Generation 5 this included TM moves, which made breeding a handy way to recycle single-use TMs, though later games dropped TM inheritance.

Babies always know their level 1 moves. They'll also know any level-up move that both parents already know. Two Ampharos that both know Thunder produce a Mareep with Thunder at level 1.

Some moves can only be learned this way. These egg moves are listed with each Pokémon's other moves in the Pokédex. Usually another member of the same egg group learns the move by level up and can hand it straight down; other times you'll need to chain breed it through several species.

When the baby qualifies for more moves than it can hold, they're added in this order, with later ones pushing out earlier ones:

1. Level 1 moves.
2. Level-up moves known by both parents.
3. Generations 2–5 only: TM/HM moves the father knows that the baby can learn.
4. Egg moves known by either parent (only the father in Generations 2–5).

The mother (or the non-Ditto parent when Ditto is involved) has a 60% chance to pass her ability slot on. Otherwise, the baby gets one of its regular abilities at random. In practice:

• Regular ability parent: 80% chance the baby has the same slot (60% inherited + 20% random), 20% for the other one.
• Hidden ability parent: 60% chance of the hidden ability, 20% for each regular ability (or 40% if the species only has one).

It's the ability slot that's inherited, so the actual ability can change between evolution stages. Poochyena has Run Away or Quick Feet, while Mightyena has Intimidate or Quick Feet. A Mightyena with Intimidate gives an 80% chance of a Run Away Poochyena and 20% of Quick Feet; a Quick Feet Mightyena flips those odds.

Older games work differently: in Generations 3–4 the baby's ability was a 50/50 coin flip regardless of its parents. In Generation 5 only mothers passed abilities down, so a male bred with Ditto reverted to the 50/50 roll.

A baby's nature is normally one of the 25 picked at random. Since natures boost one stat and lower another, you'll often want a specific one, so give a parent an Everstone and the baby is guaranteed to share that parent's nature. If both parents hold one, the game picks between them at random. See the natures page for what each one does.

Before Black 2 & White 2, the Everstone only gave a 50% chance. In Emerald it only worked on the mother or Ditto, and in Generation 4 both parents had to come from games of the same language.

IVs (Individual Values) are hidden numbers that give each Pokémon slightly higher or lower stats than others of its species (more on the IVs & personality page). Since Ruby & Sapphire, babies inherit some of them from their parents.

Three stats are picked and each is copied from one parent or the other. Breed a male Infernape with a female Ninetales, and the Vulpix might take its HP and Defense IVs from Infernape and its Speed IV from Ninetales. The picks are random, and if the same stat comes up twice the later pick replaces the earlier one, so you can end up with only two inherited IVs.

Power items

HeartGold & SoulSilver added a way to steer this. A parent holding one of the EV-training Power items always passes down the matching IV; two more are inherited at random as usual and the other three are fully random. If both parents hold one, only one of the two is applied, chosen at random.

• Power WeightHP
• Power BracerAttack
• Power BeltDefense
• Power LensSp. Attack
• Power BandSp. Defense
• Power AnkletSpeed

For example, a parent holding the Power Belt guarantees its Defense IV is passed on, plus two other (non-Defense) IVs from either parent.

Destiny Knot

From X & Y onward, a parent holding the Destiny Knot passes down five IVs instead of three. If the other parent holds a Power item, that stat is inherited from it and the remaining four come from the Destiny Knot side.

Baby Pokémon were originally obtainable only by hatching eggs, though many can be found in the wild in newer games. Several need the parent to hold a specific Incense; otherwise the egg hatches into the next stage of the line.

• #0172PichuNo item needed
• #0173CleffaNo item needed
• #0174IgglybuffNo item needed
• #0175TogepiNo item needed
• #0236TyrogueNo item needed
• #0238SmoochumNo item needed
• #0239ElekidNo item needed
• #0240MagbyNo item needed
• #0298AzurillSea Incense
• #0360WynautLax Incense
• #0406BudewRose Incense
• #0433ChinglingPure Incense
• #0438BonslyRock Incense
• #0439Mime Jr.Odd Incense
• #0440HappinyLuck Incense
• #0446MunchlaxFull Incense
• #0447RioluNo item needed
• #0458MantykeWave Incense
• #0848ToxelNo item needed

Two egg groups are connected when at least one Pokémon belongs to both. The more connections a group has, the easier it is to pass a move into it from elsewhere, since a move can hop from group to group through these shared Pokémon.

