Breeding

## Requirements

In general, two Pokémon of opposite genders are required to breed. They also must both be part of the same Egg Group. This process will produce an Egg containing a level 1 Pokémon that is the base evolutionary form of the mother's Pokémon species (e.g., a mother Venusaur will produce a Bulbasaur Egg).

### Exceptions

* Ditto can breed with any Pokémon except Pokémon in the Undiscovered Egg Group. This compatibility is not reliant on gender, so male, female, and genderless Pokémon can all breed with Ditto. This is the only way that genderless Pokémon can reproduce.
	+ If a Ditto breeds with another Ditto, the resulting Egg will be a random species of Pokémon. It is possible for Pokémon not normally found inside Eggs to be inside of this Egg, such as evolved Pokémon, but Legendary Pokémon cannot normally hatch out of these Eggs.
* Pokémon in the Undiscovered Egg Group cannot breed with any Pokémon, including Ditto and other Pokémon in the Undiscovered Egg Group.
* Certain Pokémon, such as Snorlax, will not produce their base forms unless the mother is holding a certain incense. Without the incense, these Pokémon will produce the evolutionary forms immediately following their base forms (e.g., breeding a Snorlax without a Full Incense will produce an Egg containing another Snorlax instead of a Munchlax). These Pokémon and their required incenses are listed below.
	+ Chansey, Blissey→Happiny: Luck Incense
	+ Chimecho→Chingling: Pure Incense
	+ Mantine→Mantyke: Wave Incense
	+ Marill, Azumarill→Azurill: Sea Incense
	+ Mr. Mime→Mime Jr.: Odd Incense
	+ Roselia, Roserade→Budew: Rose Incense
	+ Snorlax→Munchlax: Full Incense
	+ Sudowoodo→Bonsly: Rock Incense
	+ Wobbuffet→Wynaut: Lax Incense
* If a Nidoran♀ breeds or a Nidoran♂, Nidorino, or Nidoking and a Ditto breed, the resultant Egg may contain either Nidoran♀ or Nidoran♂.
* If an Illumise breeds or a Volbeat and a Ditto breed, the resultant Egg may contain either Illumise or Volbeat.

## Getting started

A ranch block

To breed any Pokémon, a ranch block is required.

After placing down a ranch block, up to six Pokémon from the player's PC (not the player's party) can be put into the ranch block, where they will begin to wander within a 9×9 block area around the ranch block. If, within these six Pokémon, there is at least one pair of Pokémon that are compatible for breeding, the breeding process will begin. Multiple breeding processes can occur concurrently with the ranch block if there are multiple pairs of compatible Pokémon.

## Breeding process

In order for two compatible Pokémon to breed, they must first love each other. In order for this to happen, the environment around them (within the ranch block's range) must be suitable for them, which can be achieved if there is a sufficient amount of blocks that are appropriate for the Pokémon's types. This is not biome dependent. If there are not enough suitable blocks for both parents to be satisfied, the breeding process cannot happen.

With dual-typed Pokémon, blocks corresponding to either of the Pokémon's types will contribute to the Pokémon's satisfaction with the environment, but each individual block will contribute less than it would for a single-typed Pokémon. In most cases, rarer blocks will contribute more to Pokémon satisfaction than more common blocks.

For each 1x1 area, ranch blocks take into account the highest block that is at most 3 blocks higher than the ranch block.

To make it easier to construct a suitable environment for breeding, it is possible to place the ranch block in a biome that already contains suitable blocks for the breeding Pokémon, but this is not required. The ranch block's range can also be increased with ranch upgrades (obtained as special drops) in order to increase the number of blocks that are counted in the environment. The maximum range of a ranch block is 15×15, requiring twelve ranch upgrades to achieve.

For a more detailed explanation on how environment satisfaction is determined and a full list of blocks that are suitable for each type, see this page.

Once both Pokémon are satisfied with their environment, they will automatically begin to accumulate love for each other. The progress of their love can be roughly gauged by the color of the hearts that emanate from the Pokémon, with red hearts being required to produce Eggs. However, large Pokémon may cause these hearts to be obscured by their models.

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The more suitable blocks there are in the ranch block's range, the faster the Pokémon will accumulate love for each other. A general indicator of how suitable the environment is to the Pokémon can be displayed by right-clicking the Pokémon. The possible text can be displayed is listed below:

It is also possible to immediately advance Pokémon by a breeding level by using Isi's Silver Hourglass or Isi's Golden Hourglass. These items can be obtained as drops from boss Pokémon.

Once both Pokémon reach maximum affection, they will produce an Egg, which will be visible on the ranch block and can be claimed in the ranch block interface. The Egg will go into the player's party or the player's PC, depending on whether the player's party is full. The two Pokémon that made the Egg will then have their affections reset to 0 and the breeding process will restart.

