Compared to past games in the series, Pokemon Scarlet And Violet introduce a few significant changes to the breeding process, making it a new experience for both new and veteran players alike.

In light of this new system, we have put together a guide including all the changes to the breeding process in Pokemon Scarlet amd Violet. This includes the new picnic mechanic, where to find important items for breeding, inheriting moves, and the Masuda Method.

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How Does Breeding Work Now?

Breeding Pokemon is now done completely through the new picnic mechanic, allowing players to breed anytime anywhere. During a picnic, eggs can be collected from the basket on the ground next to the picnic table. The new basic flow of the process is as follows:

• Ensure that you have two compatible Pokemon in the party based on Gender and Egg Groups.
• Start a picnic on the overworld by opening the X menu and choosing “Picnic”.
• Leave the picnic open, players can choose to walk around in the picnic menu, or leave the game idle.
• While the picnic is open, eggs will slowly accumulate within the basket on the ground next to the picnic table. The rate at which eggs spawn can be increased using the Egg Meal Power gained from making sandwiches in camp, or by purchasing food with the Egg Power for shops in the cities.
  • The basket can hold multiple eggs, and players can collect many eggs at once.
• Collected eggs are immediately sent to the last PC box the player opened.
• To hatch eggs, players can run around/ride their Pokemon in the overworld as per previous titles. Egg hatch times appear to have been significantly decreased, and can be boosted using the Egg Power and Pokemon with Flame Body.

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Basic Breeding Tips

• The two Pokemon chosen must be a male and a female in order to produce eggs.
  • Ditto is an exception, as it can breed with any gender of Pokemon.
• Two Pokemon can only breed if they belong to the same Egg Group. Egg Groups of different Pokemon species are unfortunately not very clearly explained in the game, but these details are available on many Pokemon wikis.
  • Pokemon of the same species will always have the same Egg Group.
    • Ditto is an exception to the Egg Group rule, since it can breed with any Pokemon.
  • Pokemon of different species can breed if they belong in the same Egg Group, but the chance of finding an egg will be a bit lower.
  • Traded Pokemon have a higher chance of yielding an egg if bred with Pokemon from your game.
  • It is ideal to breed two Pokemon of the same species, but from different trainers, as well as eat a food with the Egg Meal Power, in order to generate the most eggs.
• Pokemon eggs will always hatch into the same species as the female parent.
  • Ditto is an exception, as the egg will always be the same species as the non-Ditto parent.
• The hatched Pokemon be in the same type of ball as its female parent (e.g. Ultra Ball)
  • Ditto is an exception, ball type will be inherited from the non-Ditto parent.
• The hatched Pokemon has a higher chance of sharing the same ability as its female parent (including hidden abilities)
  • Ditto is an exception, inherited ability is likely to be the same as its non-Ditto parent.

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Important Pokemon For Breeding

Below are some key Pokemon that are useful for the breeding process.

• Ditto: Can breed with any Pokemon except itself, making it highly useful for breeding single gendered or ungendered Pokemon.
• Any Pokemon with the Flame Body ability: Flame Body halves the number of steps required to hatch eggs (does not stack with multiples)
  • Fletchinder is the easiest Pokemon with Flame Body to capture in the games, as its pre-evolution Fletchling is available very early on.
• The most efficient way to hatch eggs is to have one Flame Body Pokemon, and five eggs in your party

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Important Items For Breeding

Below are some important items that may make breeding easier.

• Everstone: Ensures the child Pokemon shares the same nature as the parent holding it (Buy from Delibir Presents in Mesagoza under General Goods)
• Destiny Knot: Ensures the child Pokemon inherits 5 IVs from its parents instead of 3 if held by one of them (Buy from Delibird Presents in Mesagoza under Battle Items)
• Effort Items: Ensures that the child Pokemon inherits a specific IV from the parent holding it (Buy from Delibird Presents in Mesagoza under General Goods)
  • Power Bracer – Attack
  • Power Belt – Defense
  • Power Lens – Sp.Attack
  • Power Band – Sp.Defense
  • Power Anklet – Speed
  • Power Weight – HP
• Light Ball: If held by a Pikachu/Raichu, baby Pichus will know the move Volt Tacke (held by wild Pikachu)

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Inheriting Moves

After breeding, the newly hatched Pokemon may inherit the moves known by its parent according to the following rules:

• Any moves it learns at Level 1.
• Any moves it learns by level up, as long as both parents currently know them.
• Any TMs known by the parents.
• Any Egg Moves known by the parents
  • Egg Moves can also be transferred between different Pokemon in the picnic by having the Pokemon that you wish to learn the move hold the Mirror Herb (Buy from Delibird Presents in Cascarrafa [Water Gym]). The Pokemon learning the move and the Pokemon teaching the move do not need to share the same egg group.

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Masuda Method

The Masuda Method is a way to increase the chance of Shiny Pokemon hatching from eggs. The Masuda Method is a technique attributed to Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda, who was the first to hint at its existence on his blog during the release of Pokemon Diamond & Pearl.

By breeding Pokemon with parents from games of different languages (marked by a language tag on the status screen), the chance of hatching a Shiny Pokemon increases by 600% from (1 in 4096) to (1 in 682.6), as with previous games in the series.

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What do you think of this guide? Let us know in the comments.