Example: say a Fairy-group Pokémon knows a move you want on a Dragon-group Pokémon. No Pokémon is in both groups, so you need a go-between. Fairy and Dragon both connect to Field, Flying and Water 1, so you could breed the move onto Pikachu (Fairy and Field), then from Pikachu onto Arbok (Field and Dragon).

1. A simple breed

You have a female Raichu and want another, so you'll breed for a Pichu. A Pikachu or Raichu of the opposite gender always works, but so does anything that shares an egg group. Raichu is in both Fairy and Field, which opens up well over a hundred partners: a male Shinx, Bidoof, Umbreon or Granbull would all do.

2. Breeding with Ditto

A male Primeape bred with Ditto gives a Mankey. Pair the same Primeape with a female of another species and the egg would be her species instead. Genderless Pokémon like Magneton have to use Ditto to get a Magnemite.

3. Charizard with Dig and Iron Tail

This only applies to Generations 2–5. Later games don't pass TM moves down, and TMs can be reused.

Charizard can learn Dig by TM, but if you've already spent that TM elsewhere you might be able to breed it onto a Charmander. Say a male Aggron learned Dig from the TM and Iron Tail by level up, and you also have a female Charmeleon. They're both in the Monster group, so they can breed.

The Charmander that hatches knows Dig and Iron Tail, because Charmander can learn both by TM. It doesn't matter that Aggron learned Iron Tail by level up. Depending on the parents' other moves, these may replace starting moves like Growl or Scratch.

4. Drapion with Night Slash

Drapion now learns Night Slash by level up, so this breed is no longer needed, but the method still applies.

Drapion's Sniper ability makes critical hits deal 3× damage instead of 2×, so a high-crit move like Night Slash suits it nicely. There's no TM for it, so it has to come from a compatible parent. Drapion is in the Bug and Water 3 groups, and Scyther (Bug) learns Night Slash by level up. Breed a male Scyther that knows it with a female Drapion and you'll get a Skorupi with Night Slash.

5. Using Smeargle

Back in example 3, the Aggron with Dig was male. If it had been female, there'd normally be no way to pass Dig on. That's where Smeargle comes in.

Smeargle only learns one move itself: Sketch, which permanently copies the last move used in battle. A male Smeargle can sketch Dig from the female Aggron, then breed with a female of the target species to pass it down.

You can sketch from any Pokémon, wild ones included, but the reliable way is a double battle with Smeargle alongside your own Pokémon that knows the move. Look for double battle trainers, wild double battles (Generation 5) or the double battle cafés (Generation 6). Battle facilities and online battles don't make sketched moves permanent. Because Smeargle is in the huge Field group, every Field Pokémon can get egg moves from it without chain breeding.

6. Chain breeding

Sometimes a Pokémon can learn an egg move, but nothing compatible learns it easily. Umbreon and Wish are a good example: Umbreon can get Wish by breeding, but no Field-group Pokémon learns it by level up.

The other Eeveelutions only get Wish by breeding too, so they don't help, but the Pikachu line can also learn it, and Pikachu sits in both Field and Fairy. Over in Fairy, Togetic learns Wish by level up. So the move can travel Togetic → Pikachu → Umbreon:

1. Get a male Togetic (or Togepi) and level it until it learns Wish.
2. Breed it with a female Pikachu or Raichu to hatch a Pichu that knows Wish.
3. Keep hatching until you get a male Pichu. It's a 50/50 chance each time.
4. Pichu is a baby and can't breed, so raise its friendship until it evolves into Pikachu.
5. Breed the male Pikachu with a female Umbreon for an Eevee that knows Wish.
6. Evolve Eevee into Umbreon, or any other Eeveelution if you change your mind.

It's a long road, but sometimes it's the only way to a perfect moveset. A Smeargle shortcuts it: sketch Wish from Togetic and breed straight onto Umbreon, skipping the Pichu step entirely.