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Many sources on various websites explain the basics on breeding Pokémon in the sword and shield games, however very few have all the various specifics people will aim for when breeding competitively. This guide aims to cover EVERYTHING, from why you should start breeding all the way to how maximising a Pokémons IV's/EV's in order to make your Pokémon as strong as possible.
IV's
IV's stand for Individual values and each pokemon will hatch, or be caught with. These values range between 0 and 31 and there is a value for each of the 6 main stats, the higher the value the better the Pokémon is in regards to that stat. These values cannot be changed easily as will be explained later.
EV's
EV's stand for Effort Values. EV's are seperate from IV's and add an additional bonus on top of IV's a Pokémon starts with, they are also not linked directly to breeding as when a Pokémon hatches it will have 0 EV's. EV's range from 0 to 252 in each stat, however a Pokémon can never have a total number of EV's higher than 510 meaning it is impossible to maximise each stat's EV's. EV training is covered in the after breeding section later on.
Egg Moves
Egg moves are what we call moves which cannot normally be obtained on one species of Pokémon but can be passed down from a male parent of another species. There are exceptions in certain generations such as the Pokémon in the wild with an orange aura in sword and shield that can be caught with egg moves already but in general these moves will not be found on wild Pokémon and cannot be taught by TM's.
Egg Group
Nearly every species of Pokémon is assigned one or more Egg Groups, Legendaries and a select few others have an egg group simply called undiscovered which prevents them from breeding under normal circumstances. Egg groups are used to determine what Pokémon can breed together, if two Pokémon share at least one egg group an egg can be produced which contains a baby Pokémon of the same species as the mother. (To find a Pokémons egg groups I recommend looking them up on Serebii or Bulbapedia)
There exists one very common exception to this rule when it comes to breeding, and that exception is ... DITTO! Sitto can breed with a Pokéon of any egg group so long as it is not a Pokémon such as a Legendary that cannot breed at all. This makes ditto very valuable to breeders! An egg produced with a ditto and another species will always contain the other Pokémon species. It is impossible to produce an egg containing a ditto.
All egg group names:
Hidden Ability
Hidden abilities are special abilities Pokémon can have instead of their regular abilities, these abilities wont be found simply by catching or breeding regular Pokémon and the main way to get Pokémon with Hidden Abilities in Sword and Shield is through beating and catching Pokémon in Max Raid Battles. However be warned that the Pokémon will not always have the hidden ability even if you do catch it in this way.
Hidden Power
I won't go into much detail on this one but hidden power is a move which was removed for sword and shield which changed type and power based on a Pokémon's IV's
Now that's out of the way, let's cover the basics, why should you start breeding Pokémon? Is it worth it?
![[Image: 2019110922345100_3c66b776db1aa06323037049facd96d3.jpg]](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Qp1CRtSOc96DfnLEuYgsFu3vQsk=/0x0:1280x720/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1280x720):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19373679/2019110922345100_3c66b776db1aa06323037049facd96d3.jpg)
For Curry, Obviously...
Ok, I was only kidding about the curry thing...
But in all seriousness, breeding is a great way to get Pokémon that are much stronger than those in the wild (Higher IV's) and also teach them a selection of specific moves (Egg moves) that are otherwise only available randomly from catching Pokémon with orange auras. This allows you to make Pokémon that can specifically be used to battle people online or advance in the Battle Tower to earn BP (more on BP later)
One big thing to mention is that although breeding has been a staple of the main series of Pokémon games for some time there are a few differences this time around, which will be explained as the guide unfolds.
A new feature of Sword and Shield is that you can now change a Pokémon's nature AFTER breeding. This is done with mints bought with 50 BP each over the left side counter at the battle tower.
Since forms of Hyper Training have been around for a few generations now as well this actually provides a way to Maximise IV's without breeding. This is done using bottle caps by talking to the man in white behind the right side counter of the battle tower, with normal bottle caps raising 1 IV to max and Gold bottle caps raising all IV's to max. HOWEVER, this only works once the Pokémon has reached level 100, and you have to access the Battle Tower!
It is also possible to obtain Eggmoves without breeding. During your adventure you will likely encounter Pokémn with an orange aura around them, these Pokémon will have at least 3 Maximum value IV's and potentially some egg moves, although it is important to note that this is mostly down to luck as to which egg moves a Pokémon will know
This is the main reason it is important to state the significance of breeding, most of the previous goals of breeding can be achieved without any actual breeding being involved. However it is worth bearing in mind that this will cost you a hefty amount of time, BP and bottle caps in the long run.
