indigo_league | Breeding 101

GIVE ME THE BARE MINIMUM!

It’s completely up to each player how much they want to engage with the mechanical aspects of the Pokemon world! If you want to ignore breeding completely, or if you just want to say that your character is sometimes breeding Pokemon and selling eggs to NPCs, that is totally fine! You don’t need to worry about the details. All the truly necessary information is on the Main FAQ.

You’ll only ever need to worry about what eggs would hatch into if you plan to offer them to your fellow players, or if you’d like to participate in the JKBA.

But for those who are interested, here’s the short rundown of what you’d do:

Make sure parents are compatible (share at least one egg group).
Figure out how many eggs will be produced (based on egg cycles).
Figure out what species each egg will be (75% chance of mother’s species, 25% of father).
Figure out what egg moves each egg will have. Options:
- Skip egg moves entirely. Babies just get the basics for their species.
- “Simple” egg move method: babies get one random move learned “by breeding” - even if the parents did not have it. All other moves are the basics for their species.
- “Complicated” egg move method: actually calculate egg moves. (See section on egg moves below for more details.)
Figure out if each egg will hatch with a Hidden Ability (based on the parents’ abilities).

Need a bit more of a background in Pokemon to understand what any of that means, or want to get to the details of these steps? Read on!

Jump to: Breeding Basics | Egg Moves, Hidden Abilites, Shinies... and Ditto! | Misc Questions

BREEDING BASICS

Victory Road and its predecessor, Route 29, are both heavily based on Pokemon Gold and Silver. These games were the first to introduce breeding to the world of Pokemon, so naturally, breeding is a big part of Victory Road!

Just like in the games, every type of Pokemon produces offspring by laying eggs. How? It is a mystery. Nobody's ever seen it actually happen but there's no doubt about it-- where there's a clutch of eggs there will soon follow the pitter-patter of little paws, flippers, claws, hooves, and whatever else Pokemon have. The eggs are roughly the size of an ostrich egg, are white, and have pale green spots all over. Yes, even if the Pokemon that laid it is as tiny as a Joltik. Yes, even if that's completely bonkers. It is impossible to tell what might come out of one based on the look of the egg alone!

Unlike in the video games, Pokemon in this universe do not need a special daycare center to produce eggs. Plenty of trainers have discovered their Growlithe happily nestled in their hotel closet with a batch of eggs. To produce a clutch of eggs, all you need is a male Pokemon and a female Pokemon that both belong to the same Egg Group-- and then it's off to the races!

BOUNCING BABY POKEMON!

Typically, Pokemon eggs will hatch within a week or two. However, it's not unheard of to take longer, depending on the species-- some people even report having unhatched eggs for months! Thankfully, trainers can learn all kinds of strategies and tricks to encourage a quick hatching.

When a Pokémon egg is close to hatching, faint noises will be heard from within, and it might even wiggle from time to time. Then, cracks will form bit by bit. Finally, as the shell starts to fully break, the egg will thrash about and a bright glow (similar to the glow accompanying a Pokémon's evolution) will envelope the egg! Once it fades, there's nothing left but shattered shell fragments... and a curious newborn Pokémon!

Naturally, newborn Pokemon are much smaller and weaker than their parents. But like many animals, with nurturing they grow quickly and are ready to battle in no time at all!

Trainers may do whatever they wish with their eggs or baby Pokemon. They may choose to keep and raise them themselves, give them away, or even sell them to other trainers for a profit! Many trainers make an entire career out of breeding and selling Eggs, especially after working hard to procure rare species of Pokemon that may not be easily obtained in the wild.

EVERY CLUTCH IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES...

Great! So, how do we get these sweet sweet Pokémon eggs?

First, let's see which Pokémon are actually able to breed. To determine this, you will have to check which Egg Group your parents-to-be are in! Egg groups limit the number of other species that your Pokémon can mate with to produce eggs. Simply look up your chosen Pokémon on Bulbapedia or any Pokémon wiki. Both parent Pokémon must be in the same Egg Group (but not necessarily the same species!) to breed.

Next it's time to see how many eggs a pairing will produce by looking at the Egg Cycle chart. Egg Cycles are an indicator of a Pokémon's rarity: typically, the higher the number of cycles, the rarer that Pokémon is and the less eggs it will give out each month. To find out how many eggs your Pokémon can produce, just look here:

Egg Cycles More Info on Egg Cycles List of Pokemon by Base Egg Cycles
egg cycles	avg. eggs laid /month
5	5-6
10	4-5
15	3-4
20	2-3
25	2-3
30	2
35	2
40	1

The mother's egg cycles trump the father's, and in a Ditto mating, the non-Ditto's egg cycles do.

Finally, now that we know how many eggs there are and how long those eggs will take to hatch, it's time to decide what will be inside! To start, all Pokémon eggs have a 75% chance of being the same species as their mother.

