Breeding 101: Individual Values (The Final Conflict)
/Today is the day when things start coming together. We have been on a magical journey, you and I. From backpacking through the Alps to swimming the Nile while dragging a tugboat behind us via a rope in our teeth. But nothing is more important than today's adventure. This is the glue that will hold together everything we have been working toward. Individual Value inheritance will give you a bit of control over your Pokémon's strongest stats. Get on your trailblazing gear Pokémon breeders; today we enter the wilderness as children, and come back as children with more information on Pokémon breeding!
Inheriting IVs
When breeding, you are able to pass a maximum of three IVs down to your baby Pokémon. That means that no matter how amazing your parent Pokémon are, in the best case scenario your baby has three IVs generated at random. Here is a run-down on how IVs are inherited when breeding:
- The baby's IVs are randomly generated for all 6 statistics (HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed). From here the baby will inherit IVs from its parents, which will overwrite some of these random values.
- One random IV value is inherited from either parent.
- A second random IV value is inherited from either parent. This value will not be the HP IV.
- A third random IV is inherited from either parent. This value will not be the HP or Defense IV.
When inheriting IVs, it is possible that the baby Pokémon will inherit the same IV stat more than once. For example, your baby Pokémon might initially inherit the Attack IV of the father, and on the second stat inheritance it might inherit the Attack IV of the mother, thus overwriting the previous Attack IV of the father. So in the worst case, your Pokémon would inherit the same stat three times, leaving your baby with five completely random Individual Values.
Let's illustrate random IV inheritance with an example. We will start with two wild Pokémon that have been freshly caught with the following IVs:
| Lapras (Female) | |||||
| HP | Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed |
| 14 | 9 | 22 | 31 | 7 | 22 |
| Whismur (Male) | |||||
| HP | Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed |
| 21 | 19 | 30 | 14 | 20 | 6 |
In the best case, since Lapras is a defensive Pokémon, the baby would inherit the Whismur's HP, Defense, or Special Defense; and that it would inherit the Lapras' Special Attack since it is perfect. But since inheritance is random, this may or may not happen. Here is an example of this breeding union using the breeding cycle rules from before:
1. The baby's nature, IVs, and gender are randomly generated. For this example, the baby will have a neutral Docile nature. We will cover natures next week, so for now we will just pay attention to the IVs.
| Baby Lapras (Male) | |||||
| HP | Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed |
| 26 | 3 | 18 | 19 | 31 | 31 |
2. The baby inherits one IV from either parent. In this case, it will inherit the Attack IV of the mother Lapras.
| Baby Lapras (Male) | |||||
| HP | Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed |
| 26 | 9 | 18 | 19 | 31 | 31 |
3. The baby will inherit one IV that is not the HP IV from the other parent. In this case, it inherits the mother Lapras' Defense IV.
| Baby Lapras (Male) | |||||
| HP | Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed |
| 26 | 9 | 22 | 19 | 31 | 31 |
4. A third IV that is not HP or Defense is inherited from either parent. In this case it will inherit the father Whismur's Special Defense. This inheritance will overwrite the perfect random IV of 31 with a less than ideal value of twenty.
| Baby Lapras (Male) | |||||
| HP | Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed |
| 26 | 9 | 22 | 19 | 20 | 31 |
As you can see, the baby born in this union did not inherit the Lapras' perfect Special Attack or father's amazing Defense IV. At this point you would probably want to breed again for higher defensive stats, but you could be in for hours of walking around in-game hatching eggs. Luckily there is a way to alleviate some of this time investment in the form of Power Items.
Power Items
Power Items allow you to pass an Individual Value from a parent Pokémon without fail. This can cut down breeding time a great deal since you are guaranteed to pass down an IV. Here is a list of these items along with which IV they pass:
| Power Item | IV Passed |
| Power Anklet | Speed |
| Power Band | Special Defense |
| Power Belt | Defense |
| Power Bracer | Attack |
| Power Lens | Special Attack |
| Power Weight | HP |
You can find these items in the Battle Frontier in Pokémon HeartGold, SoulSilver, and Platinum; or the Battle Park's Battle Tower in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. They cost 16BP a piece in both games. Battle Points, or BP, can be earned via battles in the Battle Tower or Battle Frontier. You must have defeated the Elite Four and Pokémon League Champion before these locations open up, and BP accumulates slowly when first starting out, so expect a long road of battles to earn these items. It is definitely worth your while if you plan on breeding for competitive Pokémon though, so don't let that discourage you!
