Fluttershy of Light
Star Guardian Ahri
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2016
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Before we start there are a few things we must go over and acquire for successful breeding in the 7th Gen.
1. Knowing the Location of the Daycare Center
The daycare is located on Akala Island in the north east of Paniola town and west of the Battle Royal building. It'll have it's own fly to destination once you get to it in the main Story.
2. Egg Groups
This can easily be overlooked if you're using just Ditto since Ditto is the only pokemon that can breed with all of the Pokémon that are capable of producing an egg. For a complete list of the egg groups and the Pokémon contained within the different types this here should be helpful.
3. Useful Items for Breeding and What They do:
1a.Everstone
This Item will pass down the holder's nature at a 100% chance. This will also give you Kanto variants if they are held by the Kanto variants. If both parents are holding this item however, it will be a 50/50 chance of having either nature if they are different. You can find this Item at the Trainer's School, from Poké Pelago's Isle Aphun, On wild Roggenrola or Boldore, or at the Battle Royal for 16 BP.
1b. Destiny Knot
This item changes the IVs that are randomly passed down to 5 IVs by both parent (previously 3). These can be aqcuired by a trainer on Route 14 on that small island or at the Battle Royal for 48 BP.
1c. Power Items
These items can pass down any IV of the corresponding stat and of the holder's IV number. This is generally only useful for getting 0 IV speed trick room or getting 0 IVs in attack for confusion or Foul Play for special attackers.
1d. IV Checker
This is mostly useful for when you are working on getting IVs done but having it ready is generally nice so you can see the IVs before you work on them. All you need to do is just hatch 10 Pokemon then go the Battle Tree and talk to an ace trainer that stands near the PC. He'll then let you use the IV checker anytime you want through the PC.
1e. Oval Charm
This isn't necessary but it can make eggs appear more often which is always nice. All you need to do to get this item is to defeat Morimoto on Akala Island (located in the Gamefreak Office) the first time after you beat the main story.
1f. Shiny Charm
This isn't really necessary either but only if you want an easier time hatching shiny competitive Pokémon then you'll want to grab this item. You need to complete the Pokedex for this item then go to the Gamefreak Office and talk to the Director.
Now that we got the some of the basics down, there are still some other things that we'll need to go over for the initial breeding step by step. Please note that the first three can be done in either order while the fourth should be the last step due to how random the ivs can be and it's generally faster to do it last.
4. Natures
There are 25 of them but some of these natures are more often used for competitive breeding. You'll want the one that fits the Pokémon you're planning on making and the nature is generally crucial for the Pokémon as it can help you out-speed things or just get enough power to knock things out. These are:
Adamant, Modest, Jolly, Timid, Bold, Calm, Impish, Careful, Brave, Quiet, Relaxed, and Sassy. The first four are probably the most common for attackers followed by ones that are mostly seen on bulky Pokemon sets. The last 4 of these are generally for trick room since the slower the better.
These natures can be used but are generally used for mixed attackers or in the case for Deoxys and Pheromosa where no amount of bulk will help them survive anything: Lonely, Naughty Mild, Rash, Hasty, and Naive.
Neutral natures are generally ok but there is never really a good time to use these as there are always a stat you can generally negate for most Pokemon. These are Serious, Bashful, Docile, Hardy, and Quirky.
This just leaves us with two more.. Gentle and Lax.. these two are the weakest two natures out there and practically never used in competitive play.
5. Egg Moves
These are very useful for most Pokemon that can have egg moves. You simply just breed the Pokemon you want with a Pokemon that can get the move that is in the same egg group.
These are rather easy to discuss so I'll just go over common mistakes I've noticed. In Gen 7 most Pokémon can have up to 2 or 3 abilities: 1 to 2 normal abilities and 1 hidden ability. If you're aiming for either normal abilities then you may want to get an Ability capsule (Battle Royal Dome 100 BP) in case you don't get the ability you want. However if it's the Hidden ability then you'll need to make sure every Pokémon you swap your Pokémon for has it. If you have a male with the hidden ability but not the female then you will never hatch an offspring with the hidden ability. You will need to breed the male (and genderless Pokémon) with a Ditto to get more HA Pokémon. The ability capsule does not work on hidden abilities even if they have one normal ability.