To calculate these odds, go here. From there, follow the diagrams found here. (Thanks, Cassie!)

EGG MOVES, HIDDEN ABILITIES, SHINIES... AND DITTO!

ALL ABOUT EGG MOVES:

Some Pokemon are lucky enough to be blessed with some pretty killer move sets right out of the egg! Most Pokemon learn moves as they grow. Egg Moves are moves that baby Pokémon inherit from their parents, and are born knowing how to use from the moment they hatch!

The Egg Move mechanics are the most complicated part of breeding, so there are two options for players to go by here: the “Simple” mechanics, or the “Complicated” mechanics. The “Complicated” mechanics are the only way to deliberately breed moves on to a Pokemon, but if you don’t want the headache, just some eggs with a cool move the Pokemon might not have hatched with otherwise, you may use the “Simple” mechanics instead. (You may not apply both to the same clutch of eggs, you must stick to one!)

It’s also fine to just have baby Pokemon hatch with the basics for their species, and no egg moves at all!

SIMPLE

Babies will not inherit any moves directly from the parents - TM/HM, breeding, or otherwise.

Instead, each baby will hatch with one random move that they could have gotten by breeding (even if the parents do not have the move); check the wiki page to see under “by breeding” moves. Here's a link directly to the Pichu page's move section on Bulbapedia as an axample for where you want to look.

To calculate which move each egg gets, grab the full list of moves “by breeding” and paste them all in here. If the Pokemon has 2 or less moves that it can learn by breeding, then you may (optionally!) add the moves it can learn “by TM" to the randomized pool.

Run the randomizer once per egg and take the first result. That’s it! Besides that one randomized move, the baby will hatch with just the “basic” moves any wild Pokemon of its species would start with.

COMPLICATED

Babies from same-species pairings will inherit:
- Any move both parents know that the babies can learn by leveling up, but without evolving.
- Any TM/HM move that the parents know that the babies can learn without evolving.
- Any egg move the father can transmit through breeding; check the wiki page to see under "by breeding" moves. Pichu Example for where you want to look.

Babies who are the father's species will inherit:
- Any move both parents know that the babies can learn by leveling up but without evolving.
- Any TM/HM move that the mother knows that the babies can learn without evolving.
- Any egg move that the father can transmit through breeding; check the wiki page to see under "by breeding" moves. Pichu Example for where you want to look.

Babies who are the mother's species will inherit:
- Any move both parents know that the babies can learn by leveling up but without evolving.
- Any TM/HM move that father knows that the babies can learn without evolving.
- Any egg move the father can transmit through breeding; check the wiki page to see under "by breeding" moves. Pichu Example for where you want to look.

For example, Joe breeds his male Dragonite to his female Charizard; the babies will be Charmanders. The Dragonite knows Flamethrower, Outrage, and learned Rest via TM. The Charizard also knows Flamethrower. Since they'll learn Flamethrower growing up, these Charmanders will be born with it. On the Charmander page, one of the possible moves they can inherit from a Dragonite father is Outrage, so they'll get that, too. Finally, because they can also learn the TM move Rest, they'll get that as well. Not bad for a head start, huh?

Unlike in the games, Pokémon in Route aren't limited to four moves, so go crazy. However, like in the games, there are some Pokémon (such as Magikarp) that can't learn any moves through breeding, so be sure to check!

Still feeling lost? There's a much more detailed, step-by-step guide for calculating which moves baby Pokemon will inherit OVER HERE! In addition, Kururu has very kindly made a Shared Egg Move finder which people are welcome to use!

NOTE: If either Pokemon in a breeding pair is a Ditto, the clutch will never have any egg moves.

Mirror Herbs:

In Victory Road, the Mirror Herb is a single-use item that allows an existing pokemon to learn an egg move. After obtaining a Mirror herb, you need to equip your pokemon with this item, then send them out to train with a pokemon that knows the egg move your pokemon wants to learn. After training together, your pokemon will now know this new move. Doing this will consume the Mirror Herb!

More details (expand/collapse)
For Example, Trainer Joey has a Rattata. He wants Rattata to learn the egg move Flame Wheel. In order to do this, he first equips Rattata with the Mirror herb, then borrows a Growlithe with the move Flame Wheel from his friend. He sends the two pokemon out to train together and after the session, Rattata now knows Flame Wheel!

Learning a move via Mirror Herb will only work if it is a move that pokemon could, at any point in the games, learn as a egg move. You couldn't for example, use this method to teach your Rattata Metronome, as Rattata has never been able to learn this move as an egg move. If you aren't sure which moves your pokemon can learn as egg moves, you can check sites like Bulbapedia or Serebi for this info.

For this method, your pokemon do not need to share a egg group, which means it is now possible for pokemon to learn the special egg moves introduced in Generation IX.

Please note that in Victory Road, the availability of Mirror Herbs will be limited to special events and mod rewards.

