Pokemon Breeding has always been a big part of the game franchise but it isn’t without its confusions. Many players have trouble in breeding a Pokemon, once there done with breeding, they are confused about how to raise them. Don’t worry, in this guide, we’ll tell you all about breeding along with raising your Pokemon in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
Pokemon Sword and Shield Breeding
Pokemon Sword and Shield feature multiple additions both stats-wise and character design-wise. There are many quality updates, making it difficult yet fun for each team to compete with each other.
Pokemon Sword and Shield include a new feature that allows you to pass Egg Moves of the same species to each other. According to the latest interview, breeding may not be obligatory for achieving competitive Ranked Battles in new games.
The main part of breeding is to Choose a Pokemon with the highest Individual Strength and Base Stats, which will affect the stats of the Final Pokemon.
Pokemon’s Nature
Also, choosing the right nature of a Pokemon is also necessary, as it affects the growth rate of its stats. So your Pokemon might have a higher Speed stat if its nature benefits that stat, while this nature ends up negatively affecting another stat.
List of Natures
| Nature | Increased Stat | Decreased Stat |
| Hardy | ||
| Lonely | Attack | Defense |
| Brave | Attack | Speed |
| Adamant | Attack | Sp. Attack |
| Naughty | Attack | Sp. Defense |
| Bold | Defense | Attack |
| Docile | ||
| Relaxed | Defense | Speed |
| Impish | Defense | Sp. Attack |
| Lax | Defense | Sp. Defense |
| Timid | Speed | Attack |
| Hasty | Speed | Defense |
| Serious | ||
| Jolly | Speed | Sp. Attack |
| Naïve | Speed | Sp. Defense |
| Modest | Sp. Attack | Attack |
| Mild | Sp. Attack | Defense |
| Quiet | Sp. Attack | Speed |
| Bashful | ||
| Rash | Sp. Attack | Sp. Defense |
| Calm | Sp. Defense | Attack |
| Gentle | Sp. Defense | Defense |
| Sassy | Sp. Defense | Speed |
| Careful | Sp. Defense | Sp. Attack |
| Quirky |
IVs (Individual Values)
A Pokemon’s growth in a particular stat is represented by the IV it has once you catch or breed it. Raid and bred Pokemon tend to hive higher IVs than Pokemon in the wild. The values range from 0 to 31.
EVs (Effort Values)
IVs will increase the growth rate while EVs are the thing that will raise the stat. You will have a total of 510 EVs that you can distribute and a single stat can have an EV of 252.
You can increase an Effort Value by 10 via Vitamins that can be purchased for your Pokemon. These cost $10,000 and you’ll have to buy quite a few of them, so it’s costly. However, if you’ve got the money, it’s the quickest method.
Another method is to simply battle Pokemon with high Effort Value tied to defeating them. Beating the same Pokémon over and over again continuously will build EVs in its specific stat.
Stat Seminars are Pokejobs that have your Pokemon train so they can gain EVs while you’re off doing other things.
Before breeding your favorite Pokemon, keep in mind that there are some useful items in the game that you can unlock by finishing a storyline before Breeding your Pokemon.
Pre-Breeding tasks
You will have to unlock the Judge Function which is meant for checking the IVs of your Pokemon. It would prove to be very helpful for you. In order to unlock it you have to go to the Battle Tower and get Poke Ball tier as your rank.
You can use it by hovering over a Pokemon’s box and then pressing +. You will then see all the available stats with ratings. The best ratings are the ones in which a Pokemon has 31 IVs in a stat. Usually, only 5 stats can have an individual value of 31. However, you will get an extra stat if one of the parents has 6 IVs
How to Breed?
It is very simple to breed pokemon in Pokemon Sword and Shield. All you have to do is give some space in a nursery to two Pokemon obviously of different genders and the same egg group. This causes an egg to be made. Compatibility is determined by the egg group, if the Field egg group is the same then an egg will be produced.
In order to make it much easier for you here is a little something. Every pokemon in the game can be bred with Ditto. This does not include Legendary and Mythical Pokemon. Genderless Pokemon cannot breed with each other so they will only be able to breed with Dittos
To find a Ditto, you can go to the Lake of Outrage and just get any pokemon to breed with it and leave them in the nursery alone. There is another Ditto on Bridge Field zone in the Wild Area and one on Route 5.
