Breeding
In pokemon games you can breed your pokemon for fun or to get an extremely great pokemon with great stats and hard to get moves. In order to breed pokemon you must put two correctly matched pokemon in a day care somewhere in the game. In Heart Gold and Soul Silver the day care is on Route 34. While your pokemon are at the day care they will level up and may learn new moves but will not evolve. Not all pokemon can breed because some are genderless and obviously you need a male and a female. Even though some are genderless (usually legendary) you can still breed some of them with a ditto. The male and female must be in the same “egg group” in order to succesfully breed. There are 13 egg groups that the pokemon can fall into. Ditto can breed with any pokemon from any egg group and only ditto can breed with certain genderless, gender specific and certain legendary pokemon. The Egg Groups and all pokemon in them are:
Bug
Dragon
Fairy
Flying
Ground
Human Shape
Indeterminate
Mineral
Monster
Plant
Water 1
Water 2
Water 3
Most pokemon in each egg group look somewhat similar in style such as Charizard and Dragonite. After you got a matched pair you may have to wait for them to make an egg. Sometimes it’s quick and sometimes it’ll take quite some time. Traded pokemon take longer to breed with than pokemon you caught yourself. You can find out how long it’ll take by asking a man outside of the day care who will give you the egg when there is one. He’ll usually say something about the pokemon that hints to you how long it will take unless he says “They prefer to play with other Pokemon,” in that case they will never make an egg.
If you’re not breeding two of the same pokemon, like two charizards, and instead are breeding two different pokemon that are in the same egg group, like a charizard and dragonite, then the female of the two pokemon will be the pokemon that hatches from the egg. However, it will not be the highest evolutionary form. It will be the opposite which is the lowest that you may not even see in the wild unless you breed it. In short if you breed a female charizard and a male dragonite you will come out with a charmander that may be male or female. Some pokemon can only be found through breeding and some need special items attached to the parent in order to get the baby pokemon. They are:
Pichu
Cleffa
Igglybuff
Tyrogue
Smoochum
Elekid
Magby
Phione
Azuril (Needs Sea Incense)
Bonsly (Needs Rock Incense)
Budew (Needs Rose Incense)
Chingling (Needs Pure Incense)
Happiny (Needs Luck Incense)
Mantyke (Needs Wave Incense)
Mime Jr. (Needs Odd Incense)
Munchlax (Needs Full Incense)
Wynaut (Needs Lax Incense)
There are a few pokemon that can only be male or female such as the two nidoran. In this case you have a 50/50 chance that it will be male or female versions. Once the pokemon hatches it will be level 1 and may know special moves called “Egg Moves” that are explained in the last section about moves and here:
“Egg moves are special moves that can only be taught by breeding. Egg moves are taught to the baby pokemon that hatches from an egg through the male pokemon. The move can be a TM/HM that the baby can learn or a regular leveled up move the baby can learn later on that the male and female knows. There are also certain moves that can only be taught through breeding and becoming egg moves to teach to their babys. An example is if a male dragonite knows outrage and mates with a female charizard. The baby charmander will then learn outrage. ” -from my last section. In addition to that, while your pokemon are in the day care as they level up they may learn new moves and delete the older ones. The move at the top of the list is the one that gets replaced and the one at the bottom usually stays. So keep that in mind if you’re trying to teach your baby pokemon a specific move.
Hatching an egg can take a really long time depending on the pokemon. It doesn’t take time alone but the amount of steps you take. It could take 1,000-10,000 steps to hatch an egg. If you have a pokemon with Magma Armor or Flame Body abilities in your party the amount of steps will be cut in half. You can ride your bike in a circle or up and down the same route until the egg hatches, or just take it with you on your adventure. Check the egg’s status screen to see get hints about how long it’ll take to hatch.
If you like the nature of one of the pokemon you’re breeding you can let the female pokemon hold an everstone or give it to a ditto if that’s helping you breed and you’ll have a 50/50 chance that your pokemon’s nature is the same as the pokemon holding the everstone. IVs are usually passed on to the baby pokemon from the parents which are selected randomly from the male or female or are reset and are totally random. If you like a particular stat’s IV you can attach a Power Weight, Power Bracer, Power Belt, Power Lens, Power Band, or Power Anklet to either parent and the HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, or Speed IV will be passed on to the child. You can attach one to the male and one to the female to send two IVs to the child.