Breeding

Published on October 23rd, 2013 | by Huy

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Breeding Perfect Pokémon in Pokémon X & Y

While many of us were worried about having to use imperfect Pokémon in the pre-RNG abuse era of X & Y, our worries were put to rest by the new breeding mechanics brought to us in Generation 6.

Changes in Generation 6

Egg Moves – In past generations a Pokémon could learn special moves that it normally does not learn by inheriting it from the father only. In X&Y this has been changed. Pokémon will be able to inherit these Egg Moves from the mother as well. This opens up new possibilities for move combinations that could not be obtained before.

Hidden Abilities – Previously referred to as Dream World abilities, these abilities are not normally obtainable by a Pokémon. These Hidden Abilities can be found on special event Pokémon and sometimes on Pokémon in the Friend Safari or in hordes. These abilities previously could only be passed down by female Pokémon but that has been changed in Generation 6. Male Pokémon are now capable of passing down Hidden Abilities while breeding with Ditto, but have a smaller chance to pass them down than a female. Female Pokémon have a greater chance of passing down the ability. Breeding a male Pokémon and a female Pokémon with a Hidden Ability yields the best chance to pass it down.

Special Poke Balls – Arguably the most important change in breeding is the passing down of Poke Balls. In all previous generations, Pokémon that were bred would always appear in normal Poke Balls. In Generation 6, the baby will inherit the Poke Ball from its female parent (Note: Ditto does not count as a female). Rejoice in fact that your bred Pokémon can now be super stylish!

Things Required for Breeding Strong Pokémon:

Friend Safari – This is the starting point for getting Pokémon with perfect IVs. Every Pokémon caught in the Friend Safari is guaranteed to have at least 2 stats with 31 IVs. In order to start breeding, you need to find Pokémon in the Friend Safari that can breed with the Pokémon you are looking to make. Catch some Male parents from the same egg group as the Pokémon you are breeding with different 31 IVs to pass down to your baby, grab a female of the species you want with the ability you want to pass down, or if you’re lucky enough to be able to find them in your Safari, catch some Dittos so you can pass down IVs to anything.

Synchronizers – Pokémon with the ability Synchronize are extremely useful for getting the Natures that you want. If a Pokémon with Synchronize is the first Pokémon in your party (fainted or not), there is a higher chance of the opposing wild Pokémon having the same Nature. This allows you to catch parents with the aforementioned 2 31 IVs and with the right Nature to pass down to your offspring.

Everstone (Geosange Town) – Everstone is important for maintaining the Nature of the Pokémon you are trying to breed. The parent holding the Everstone is guaranteed to pass down its Nature 100% of the time.

Destiny Knot (Cyllage City Hotel) – Destiny Knot is the most important item for breeding perfect Pokémon. Without Destiny Knot, offspring are limited to inheriting a maximum of 3 IVs from both of its parents. In Generation 6, Destiny Knot raises the limit to 5, allowing a Pokémon to inherit almost all of its IVs from its parents.

Power Items (Battle Maison) – While the Power Items (Weight, Bracer, Belt, Lens, Band, Anklet) are not necessary, they are useful items to have for the early stages of breeding. Attaching a Power Item to a parent guarantees that it will pass down the IV it has in that specific stat to the offspring. This is useful for preserving harder to get IVs such as a 0 in Speed for a Trick Room Pokémon.

IV Judge (Kiloude City Pokémon Center) – The IV Judge will take a look at your Pokémon and tell you what stats they have 31 IVs in. If the judge says X stat can simply not be beat, then congratulations, you have a fully maxed out IV. On the flip side, if the judge makes a comment about how terrible the IV is, then congratulations, you have a 0 IV in that stat!

Flame Body – While a Pokémon with Flame Body is not required, it is extremely helpful for speeding up the process of hatching eggs. Carrying a Pokémon with Flame Body in your party allows you to hatch your eggs in half the time!

The Process:

Note: These steps do not have to be followed in an exact order. This is merely a guideline to help you get into the process. You can do things in almost any order, but this is the most streamlined approach.

