Pokémon Breeding Explained: The Beginner's Guide to Perfect (and Shiny) Pokémon

I remember the very first time I put my two Pokémon at Pokémon Day Care in hopes of getting something legendary or mythic. Because that's what I had heard was how pro players get good Pokémon in their inventory. But it didn't take long for me to realise this thing wasn't for me. After spending quite a lot of time biking in circles, waiting for my egg to hatch, I was done. I was very sure that there must be some secret guide out there which only pro players have access to.

But let me tell you, there isn't any "secret guide". On the outside, breeding looks mysterious, and it feels like you would need to grind too much for it, but underneath it's nothing but a simple-to-grasp checklist — and once it clicks, you'll be pro at it too! So, without wasting much time, let me walk you through it the way I wish someone had walked me through it.

First, the thing nobody tells you

Before going any further, I'd like to make one thing very clear that often creates misunderstanding for many players: Breeding two different Pokémon DOES NOT make a new hybrid Pokémon. While researching for this article, I found that someone on Reddit bred an Eevee and a Yamper together, wishing for "some little electrical new Pokémon," and got… a regular Eevee. That must be heartbreaking for them, but a lesson for all of us.

So, here's the rule: the baby is (almost always) just the mother's species, at the bottom of its evolution line. So when you breed a female Blastoise, you get a Squirtle. That's it — no surprises.

Now you must be wondering if breeding doesn't "invent" new Pokémon, then what is it even for? Well, the answer is: Control. It helps you get a Pokémon with the exact stats, nature, moves, and even shininess you want — reliably, instead of praying and wishing for it. I want to quote some lines which I borrowed from a forum thread; they say: breeding "is a way to customise your Pokémon that is less gambling than wild encounters."

Also, if you haven't read my IVs and EVs guide, I'd recommend you read it first, as Pokémon breeding is all about passing on good IVs (genes), so knowing about IVs will help you understand this article even better.

How breeding actually works

It's so simple. Let me tell you:

1. Leave two compatible Pokémon together — at the Day Care (older games), the Nursery (Sword/Shield, BDSP), or by setting up a Picnic in Scarlet & Violet.
2. Wait until an Egg appears.
3. Carry the Egg around as you walk or bike, and it eventually hatches into a Level 1 Pokémon.

Now, the next question you guys should be asking me is: which two Pokémon count as "compatible"? Let's find out.

The compatibility rule

Two Pokémon can make an Egg if they:

• share at least one Egg Group, and
• are opposite genders.

What are egg groups?

Consider egg groups as "breeding clubs", and each Pokémon belongs to one. There are many egg groups, such as Field, Water 1, Dragon, Monster, etc. If two Pokémon share an egg group, they can breed, and sometimes it leads to some really weird pairings like Skitty and Wailord. Can they breed? Yes, they both belong to the "Field" group. Meanwhile, a couple of oddballs like Nidoqueen can't breed at all.

Ditto: your friendly neighbourhood baby machine

Ditto is basically your best friend when everything is going down south. It changes everything. It breeds with almost any Pokémon, of any gender, ignoring egg groups entirely. For the genderless Pokémon like Magnemite or Beldum, Ditto is the only way to breed 'em.

A "good" Ditto is the best investment you can make as a Pokémon breeder. I'm sure you've seen some players literally begging for a "6IV Ditto" on Pokémon forums — and now you know why. While Ditto is practically the best Pokémon to have for breeders, you've got to take note of the following two things as well:

• Ditto can't breed with another Ditto.
• It can't breed Legendaries or baby Pokémon — those are in a locked "Undiscovered" group.

The breeding recipe (an order of operations)

Beginners always look for some hard-and-fast rule to breed their Pokémon. Does it exist? Yes, and the trick is to save the slowest step for last. Here are the steps which I personally use:

1. Sort out the parents first — the right species/form, the ability you want, and (if you care) the Poké Ball.
2. Lock the Nature with an Everstone.
3. Chase the IVs with a Destiny Knot (and optionally Power items).
4. Add Egg Moves last.

