A MODkip's Guide to Gen VI Breeding

Welcome to a guide from yours truly, the mudkip with too much time on his paws.In this guide I will give you a simple and "quick" rundown on what you could and should do to have the best PIKAMONS in the "fastest" way in generation VI, through the assistance of breeding.


First and foremost, the basics: by leaving two Pokémon of opposite sex which are in a compatbile Egg Group ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Egg_group ) at the Day Care (in Gen VI, it's located on Route 7, to the left of Camphrier Town), you have odds of them breeding an egg.The chances of them laying an egg are based on species (two Ralts have higher odds than a Ralts and a Kirlia or just a Ralts and a compatible Pokémon) and OT (Original Trainer, differents OTs increase the odds). So basically:
- Different species, same OT: 25% of finding an egg
- Same species and same OT, or different species and different OT: 50%
- Same species and different OT: 75%
Another thing to note is that if the Pokémon you deposit have different nationality, you have increased chances of getting a shiny Pokémon ─ this is called the Masuda method ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Masuda_method ).
Once you have the egg, it will take a predetermined amount of steps for the egg to hatch. The amount of steps depends on the single species. However, by having a Pokémon with either the Flame Body ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Flame_Body ) or Magma Armor ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Magma_Armor ) ability in your party while you're hatching the eggs, the amount of steps it requires for the egg to hatch is halved. The effect of these abilities don't stack, so only one Pokémon is require. A good Pokémon for this is Talonflame, because you get Fletchling very early, and along with Flame Body it can learn the Fly HM, which is always useful to have.


With that in mind, you'll surely want to deposit the Pokémon you want and JUST BELIEVE you'll get the perfect Pokémon. Well... you could, but that'd take a lot of time. Instead, we want to optimize the time, so we can take shortcuts.


First, an explanation: every species has different abilities, and any Pokémon has its own nature and IVs. To have the best Pokémon, you'll want to have the correct ability, correct nature, and at least two perfect IVs.
By just breeding the first Pokémon on your hands, chances you'll take weeks to have what you want, if you'll ever get it. Instead, you'll want to properly employ the game's mechanics to optimize the time you take. In this sense, Game Freak made the game even better for those which don't know how/want to abuse the game's RNG mechanics ( http://www.smogon.com/ingame/rng/ ), so we should be grateful since we can have much more competitively viable Pokémon without employing "hidden" mechanics, instead of the ones which were clearly made for us to use.


Before we get started, the first thing you'll want to do is breed a Pokémon with the Synchronize ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Synchronize ) ability. Synchronize has a nifty out of battle effect: if the Pokémon with Synchronize leads the party, there is a 50% chance that the wild encounter Pokémons will have the same nature as the Synchronize Pokémon. You'll want to catch a female Pokémon with synchronize, because females have a 80% odd of passing down the same ability to the offspring. For the male, I suggest you look for an international same species male on the GTS: this way you'll have the highest odds to get many eggs and possibly a nifty shiny too.
After you have a synchronize female and a same species interational male, place them both in the Day Care and start running on your bike. Game Freak gave us a good route to breed, since you can simply run left and right on your bike for a while: more precisely, from right below of the sign in front of the cave to the road bump on Route 5 you have a very long straight line which allows you to simply switch direction once at an extremity.After a few hours of breeding, you should have a Pokémon with synchronize for all the natures in the game.
Once you filled the box, you should catch a male Pokémon with Cute Charm ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Cute_Charm ). Cute Charm has a out of battle effect: if the Cute Charm Pokémon is leading the party, the wild Pokémon will have a 2 in 3 chance of being of the opposite sex regardless of its species' ratio. This is useful to get females for species with a 50% or higher male ratio.
With all those at hand, here is what you will want to do to get a Pokémon with nature, ability, and at least two perfect IVs in Gen VI.


First, you should catch a female from the species you want. Use your male Cute Charm Pokémon and go to the route where it spawns. Keep catching it until you have it with the ability you want. Side note: in Gen VI the offspring will be in the same kind of ball you caught the female in. If you want a specific ball for cosmetic reasons, keep it in mind when you catch the female.


Once you did that, it's time to hit the Friend Safari ( http://serebii.net/xy/friendsafari.shtml ) with the synchronize Pokémon of the nature you want holding a Smoke Ball ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Smoke_Ball#Smoke_Ball ). I suggest you bring along a high leveled Ditto (it would be optimal for it to be 100) in order to save on balls you'll have to use and turns you'd have to waste ─ bonus points if it's a Ditto with its Hidden Ability, Imposter ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Imposter_(Ability) ), but it's not required. I also suggest you bring around a Pokémon with Sweet Scent ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Sweet_Scent_(move) ) ─ Mawile's a pretty good one because it also learns False Swipe ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/False_Swipe ) ─ and either a Pokémon which learns Spore ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Spore ), OR a Butterfree or Vivillon with the Compound Eyes ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Compoundeyes ) ability and Sleep Powder ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Sleep_Powder ).