7. IVs (Individual Values)
These stand for independent values ranging from 0 to 31, with 0 being the worst and 31 is the best, and are determined when a Pokémon is found in the wild or hatched from an egg (this is the case for the first 10 eggs. Afterwards they'll be random.) These stats cannot permanently be changed. Bottle caps only make it look and act as if they are 31 ivs in the stats affected by them. So if you try breeding a Pokémon that didn't have any perfect ivs with another then it'll likely have 0 perfect ivs. The Hidden power type is also unaffected by hyper training. There are ways of getting perfect IV Pokémon. When you check a Pokémon's IV's they'll be categorized as No Good (0), Decent (1-15), pretty good (16-25), very good (26-29), fantastic (30), and best (31)
This doesn't necessarily have any effect in competitive play but the special effects of sending out a Pokémon can be quite nice. There are however a few rules for how Pokémon can pass down their pokeballs.
Hidden Power breeding can be a bit rough since the IVs are what determine the type it has. The best way to get 6iv Pokémon with the right Hidden Power is just forgo the IVs and look for the type you want and level it up to 100 for bottle caps. The most commonly used types in competitive play are generally Ice, Fire, Fighting (Pokémon with 3 guaranteed IVs can't have HP), Ground, Water, Electric, and Grass.
Once you have followed the steps you wanted to take then you will have competitively viable Pokémon. The final steps you need to take is EV (effort value) training, setting up the desired moves, and evolving the Pokémon to the desired form you want it to take.
Effort Values
These will be the final thing we will be going over. Effort values is something that every opposing Pokémon can give. Most base forms gives your Pokémon only 1 EV point while mid forms give 2 and final level evolutions give 3. There are other Pokémon that can give to multiple stats like Shuckle which gives 1 EV to both defense and Special Defense. For a full list of what EVs a Pokémon gives try here.
Pokemon can only have a total of 510 EVs to split among the 6 stats with 252 being the max for an individual stat. This leaves the possibility of having 2 stats at maximum potential with 4 in any other stat. You're likely wondering what happened to the last 2 possible EVs since 2+2+4 is 8. The final two EVs won't change any at level 50 or 100 due to how EVs work. You need a total of 4 for one stat to increase. At 50 you can still have 4 EVs but the next number of EVs required to raise a stat is 12.
There are special items and a few other things to help speed up the process of getting these EVs. The power items i mentioned near the beginning is one of these items. They can increase the total number of EVs by 8. Macho Brace is similar to the power items except it doubles EVs gained for every stat but isn't as useful. Pokerus is a beneficial "virus" that Pokémon can get which also doubles the total number of EVs. If you however see a smiley face on a Pokémon then that Pokémon can no longer pass it to others but will still have the bonuses of Pokerus. Also make sure that you have Pokémon in the PC which assures that they will retain Pokerus as it only becomes non passable at midnight if it's in the party. SOS battles can also effect the EV total. Any Pokémon that is called will give double the EVs it would normally have given.
Once you have completed the EV training process you will have completely made a fully competitive Pokémon that can keep up with everyone else's Pokémon and use them in the battle spot, against friends or the Global link competitions.
1. Knowing the Location of the Daycare Center
The daycare is located on Akala Island in the north east of Paniola town and west of the Battle Royal building. It'll have it's own fly to destination once you get to it in the main Story.
2. Egg Groups
This can easily be overlooked if you're using just Ditto since Ditto is the only pokemon that can breed with all of the Pokémon that are capable of producing an egg. For a complete list of the egg groups and the Pokémon contained within the different types this here should be helpful.
3. Useful Items for Breeding and What They do:
1a.Everstone
This Item will pass down the holder's nature at a 100% chance. This will also give you Kanto variants if they are held by the Kanto variants. If both parents are holding this item however, it will be a 50/50 chance of having either nature if they are different. You can find this Item at the Trainer's School, from Poké Pelago's Isle Aphun, On wild Roggenrola or Boldore, or at the Battle Royal for 16 BP.
1b. Destiny Knot
This item changes the IVs that are randomly passed down to 5 IVs by both parent (previously 3). These can be aqcuired by a trainer on Route 14 on that small island or at the Battle Royal for 48 BP.
1c. Power Items
These items can pass down any IV of the corresponding stat and of the holder's IV number. This is generally only useful for getting 0 IV speed trick room or getting 0 IVs in attack for confusion or Foul Play for special attackers.
