Pokémon X&Y post-launch discussion thread - AKA Jinx is Upset

[WildRaubtier]

I'm hardcore so I just reverse engineer the stat calculation to solve for it (which requires getting your baby to level 12 to be anything near accurate).

I think there's an NPC somewhere that evaluates them for you.

[Freya]

What's pokerus? My brother called me all excited cause he got it in wondertrade

[WildRaubtier]

doubles stat gain bonuses

[Skyblade]

What's pokerus? My brother called me all excited cause he got it in wondertrade

It doubles the Effort Values gained in combat (I don't think anyone has actually proven whether it works in Super Training yet, but I've heard that it does there as well).

It is contagious around Pokémon in the party. It lasts only a couple of days. However, its effects last even after the infection ends (the infection itself is actually more of a "contagious state").

A Pokémon left in the computer will keep the Pokérus indefinitely, which allows you to spread it to pretty much every Pokémon you have by monitoring those you have and simply always making sure that you leave a few Pokémon with it in the PC all the time, and keep rotating them out so the timers stay fresh.

Doubling the rate of EV acquisition makes strengthening Pokémon obviously go much faster.

PS: If he has a spare Pokémon with it, is he willing to trade it? I can always use more infectious organisms. I have several decent trade Pokémon, including version exclusives from either version, so let me know what he wants for it.

[Tasura]

It's been mentioned on Bulbapedia and Serebii that the Pokerus does not affect Super Training, just like the other EV boosting items don't.

[Skyblade]

How does breeding work? Like, I understand you breed to get better stats, but how?

I'm unsure if you're asking for just stat information, or a breeding guide in general. Either way, it's a chance for me to type some more. Skip to the "Stat Inheritance" section for the information specific to stats.

-Breeding Basics-

Egg Groups: Who can breed with whom.
Each different Pokémon species is part of an Egg Group. Any male Pokémon can breed with any female Pokémon in the same Egg Group. The Egg Groups are usually based on physical characteristics.

For example, there are three different Water-based Egg Groups. One is for standard fish like Magikarp, one is for amphibians like Poliwag, and one is for invertebrates like Tentacool. There are plenty of other groups as well. On for mammals, one for reptiles, one for plants, etcetera. Keep in mind, however, that plenty of Pokémon are actually in multiple groups. Squirtle, for example, is grouped with both the Amphibian group and the Reptilian group.

If two Pokémon left in the Day Care can breed, you'll get a message saying that they like to spend time together when you talk to the Day Care man outside the center. If he says they prefer spending time with others, they won't produce an egg.

Pokémon without a gender cannot be bred through standard means, though they may still be a part of an Egg Group.

Breeding rules: Which child is produced.
When two Pokémon within the same Egg Group create an egg, the resulting Pokémon is going to be the lowest Evolution-form of the mother. Breeding a female Marowak with a male Feraligatr (again, both in the Reptilian Egg Group) results in a baby Cubone, the lowest Evolution-form of Marowak.

There are two small exceptions to this: Nidoran Male and Female are considered the same species, and breeding them can produce either offspring, not merely Nidoran Females. Illumise and Volbeat are also considered the same species and follow the same rules. There are no female Volbeat or female Nidoran Males, but you can get more of either by breeding Illumise and Nidoran Female.

Also, the "Baby" Pokémon further break this rule. If you breed a female Azumarill, for example, you will get only Marill as children, not the younger Azurill. This is because the "Baby" Pokémon are only able to be obtained by breeding while the parent hold on to the corresponding incense. To get an Azurill, for example, you would need to let Azumarill hold the Sea Incense (available at the stand in Coumarine City) while breeding. Each Incense is used to get a different Baby Pokémon.

Egg Moves: What the child learns.
The child Pokémon can learn moves from either parent.

The child will learn any moves it can naturally learn from leveling up (in its current evolution) that both parents know.

The child will learn any TM, HM, or move tutor moves that either parent knows (it was only from the Father until this generation, but I believe it can now learn them from either), that the child can also learn.

The child can also learn certain "Egg Moves" from breeding if, again, either parent knows them (this was also originally restricted to only learning Egg Moves from the father, but now can be learned from either parent, confirmed). These moves are different for every Pokémon, but they essentially are a list of moves available only through breeding. Outrage, for example, can never be learned by a Charizard, but breeding a female Charizard with a male Dragonite that knows Outrage will result in a baby Charmander with Outrage. You'll have to either experiment a lot or look up the possible Egg Moves for each Pokémon you want to try these on.

Stat Inheritance: Why breeding is good for stats.
Every Pokémon has 6 stats: HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed.

Each stat is assigned a number when the Pokémon is created. These go from 0 to 31, and the stat gets a corresponding boost from these "Individual Values" (hereafter referred to as IVs). For example, at level 100, a Pokémon with a 31 in the Attack IV will have an Attack stat 31 points higher than a Pokémon of the same species with a 0 in the Attack IV.

IVs are set when the Pokémon is created, and never change.

