Steps towards getting something great
@Manafi’s Dream: I definitely agree; just catching random wild mons in-game and using them is not an option anymore, even though this was how I always used to do it before I actually became aware of the depth of the Pokémon mechanics. If I am simply going through the game for the first time, I usually soft-reset for a decent starter, and catch a big quantity of the Pokémon I will use, pick the one with the best nature and IVs, and go on with that. Any poke I want to use competitively, has to be IV-bred and EV-trained.
@Pucca_ness: Thanks, feels good joining my first club, especially since it’s one about breeding^^
Ok, it seems people are interested in how the breeding mechanics work, and how to most effectively breed for Pokémon with high IVs. I most certainly don’t know everything, but since I started breeding in generation five I have bred 5 different pokes with relatively high success, so I will (as systematically as possible) post here a little breeding guide that I hope will be helpful. If you want it all, go here:
http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20655
If you want my personal methods, read on
I hope this will not be too long, and sorry if I repeat some things you already know.
First: If in doubt whether you should bother using the everstone, stop doubting immediately. If you want to breed for a Pokémon that somehow is supposed to fit into a team, or just even function as well as possible on its own, having the correct nature is absolutely vital. There are 25 natures, giving you a 4 % chance of getting the right nature every time you hatch an egg. But even more important; there is no point in not using the everstone to breed for natures, as you have nothing to gain on giving both parents power items: If both parents are holding a power item, ONLY ONE of the representative stats will be passed on to the offspring. Thus, make sure the female parent always has the nature you are looking for, and always is holding an everstone.
Actually, you can sum up how to breed a good poke in one sentence: breed parents with high IVs.
Taken from the “Introduction to breeding” section from the link above (though not directly quoted), the inheriting stats mechanics are as follows:
First the baby’s IVs are generated at random.
Then one random IV from one random parent overlaps one of the generated IVs.
Then another random IV, except from HP, from a random parent overlaps another IV.
Then another random IV, except from HP and Defense, from a random parent overlaps another IV.
This means that the offspring will always inherit three times. However, this does not mean that the offspring will inherit three IVs; it can for example first inherit the speed IV from the father, and then inherit the speed stat from the mother, overlapping both the initially generated stat and the first inherited stat.
This information can be utilized, not to guarantee an offspring with good IVs, but to increase the chances of hatching babies with good IVs drastically.
To check for 31 IVs, talk to the guy with the blue hair in the battle subway. He will list up all the best stats of your Pokémon.
First, when breeding, you should never aim for all out 31s, as even with all out 31 parents, the chance of this is FAR lower than finding a shiny Pokémon. Focus on two or three stats that are the most important, and make sure you have these stats in 31 represented somewhere. Most people find it useful breeding with ditto, as it is compatible with any breedable Pokémon. However, this requires that you have caught ditto with 31 in various stats. What I did in White, was to go through all my boxes and look for pokes with 31 IVs. Most probably, if you catch some Pokémon as you go through the game, you will find quite a few. Use serebii’s IV calculator to make sure the characteristics simply aren’t fooling you. Now you can start using your power-items to chain-breed individual values from one poke to another, and from one egg group to another if you have pokes that are in more than one egg group (you can for example go from dragon, axew, to ground; scraggy, to flying; woobat, to water1; tirtouga, etc., etc.) . Make sure you have all power items available, so transferring teams from earlier games to combat in the subway is not a bad idea.
Before you start chain-breeding IVs, it is important to make a plan on which stats you want the different parents to be flawless in. As the power items ensure that you will pass on a stat every time, you only need this stat represented once: in the father. Thus, if you want a fast poke, make the father have a 31 speed IV, and don’t worry about the mother having it. (You probably want her to be jolly/timid holding an everstone.) You may have noticed that there is smaller chance of passing down HP and defense, as they have fewer chances to be inherited. So if you’re breeding for something defensive, you should probably make the father hold the power weight, as it otherwise would be less probable that the HP-stat is passed down. On the other hand, it cannot be overlapped if it first is passed down, so this is up to personal taste I suppose.
Now, as three stats can be passed down, it is vital that the parents have more than one 31 IV each to get a good result. I’ve found that getting a poke to have three 31 IVs really is not that difficult, even though you can count on hatching a few eggs on the way.