1d. IV Checker
This is mostly useful for when you are working on getting IVs done but having it ready is generally nice so you can see the IVs before you work on them. All you need to do is just hatch 10 Pokemon then go the Battle Tree and talk to an ace trainer that stands near the PC. He'll then let you use the IV checker anytime you want through the PC.
1e. Oval Charm
This isn't necessary but it can make eggs appear more often which is always nice. All you need to do to get this item is to defeat Morimoto on Akala Island (located in the Gamefreak Office) the first time after you beat the main story.
1f. Shiny Charm
This isn't really necessary either but only if you want an easier time hatching shiny competitive Pokémon then you'll want to grab this item. You need to complete the Pokedex for this item then go to the Gamefreak Office and talk to the Director.
Now that we got the some of the basics down, there are still some other things that we'll need to go over for the initial breeding step by step. Please note that the first three can be done in either order while the fourth should be the last step due to how random the ivs can be and it's generally faster to do it last.
4. Natures
There are 25 of them but some of these natures are more often used for competitive breeding. You'll want the one that fits the Pokémon you're planning on making and the nature is generally crucial for the Pokémon as it can help you out-speed things or just get enough power to knock things out. These are:
Adamant, Modest, Jolly, Timid, Bold, Calm, Impish, Careful, Brave, Quiet, Relaxed, and Sassy. The first four are probably the most common for attackers followed by ones that are mostly seen on bulky Pokemon sets. The last 4 of these are generally for trick room since the slower the better.
These natures can be used but are generally used for mixed attackers or in the case for Deoxys and Pheromosa where no amount of bulk will help them survive anything: Lonely, Naughty Mild, Rash, Hasty, and Naive.
Neutral natures are generally ok but there is never really a good time to use these as there are always a stat you can generally negate for most Pokemon. These are Serious, Bashful, Docile, Hardy, and Quirky.
This just leaves us with two more.. Gentle and Lax.. these two are the weakest two natures out there and practically never used in competitive play.
5. Egg Moves
These are very useful for most Pokemon that can have egg moves. You simply just breed the Pokemon you want with a Pokemon that can get the move that is in the same egg group.
- Pokémon egg move chain. This is just passing along egg moves that are shared between multiple egg groups. For instance Eevee can learn Wish as an egg move. However no other Pokémon can learn it without egg moves themselves. The only way to get Wish onto Eevee is to breed a male Togetic/Togekiss that has wish with a female Pikachu/Raichu. Then you must evolve a male Pichu and breed it with a female Eevee. This will result in an Eevee with Wish.
- There is another way of bypassing egg move chaining but it's restricted to the Field egg group. Smeargle can Sketch certain moves and pass them along removing the need for a chain. Smeargle also provides one more unique benefit to the Field egg group. It can give certain Pokémon access to moves that are generally locked by genderless Pokémon or not enough Pokémon within the egg groups capable of learning those moves via breeding. Instances of this situation are: Lilipup with Psychic Fangs or Riolu with Meteor Mash.
These are rather easy to discuss so I'll just go over common mistakes I've noticed. In Gen 7 most Pokémon can have up to 2 or 3 abilities: 1 to 2 normal abilities and 1 hidden ability. If you're aiming for either normal abilities then you may want to get an Ability capsule (Battle Royal Dome 100 BP) in case you don't get the ability you want. However if it's the Hidden ability then you'll need to make sure every Pokémon you swap your Pokémon for has it. If you have a male with the hidden ability but not the female then you will never hatch an offspring with the hidden ability. You will need to breed the male (and genderless Pokémon) with a Ditto to get more HA Pokémon. The ability capsule does not work on hidden abilities even if they have one normal ability.
