Training

Base Stats - IVs - EVs - Natures - Breeding

The following information is valid for the Third and Fourth generations.

Breeding for moves

When a male Pokémon and a female Pokémon are in the same breeding group and love each other very much... etc... an egg is laid, and a baby is hatched. The baby will be the lowest form of the mother, but may have inherited some attacks from the father. How does this work?

Moves can be passed down in a few ways. First, if the father has a move that appears on the baby’s TM list or Breed list, that move is passed down automatically. Second, if both the father AND the mother have a move that appears on the baby’s Level list, that move is passed down as well. In all, no more than four moves can be passed down (as the father can only have four moves to start with) and these will overwrite the baby’s natural Lv. 5 (or Lv. 1) moves if nessessary.

Let’s look at an example. Nidoking is a male with Thunderbolt, Megahorn, Poison Jab and Counter. Rhyperior is a female with Earthquake, Rock Wrecker, Swords Dance and Megahorn. The baby will be a Rhyhorn. What attacks will it have?

1) Its level moves are Horn Attack and Tail Whip, in that order.

Horn Attack
Tail Whip

2) Thunderbolt is a TM move for Rhyhorn.

Horn Attack
Tail Whip
Thunderbolt

3) Megahorn is a level move for Rhyhorn, and both parents have it.

Horn Attack
Tail Whip
Thunderbolt
Megahorn

4) Poison Jab is learned by both Nidoking and Rhyperior, HOWEVER! Rhyhorn does not learn Poison Jab by level up. Only Rhyperior does. Therefore, Rhyhorn doesn’t get it... except for the fact that Poison Jab happens to be a TM as well, so it does in this case. If Poison Jab wasn’t a TM, Rhyhorn would not be born with it. Lots of evolved Pokémon get access to moves their lower forms can’t have, and not all of them are TM’s, so keep this in mind.

Horn Attack
Tail Whip
Thunderbolt
Megahorn
Poison Jab

5) Counter is on Rhyhorn’s Breed list, so Rhyhorn gets it. Counter also happens to be on Nidoking’s Breed list, which is how it got the move in the first place! Thus, Counter was passed onto Nidoking, and now it will pass onto Rhyhorn. If this Rhyhorn is male, it’ll be able to pass it on to something else as well.

Horn Attack
Tail Whip
Thunderbolt
Megahorn
Poison Jab
Counter

That’s six moves, and Rhyhorn only gets four. It’ll be the last four; Horn Attack and Tail Whip get bumped off.

6) But what about Earthquake and Swords Dance? These are TM moves for Rhyhorn, but since the father didn’t have them, the baby doesn’t get them. Rock Wrecker is only learned by Rhyperior, so that cannot be passed down to a baby either. The only moves a female can pass down are level moves that the father also has, and that the baby can learn. Otherwise, it’s form = mother, moves = father.

Ditto can fill in for either partner in most cases, and the rules remain mostly the same. The only change is that the form of the baby is ALWAYS the other Pokémon, whether male or female. Ditto can’t breed with itself, either, so you will never have a Ditto egg. Males/Genderless can pass down attacks in the normal way, but females cannot. The Hitmon brothers are an all male species with different attacks, but a similar baby form. Hitmonlee can pass its Hi Jump Kick to Tyrogue, who can then evolve into a Hitmonchan. Hitmonchan can then pass Mach Punch down to another Tyrogue, who can become Hitmontop. Hitmontop now has Hi Jump Kick and Mach Punch, which are only available through breeding.

Breeding for stats

Breeding for stats, or high/perfect IVs, is much more involved than simply breeding moves. For this reason, if you are at all interested in breeding for stats, it is hugely recommended to use the Emerald version, or Diamond and Pearl. There are two reasons to do this that directly relate to breeding- one, there is a way to cut your egg hatch time in half, and two, you can exert control over your Pokémon's nature, which has a direct effect on stats. In Ruby/Sapphire/Fire Red/Leaf Green, you have a 1/25 chance of getting the nature you want, while in Emerald/Diamond/Pearl, that chance becomes 1/2. Given the already astronomical odds stacked against you, and all the other benefits Emerald brings to your game, you will surely find it a wise investment.

It is recommended that you gather a few things before starting to breed.

1) A Flame Body/Magma Armor Pokémon, to act as babysitter. You need to have at least one 'hatched' Pokémon in your party at all times; might as well be a Magby. This will cut the number of steps required to hatch an egg in half, but only in Emerald. Some babies take 10000 steps to hatch; cutting that in half is a good idea!

2) An Everstone. Giving the Everstone to the female/Ditto in your pairing will give a 50% chance of that Pokémon's nature passing down to the baby- again, only in Emerald. Because of the old "50% chance of  getting it right, 90% chance of getting it wrong" rule, it will sometimes seem like it isn't working, but hatch a few more eggs and the odds will even out.

3) The Mach Bike. Speed = good. Emerald ALSO, incidentally, moves a piece of fence to allow a clear path straight through Mauville to Verdanturf, and none of the many NPC's along the path will ever get in your way.

4) Rare Candies. 10 is good, 15 great. These will be used in conjunction with a stat program to determine your Pokémon's stats quickly. If you don't have enough, consider bringing a few Linoones along as you hunt for items #5. Baby Pokémon at Lv. 5 (1 in DP) only have a stat variance of two or three points, but it should only take a few Rare Candies to determine if you have a potential winner. Save after every hatch, ruin the baby's dinner and reset; toss it if it's junk.