1. Grab a Pokémon with Synchronize and hit up the Friend Safari! Your goal here is to grab a bunch of parents for the Pokémon you are trying to breed. You will want as many males as possible with different combinations of the perfect IVs to pass down to your offspring as possible. Leading with a Synchronizer will help ensure that you will have the Nature you want in your arsenal to pass down.

2. Attach an Everstone to the parent with the Nature that you want to pass down. Breed that parent with a female of the Pokémon that you are looking to get. Hatch the eggs until you have a female with the Nature that you want. Move the Everstone to the baby. From this point on, the female will continue to hold the Everstone to continuously pass down the Nature.

3. Breed down 1 or 2 IVs from a male parent. You can do this a number of different ways. If you have a male parent with 3 or 4 perfect IVs then it is probably better to attach a Destiny Knot to it to allow it to pass down as many as it can. If you are not lucky enough to have that many perfect IVs yet, you can attach the Power Item that corresponds to the the IV that you want to pass down to the father to force it to pass the IV to the baby. For example, you have a Ditto with 31 HP and 31 Speed. If you attached a Speed Anklet to the Ditto, the offspring would be guaranteed to have 31 Speed.

4. After obtaining a female Pokémon with 1 or 2 perfect IVs from the father, you can replace the female that is currently in the daycare and move the Everstone over to the female. Pick a male with 2 perfect IVs that are different from the female and attach a Destiny Knot to it. This allows for more IVs to pass down to the baby. The goal here is to keep improving the number of perfect IVs on your female.

5. Once you get 3 Perfect IVs, switch the parents again. The female with 3 IVs replaces the female with 2 IVs and a male with another combination of IVs that are not perfect on the female replaces the male. Remember to keep Destiny Knot and Everstone on the respective Pokémon so that IVs and natures continue to pass. Your goal is to end up with at least one 31 in each IV you want to pass down between the parents and as many 31s in important stats between the parents as possible to maximize the odds of your Pokémon inheriting 31 IVs.

6. Rinse and repeat until your Pokémon are powerful. Keep in mind that as you build up your collection of Pokémon, this process gets simpler. Males with a large number of perfect IVs can be used within their Egg group to speed up the beginning processes of breeding. The more perfect IVs between the parents, means a larger chance of getting what you are aiming for.

With a little bit of luck you’ll have your perfect Pokémon in no time!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask us in the Breeding Q&A Thread.

Good luck and happy breeding!


About the Author

is a grizzled Pokemon veteran. Having played competitively since RBY, he picked up VGC in 2009 and never looked back. He has played in 3 World Championships (Second only to Ray Rizzo) and has placed in the Top 10 in all 3 while managing to secure Top 8 in 2. He is the only American in the world to have won two Customized Worlds DS'es.



40 Responses to Breeding Perfect Pokémon in Pokémon X & Y

  1. Cassie says:

    How to get your eggs to hatch faster:

    • Get a Flame Body or Magma Armor Pokemon, they cut the number of steps in half. I’d suggest Fletchinder or Talonflame since they can fly you to the IV judge too.
    • Get the Hatching O Power from Café Introverson. The man will be there with the power once you get the Charizard megastone down to 50k inside the Stone store.
    • Use parents that make eggs faster. The list below corresponds to each saying the Daycare man gives you when you ask about your Pokemon. Ideally you want parents that are the same species but with different IDs.

    Same species, different IDs: Yields the saying “The two seem to get along very well.” and a ~70% chance of an egg.
    Same species, same IDs: Yields the saying “The two seem to get along.” and a ~50% chance of an egg.
    Different species, different IDs: Yields the saying “The two seem to get along.” and a ~50% chance of an egg.
    Different species, same IDs: Yields the saying “The two don’t seem to get along very well.” and a ~20% chance of an egg.

    The saying “The two prefer to play with other Pokemon than each other.” means that there will be no eggs at all.

    Anyway I figured it’d be useful for some people to see this as well, since I honestly didn’t know the rates eggs occured before looking it up.

  2. xicious says:

    Thanks Huy! Loved the article, a little heavy on the incest but such is poke life.

