[Guide] How to Breed and Raise Competitive Pokémon

Main stats are affected by a combination of Base stats, Natures, IVs, and EVs. Out of these, we can manipulate Natures, IVs, and EVs. Since IVs and natures are generated when the pokemon is created, we'll have to worry about those two before EVs. To do this, instead of catching hundreds of pokemon to try and find a good combination, you breed to increase your odds.

To breed, you deposit in a ranch block a male pokemon and female pokemon of the same egg group to produce an egg. The egg will be of the same species as the mother ( the female ). Using a ditto will produce an egg of the other pokemon.

You can place up to 6 pokemon in a ranch block ( 3 couples ), which can be bought for 50 pokecoins at /loveshack.

Once you receive the egg, the pokemon inside it will be set in terms of IVs and Nature. You can check the pokemon's IVs via /ivs #1-6, depending on the slot your pokemon is in.

Nature: Have one parent hold an "everstone" while in the daycare for a 100% chance to pass down their nature. (ex: male Jolly Growlithe (everstone) + Ditto = 100% chance for Jolly Growlithe). It doesn't matter if the parent holding it is a male, female, or ditto.

Abilities: Hidden abilites can be passed down in the same way normal abilities can. The hidden ability carrier must be female, and the male must be a pokemon in the same egg group (no ditto). Using an everstone does not increase the chance of the hidden ability passing down. (Said to be a 80% chance)

When breeding with a Ditto, the probability of passing the ability to the offspring is 60% regardless of the gender of the AB carrier.

IVs: Three main stat IVs are inherited by the parents at random. You can set one of the IVs passed down by having one parent hold a power item. Having both parents hold different power items will not lock two IVs for the offspring.

The following stats can be passed through the corresponding power items:
HP - Power Weight
Attack - Power Bracer
Defense - Power Belt
Sp. Attack - Power Lens
Sp. Defense - Power Band
Speed - Power Anklet


Dittos: Catch lots of them, or have a friend give you one with many 31s. At the very least six dittos with 31 in corresponding main stats. (one ditto with 31 HP, a different ditto with 31 Attack, etc.). They will make breeding much easier for you. If you can't use a ditto, you'll have to count on getting 31s in offspring and partners the long way, which is much, much longer...
I also recommend you catch dittos of every nature to speed up breeding.

Also, get a pokemon which has flame body or magma armor, it halves the amount of steps it takes to hatch an egg.

Remember that 3 of 6 IVs of the offspring are generated randomly, while the other 3 are passed down from the parents at random. What this means is you need good IVs for the parents in areas you want to pass down. I believe an example would show you more than trying to describe it: Say you have a Jolly meowth, and a HASV ditto. In this example remember that:

H = Hp
A = Attack
B = Defense
C = Sp.Attack
D = Sp.Defense
S = Speed

V = 31 IV

1) Meowth 1 (no 31s, Jolly w/everstone) + Ditto (HASV, w/power ankle) = 100% of Meowth 2 (Jolly, SV).

2) Meowth 2 (Jolly, SV, w/everstone) + Ditto (HASV, w/power bracer) = Since both parents have 31 in speed, there's a decent chance of Meowth 3 (Jolly, ASV).

3) Meowth 3 (Jolly, ASV, w/everstone) + Ditto (HASV, w/power weight) = Both parents have 31 in attack and speed, so there's a decent chance Meowth 4 will have HASV and a Jolly nature.

 

Destiny Knots:
Once you're that far, you have a good pokemon on hand. If you want to keep breeding to see if you can get a 4V or higher one, go ahead, but now is when Destiny Knots come in handy:

Destiny knots will pass 5V out random, while a 6th IV will always be a random number from 1~31.

 

# = Chance

1) Meowth 1 (31/31/31/31/31/31, Jolly w/everstone) + Ditto (31/31/31/31/31/31, w/destiny knot) = 1/31# of Meowth 1. 1/5# of Meowth 2. 100% of Meowth 3.

2) Meowth 2 (31/31/31/X/31/31, Jolly w/everstone) + Ditto (31/31/31/31/31/31, w/destiny knot) = 1/155# of Meowth1. 1/6# of Meowth 2. 11/12# of Meowth 3. 100% of Meowth 4.

3) Meowth 2 (31/31/31/X/31/31, Jolly w/everstone) + Ditto (31/31/31/X/31/31, w/destiny knot) = 1/186# of Meowth 1. 5/12# of Meowth 2. 5/6# of Meowth 3. 11/12% of Meowth 4. 100% of Meowth 5.

​----------------​----------------​----------------​----------------​----------------​----------------​--

4) Meowth 3 (5V, Jolly, w/everstone) + Ditto (31/31/31/x/31/31, w/destiny knot) = 1/186# of Meowth 1; 5/12# of Meowth 2; 5/6 of Meowth 3.; 11/12 of Meowth 4; 100% of Meowth 5.

5) Meowth 4 (4V, Jolly, w/everstone) + Ditto (31/31/31/x/31/31, w/destiny knot) = 1/12# of Meowth 2; 1/3# of Meowth 3; 2/3# of Meowth 4; 3/4# of Meowth 5.

