The ability to breed Pokémon has been a fixture of the core games since Pokémon Gold and Silver. As could be expected, the feature makes a return in the latest instalments, Pokémon Sun and Moon, but like many familiar aspects of the series, it’s undergone something of an overhaul.
Here’s the WIRED guide on how to breed Pokémon in Sun and Moon, get more starter Pokémon Litten, Rowlet, and Popplio, and why Ditto is so important.
Where to breed Pokémon
You’ll be able to breed as soon as you get to Paniola Ranch. It’s located on Akala Island, the second of the four main landmasses in the Alola Region. More specifically, it’s just north of Paniola Town, a Wild West styled hub reached via Route 4.
Once you’ve battled your way through the trainers on the farm and completed a few story events, you’ll exit to find the Pokémon Nursery. Standing outside is a Ranch Girl and a Miltank – pay attention, they’ll be important later.
Enter the Nursery, and you’ll be able to leave up to two Pokémon in their care if you speak to the manager at the counter. There’s a PC at the desk, so you can swap around which Pokémon are in your party. Unfortunately, you can’t deposit Pokémon into the nursery directly from PC boxes – they need to be in your main squad.
The manager will introduce the Nursery, and hand you your first Pokémon Egg. This later hatches into an Eevee – a relatively uncommon Pokémon in Sun and Moon, who you’ll probably want to breed more of later to have enough to evolve into all eight of its future forms.
As an aside, the Ranch Girl standing to the left of the desk can tell you what elemental version of the move Hidden Power an individual Pokémon will learn, if you teach it to them using TM10. Not relevant for breeding, but useful to know.
How has breeding changed?
In previous generations, Pokémon were bred at Daycare Centres. Leaving a critter behind would also see their level increase in your absence, but now they no longer gain experience. This is, in our opinion, an improvement, leaving you free to properly train your Pokémon when not breeding them.
Also, certain baby Pokémon, such as Cleffa, Pichu, and Elekid, can be caught in the wild now, rather than only being available by breeding. Some babies still need to be bred though, like Snorlax’s infant form Munchlax.
How to breed Pokémon
When a daddy Pokémon and a mummy Pokémon love each other very much…. OK, we’re not going to go into the specifics of Pokémon reproduction, but safe to say you need to leave a male and female Pokémon in the Nursery for them to breed. There are some exceptions to the gender rule – again, read on for more on that.
Just like real life relationships, they also need to like each other before making babies. You can speak to the Ranch Girl out front to find out how close your Pokémon are to each other. Even if “they don’t seem to like each other”, they’ll still produce a Pokémon Egg – it’ll just take longer than if they’re friendly.
How do I get Pokémon Eggs?
Once you’ve left two Pokémon who can at least vaguely stand the sight of each other in the Nursery, the legwork begins. Immediately to the right of Paniola Ranch is a long north-south stretch of path that spans multiple screens in the game world. Summon one of your Ride Pokémon with the Ride Pager and begin running all the way up and down the long road.
This is because breeding takes time. How long is measured not by the real-world clock but how many steps your character takes in the world. Technically, you can just continue your story adventure at any point, but then you’ll need to remember to come back to the Nursery. Running up and down past it gets you the eggs sooner.
At the road’s southern-most point, you can enter Heahea City, and continue running all the way left until you reach the dock. This gives you a longer stretch of road to run along, breaks up the monotony, and means fewer passes until an egg is laid or hatches. Stoutland is the best Pokémon to summon for this, as you can use its discover ability to hunt down hidden items while you’re running up and down.
Remember the Ranch Girl stood out front? This is where she becomes important. You’ll know an egg is available for collection if she’s stood with her arms crossed as you ride past. Note that you need to leave the screen Paniola Ranch is situated on for an egg to be ‘laid’, and for her position to change – just running up and down the same screen won’t do any good. Speak to her, and you’ll be able to receive the egg.
The Pokémon you have in the Nursery will continue to produce eggs as long as you leave them in there, so if you’re looking to get several of the same Pokémon – for different evolutions or for trading purposes, for instance – just leave them in there. Otherwise, re-enter the Nursery, speak to the manager, and pay a fee to retrieve one or both Pokémon.
Each egg takes a different amount of steps to hatch, but you can halve the time if you have a Pokémon in your party with the abilities Flame Body or Magma Armour. If you have two Pokémon, one with each ability, the incubation effect stacks, and reduces hatching time further.
When an egg is ready to hatch, your character will freeze in his tracks, and you’ll be treated to a hatching animation. Congratulations, you’re a Poké-parent!
What will hatch from my eggs?
Which Pokémon hatches from an egg depends on the parents. Generally speaking, the baby will be the same species as the mother and inherit moves from the father. It will also be at the lowest evolutionary level of the mother’s chain. For instance, a male Bulbasaur and a female Vileplume would get you a baby Oddish.
Sometimes, breeding is the only way to get Baby Pokémon – hyper adorable ‘pre-evolutions’ of more familiar Pokémon. It’s worth putting some time into breeding to completely fill your Pokédex.
What if I don’t have a male and female Pokémon?
This is where the exception to the gender rule, mentioned above, comes into play. If you capture a Ditto, its genetically volatile nature and lack of gender allows it to breed with any other species. Even if you breed Ditto with a male Pokémon, the egg that it produces will hatch into the father’s form.
This is particularly useful when it comes to the starter Pokémon. While there is a chance the creature you pick at the start could be female, only 12.5 per cent of them are. Chances are far higher the Litten, Rowlet, or Popplio you start out with will be male, so breeding with Ditto is the only way to get more of them.
Ditto can be caught on Ula’ula Island. It appears in the patches of grass scattered along the road down from Hokulani Observatory, where you’ll complete your seventh Island Challenge. Although Ditto is a rare Pokémon, it’s worth enduring the multiple random battles until one presents itself.
When should I breed?
While you can leave Pokémon to breed as soon as you find Paniola Ranch, it’s advisable to wait until at least the point where you have Charizard Fly in your Ride Pager. That will let you return to the Ranch whenever you want, then fly back to continue your adventure once you’ve hatched a few eggs.
However, it’s best to wait until you’ve caught a Ditto before breeding in earnest, which will be a few hours after discovering the Ranch. This will mean you can breed almost any other Pokémon without having to worry about the gender balance or egg group compatibility – and the more eggs you hatch, the more likely you are to get at least one of each gender of the desired creature.
Can I breed every Pokémon?
No. As with previous entries, Legendary Pokémon – such as Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, or Sun and Moon’s cover stars, Solgaleo and Lunala, cannot be bred. This is to keep them scarce and prevent players flooding the online Global Trade System with countless duplicates, and making a Rayquaza as common as a Pidgey. If you want those rarest of rare Pokémon, you’ll have to hunt them down the old fashioned way