  3. Calm Lava says:

    Thank you!!!!! There are other articles on different websites that are kind of all over the place, this is by far the best and easiest to follow

  4. x Dart says:

    For some reason when I click “read full story” it brings me to the home page of the forums?

  5. Tyfrax says:

    I’m not really following with the Destiny Knot item,
    I’ve got 2 pokemon in the day care right now, one has 31/31/31/x/x/31 and the other has 31/31/x/x/31/31. Now I’m getting back eggs with 31/x/x/x/x/31. How am I getting eggs with only 2 31 ivs?

  6. Huy says:

    Destiny Knot only gives you a possibility of passing 5 IVs down. It could pass less than 5 IVs down.

  7. Tyfrax says:

    Destiny Knot only gives you a possibility of passing 5 IVs down. It could pass less than 5 IVs down.

     
    Ok, so is what I am doing the best way to get the the missing IV onto the egg? As in getting a 31/31/31/x/31/31 egg or is there something I’m missing

  8. Huy says:

    Unfortunately, there is no way to increase the odds anymore than you already have it set up. Just keep hatching eggs and it should come up soon.

  9. Tyfrax says:

    Unfortunately, there is no way to increase the odds anymore than you already have it set up. Just keep hatching eggs and it should come up soon.

     
    You might be my lucky charm, Just hatched a 31/31/31/x/31/31 egg. Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

  10. Seraph1nia says:

    Destiny knot WILL pass 5 ivs down to the child instead of the normal 3,
     
    for example
     
    hp from father
    attack from mother
    defense didn;t get picked  so it will be random
    spdef from mother
    spA from father
    Speed from father
     
    good luck

  11. AKingNamedPaul says:

    What an awesome website. Thanks for the guide.

  12. oPlaiD says:

    How does Destiny Knot interact with the Power items?

    Does that give you a chance to inherit 6 IVs, if Destiny Knot selects IVs other than the Power item IVs? Does it always select the Power item IV first, and then 5 more Destiny Knot ones in addition?

    I’m not sure how this would help your efficiency since you wouldn’t get the right nature out of it, but it may help breed 4-5 perfect IV males more quickly, which you can then breed with your proper natured female.

  13. BaileyGoodstuffs says:

    a very timely and helpful article! helped to answer some of my leftover questions. im glad you wrote this article and really appreciate it.

  14. PreyingShark says:

    How does Destiny Knot interact with the Power items?

    Does that give you a chance to inherit 6 IVs, if Destiny Knot selects IVs other than the Power item IVs? Does it always select the Power item IV first, and then 5 more Destiny Knot ones in addition?

    I’m not sure how this would help your efficiency since you wouldn’t get the right nature out of it, but it may help breed 4-5 perfect IV males more quickly, which you can then breed with your proper natured female.

    How normal breeding has worked since Gen V is that without the Power Item it always picks exactly 3 IVs from the parents, in 3 different stats. With the Power item it just forces one of those 3 to be a specific stat. The Destiny Knot just changes the “3” to a “5”. So, it just forces one of the 5 to be a specific stat.

  15. break says:

    Hmm…this is very helpful !!

    * never knew about the Synchronize effect *

    I’ll give this a try, once i get past the elite 4.

  16. DaWoblefet says:

    How does Destiny Knot interact with the Power items?

    Does that give you a chance to inherit 6 IVs, if Destiny Knot selects IVs other than the Power item IVs? Does it always select the Power item IV first, and then 5 more Destiny Knot ones in addition?

    I’m not sure how this would help your efficiency since you wouldn’t get the right nature out of it, but it may help breed 4-5 perfect IV males more quickly, which you can then breed with your proper natured female.

    Even if you could pas down 6 flawless IV’s at once, you’re now leaving your Nature up to chance, which would be really bad.

  17. Maxx86 says:

    I’m using this method and getting perfect pokemons is quite easy now.
    Once you manage to get two parents with 4 IV’s at 31, still covering all the stats you need (usually it’s all of them except attack or special attack), chanches of breeding a perfect pokemon with 5 IV’s at 31 on the stats you are 1 out of 24.
    Calculated this way:
    – there’s 1 chanche out of 6 that your offspring won’t inherit the IV connected to the stat it doesn’t use.
    – due to the parents having only 4 perfect IV’s, 2 stats are going to be covered just by one of the parents, while the other 3 stats will be covered from both parents. This means there’s a 25% chanche that the offspring will inherit the right IV’s for the stats covered by just one of the parents.