You have a 2% chance of encountering a Ditto in the overworld grass, but you need 7 gym badges before you can access this area. These aren’t the best Dittos in terms of IVs but they’re good for basic breeding.
Certain Dittos have a yellow glow that indicates that they have some great IVs. A Ditto you come across in a raid has a good chance of having at least 4 best IVs.
You can ride your bike around the town or do something else when you have given you pokemon to the nursery worker. You will know when the nursery worker has your egg by their changed position. She will look like she is thinking about something.
You can give an Everstone to that parent pokemon whose nature you want to get passed down. The same species child will have the same nature as their parent, guaranteed!
If you carry a pokemon that has Flame body ability with your egg party then it will make the eggs hatch faster. These pokemon include Sizzlipede, Centiskorch, Carkol, Coalossal, Litwick, Lampent, and Chandelure.
In some cases, there is a certain hold item needed by the parent pokemon to make a specific baby. These are as follows
| Parent Pokemon | Baby Pokemon | Held item |
| Wobbuffet | Wynaut | Lax Incense |
| Roselia/Roserade | Budew | Rose Incense |
| Sudowoodo | Bonsly | Rock Incense |
| Mr. Mime/Mr. Rime | Mime Jr. | Odd Incense |
| Mantine | Mantyke | Wave Incense |
| Snorlax | Munchlax | Full Incense |
Useful Items
| Item | Description |
| Destiny Knot | Inherits 5 IVs randomly from the parents pokemon |
| Everstone | Passes down the holder’s nature |
| Mint | Changes the Nature of your pokemon |
| Power Bracer | Passes down the holder’s Attack IV |
| Power Belt | Passes down the holder’s Defense IV |
| Power Lens | Passes down the holder’s Sp. Attack IV |
| Power Band | Passes down the holder’s Sp. Defense IV |
| Power Anklet | Passes down the holder’s Speed IV |
| Power Weight | Passes down the holder’s HP IV |
Useful Abilities
| Ability | |
| Synchronize | The nature of wild pokemon you encounter will be same as the pokemon which has Synchronize. You need to place the pokemon with Synchronize at beginning of your team. |
| Flame Body | Reduce the time required to hatch egg. |
Breeding Tips
- There is a 70% chance that the females abilities will be inherited by the Pokemon you get from breeding, so be sure to breed to get the best ability.
- There is a chance that a hidden ability will be inherited by the child Pokemon from the female parent or the non-ditto Pokemon. The Hidden Ability has a 60% chance of being inherited by an egg if you breed your Pokemon with a Ditto, regardless of gender. However, if you’re not breeding with a Ditto then you’ll need to have a Female Pokemon with the hidden ability for the transfer to work. It still has a 60% chance.
- Ideal natured parents are best to breed so that these natures may be passed onto their child.
- Breed to get the best IVs. You can use a Destiny knot to inherit 5 IVs
- You can increase the value of a Pokemon by passing down the Pokeball type from the parents while breeding. There are multiple ways to do this. When breeding with Ditto, the ball that isn’t from Ditto will always be passed down, regardless of gender.
Raising a Pokemon in Sword and Shield
Now, when you’re finished breeding, you’ll have to raise the resulting Pokemon. There are few terms and conditions for raising a Pokemon in Sword and Shield which include Base Stats, Strength and Base Points.
Base stats differentiate each specie from one another by comparing them. Each Pokemon you catch has its own unique number assigned to it such as Base Speed, and these Stats are according to its abilities.
The Strength of an Individual Pokemon differs them from each other by their stats such as Speed and Attack.
For example: a Pokemon having 31 Attack IV (Individual Value/Strength) has 31 more Attack then a Pokemon having 0 Attack IV. Keep in mind that these values are random and not changeable.
Now coming to the Base Points. Base points play a very important role in raising a Pokemon and increasing your stat (Attack, Speed), these points are earned by defeating your opponent in a battle.
That is all for the Breeding tips in Pokemon Sward and Shield, be sure to let us know if you found this guide helpful.
