Beginner's Guide to Breeding in Pokémon X and Y

How to spend too much time with Pokémon X and Y (Pt. 1)

So the new Pokémon games have been out for a while now but you either have nothing else to do after beating the Elite Four or you’re consistently getting steamrolled in Wi-Fi battles and it’s breaking your spirit. Well, let Uncle Jordy (or whatever you want to call me) teach you the ways of abandoning your social life and becoming a Pokémon master (actually it’s just things to do after you’ve beaten the game).

Breeding, the how’s and why’s

Breeding used to be super intimidating in Pokémon because of how random it seemed. There were a lot of variables dealing with genders, abilities, natures, etc. but now you can forget about all that because in X and Y it has become a whole lot easier. You’re still limited to two Pokémon at a time at the Day Care Center (it’s on Route 7, the same route as the Battle Chateau).

First, we will discuss natures and how they’re super helpful in competitive play. Natures boost one stat while decreasing another (some natures are neutral and don’t provide a boost or decrease to any stat and are best avoided). Natures help dictate what type of Pokémon you want to build whether it’s a hit-and-run type, a tanky wall, or a bruiser- these aren’t the typical terms used to describe Pokémon builds but are used to help give you a general idea what you’re building and to remind you that Pokémon is still an RPG game. Below is a chart I nicked from Bulbapedia, a resource everybody should use alongside Serebii, for all the information you need about Pokémon, ever.

So how do we get the natures we want? With a bunch of luck, I’m sad to say. However, there are ways to slightly alleviate the frustrating luck factor but it still a bit of luck beforehand. If you happen to catch a Pokémon with a desired nature, you can check if it’s in the same egg group as another Pokémon so you can breed the two together (make sure they’re both different gender and the Pokémon you want out of this miracle of life is the female one) and have the Pokémon with the nature you want hold an Everstone and the nature will pass down 100% of the time. If you’re breeding a really popular Pokémon such as Bagon with an adamant nature (+atk -spatk), make sure you breed a lot of them so that you can easily get the Pokémon you want on GTS (as long as it’s not a legendary or a special Pokémon).

Speaking of egg groups, guess which two unlikely Pokémon can actually produce an egg. — Speaking of egg groups, guess which two unlikely Pokémoncan actually produce an egg. Yeah… going to let that simmer in your mind for a bit.

A big hint for those that don’t know: Ever since Pokémon Emerald, Pokémon with the Flame Body or Magma Armor significantly helped the hatching process since they cut the hatch time of the eggs in your party in half. You can’t stack the effects of both Flame Body and Magma Armor together, though. An easy Pokémon to get with this ability in X and Y are Fletchinder or Talonflame, the evolved form of Fletchling (who can be found on Route 2, 3). If you just want a good path of road to hatch eggs, Route 7 is good because it’s a long straight path but you have to turn back around every time. For the TRULY lazy, you can go to any of the plazas in Lumiose City and hold left or right and you’ll continually go in a circle, FOREVER.

Here's what your team will most likely look like. Source — Here’s what your team will most likely look like. Source

THAT EXTRA BOOST (IVs) for advanced breeders only or if you have a lot of time

Now that we’ve discussed the easy stuff, time to get into some IN-DEPTH SHI-stuff, IVs or Individual values. These are extra values that Pokémon are born with and cannot be tampered with in any way, except breeding. There are a lot of complicated methods in which to get perfect IVs (a max IV gives 31 points to a stat) but the EASIEST way is to find a friend/stranger that has Ditto in their Friend Safari and catching a bunch of them. Then, when you’ve gotten an amount you’re satisfied with, talk to the man in the purple suit in the Kiloude City Pokemon Center, the same city as the Friend Safari, and he’ll tell you what IVs excel on a certain Pokemon. If it has any perfect IVs, he’ll tell you which stats and then “These stats simply can’t be beat.” The reason you want a Ditto from Friend Safari is because Pokémon from Friend Safari have a chance to have multiple perfect IV stats and it just makes the process much easier. To pass these IVs onto the child though, you need to have Ditto hold a Destiny Knot and it’ll have a CHANCE to pass down five of its six stats (the six stats being HP, attack, defense, s. attack, s. defense, and speed) so keep checking the baby at the purple-suited man in Kiloude City to make sure it has the perfect IVs you want. However, IVs are not entirely necessary for victory in Wi-Fi battles and should be treated as an extra boost in stats (speed is important though so if anything find a Ditto with perfect speed IVs and be prepared to out speed all your foes), you still have to have a good understanding of fundamentals and being able to predict what your opponent will do.

Poor unsuspecting fella. He's about to enter the dark, seedy underbelly of the Pokemon world that is breeding. — Poor unsuspecting fella. He’s about to enter the dark, seedy underbelly of the Pokémon world that is breeding.

Another hint for those that don’t know: Pokémon in Friend Safari have a chance to have Hidden Ability which you can’t find through normal play (except in hordes) such as Diggersby with Huge Power. For a desired ability on a Pokémon that doesn’t have a hidden ability, you can purchase an Ability Capsule in Kiloude City for 200 battle points (BP) in Battle Maison which will switch between a Pokémon’s two abilities. It might take a while if you’ve never played competitive Pokémon before but it teaches you the basics of battling in a very easy to digest form such as predicting what moves your opponents might use and switching out to a Pokémon that can take the hit.

Speaking of Diggersby, let's just talk about how he has arms for ears. No, he actually still has ears and has ARMS extending out from them. — Speaking of Diggersby, let’s just talk about how he has arms for ears. No, he actually still has ears and has ARMS extending out from them. In actuality, he’s a really strong Pokémon to have on your team but you DO need Huge Power on it.

So those are the “basics” to Pokémon breeding. It might take a couple of tries to get it right at first but once you get it down, you’ll be on your way to becoming a Pokémon master. The next step, is training for EVs (effort values) which I will go over next time.

Here’s part 2 to this guide