    1/6 x 25% = 1/24

    Once you manage to get a perfect parent with 5 topped IV’s, chanches drop to 1/12
    If both parents are perfect, chanches drop down to 1/6.

    This is, obviously, not taking into account hidden abilities and the chanches for the offspring to come out with the hidden ability, should you be looking to have, for example, a perfect dratini with marvel scale (which i just got 😀 )

  18. Praise Goomy! Now all we need are the vgc 14 rules! But thanks Huy! Much appreciate!

  19. Even if you could pass down 6 flawless IV’s at once, you’re now leaving your Nature up to chance without holding an Everstone, which would be really bad.

     
    In Gen 6, do we know what attributes of the baby are locked when you save right before picking up the egg? In Gen 5, everything except gender was locked but in Gens 3/4, only nature/ability/gender was locked (allowing one to soft reset for IVs).
     
    Any chance they reverted back to pre-Gen 5 mechanics?

  20. araluen7 says:

    In Gen 6, do we know what attributes of the baby are locked when you save right before picking up the egg? In Gen 5, everything except gender was locked but in Gens 3/4, only nature/ability/gender was locked (allowing one to soft reset for IVs).
     
    Any chance they reverted back to pre-Gen 5 mechanics?

     
    I did test this. I saved, picked up the egg and hatched it, soft reset, Same Nature and IV’s. (although I think somebody should retest this because I was dumb and forgot to check for gender and ability)

  21. pball0010 says:

    Nice article, but I cannot become stylish to save my life. I keep coming to the hibernal press girl to see if I could get my style up quickly, but I’m not sure if it stacks. I’m at $100k at the stone shop, if that says anything.

    Referring of course, to External. The one time I want creepy Bonding guy to show up and he won’t.

  22. Kasoman says:

    There is finally an IV calculator for Generation 6! 😀

    http://www.metalkid.info/Pokemon/Calculators/IV.aspx

  23. DaWoblefet says:

    Nice article, but I cannot become stylish to save my life. I keep coming to the hibernal press girl to see if I could get my style up quickly, but I’m not sure if it stacks. I’m at $100k at the stone shop, if that says anything.

    Referring of course, to External. The one time I want creepy Bonding guy to show up and he won’t.

    Buy any Poke Ball of your choice at the Emporium about 50 or so times. But, make sure you buy them one at a time. After doing that, assuming you have all the other O-Powers already, you’ll be set to grab Hatching Power from Cafe Introversion!

  24. MSK says:

    “In Gen 6, do we know what attributes of the baby are locked when you save right before picking up the egg? In Gen 5, everything except gender was locked but in Gens 3/4, only nature/ability/gender was locked (allowing one to soft reset for IVs).

    Any chance they reverted back to pre-Gen 5 mechanics?”

    Hold on when were IV’s etc locked on Gen 5?? I and many others RNG bred thousands of flawless shiny pokemon by saving in front of the daycare man while he was holding the egg, then trying again and again to get what we wanted.

  25. pball0010 says:

    Question: I’m trying to pass down egg moves, but how exactly does this work? I have a male inkay with topsy-turvy and I’m trying to get it on psyduck. Does the Everstone get in the way at all?

  26. araluen7 says:

    Pretty sure Inkay is the only species to learn it

  27. thedude2420 says:

    does the breeding pokemon i want have to be male or female? like say i want a crabby and have a full iv psyduck. if I breek my female crabby with my male psyduck what pokemon will the offspring be?

  28. thedude2420 says:

    does the breeding pokemon i want have to be male or female? like say i want a crabby and have a full iv psyduck. if I breek my female crabby with my male psyduck what pokemon will the offspring be?

  29. araluen7 says:

    does the breeding pokemon i want have to be male or female? like say i want a crabby and have a full iv psyduck. if I breek my female crabby with my male psyduck what pokemon will the offspring be?

     
    The baby pokemon will always be the same species as the mother

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