Babies inherit three IVs from their parents. They can be taken from either parent, and can be any three IVs.

Example:
You have a female Pikachu with 31 Special Attack IV and 0 Speed IV.
You have a male Pikachu with 0 Special Attack IV and 31 Speed IV.
The baby can inherit the mother's Special Attack and the father's Speed (and one other stat IV from either parent), resulting in a baby Pikachu with a 31 in each.
Of course, the baby could also inherit both 0's, resulting in an incredibly weak baby, relatively. But you can always breed them again.

Natures: How they change stats, and how to pass them on.
Each Pokémon also has a "Nature". You can view it from the Ribbon page, above the date met. Each nature changes two stats. A "Mild" Natured Pokémon, for example (like my Greninja), will have increased Special Attack, and decreased Defense. These modifications are 10% of the stat's value. So if a neutral Greninja had 100 in both Defense and Special attack, a Mild Greninja of the same level would have 90 Defense and 110 Special Attack.

You can view the changes on a Pokémon's stat page. If the name of a stat is red, it is being increased. If it is blue, it is being decreased.

Please note that there are 5 Natures which boost the same stat that they penalize, resulting in neutral Natures.


When breeding, if either parent holds an Everstone, the child will be hatched with that parent's Nature. If both parents hold Everstones, the child will have a 50/50 chance to get either. This lets you help ensure that the child is born with the correct Nature when it finally inherits the correct stats.

Other Items that affect breeding.
The Everstone and the Incenses are not the only items that change the resulting baby.

There are certain items which give Effort Values (EVs) in battle when equipped to a Pokémon. The Power Weight gives 4 HP EVs. The Power Bracer gives 4 Attack EVs. The Power Belt gives Defense, the Power Lens gives Special Attack, the Power Band gives Special Defense, and the Power Anklet gives Speed.

If a parent holds one of these while breeding, it will guarantee that the corresponding stat will pass from that parent to the baby. If both parents hold an item (even if not the same item), it will pick one of the two to inherit, then take the other two inherited stats at random. You cannot guarantee more than one inheritance stat this way.


The Destiny Knot increases the number of IVs that the child inherits. If either parent holds this item, the child will inherit five IVs from the parents instead of the usual three. Which IVs are chosen, and from which parent, are still random.

Abilities: How to pass them on.
Some Pokémon, especially those gotten from Horde battles or the Friend Safari, will have Hidden Abilities that are different from what the Pokémon usually has.

Other Pokémon can naturally have more than one Ability (such as Absol, who can have either Super Luck or Pressure, in addition to its Hidden Ability, which is Justified).

These Abilities can all be passed on to the baby as well. When normally breeding, between any two Pokémon of the same Egg Group, the mother has an 80% chance of passing down a non-Hidden Ability, or a 60% chance of passing down a Hidden Ability.

Supposedly, the Father can now pass down a Hidden Ability as well, as long as both parents are members of the same species (for example, the male Blazikenite from the event can now pass down Speed Boost to a baby Torchic, as long as he is breeding with a female Blazikenite).

Abilities cannot be passed down when breeding with a Ditto, and the child will know either its regular Ability, or one of its regular Abilities if it can have two, at random.

Ditto: Breeding the unbreedable.
Some Pokémon do not have a gender, or are only available as male (such as Throh and Sawk). Or you might not have caught a female to breed with. These Pokémon can still be bred, however, thanks to Ditto. Ditto can breed with almost any non-legendary, non-baby Pokémon in the game.

Putting Ditto in the Day Care with any non-legendary, non-baby Pokémon (except Nidorina, Nidoqueen, and Unown) will result in producing a baby which relates to the other parent. A Ditto and a Metagross, for example, results in a baby Beldum, even though Metagross is not a female parent, and cannot breed except with Ditto.

You cannot breed Dittos at all. Two Dittos together will not produce an Egg, and with any other parent, will only produce an Egg that corresponds to the other parent.

Other than this, Ditto works almost the exact same way as other Pokémon. The same inheritance and move rules apply.

It's been mentioned on Bulbapedia and Serebii that the Pokerus does not affect Super Training, just like the other EV boosting items don't.

Good to know, thanks.

[Tasura]

As an add-on to your breeding guide, for some reason this Gen Nidorina refuses to breed with Nidorino, so you'll need to either try something else from the same egg group, or just breed the Nidorino with a Ditto.

[Skyblade]

As an add-on to your breeding guide, for some reason this Gen Nidorina refuses to breed with Nidorino, so you'll need to either try something else from the same egg group, or just breed the Nidorino with a Ditto.

Actually, this is true in every Generation, and I only mentioned it briefly, in the Ditto section.

Nidorina and Nidoqueen cannot breed (even though Nidorino and Nidoking can). They are in the "Undiscovered" Egg Group, as are the Baby Pokémon and the Legendaries. They are the only non-Legendary, non-Baby Pokémon in this Egg Group apart from Unown. They cannot breed, period.

Nidoran Female can breed, however.