If the ranch block is destroyed at any time during the breeding process, all progress will be lost, including Pokémon affection and ranch upgrades. Any Pokémon inside the block will be returned to the player's PC.

## Hatching

After claiming an Egg, the player must walk around with the Egg until it hatches. An Egg will not hatch or become closer to hatching while it is stored in the PC. In an Egg's summary screen, instead of the usual information, there is only an indicator of roughly how long the Egg will take before it hatches. Eggs cannot participate in battle.

After a sufficient amount of steps, the Egg will hatch. A "step" in regards to Egg hatching is equivalent to the time it takes to walk the full length of two blocks at normal speed. Methods of boosting traveling speed, like mounting a Pokémon, will increase the rate that Egg steps are deducted at. The amount of steps needed for an Egg to hatch depends on the species of Pokémon inside the Egg and the config setting for "stepsPerEggCycle" in the Pixelmon config file.

If a Pokémon with either Flame Body or Magma Armor is in the player's party, any Eggs in the player's party will hatch twice as fast. This effect does not stack if multiple party Pokémon have Flame Body or Magma Armor.

Once the Egg is hatched, a level 1 Pokémon will be revealed. The player can then use the newly-hatched Pokémon in battle and train it like a regular Pokémon.

## Inheritance

Parents can pass on several traits that they possess to their offspring.

### IVs

* Combined, the two parents will pass down three random IVs to their offspring. These IVs will not overlap with each other (i.e., the mother and father cannot both pass the same IV).
* Certain held items can influence the inherited IVs. These held items are detailed in the held items section below.

### Poké Ball

* The Poké Ball that the mother is in will be passed to her offspring unless the Poké Ball is a Master Ball or a Cherish Ball. The father's Poké Ball cannot be passed down.

### Growth

* The growths of offspring are inherited from their parents. Growth inheritance is determined by the growth between the mother's and father's growths (e.g., ordinary is directly between runt and giant), with some random variance allowing the two growths directly next to the determined growth (using the previous example, small and huge growths would be possible as well). This slight variance in growth will occur even if both parents have the same growth. This is the only way to obtain Pokémon that are microscopic or ginormous, requiring two Pokémon that are pygmy or two Pokémon that are enormous (respectively) to breed together. Each offspring from these Pokémon will having a ⅓ chance of inheriting the corresponding extreme growth stats.

### Ability

The statements below apply to both normal and hidden Abilities.

* The mother has an 80% chance of passing her Ability to her offspring. The male's Ability has no bearing on the inherited Ability if a mother is present.
* If a male Pokémon breeds with a Ditto, the male Pokémon's Ability has a 60% chance of being passed on. The Ditto's Ability does not affect this chance.

The 1/150 chance (by default) of obtaining a hidden Ability is not present when breeding. If neither of the statements above allow the inheritance of a hidden Ability, there is no chance that the offspring will have hidden Abilities.

### Egg moves

If the mother or father have certain moves, their offspring could potentially inherit these moves despite not normally being able to learn them.

* If either the father or the mother (or both) know certain species-specific "Egg moves", their offspring will inherit these moves. The majority of these moves are unable to be learned by the Pokémon except with this method.
* If the father knows any moves that can be taught via TMs or HMs, the offspring will inherit these moves if they are able to normally learn these moves via TM/HM.
* If both the mother and father know moves that are in their offspring's level up movepool, the offspring will inherit these moves. This may cause the offspring to know moves that it would normally only be able to learn at higher levels.

If more than four moves fit the criteria above, the moves that the offspring will have are decided using the above list as a hierarchy; i.e., Egg moves have priority over the other criteria. If there are more than four potential Egg moves to be inherited, the mother's Egg moves are prioritized.

If a Pikachu or a Raichu breeds while holding a Light Ball, the offspring Pichu will know the move Volt Tackle regardless of whether the parents know the move.

### Held items

Several held items influence aspects of the parent Pokémon that are passed to the offspring Pokémon.

* Destiny Knot: If held by either parent, five IVs will be passed from the parents to the offspring instead of three.
* Everstone: If held by a parent, the offspring's Nature will always match the nature of the parent holding the Everstone. If both parents are holding Everstones, the offspring will randomly inherit one of the parents' Natures.
* Power items: If held by a parent, the offspring will always inherit the IV from that parent that corresponds to the power item. If the two parents are each holding a different power item, both of them will pass down their corresponding IVs. If both parents are holding the same type of power item, either one of them will be randomly chosen to pass on the corresponding IV.

 Attack
 Defense
 Special Attack
 Special Defense
 Speed

### Other

* If the parents have differing original Trainers, their offspring have double the normal chance of being Shiny.