Step 0 - Breeding Basics

The Big Idea

One breeds Pokémon for two reasons:

1. To pass down traits from elder to child.
2. To more easily get Shiny Pokémon.

This guide will explain the best way to do the former. The latter will be explained in another post.

Breeding Basics

When a male and female of the same egg group are placed in a daycare, they breed and lay eggs. A Ditto can breed with any Pokémon that can be bred. The children who hatch from these eggs inherit some traits from their elders. 

These traits are:

• Species of the mother, or non-Ditto
• Three of the combined 12 Individual Values (IV) of both parents
• Nature
• Ability, usually of the mother 
• Hidden Ability, which must come from the mother
• Moves, specificly level-up and egg moves
• Pokéball of the mother

But what do these mean?

Species

The species of the Pokémon is determined by the mother, unless one parent is a Ditto. In this case, the non-Ditto species will be passed down. Dittos cannot breed with each other.

Individual Values

Individual Values are the permanent genetic code inborn in Pokémon. They correspond to a Pokémon's stats. They range from 0 to 31. At level 100, a 31-IV stat will have about 31 more points than the selfsame 0-IV stat.

Individual Values, which are inborn, are different than Effort Values, which are trained.

Nature

A nature raises one stat by 10%, and lowers another by 10%. 

Ability and Hidden Ability

Mothers have an 80% chance of passing down their ability, or a 60% chance of passing down their hidden ability. Elders with normal abilities will never pass down a hidden ability; the mother must have the hidden ability to pass it down. 

Males can only pass on their hidden ability when bred with a Ditto, though this has a 20% success rate.

Moves

Elders can pass down moves they know:

• If both parents know a move the child could learn by leveling up, it will pass down
• If either parent knows a move the child can only learn by breeding, it will pass down
• TMs cannot be passed down, but are reusable

Pokéball 

The style of the Pokéball in which the mother lives will pass down.