As a side note, this makes them susceptible to the Undiscovered Egg Group capture glitch: As with all members of the Undiscovered Egg Group, every Nidorina that you find in the wild will have at least 3 perfect IVs. Of course, since Nidorina can't breed, even once you evolve her, the glitch isn't as useful on her as it is on the Baby Pokémon that can be captured: Riolu, Azurill, Mime Jr., Smoochum, Togepi, Budew, Chingling, and Mantyke. Plus whichever you find in Friend Safari, if you get any.

Also worth noting: Between the Baby Pokémon you can catch in the wild and their evolutions, you can cover every Egg Group in the game. Potentially spreading their boosted stats to any Pokémon who can breed without a Ditto.

[Bunny]

A semi-useful tool in determining potential IV ranges can be found here. Still being updated for X/Y but previous generations are covered.

[Skyblade]

A semi-useful tool in determining potential IV ranges can be found here. Still being updated for X/Y but previous generations are covered.

Oh, I forgot to mention that.

While Psypoke's is awesome, Metalkid's IV calculator is updated for X/Y, and the changes to the Pokémon which have had their stats altered by X/Y (for example, Alakazam's stats changed slightly). Not all of the information has been 100% confirmed yet, but those that have are implemented here, and those that have not will be once Smogon and Serebii's testing confirms them.

While I think Psypoke's is a little easier to use, and I love the fact that it shows you the possible range for each stat, I do like having a calculator for the next gen ones.


Also, there is a gentleman in Kiloude City who will assess the IVs of your Pokémon, and will tell you the average spread of the Pokémon's IVs, and their best one. If you have any perfects (or any in the 0-5 range) he will mention them specifically, and point them out (all of them), so he's a very good in-game tool as well.

[ShunNakamura]

What's pokerus? My brother called me all excited cause he got it in wondertrade

PS: If he has a spare Pokémon with it, is he willing to trade it? I can always use more infectious organisms. I have several decent trade Pokémon, including version exclusives from either version, so let me know what he wants for it.

I've got like a dozen infected at the moment. I was mass infecting to wonder trade. I have the version exclusive I wanted(Houndoom) so all I am really looking for at the moment is a Mega Stone for it. Don't really like it when such things are 'post-game' since I don't usually play post-game much. Anyways for the most part I don't care what I get in turn since the infected are spares I had laying about!

i'd say Manectric is dog-like enough to make the team (and will provide more type variety)

cat team > dog team though

Persian
Luxray
Meowstic
Pyroar
Purugly
Liepard

Eeveelutions could count as cats too (at least Espeon totally could)

Yeah, I would say the Eevees are cats. The Legendary Beasts are a bit of mix and match, but both Entei and Raikou are definitely catish enough to be on a Cat team. Suicune is Doggy enough for me to call a Dog though and has four legs . As a Jackal/Anubis thing Lucario could fall into a Dog theme. But he is upright and I would look for four legs(Granbull has the same issue). However, Manectric is definitely the more cannon choice and is readily available to me even at my current point in the game. And better yet is usable competitively thanks to Mega Manectric(and even regular Manectric is better than Mightyena!).

Hmm.. Manectric(Mega), Mightyena, Stoutland, Granbull, and Arcanine all have Intimidate access. If only there was one more Dog with Intimidate! That would be an Intimidating party! I know. . . that was horrible!

[Aulayna]

I need to drag myself away from XIV at some point and get around to continuing with this. >_> I'm still sitting outside the 3rd gym, the same place I was when I lasted posted an update xD

[Pike]

Totally got Xerneas and he's baller as hell

[Skyblade]

Anyone interested should know that I picked up a pair of Tropius. I've been seeking him out because Tropius is one of the best HM Slaves in this game, and combines perfectly with Bibarel.

Tropius naturally learns Sweet Scent, and can be taught Fly, Flash, Strength, Cut, and Rock Smash. This pairs perfectly with Bibarel, who can be taught Surf, Waterfall, Strength, Cut, and Rock Smash.

Tropius:
Sweet Scent - Instantly starts a battle with wild Pokémon, and a Horde battle if possible in the Route you're on.
Fly - Transportation between Pokécenters.
Flash - Decreases encounter rate in caves.
Strength - Move Boulders.

Bibarel:
Cut - Remove spiny trees.
Rock Smash - Break rocks for treasure and Pokémon.
Surf - Transportation over water.
Waterfall - Transportation up and down waterfalls.

This gives you access to all the best Field Moves (no Softboiled or Milk Drink, but pretty much all the others) on just two Pokémon.

I'll be breeding them for a while to build up a stock, so let me know if you need one!


EDIT: Also, breeding now apparently drops the baby into the Pokéball that was used to catch the mother, rather than a standard one. Because the first Tropius I hatched came out in an Ultra Ball.

2nd EDIT: I also made Grand Duke. I'm about to face the Fairy Gym. Booyaka!

[WildRaubtier]

did you still want pokerus? i got a diseased froakie off the WT which i've since traded away again (for a charmander lol)

tropius is awesome