I've gotten IV breeding down to a science, and I've wanted to cough up a quick guide for IV breeding, so I'll give it a shot. If this guide turns out to not be terrible, I'm lazily declaring Creative Commons Attribution license on this guide. (google it
) Copy anywhere, just give me credit.sarysa's Hobbled Together IV/Nature Breeding Guide
What You Need * = optional
- A bunch of level 30 Dittos. Get them from GTS or the right Friend Safari. Even if not level 30, you'll want to get all the natures that aren't terrible. (read: no natures that decrease def or spdef)
- Destiny Knot and Everstone
- Bulbagarden to seek out candidates and figure out what stats to work on
- Access to the Judge/IV rater
- A Fletchinder or Talonflame with Flame Body ability
- Netflix*
Part 1: Finding the Parent
These days, a good place to start with a project is the GTS itself. Search for level 1-9 of the lowest evolution of the mon you want, and if you're lucky someone will have put a decent 3/4 stat up there. Even the ones with Japanese text have 3V and 4V next to them. Occasionally the poster is lying. What they're usually looking for are level 30 dittos and other level 1-9 breeds, so keep your 4-stats[/u]. You'll get many on your quest for the perfect 5-stat. There's a bit of a chicken and an egg problem as level 30 dittos are usually traded for bred mons, so it'll be a bit of a challenge starting out. But the greater your inventory grows over the time, the easier breeding becomes overall.
Friend Safari is also a good start, as you're guaranteed 2-stats and can find HA mons on any safari. Go to the Judge, who is in the Kiloude City Pokemon Center by the changing room, and get your mon's stats checked. If a stat is perfect, the Judge will say it "can't be beat!" It is customary to mark the symbols underneath the mon's animation to match each perfect stat:
- HP = Circle
- Atk = Triangle
- Def = Square
- SpAtk = Heart
- SpDef = Star
- Speed = Diamond
Part 2: Useful Information
Regarding abilities, Hidden Abilities are still exlusive. You can't ever get one by breeding parents with only the normal abilit(y/ies). However, males can finally pass down the Hidden Ability with a Ditto. Males cannot pass it down with a female, and females still have a chance (but not 100%) of passing it down with a male. In a male and female relationship, the male's Ability is completely meaningless.
So save yourself the headache and make sure you get the right ability ready before starting this. This process will probably take 4-6 hours at your first go, but as your inventory fills up, it'll shrink to 1-2 hours.
Note that if a mon has two normal abilities, and you want one of them: if you have a female with the wrong ability, it'll eventually produce children with the correct ability. This takes a long time, though, and you may want to pass up on that female as an "upgrade" during your breeding cycles because it's so rare.
When breeding in moves, females can now single-handedly pass moves on to the next generation. Both genders can pass moves on when breeding with a Ditto. Once your female gets the appropriate move from a male of a different species, you are free to breed that female with males who don't know the move, dittos, and males of a different species without that move.
Oh, and there is no restriction on in-breeding. I've been doing this so long that I've forgotten that people are concerned about it!
Part 3: The Grind
You'll want to get your desired nature in ASAP, if it's not there already. If you already have the desired nature, then get a ditto with stats that you want for your mon, but that it's missing. If both of your initial parents are garbage, then you'll only be equipping an Everstone on the mon with the correct nature. Otherwise, you'll also equip a Destiny Knot on the other mon: This causes five stats to be copied from a random parent. So you could get HP, Def, and Speed from one parent, and Atk and SpAtk from another, for example.
Once your parents are equipped, bank all your mons except for the parents and your Fletchinder or Talonflame with the Flame Body ability. From here on out, this will be referred to as the Babysitter, since its ability allows your eggs to hatch faster and it can learn Fly, making it easy to go between Kiloude City, Camphrier Town, and Lumiose City(optional). Fly out to Camphrier and head west to the Day Care Center. Deposit the parents, get on your bike, get directly below the Day Care Man, and then go left and right. Over and over. This is where you'll want your distraction: Netflix, TiVo, DVDs, whatever you use. It'll be boring otherwise.
Eventually you'll get used to what you need to look for out of the corner of your eye. Unfortunately, this Day Care Man doesn't alert you when an egg arrived (a sorely missed feature) so you have to pay attention to the Day Care Man when you pass him and if he's facing you, he has an egg for you. Otherwise, enjoy whatever entertainment you're indulging in. Also, you'll probably want to switch to the Super Training interface since it shows your party.
Once you have 5 eggs, unless you breed something fast-hatching like Togepi, you'll want to fly to South Lumiose City next. Get on your bike and head right a little until you reach an open area, and then just hold right on your 360 degree stick and you'll go in circles endlessly. Whenever you notice the movement stopping from the corner of your eye, it means an egg has hatched. Press B occasionally and eventually the screen'll go away and you can go in circles again. Repeat until all eggs have hatched, while happily watching Netflix.
Now that your eggs have hatched, you'll probably want to pause Netflix and head over to Kiloude City. Get your mons IV rated and mark them appropriately. (see end of Part 1) From here on out, you'll be swapping males, females, and dittos in the Day Care Center as you try to complete the following milestones on the road to your desired 5-stat (if you're lucky, some will be skipped):
- Getting all 5 stats among both parents (and making sure it stays this way as you breed your way up)
- Getting two 3-stat parents
- Getting one 3-stat parent and one 4-stat parent
- Getting two 4-stat parents
- Getting your desired 5-stats
- Getting your desired 5-stat with the correct ability
Don't forget, you will always want to have an Everstone on any mon with the correct nature, and Destiny Knot on the other parent. This never changes. Some players prefer to shortcut with one Power item and a Destiny Knot, but then they have to get the nature in and a 5-stat parent with a 2-stat (if you're lucky) ditto is going to often produce junk. That method is not for everyone and will probably slow you down in the long run.
Part 4: It Gets Easier
It's worth keeping your excess stock. 4-stats and 5-stats with a good nature and stats can be traded to other players for something equivalent. You may even want to keep at it with your first project, eventually getting two 5-stat parents and from there, you can get 5-stats roughly 1/6 of the time. If it's a popular enough breed, you can use Serebii's forums (Trade Forum, IV Bred thread) to get all sorts of other 5-stats. Even if they're not what you want, if they are males and belong to different Egg Groups, it'll make breeding other things much easier. It's also worth keeping 5-stat males you have which have the wrong 5 stats -- it might be perfect for something else!
As your inventory grows, cross-breeding becomes the best option. For example I have 5-stat male Snover, Togekiss, Bulbasaur, and Eevee which I've used to breed other members of the Monster, Fairy, Monster+Grass, and Field egg groups respectively. Bulbapedia has more information on Egg Groups, as does Serebii I'm sure. These alone will halve the time it takes to breed. What's better is they often have the desired nature, which reduces the grinding time even more. Plus, you get better at breeding while not really paying attention the more you do it.
If you have both copies of the game, using both for breeding cuts the time it takes for an egg to show up, but this is not necessary. (nor is it an option for most people) Getting your 5-stat on the copy of the game you don't typically use will make it easier to level up that mon on your normal copy. (1.5x exp bonus for same region, 1.7x exp bonus for different region)
Part 5: Conclusion
So there you have it. With patience, distraction, and a bit of strategy, you can get your desired 5-stats without spending too much time.
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