EXAMPLE
With this explained, feel free to make your own judgement on whether breeding is worth it for you or not. But personally I believe breeding still has some value.
How to start Breeding.
The first step to breeding in any Pokémon game is finding where you can potentially breed Pokémon, in sword and shield there are two potential places you can do this, one at the Bridge Field zone in the Wild Area and one on Route 5. as shown below.
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When an egg is ready to be collected the nursery worker will change postions and move their arms to appear as shown below:
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![[Image: 75540193_10157924594802652_1823018166075260928_o.jpg]](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/f1T6cdaS_kTiHJerajP7RxMyjxc=/0x0:1280x720/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1280x720):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19387879/75540193_10157924594802652_1823018166075260928_o.jpg)
Obtaining High IV's
Before attempting to obtain high IV's it will be important to gain the ability to see Pokémon's IV's, in order to do so a few conditions must be met. Firstly you must have completed the main storyline of Pokémon sword and shield, then you must challenge the battle tower and beat multiple trainers before then beating Leon which will put you at battle tower rank 4. From this point onward you can check a Pokémon's IV's in any PC by simply pressing the + button.
Bear in mind that this is not an exact measure of the IV's as it will instead give you one of 6 descriptions for each of the stats which correspond to set IV values as follows. (remember 0 is minimum, 31 is maximum)
- No Good: zero
- Decent: 1- 10
- Pretty Good: 11 - 20
- Very Good: 21 - 29
- Fantastic: 30
- Best: 31
![[Image: Glowing_Stufful_Screenshot_2019-11-15_15-34-40.png]](https://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/pokemon-switch/4/41/Glowing_Stufful_Screenshot_2019-11-15_15-34-40.png)
Now we know how to check IV's lets get to breeding Pokéon with High IV's. When two Pokéon breed, the offspring hatched from the egg will have 3 values which are completely random between 0 and 31 and 3 values which are each indivdually identical to one of the parents. For example it could be that speed, defence and attack are chosen to be inherited from parents but speed could be identical to the mother and attack and defence would be identical to the father with the other 3 stats generated randomly.
As breeders we want to guarantee more than 3 of the stats are passed down using a Destiny Knot. When one of the parents holds a destiny knot (it doesn't matter which parent) then 5 IV's will be identical to either of the parents. This means that you can switch out the mother (or father if with a ditto) with newly hatched Pokémon as you breed them to increase the number of 'best' stat's with a value of 31 between both of the parents and hopefully get a baby Pokémon with 5 or 6 'best' stats as generally a Pokémon will not need all 6 to be perfect and the last one is always left to chance.
The only way to change one of these values after a Pokémon hatches would be to hyper train them by speaking to the man on the right counter of the battle tower after completing the game and raising the Pokémon to lvl 100. This will also cost bottle caps which, for a normal bottle cap raising one IV to max, will cost you 25BP each meaning this is quite expensive.
Getting the correct nature
Obtaining the Correct nature on Pokémon could be left up to chance, with each Pokémon having one of 25 different natures upon hatching, however most breeders want guaranteed natures for obvious reasons!
To guarantee the egg will hatch into a Pokéon with the correct nature all you need to do is make sure either of the parents has the nature you want and then make them hold an everstone. This way the parent holding the everstone will always have the same nature as the hatched Pokémon
To guarantee the egg will hatch into a Pokéon with the correct nature all you need to do is make sure either of the parents has the nature you want and then make them hold an everstone. This way the parent holding the everstone will always have the same nature as the hatched Pokémon
Adding Egg Moves
When talking about egg moves, not much has changed since previous games. However it is important to note that there has been a wide variety of moves that have been cut from the new games and as such don't expect to find these moves in sword and shield, through breeding or otherwise. The list is quite long as it also includes a large number of Z-moves from sun and moon so the list of cut moves can be found in the spoiler below:
In order to add egg moves onto a Pokémon first use a website such as Serebii or Bulbapedia to check which egg moves they can learn and what other species can potentially pass along these egg moves. After you have done this small bit of research you simply need to ensure that the male Pokéon you leave in the nursery is one of these compatible Pokémon who already knows the egg move. This ensures that the hatched Pokémon will be the same species as the Female while also having the Egg move passed along by the Male.
[WIP] Below this Point, will be finished by the end of tomorrow.
Ensuring Pokémon have the correct ability
Ensuring Pokémon have the correct ability
Optional: Increasing chance of shiny's hatching
After Breeding: Training your newly hatched Pokémon
Level training
EV training
EV training
Helpful Item Locations