Switching out parents often is the way to go, even though it is expensive. Here is an example of how you can proceed:
You are breeding for a female, jolly mother with 31 in HP, Attack and Defense. First, make sure she has the correct nature. Any IVs in 31 is not necessary.
A Pokémon, A, in the same egg group has a 31 in atk. First, make sure it is male or breed for a male. Use the power brace to make sure 31 in atk is passed on. Then, breed the male 31 atk IV poke with the female desired poke, holding everstone. Switch poke A with a hatched male for a higher quantity of eggs. Keep a hatched jolly female. Release the previous female (for convenience sakes, you will end up with A LOT of pokes, so release as many of them to stay in control of what you have bred and will continue breeding).
Now, find a male poke, B, that has 31 in HP. Use the power weight on that poke and everstone on the female. Replace B with a male 31 HP poke. As you go along hatching eggs, check all males and all the females with the right nature. If you get a male with both 31 IVs, replace it with the previous male for a higher chance of passing down the attack stat: as you can see, if both parents have a 31 stat in attack, the chance is 1/5, or 20 %, that this stat is passed down every time the baby inherits a stat. (HP is inherited on the first turn, and cannot be inherited again. Also, on the last turn, the chance is ¼, 25 %, as defense cannot be inherited.) Once you get a female with the right nature and both stats in 31, proceed to breed her with a poke C, that has 31 in defense. Repeat the process. You will probably pretty quickly get a male that has 31 in defense and either HP or attack. Now you are breeding a female with 31 in HP and atk with a male with 31 in defense and HP or attack. This is the part that will probably take the longest, so make sure you at this point release everything that is male or does not have the right nature. Check only the females with the correct nature for one with 3 31 IVs to be as effective as possible. This usually takes me half an hour to a few hours, so nothing tremendously time-consuming, unless you are very unlucky.
Of course you can modify this whole procedure to your preference, perhaps first breeding for a male with two IVs so you don’t always have to worry about the correct nature and a female, but the guidelines are more or less the same, also if you’re using ditto.
Now, when breeding for a father, follow the same procedure, only now you will not have to worry about nature, but perhaps about other factors like egg moves. Make sure you have it all covered so you don’t make the same mistake as I made (breeding a Hippo in White only to realize it could not learn stealth rock anymore. I had to start all over again in Platinum).
When breeding, make sure the stats you care about the most are represented in both parents (apart from the one that the male will pass down every time.)
Having two parents with 31 in attack increases the chances of passing this down immensely. When I was breeding for Scraggy, the parents looked like this:
F: 31 in HP, atk, def
M (smeargle): 31 in HP, atk, speed (and sp.def, but this was entirely random. Sometimes you are just lucky.)
As you can see, the stats that I was focusing on the most, HP and atk, are represented in both parents, and speed is passed down every turn. At the same time you increase your chances of generally higher IVs by having more stats represented (defense in the mother for instance). Thus, if you hatch another female with the correct nature that may not be up to the standards of the poke you want to finally end up with, but for instance has outstanding overall potential, you might want to switch her with the current mother as long as she has the same 31 stats represented. And that is what it really is all about: keep on increasing your chances, and you will end up with something good over time.
The hatching-method I have found most effective, is: picking up five eggs, hatching them. Release all the pokes that are not of the right nature/ability (unless you are looking for stronger parents). Deposit those that look promising, until you have 5. Fly to the battle subway. Check for 31 stats. If anything promising, enter a subway challenge to get more accurate results. Release if you’re not pleased. Repeat. (If the chances of picking up eggs are lower, I don’t always wait until I have five before I release and deposit.) Of course you can also use the mass hatching method, depositing large quantities of eggs before you hatch them, though this is only advisable if you’re not scouting for new parents. This is also less expensive.
Sorry or the excruciatingly long post. I do hope that some questions on a good way to proceed have been answered though. The scraggy parents gave me these two scraggy after less than an hour:
1: jolly/moxie: 30/31/26-27/16/31/31
2: jolly/moxie: 31/31/28-29/?/26-27/31 (forgot the sp.atk stat)
Of course, it is still much up to luck, and there is no doubt you will end up getting some awful ones even with awesome parents, but really, it does make a difference.
Good breeding everyone, I’m saying good night.