And here is one fine cheat sheet for you guys — these five items do 90% of the work:

The game of IVs

Let me tell you a fun fact: even with no items at all, a baby already inherits 3 of its parents' IVs at random. Interesting, isn't it? Then what do the items do? Let's find out.

Providing the parent with a Destiny Knot ensures that the baby inherits 5 of its parents' IVs (up from 3 without any item), with one being random. Add a Power item to force a specific stat — say a Power Anklet to guarantee Speed — and you're fixing exactly which stats carry over.

Now the strategy that makes IV breeding actually work:

Rank your parents by how many perfect (31) IVs they have: 6 > 5 > 4 > 3… Every time a baby hatches with more perfect IVs than one of its parents, swap it in as the new parent. Always trade up, never down. A few generations of this and you climb from a rough pair to a near-perfect Pokémon.

If all of this sounds a little messy to you, I've got you covered with my Breeding Calculator. Tell it the IVs you want, and it maps out which parents and items get you there.

Egg Moves (the quick version)

Egg moves are special moves which a Pokémon never learns by levelling up or using a TM (Technical Machine); they can only be inherited from the parents. In the modern games (Gen VI onwards), either parent can pass them down, so you just breed with a partner that already knows the move. S/V has made this even easier — give a Pokémon a Mirror Herb at a picnic, and it copies Egg Moves from your other Pokémon without hatching anything at all! And if no natural partner knows the move, we've a middleman — Smeargle — it can learn almost every move and pass it on.

Going for a shiny (the Masuda Method)

This is something which confuses players a lot, and trust me, I'll make it crystal clear for you. Every Pokémon egg has a small base chance of hatching shiny — just 1 in 4,096 — but the good news is you can improve these chances a lot in your favour with the following two methods:

• The Masuda Method: Breed two Pokémon from games in different languages (say, an English Pokémon with a Japanese Ditto). That alone multiplies your shiny odds several times over.
• The Shiny Charm (a reward for completing the Pokédex) stacks on top of that.

But I'd like to flag two warnings straight ahead:

1. Even though 1 in 512 feels much better than 1 in 4,096, it's still "not easy". It will take too much grinding (or luck) to achieve it.
2. A Pokémon's "shininess" and "IVs" are locked at the time of creation of the egg. So, don't waste your time in "saving and reloading" in search of better results.

Pro tip: to hatch Eggs faster, keep a Pokémon with the Flame Body ability in your party — it cuts the number of steps needed in half.

Putting it all together — a worked example

So after all this "talking", let's move on to something practical. Suppose I want to create a competitive Garchomp for myself. Since Garchomp's baby form is Gible, here's what I'll do:

1. Parents: a foreign-language Ditto (for the shiny odds) + a Gible line partner. Make sure the ability I want is on the non-Ditto parent.
2. Nature: put an Everstone on a Jolly parent → Jolly passes down every time.
3. IVs: Destiny Knot on one parent + a Power Anklet to guarantee Speed — swap in better babies over a few eggs until I've got my 31s in Attack and Speed.
4. Egg Moves: breed with a partner that knows the move, or grab them with a Mirror Herb at a picnic.
5. Shiny + hatching: foreign Ditto (Masuda) + Shiny Charm for the odds, Flame Body in the party to hatch faster.

After a few egg hatches and grinding, I'll get a shiny, perfectly-statted, Jolly Garchomp with the exact moves and stats I want — something which you can never get any other way.

In case you want to double-check the stats you're actually aiming for, I have a tool called IV Calculator on this website — I'd recommend it for you to check out.

So… is it worth it?

I would not say that "hatching eggs is a thrilling or amazing experience", but it has its own charm. It's low-stakes, controllable, and deeply satisfying to build something "you wanted" for yourself. Get yourself a great Ditto, go through the little checklist above, follow it, and what once took me days takes minutes.

I wish that this article added some value to your knowledge base — if you're a beginner. If you find yourself stuck at some point during your Pokémon breeding journey, well, the comment section is open for you — where you can share your thoughts, questions, and feedback while staying completely anonymous.

Want me to dig deeper into this topic in another article? You can mention that in the comments too!