Breeding in Pokemon games has long been used to get offspring with more desirable stats and natures in order to create the best party. The breeding feature makes a return in Pokemon BDSP and our guide will go over all the details of the Pokemon breeding mechanics in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
How to Breed in Pokemon BDSP
Jump To:
- Pokemon BDSP Breeding Items
- Pokemon BDSP Breeding Perfect IVs
- Pokemon BDSP Breeding With Dittos
- Pokemon BDSP Teaching Egg Moves
- Pokemon BDSP Incense Breeding
Trainers can breed stronger Pokemon in Pokemon BDSP by using Dittos with High IVs and Everstones to hatch eggs.
We will be talking about all of that in detail in this guide as well as any complications or special items needed to hatch certain Pokemon in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
Pokemon BDSP Breeding Items
In Pokemon BDSP, you can use different items to enhance the Pokemon you breed and make them even better. We will explain the features of each item below:
Destiny Knot
In order to breed for perfect IVs, you need the help of a Destiny Knot. When attempting to breed with a Destiny Knot, the item needs to be held by a parent Pokemon and as a result their offspring will have 5 out of 6 of their IVs (Individual Values). Breeding without a Destiny Knot results in a parent Pokemon transferring only 3 out of 6 of its IVs to their offspring.
Everstone
When breeding with an Everstone, the Everstone needs to be held by a parent Pokemon and their nature is transferred to their offspring. Without an Everstone, the offspring will be assigned a nature randomly.
So if one of your Pokemon has a nature you wish the offspring to have as well, you will need the Everstone to pass down that nature to the offspring when breeding.
You can get Destiny Knot from Route 224 and Everstones can be traded by talking to an NPC in Snowpoint City. You can find him in the northwest part of town, chilling inside his house.
How to Breed Perfect IVs or High IV Pokemon
Let’s take a look at how to check IVs and everything related to breeding with perfect IVs in Pokemon BDSP.
As we mentioned before, Destiny Knot is the key factor that determines the IVs for an offspring Pokemon. Since IV stats are randomized, the only way for you to get a pokemon with perfect IVs is by manipulating the breeding process with the use of Destiny Knot.
Keep breeding with Dittos or Pokemon with High IVs which will result in the offspring Pokemon also having decent IV values. Once you start getting offsprings with Fantastic or Very Good IV ratings, give the Destiny Knot to that offspring Pokemon and use that as a Parent Pokemon.
While the Destiny Knot itself adds a randomization factor to which IVs are selected, the fact that most of your IVs will be very high value should result in overall Pokemon IV to be Fantastic or Best.
Checking IVs
You can check the IVs of a captured Ditto or other Pokemon by using the Judge skill. You can acquire this skill after you’ve completed the Pokemon League by going back to the Battle Tower and talking to the NPC, standing on the right side.
This NPC will teach you how to use Judge; the skill required to look at each Pokemon’s stats. The 6 basic stats (HP, Special Attack, Special Defense, Speed, Attack, Defense) in Pokemon BDSP are divided into 6 categories which are:
- Not Good (Rated 0)
- Decent (Ranging from 1-10)
- Pretty Good (Ranging from 11-20)
- Very Good (Ranging from 21-29)
- Fantastic (Ranging from 30)
- Best (Rated 31)
‘Not Good’ being the Worst & ‘Best’ being well…THE BEST. A Pokemon having Best IVs would mean that its stats have a score of 31, which is the highest it can be.
You can check your current Pokemon’s IV by heading to the Box screen and pressing the + button on your controller.
How to Breed with Dittos in Pokemon BDSP
Normally, for a Pokemon to breed successfully, it has to be from the same egg group as the Pokemon it is breeding with which makes the process of finding compatible Pokemon from the same egg groups and then having them breed together a bit more time taking and complicated.
To make things easier, we recommend using Dittos for breeding as a Ditto can get along with any Pokemon and breed with them. This makes the process a lot easier and all you have to do is find Dittos with High IVs
Once you’ve acquired Dittos with High IVs, you need to head over to the Pokemon Nursery in Solaceon Town and leave the parent Pokemon along with any items like the Everstone and the ditto with the lady at the counter.
You need to spend some time doing other activities while the egg gets ready. You can track the progress of the egg from the Nursery Checker app. Once it is ready, go and collect it from the lady sitting at the counter.
How to Hatch Eggs Faster
The acquired egg will take up 1 slot in your inventory and now you have to wait for it to get ready.
Here are two tips to help you hatch the egg as quickly as possible:
- Only equip Flame body Pokemon in your group when you have an egg in your inventory as they keep the egg warm which speeds up the hatching process
- To walk the required number of steps you can simply walk on Route 210 and 209 which is right next to the Pokemon Nursery.
Keep walking until the egg is ready to hatch and check if the offspring has the required IVs and nature. You can repeat this process until you get the ideal Pokemon offspring.
How to Pass / Transfer Egg Moves in Pokemon BDSP
In Pokemon BDSP, there are certain movesets a Pokemon can only learn via Egg Moves. Egg Moves allow the Pokemon to learn a given number of skills from their parent Pokemon.
There are a set of rules around this mechanic and that’s what we’ll be discussing below to help you breed efficiently for Egg Moves in Pokemon BDSP.
Learning Egg Moves
These are essentially the moves a Pokemon learns through breeding and some Pokemon have rare movesets that cannot be unlocked by normally leveling up that Pokemon. To breed for egg moves, you first need parent Pokemon that already know egg moves.
To teach a Pokemon egg moves, you need to bring two Pokemon of the same species to the Pokemon Nursery in Solaceon Town where one Pokemon knows an egg move and the other (yours) doesn’t.
Leave them both at the nursery and step outside for a minute or two then go back in and your Pokemon will have learned a new egg move.
Just make sure your Pokemon has an empty slot to learn new egg moves otherwise the process will fail and you will have to visit the Move Deleter, found in Canalave City to free up your Pokemon’s slots.
How to Transfer Egg Moves
Once you’ve got a Male Pokemon with an Egg Move, you are ready to breed for egg moves but here are some of the rules you need to follow:
- You need a female Pokemon of the same egg group to breed an offspring that will learn the male’s egg moves first and then move on to the female’s egg moves.
- If the number of eggs moves you learn exceeds 5, then each slot you exceed will result in the offspring forgetting the already learned moves starting from those learned from the male.
Do note that any moves you forget can be learned again by visiting the Move Reminder in Pastoria City. He is located northeast of the waterfront, next to the Poke Mart.
Pokemon BDSP Incense Breeding
There are a few Pokemon in Pokemon BDSP that require special items to be able to breed and produce eggs. We will be creating a table below which lists these Pokemon and their required special items.
| Pokemon | Required Item | Incense Location |
|---|---|---|
| Roselia | Rose Incense | Found Inside Route 212 |
| Roserade | Rose Incense | Found Inside Route 212 |
| Sudowoodo | Rock Incense | Found in Fuego Ironworks |
| Mr.Mime | Odd Incense | Found in Solaceon Ruins |
| Snoreax | Full Incense | Found in Veilstone City |
| Mantine | Wave Incense | Found inside Route 210 |
| Wobbuffet | Lax Incense | Found inside Route 225 |
