Tips and Tricks: Breeding [Pokémon Sun and Moon]

This article contains information on Eggs such as: the method of obtaining eggs, how to effectively hatch eggs, and breeding tips which are necessary for battling in Pokemon Sun and Moon.

What is an Egg?

To hatch an egg, you must walk while having the specific egg in your party. However, eggs cannot be sent to battle nor can they equip items like Berries. Fortunately, eggs can be traded to other trainers.

Keep in mind that the OT of the egg will not be the trainer who obtained the egg but the trainer who hatched it.

Egg Groups

Each Pokemon species has its corresponding egg group.

How to Obtain an egg

To obtain an egg, 2 Pokemon should be placed in the Pokemon Nursery.

One of the following conditions are required to obtain an egg:

• Depositing a ♂ and ♀ Pokemon that belongs to the same egg group.;
• A Ditto and another Pokemon that doesn’t belong to the Undiscovered egg group.

[Related Articles]
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Recommended Hatching Locations

If one of the two, moving around may cause an egg to appear. If an egg is found, the NPC at the Pokemon Nursery will call your attention when you pass by her. The best way to find eggs is to deposit two Pokemon of the same species or Pokemon that have different Trainer IDs.

The Pokemon Nursery’s quotes will help you determine the possibility of finding an egg.

How to Hatch an egg

The amount of steps needed to hatch the egg is fixed for each group of Pokemon. This decreases by 1 for every 256 steps. This limit can be lowered by placing a Pokemon with the Flame Body or Magma Armor ability such as Magby in your party. This ability halves the total amount of steps needed to hatch the egg.

The species of the Pokemon generated from the egg will depend on the Female placed in the Nursery. When the egg is hatched, it will be at level 1. Keep in mind that if Ditto is substituted as a parent (either as the ♂ or ♀), the species that can be obtained is the species of the other Pokemon. This does not apply to certain Pokemon like the Nidoran family, and certain Baby Pokemon.

This table summarizes the message displayed on the Pokemon’s Summary which correspond to the number of steps required to hatch the egg.

Basic Information on Breeding

One of the Pokémon placed in the Nursery can pass down its abilities to the Pokémon that will hatch from the egg.

■ Nature

When breeding, the nature of the Pokemon obtained from the egg will be random, but this can be passed down if one of the parent’s is equipped with an Everstone.

If one of the parents is holding an Everstone, the Nature is guaranteed to be passed down.

■ Ability

If a Pokemon has different Abilities, the female Pokemon placed in the Nursery can pass down its Ability.
In addition, if one of the parents is holding an Everstone, the chances of passing down the Ability increases.

In the case of Hidden Ability, one of the following conditions must be satisfied:
(1) If Ditto is not used, the Female Pokemon must have the Hidden Ability.
(2) If Ditto is used, either a Male or Female Pokemon with a Hidden Ability should be placed in the Nursery.

Corresponding to one of the conditions can increase the chances of obtaining a Pokemon with the Hidden Ability.

Be careful when trying to pass down parents hidden ability and moves at the same time since it is very easy to deviate from the conditions required.

■ Move

The Pokemon obtained from the egg can inherit the Moves currently learned by its parents. In Pokemon, these inherited moves are called Egg Moves. There are certain conditions that need to be fulfilled in order for the parent to inherit its moves.

Unlike inheriting abilities, moves can be inherited from both male and female parent.

The following moves are inherited through breeding:
(1) The parent learns a move that the offspring learns when it levels up;
(2) The parents learns a move that is part of the offspring’s Egg Move.

For example: Dragon Dance is an egg move for Charmander that cannot be learned by leveling up.
To pass down the move Dragon Dance to Charmander, you can deposit Gyarados (♂) and Charmander (♀) at the Pokemon Nursery. Once the NPC in the Nursery calls your attention, the egg obtained will be a Charmander that knows Dragon Dance.

Keep in mind that moves that can be taught as Technical Machine (TM) can also be passed down.
If there are 5 or more moves that can be passed down from both parents, the moves that the offspring will learn will be based on the order: Female’s (♀) Moves, Male’s (♂) Moves. In other words, the female’s (♀) moves will be prioritized over the male’s (♂) moves. Therefore, if the Male’s (♂) Moves are needed to be passed down, two or more of the moves of the female (♀) should be forgotten by talking to the Move Deleter.

■ Individual Value (IV)

When breeding Pokemon, 3 IVs which are chosen at random from both parents are passed down randomly to the offspring.

Similar to the Everstone, if a Pokemon is holding a Power Item, the corresponding Individual Value (IV) is guaranteed to be passed down.

However, this rule cannot be stacked. Which means that if both parents are holding a Power Item, only one of them is guaranteed to be passed down.

Power Items

The Power Items can be obtained by exchanging BP at the Battle Royal Dome. Alternatively, if the item Destiny Knot is held by one of the parents, the number of IVs passed down increases from 3 to 5.
It is possible to combine the effects of one Power Item and one Destiny Knot to pass down many IVs. This will however be at the expense of the Everstone, thus if Nature is also desired, thus method is not recommended.

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How to Obtain an Everstone
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Pokemon Sun and Moon Recommended Article List

This article is about Pokemon Sun and Moon. For information about Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon, click below.