6) Meowth 5 (3V, Jolly, w/everstone) + Ditto (31/31/31/x/31/31, w/destiny knot) = 1/24# of Meowth 2; 1/12# of Meowth 3;  1/3# of Meowth 4; 2/3# of Meowth 5.

 

So basically the idea is to lock in the nature with an Everstone, and then set up to three main stat IVs as 31 on the parents for a good chance to pass down an offspring with at least 3V and a good nature. And again, a destiny knot held by a parent will get your pokemon to more and more stats at 31 ivs.

When getting a female, you are free to replace the old one with the newly hatched if it has more stats at 31 ivs.

It probably won't go this smoothly, but stay persistent and you'll see results.

EV Training:

You should now have a pokemon with a nature and IV spread you're happy with. This takes us to the last invisible stat we can manipulate, EVs. You obtain EVs for defeating pokemon, and the amount and category of EV point(s) you obtain depends on the pokemon you defeat. Every pokemon that earns exp during the battle earns the full amount of EV points given by the opponent (items that enhance EVs/Pokerus are calculated individually, however).

A full list of which pokemon yields specific EVs can be found here: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_effort_va...

Also, EV totals are calculated at the end of a battle in B/W instead of during a level up, meaning you can still EV train a lv100 pokemon and see results.

It's also worthwhile to mention that instead of maxing one EV stat out at 255, it's more efficient to stop at 252. Reason being every 4 EVs = 1 main stat point, so the last 3 points won't count for anything, while you would otherwise have 6 points left over by going 252, enough to increase a third category's main stat by 1.

There are ways to enhance EV training:

Items:
Macho Brace = Doubles EV points gained. (x2) 
Held Power Items = Adds four EV points in corresponding category. (+4)

There are also supplementary items that help with EV training as well:

Vitamins: Every use increases EV points by 10. Can be used until desired category's EVs hit 100. They are mainly used as a head start if you have the funds.

HP Up - HP
Protein - Attack
Iron - Defense
Calcium - Sp.Attack
Zinc - Sp.Defense
Carbos - Speed

EV reducing berries: Lowers EV points by 10. Useful for redistributing EVs.

HP - Pomeg Berry
Attack - Kelpsy Berry
Defense - Qualot Berry
Sp.Attack - Hondew Berry
Sp.Defense - Grepa Berry
Speed - Tamato Berry

*All these items can be bought at /pokemart, Vitamins for 50pcs, Berries for 75pcs.

Egg Moves:

Each pokemon has a set of moves called "Egg moves" which can only be obtained through breeding. Only male pokemon can pass down moves to its offspring. The idea is to look up a pokemon's egg moves, select a combination that is possible within the egg group, and breed different pokemon in the same egg group for results.

*Egg groups are groups of pokemon who can breed with each other. A list like this helps quite a bit:
Full list here: http://pixelmonmod.com/wiki/index.php?title=Egg_group

*This page also makes it easy to search for attacks and pokemon who share the attack:
http://www.serebii.net/attackdex-bw/

Let's look at Joltik, for example. It has the following egg moves:
Pin Missile
Poison Sting
Cross Poison
Rock Climb
Pursuit
Disable
Faint Attack

Let's say you want a Joltik with: Pin Missile, Cross Poison, Pursuit, Disable.
Our egg group is "Bug", so we can only look at members that share the Bug group:

- Spinarak learns Pin Missile and Cross Poison through level up, and has disable and Pursuit as egg moves.
- Venipede learns Pursuit, and shares Pin Missile as an egg move.
- Venonat learns Disable, but doesn't share any egg moves.
- Beedrill learns Pursuit and Pin Missile, but doesn't share any egg moves.

Out of the above pokemon, it is impossible to have that combination of moves, as each time you collect a move the next pokemon has to have it in their move pool / egg moves. The best we can do is:

Venonat (Disable) -> Spinarak (Pin Missile, Cross Poison, Disable) -> Joltik (Pin Missile, Cross Poison, Disable)
or
Venipede (Pursuit) -> Spinarak (Pin Missile, Cross Poison, Pursuit) -> Joltik (Pin Missile, Cross Poison, Pursuit)

Also, another tip - use a male smeargle for the Field egg group. Smeargle can learn (almost) every move in the game, which makes it great for getting egg moves. Want a Growlithe with Morning Sun, Flare Blitz, Close Combat, and Crunch? Zoroark with Dark Pulse, Sucker Punch, Counter, and Extrasensory? Simply sketch those moves using a male smeargle and you're good to go - no researching, no pokemon chaining process.

Hidden Power:

This section has been moved to a separate thread, located here: http://tiny.cc/pmc-hiddenpower

Shiny Pokemon:

These are pokemon who are the same species as the regular pokemon, but have a color swap and a sparkle animation. There is a probability of 1/8192 (~0.024414%) to encounter one in the wild. This also applies to breeding pokemon.

The likelyhood is multiplied by 2 if you breed pokemon from different original trainers, making it 1/4096 (~0.097656%).

Here's a sprite sheet that shows all shiny pokemon: http://images.wikia.com/gpxplus/images/d/dd/All_shiny_pokemon.png

Nicknames:

Once you've gone through the process and have reached the result where you feel satisfied, you might consider giving your pokemon a nickname for some individuality.