Breeding Guide

Where to breed

The Pokémon Day Care is on Route 117. Deposit two Pokémon, then check the Day Care for an Egg once the pair is compatible.

For a searchable per-species reference, use the Egg Groups & Breeding Compatibility tool. Its generated data includes each supported Pokémon’s egg groups and gender ratio.

Compatibility

The source uses two Egg Group slots, gender, species, and Original Trainer IDs.

A pair cannot breed when:

• either Pokémon is in the No Eggs Discovered group;
• both Pokémon are Ditto;
• neither is Ditto and both have the same gender;
• neither is Ditto and either is genderless; or
• neither is Ditto and the pair has no overlapping Egg Group.

With Ditto, matching Original Trainer IDs gives the low compatibility tier; different IDs give the medium tier.

For non-Ditto pairs:

The source defines the tiers as 20, 50, and 70. It checks for Egg production whenever the second deposited Pokémon’s step count reaches a multiple of 256, then compares the compatibility value against a random percentage-style roll.

Species and special breeding items

The Egg species normally comes from the female parent. When breeding with Ditto, the non-Ditto parent supplies the species.

The source also includes these special cases:

• A Lax Incense is required to produce Wynaut rather than Wobbuffet.
• A Sea Incense is required to produce Azurill rather than Marill.
• If either parent holds a Light Ball, a Pichu Egg is given Volt Tackle.

Nature and IV inheritance

An Everstone held by a parent makes the Egg inherit that parent’s nature. If both parents hold Everstones, the source randomly selects one parent’s nature.

Exactly three different IV stats are selected for inheritance. Each selected stat independently chooses either parent as its source; the other three IVs remain newly generated.

Egg Moves and inherited moves

The source builds the Egg’s move set from the parents’ current moves:

1. A father move that appears in the species’ Egg Move list can be inherited.
2. A father TM/HM move can be inherited when the offspring can learn that TM/HM.
3. A move both parents know can be inherited when it is in the offspring’s level-up move list.

Because this logic reads the parents’ current four moves, teach or retain the desired move before depositing the parents.

Hatching Eggs faster

The game checks Eggs every 255 daycare steps. An Egg begins with the species’ recorded egg-cycle value.

Keep a non-Egg Pokémon with Flame Body or Magma Armor in the party to subtract two egg cycles at each check instead of one.

Scope note

This guide covers mechanics confirmed in Emerald Legacy’s current Day Care and hatch source. It does not claim later-generation mechanics such as Ability inheritance, Poké Ball inheritance, Destiny Knot inheritance, or a Masuda Method without source confirmation.