Are you a little confused when people talk about creating eggs in Pokémon games? Did you even know Pokémon can breed? What is a quick way to breed? How can you quickly and easily hatch those eggs you find? Here you can find answers to your questions about breeding and understand the basics behind it.

For your convenience and viewing ease, you can skip around to different sections by clicking on the links below.

Remember that only Pokémon from the same egg group can breed! So once you find two compatible Pokémon, you can finally begin the actual breeding. Remember that the Pokémon must be of opposite gender and in the same egg group. The egg that hatches will always be the Pokémon the female parent was. For example, if I breed a female Rattata and a male Pikachu, I will get an egg with a baby Rattata.
 

However, if Pokémon has no gender, or you cannot find a compatible Pokémon to breed it with, then breed it with Ditto! The egg that hatches will be the other Pokémon, not the Ditto. Therefore, you can get rare eggs such as Spiritomb eggs, even though Spiritombs are genderless!
 
Note that some Pokémon cannot breed, and for a list of those, please read Egg Groups. Note than Manaphy and Rotom are the only breedable legendaries.

 
All you have to do now is enter the Pokémon Daycare and deposit those two Pokémon with the Daycare Lady behind the counter. Afterwards, go outside and begin walking.

 
"The two seem to get along very well." | 69.3% chance of an egg per 256 steps.
"The two seem to get along." | 49.5% chance of an egg per 256 steps.
"The two don't seem to like each other." | 19.8% chance of an egg per 256 steps.
"The two prefer to play with other Pokémon." | 0% chance of an egg per 256 steps.
 
For your convenience, Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum has two Pokétch functions that can help you. App #4 is a step counter that can help you count the steps you take, and App #9 is a Pokémon Daycare checker that shows you the two Pokémon you've deposited in the Daycare, and if there is an egg or not. If you use App #9, you can tap the Pokétch frequently to see if an egg symbol appears!
 
After running around for a while, an egg will be made, provided that you followed the rules for egg groups and genders above. Talk to the Daycare Man, and if the egg was made, he will give you it only if you have an open slot in your party (so remember to leave an empty space in your party). If you are ready to hatch those eggs, then read on!

Hatching Back to Top
 
After making all these eggs, you need to do something with it... hatch them! Hatching is a long-winded process as it involves walking (or biking) a lot. Leaving the game system on for one hour won't do anything because it isn't a time-based process. Instead, an egg hatches depending on the number of steps you take. Each Pokémon has a different amount of steps needed to hatch. Check out this page for the number of steps it takes for each individual Pokémon to hatch!
 

How do you know how close your egg is to hatching? Well, if you check the egg's summary, you will get a message similar to one of the following. These will tell you the status of the egg. Note again that different games have varying messages displayed!
 
"What will hatch from this? It will take time."
"It moves occasionally. It should hatch soon."
"It's making sounds! It's about to hatch!"

In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, the Pokétch App #4 is a step counter that can aid you in counting the number of steps. This can help you keep track of how many steps you've taken and how many more you need before the egg hatches.
 
However, you don't need to walk all 3,840 steps to hatch, say, a Combee. Get a Pokémon with the ability Magma Armor (such as Slugma) or Flame Body and keep that Pokémon in your party. With one of these Pokémon with you, the number of steps needed to hatch an egg will be halved, and the hatching process will be much faster than before!

After you get the hang of hatching, you might have realized that some Pokémon that hatch out of the egg aren't the same as the female parent. Why is that so? Well, it's because there is a special type of Pokémon called Baby Pokémon.
 

 
If you don't know where the breeding places are, they are listed below! It is easy to tell if a place is a Daycare Center (the breeding place) because you'll see a fence with Pokémon running around inside. If that isn't enough description for you, then below is the list of locations.

Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald | Route 117
FireRed, LeafGreen | Four Island
Diamond, Pearl, Platinum | Solaceon Town
HeartGold, SoulSilver | Route 34
 
Now, you don't have to aimlessly walk around to hatch your eggs. There are some great spots where you can walk up and down to your heart's content without bumping into anything (which gets pretty annoying).

In all games, the Biking Route is a good place for a long hatching session, especially since you can go much faster on a bike. This is because bike routes are sloped downwards, so if you don't even have to press any buttons; gravity will do its work. When you reach the bottom of the route, simply press the up button and then let the bike coast downwards. Locations of the bike routes in each game are listed below.

 
Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald | Above Slateport City (Route 110)
FireRed, LeafGreen | West of Fuchsia City up Routes 16, 17, and 18
Diamond, Pearl, Platinum | Between Eterna City and Oreburgh City
HeartGold, SoulSilver | West of Fuchsia City up Routes 16, 17, and 18
 
The areas around the Daycare Centers are also pretty straight and obstacle-free, so you can hatch there if you're too lazy to Fly to a Biking Route.

Do you feel that you've got the hang of Pokémon breeding? If so, you can move on to more advanced breeding, such as breeding for natures, IVs, or movesets. Click here for more information!