7. IVs (Individual Values)
These stand for independent values ranging from 0 to 31, with 0 being the worst and 31 is the best, and are determined when a Pokémon is found in the wild or hatched from an egg (this is the case for the first 10 eggs. Afterwards they'll be random.) These stats cannot permanently be changed. Bottle caps only make it look and act as if they are 31 ivs in the stats affected by them. So if you try breeding a Pokémon that didn't have any perfect ivs with another then it'll likely have 0 perfect ivs. The Hidden power type is also unaffected by hyper training. There are ways of getting perfect IV Pokémon. When you check a Pokémon's IV's they'll be categorized as No Good (0), Decent (1-15), pretty good (16-25), very good (26-29), fantastic (30), and best (31)
- The quickest legal method of getting good IV Pokémon is through SOS chaining. Just capture a few after a 30 knock out chain, then catch the Pokémon afterwards a few times to cover all 6 stats and hope you get them with a ditto or different genders. All you need to do afterwards is just keep hatching eggs and hope you get lucky while replacing one or both Pokémon when you get a 5 IV Pokémon with another one until you get a 6 IV Pokémon which would hopefully be a male since they can breed with other species and not just produce the same Pokémon. However obtaining a 6 IV Ditto or an equivalent to one is faster and more reliable since it can breed with mostly everything.
- 0 IVs are sometimes necessary for certain sets but these aren't always needed. Most of these situations revolve around Trick Room or special attackers. The ability to go slower than your opponents. Pokémon is generally key to winning so if you can find a 0 IV speed Pokémon then you can likely use it in Trick Room if it's of a reasonable speed. On special attackers this is generally for moves like Foul Play, or being confused which takes the attack stat into consideration and decreases the amount of damage you receive.
- Characteristics. You may notice that Pokémon can have certain characteristics. These just tell you what the Highest IV stat is. However if they are multiple max IVs then it will randomly pick one of the possible characteristics.
This doesn't necessarily have any effect in competitive play but the special effects of sending out a Pokémon can be quite nice. There are however a few rules for how Pokémon can pass down their pokeballs.
- If you breed with two different species of pokemon (not counting Ditto) only the female's ball will be passed down. For example, if you breed a male Gastly in a moon ball and a Gardevoir in a love ball you'll only get love ball Ralts.
- Males can pass down their balls if the female is of the same species. This is at a 50% chance for either ball. The Nidoran family, and Volbeat/Illumise are exempt from this rule. IE if you breed a moon ball male Charmander with a love ball female Charmander you can get either one.
- If either male, female, or genderless Pokémon breed with Ditto then their ball will be the only one passed down. Ditto can never pass down its ball.
Hidden Power breeding can be a bit rough since the IVs are what determine the type it has. The best way to get 6iv Pokémon with the right Hidden Power is just forgo the IVs and look for the type you want and level it up to 100 for bottle caps. The most commonly used types in competitive play are generally Ice, Fire, Fighting (Pokémon with 3 guaranteed IVs can't have HP), Ground, Water, Electric, and Grass.
Once you have followed the steps you wanted to take then you will have competitively viable Pokémon. The final steps you need to take is EV (effort value) training, setting up the desired moves, and evolving the Pokémon to the desired form you want it to take.
Effort Values
These will be the final thing we will be going over. Effort values is something that every opposing Pokémon can give. Most base forms gives your Pokémon only 1 EV point while mid forms give 2 and final level evolutions give 3. There are other Pokémon that can give to multiple stats like Shuckle which gives 1 EV to both defense and Special Defense. For a full list of what EVs a Pokémon gives try here.
Pokemon can only have a total of 510 EVs to split among the 6 stats with 252 being the max for an individual stat. This leaves the possibility of having 2 stats at maximum potential with 4 in any other stat. You're likely wondering what happened to the last 2 possible EVs since 2+2+4 is 8. The final two EVs won't change any at level 50 or 100 due to how EVs work. You need a total of 4 for one stat to increase. At 50 you can still have 4 EVs but the next number of EVs required to raise a stat is 12.
There are special items and a few other things to help speed up the process of getting these EVs. The power items i mentioned near the beginning is one of these items. They can increase the total number of EVs by 8. Macho Brace is similar to the power items except it doubles EVs gained for every stat but isn't as useful. Pokerus is a beneficial "virus" that Pokémon can get which also doubles the total number of EVs. If you however see a smiley face on a Pokémon then that Pokémon can no longer pass it to others but will still have the bonuses of Pokerus. Also make sure that you have Pokémon in the PC which assures that they will retain Pokerus as it only becomes non passable at midnight if it's in the party. SOS battles can also effect the EV total. Any Pokémon that is called will give double the EVs it would normally have given.
Once you have completed the EV training process you will have completely made a fully competitive Pokémon that can keep up with everyone else's Pokémon and use them in the battle spot, against friends or the Global link competitions.