CROUCHING EGG, HIDDEN ABILITY

All Pokemon species have one or two possible Abilities that can be found in wild or bred individuals... but some trainers aspire to bring out the best.

A Hidden Ability is an unusual, nonstandard ability found only in rare, individual Pokemon encountered under special circumstances. Example: wild Deerling can be only found with either Sap Sipper or Chlorophyll as Abilities, but a specially-bred or mysteriously-encountered Deerling could have its Hidden Ability instead: Serene Grace!

The rules for Hidden Ability breeding are fairly simple:

At least one parent must already have a Hidden Ability. New trainers who are just starting out will either have to obtain a H.A. Pokemon from another trainer, or wait for a game-wide event where H.A. Pokemon are available.
A female Pokemon has an 80% chance of passing down its Hidden Ability, while a male Pokemon only has a 20% chance... but if both parents have a Hidden Ability, the chances of H.A. offspring are 100%!

H.A. offspring will only ever have the Hidden Ability available to their species, even if the parent who passed down the Hidden Ability was a different species! For example: a normal Ninetales (Flash Fire) is bred with a H.A. Arcanine (Justified). A resulting baby H.A. Vulpix would have Drought (the Hidden Ability available to it), not Justified! Likewise, a baby H.A. Growlithe from a normal Arcanine and a H.A. Ninetales would have Justified rather than Drought!

I'D RATHER BE ~SHINY~

And now, the part you've all been waiting for: shinies! Shiny Pokemon are extremely rare color morphs (sort of the fantasy equivalent of albino or melanistic animals), usually sporting a sparkly luster to their coat, scales, or skin! Some colorations are more dramatic than others; some species go from yellow to radioactive green, while others are nearly impossible to tell apart from their normal counterparts outside of the glitter!

Shinies can be obtained through breeding only by trainers who are of a certain Class Ranking, and are obtained through a Shiny Request! ICly, it is impossible for a character to know if an egg has a shiny Pokemon inside before it hatches. Remember-- all Pokémon eggs look the same!

DITTO THAT!

Ditto is a highly unusual Pokemon that has the unique ability to transform-- temporarily-- into any other species it sees, right down to the genetic makeup. Which means... you guessed it! It can successfully breed with any other species of Pokemon, regardless of gender or Egg Group! Even genderless Pokemon like Magnemite and Voltorb will mysteriously produce eggs when bred with a Ditto. For this reason, it's been described as a Breeder's Lynchpin, and is generally considered a staple for any breeding program.

However, it does have its limits. As a genderless Pokemon itself, with only a single move (Transform), offspring produced from a Ditto cannot inherit Egg Moves or Hidden Abilities the same way they would from normal parents. Oh well.

MISC. QUESTIONS

HOW CAN BREEDERS KEEP A HEALTHY VARIETY OF BREEDING STOCK WHEN THERE'S CAPS ON HOW MANY POKEMON YOU CAN OWN?

If a trainer finds their menagerie starting to grow too large to remain within the legal limits, they may want to team up with other trainers to pool their money and resources, or even rent a place on the outskirts of whatever town they choose for breeding Pokémon. Their total combined allotment is how many Pokemon they will all be able to have collectively, and chances are they will not be all doing tons of individual breeding projects all at once, or keeping any of the resulting Pokémon long enough to run out of space!

DOES CARRYING AN EGG WITH YOU ON THE GO TAKE UP A SLOT IN YOUR PARTY?

Yes. Because eggs can often hatch unexpectedly, regulations require you to treat each egg as an individual Pokemon if you wind up needing to travel with it on your person. Which means that if you have one egg with you, you can only carry five Pokemon, so on and so forth. Plan ahead!

ARE THERE WAYS TO SPEED UP THE TIME IT TAKES FOR AN EGG TO HATCH?

In addition to the normal stuff you'd expect for egg care (gentle handling, occasional checking for cracks, nesting in a warm soft place), certain Pokemon Abilities, such as Flame Body and Magma Armor, work like a natural incubator! Having a Pokemon with one of these abilities spend time with an egg, or even traveling with both the eggs and the Pokemon in question in your party, can greatly boost the speed at which the baby Pokemon develop inside the egg and eventually hatch!

WHAT ABOUT... THE WEIRD/COMPLICATED BREEDING MECHANICS FROM THE VIDEO GAMES?

Yeah, about that...

A few mechanics from the games that simply don't make sense for a roleplaying universe have not been carried over. For example, baby Pokemon that could only be produced in the games with the use of items like Incense can be obtained with completely normal breeding in Victory Road (ex: breeding Snorlax will result in a baby Munchlax, with or without the use of Full Incense. Using the incense won't do anything except maybe help the mom relax, or make the baby wind up developing a deep appreciation for aromatic herbs.)

Similarly, unlike in the video games, Nidorina and Nidoqueen can breed. What was up with that??

「 NAVIGATION 」