The following items are totally optional and a bit timeconsuming to aquire, but will be very helpful.

5a) Synchronize Pokémon. If you have a Modest Abra/Ralts/Espeon/etc, you can use it as your lead Pokémon to catch a bunch of Modest Dittos (again, a 50% chance of this working, and again, only in Emerald). Repeat with other natures you might find helpful (timid, adamant, etc). Getting the Synchronize Pokémon you need, then catching all those Dittos might take a while, but the payoff will be worth it.

5b) Breeder Dittos. These are Dittos with the nature you want, and ideally, have a perfect stat already. Ditto breeds with ANYTHING, even genderless nonlegendaries like Magnemite and Beldum, and with the Everstone, their nature will be dominant. With a little effort, you should be able to find, say, a Modest Ditto with a 31 S. Atk IV, or something similar. Two 31s would be awesome, but we're getting away from the point of breeding to speed up the selection process at this point. Name your Ditto something like MODEST31 to keep track of it easily.

6) Patience. This isn't a quick process by any measure, but this should be the most efficient way to go about it. You will also need a fair bit of cash and Ultra Balls, but that should be obvious. :)

...

Okay, got all that? It's a bit of a list, but you'll find the following much easier if you have it. Your first pairing will be one of the following:

Male/Ditto

Male is the species of Pokémon you want and has all the attacks you want bred to the baby. Ditto has the nature you want, and the Everstone. (Genderless Pokémon act as males with Ditto.)

Female/Ditto

Female is the species of Pokémon you want. Ditto has the nature you want, and the Everstone.

Male/Female

Male has all the attacks you want bred to the baby. Female is the species of Pokémon you want, has the nature you want, and the Everstone.

In all cases, the more 31 IVs these two have, the better, but don't worry if you don't have any. Also, if you want something like an Azurill or a Wynaut, or want to breed Volt Tackle to a Pichu (Emerald/Diamond/Pearl only!), put the required item on the other partner. It is a VERY good idea to deduce these Pokémon's stats, so you can compare them against the babies.

DO NOT EXPECT PERFECTION RIGHT AWAY. Even between two Pokémon that already have 31 in every stat, you're still only going to get between one and four stats passed down, with the other two (or more!) being random. You can have up to three stats passed down from one parent, and up to four in total. If you're using two random pieces of crap that just wandered in off the street, you'll be relying on LESS stats passing down, to maximize the chances of the random number generator smiling on you with regards to the others. In this case, the male passes down his junk HP and SP stats, the female passes down her junk AT and SD stats, but look! This otherwise junk baby has a 31 SA IV.

Depending on the gender and nature of this baby, you will want to replace one of the parents with the baby. Unlike GSC, there is absolutely no safeguard in place to prevent this, so if it grosses you out, just be like the old man who is completely oblivious as to what's going on in his back yard. Say it's a male baby, with the wrong nature, but has the magical 31 SA IV. Lose the current father and put the baby in. However, if it's a female baby with the wrong nature, you won't be able to use her unless you're putting her in with a Ditto. Curse the fates and continue. (If it's a female with the RIGHT nature, go right ahead.)

What will happen is you will gradually get babies superior to the parents, likely one IV at a time, who become the parents and create yet more superbabies. Better yet, once you've done this process once, you'll likely generate a potential father for a different Pokémon, starting ahead of the game. This is why I've kept my three-way-max Slowpoke around, with a 31 in Speed. (Yes, yes, one legged man, ass kicking contest, etc.)

It is a good idea to do this while doing something else, such as watching TV, so you do not go COMPLETELY insane. One final time-saving note to consider is that a 31 IV is not the be-all end-all stat- you might find a Ditto with a bunch of 27~29 stats, and that will serve you well. The only stat where one point will make a huge difference is Speed; everything else is incrementation of such small degrees that a few points aren't going to matter. (That said, however, HP is more important than Defence or S. Def singly, as it affects endurance of both kinds of attacks.) Also, if you are among the truly hardcore who will be breeding for Hidden Power, you will need a few 30 stats from time to time.

If you are breeding a genderless Pokémon like Starmie, you won't be able to replace the Ditto, so keep in mind that you'll always be getting at least one crap stat from it- possibly up to three! Breeding Genderless Pokémon greatly benefits from having good Breeder Dittos caught already.

Don't forget to clean out your boxes from time to time; I think my Ruby has literally a hundred Magikarp on it from trying to find a way to influence natures in that game. Cry.

One last thing: Nature is controllable, but Ability is not. If at any point you find a killer Pokémon with Stench/Illuminate or the like, keep on cursing the fates, but make it a parent too.

Eggs Are Good For You

Eggs are produced at different rates, depending on the Pokémon. There are two criteria for Pokémon compatibility (aside from being able to breed in the first place) and the rate at which eggs are produced will depend on having both, one, or none of them. The best possible compatibility is two Pokémon of the same species, with different ID numbers. Because a lot of stat breeding is going to start with Ditto, it's a good idea to have these Ditto be 'foreign', traded up from Emerald. They're easier to catch in Emerald anyway.

When the old man has an egg for you, he will take a step out in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, and he will turn to the right in Diamond/Pearl. Fire Red/Leaf Green's breeding center is late in the game and in a very awkward spot, making breeding in these games even more tedious. Breeding should only be done in Emerald and/or Diamond and Pearl.

Once you have the egg, it'll hatch after a large number of steps. Most hatch in 5120 steps, some faster, some slower. The most is around 10000. This is why it's vital to have that Flame Body Pokémon, to cut these numbers in half!