When you equip Power Items to your Pokémon, the inheritance process changes. If either parent holds a Power Item, the baby will inherit that IV stat, and then it will subsequently inherit two random IVs other than the one that was passed via the Power Item from either parent. If both parents hold a Power Item, one IV corresponding with a held item will be inherited from either parent, and then two random IVs other than the one passed via the Power Item will be inherited from either parent. For example, if one parent holds a Power Weight, the baby will inherit that parent's HP IV stat, and then it will inherit two more IVs that are not an HP IV at random; as per the random inheritance rules we discussed earlier. If one parent holds a Power Weight and another holds a Power Bracer, the baby will inherit either the HP IV of the parent holding the Power Weight or the Attack IV of the parent holding the Power Bracer on the first IV inheritance, and two random IVs that are not HP or Attack respectively from either parent. With that in mind, we can redefine the inheritance process as follows:
- The baby's IVs are randomly generated for all 6 statistics. From here the baby will inherit IVs from its parents, which will overwrite some of these random values.
- One random IV value is inherited from either parent. If either parent is holding a Power Item, the Individual Value corresponding to the held item will be passed.
- A second random IV value is inherited from either parent. This value will not be the HP IV, or the IV represented by the Power Item held by the parent in the previous step.
- A third random IV is inherited from either parent. This value will not be the HP, Defense, or Power Item IV.
Let's look at another example to illustrate inheritance with Power Items attached to both parents. Once again we will refer to two freshly caught Pokémon with the following IVs:
| Cubone (Female) | |||||
| HP | Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed |
| 13 | 3 | 16 | 20 | 14 | 31 |
| Slowpoke (Male) | |||||
| HP | Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed |
| 7 | 31 | 19 | 4 | 22 | 19 |
As you can see, the Cubone in this breeding pair has a perfect Speed IV, so we will equip the Power Anklet to her to pass that IV down to the baby. We will equip the Power Bracer on Slowpoke to pass its perfect Attack IV stat. With that in mind, we will go through another round of hypothetical breeding to illustrate the inheritance of these stats:
1. The baby's nature, IVs, and gender are randomly generated.
| Baby Cubone (Female) | |||||
| HP | Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed |
| 16 | 22 | 4 | 19 | 20 | 26 |
2. The baby inherits one IV from either parent. In this case it will inherit the first stat from the father Slowpoke. Since the Slowpoke is holding a Power Bracer, it will pass its Attack IV down to the baby.
| Baby Cubone (Female) | |||||
| HP | Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed |
| 16 | 31 | 4 | 19 | 20 | 26 |
3. The baby will then inherit one IV that is not an HP or Attack IV (due to the Power Bracer) from either parent. In this example it will inherit the mother Cubone's Defense stat.
| Baby Cubone (Female) | |||||
| HP | Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed |
| 16 | 31 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 26 |
4. A third IV that is not HP, Attack, or Defense is inherited from either parent on the final inheritance. In this example it will inherit the Special Defense IV from the father.
| Baby Cubone (Female) | |||||
| HP | Attack | Defense | Special Attack | Special Defense | Speed |
| 16 | 31 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 26 |
The most important thing to keep in mind when passing IVs via Power Items is that HP will only pass on the first IV inheritance, and Defense will only pass on the first or second inheritance. So it would be more beneficial to pass those stats if you have multiple perfect stats to increase your chances of passing a perfect IV that is not HP or Defense on the second and third IV inheritance.
The Breeders Edge
Being able to pass your best Individual Values down to your baby Pokémon will save you a lot of time when breeding competitive Pokémon. There are still many random factors that come into play when breeding though, so do expect to spend a lot of time walking around hatching eggs. Next week we will be talking about Pokémon natures and how to pass them. Natures are important since they will help you max out your stats at level 100. With perfect IVs and a helpful nature, you can max out your Pokémon's strongest stat thus specializing your Pokémon even further. Until then, keep breeding those eggs!