Now, step on a patch of grass. Go to your team by pressing the Poké Ball icon in the bottom left of the touch screen, then press on the TM icon on your Pokémon with Sweet Scent and then use Sweet Scent. UPDATE: Sweet Scent doesn't work in the Friend Safari, you'll just have to run around like usual.
If the Pokémon which appears isn't a male of a compatible species, simply select Run, and you'll easily escape avoiding any speed/level/ability shenanigans thanks to the Smoke Ball.
If it IS the male you need, switch in Ditto. If Ditto doesn't have Imposter, you'll have to wait an extra turn to use Transform ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Transform ), otherwise it will already be transformed.Next turn, go to Pokémon, select the now-transformed ditto, and pick Info. In case you need the male to have the DW ability for the slim chance of males to pass the DW ability, make sure the ability is the Hidden one, otherwise ignore the ability. Concentrate on the stats on the right. UPDATE: The info it shows are still Ditto's and not the copied ones, so you'll just have to keep catching mons and check them after you caught them.


It's time to check the IVs ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/IV ) of the wild Pokémon. All Pokémon in the Friend Safari have two perfect IVs of 31, we just need to know which ones they are, because we want them to be in the two stats we plan on maxing out on our Pokémon.
You can use MetalKid's IV Calculator ( http://www.metalkid.info/Pokemon/Calculators/IV.aspx ) for that. Select the species of Pokémon Ditto just transformed into, fill in the nature with that of the synchronizer, and in the boxes below, erase 4 boxes and then fill in the empty thing with the level of your ditto and the stats you see on the right. Ignore EVs, then click Calculate.Ditto doesn't copy HP, so just ignore if it says impossible. Next, since you hopefully have a level 100 Ditto, you'll know the exact IVs. Make sure you have 31 in the two stats you want to max out. If one or two of the stats aside from HP are Impossible, it means the nature has NOT been synchronized. If you only see one stat at 31, it means the other 31 stat is HP.
Keep fleeing from battle until you find the one you were looking for. Once you did, switch in your False Swipe Pokémon, and use it until the wild Pokémon is surely at 1 HP left. Next, switch in your sleep inducer and use the sleep move. Now, use an appropriate Ball ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9_Ball ) ─ if it's been enough turns, a timer ball would be good, if it's night, go for a dusk, if it's a Pokémon you already have there's the repeat, for water mons and bug mons there's the nest, and so on...


Now that you have both male and female, here's how you breed.


1) Have the male hold an Everstone ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Everstone#Everstone ) and the female hold nothing. Place them both in the Day Care. Breed until you get a female with the ability and nature you need ─ the nature will always be passed on from the male thanks to the Everstone, so it all comes down to female and ability matching too.
2) Pick up the male and female. Put the Everstone on the new female, and give the male a Power Item ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/EV-enhancing_item ). All bred Pokémon always randomly inherit 3 stats from the parents; Power Items make sure that one of those 3 stats is the one you want from the parent holding the item (if both hold a power item, only one will be taken in account at random). Power Weight makes the offspring inherit HP, Bracer Attack, Belt Defense, Lens Special Attack, Band Special Defense, Anklet Speed. Breed until you have a female with nature, ability and stat you want. Since Nature and Stat are always passed down, it's once again only up to being a female of the correct ability.
3) Pick up both male and female. Put the Everstone on the new female, and give the male the Power Item for the other stat you wish to pass down. Now, here's where it'll take some more time. Since you have no way to control which other 2 stats get passed down, you'll have to hope it randomly inherits it. Your odds are higher since both parents have the 31 stat, at least, and the other stat is getting passed down for sure. So, now you'll have to breed until you finally get the Pokémon with Nature, Ability, and stats you wanted (also gender if you cared for that too on the Pokémon you were planning on using).


Bonus uncovered info: Egg Moves ( http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Egg_moves ).
Some Pokémon can learn moves only by having them passed down from parents of another species. Up to generation 5 only males could pass down egg moves, but starting generation 6, it's being reported that females can pass down egg moves too. Keep this in mind when you need to chain for egg moves. For more info on egg moves and egg move chains refer to the bulbapedia article.


Well, that's it. Hope this was helpful!