Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Breeding Guide

Breeding Pokemon has been a series staple since the second generation of Pokemon games. In Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal, players could begin using the Pokemon Day Care to fine-tune the stats and movesets of almost any Pokemon they wanted. As the series has grown more and transitioned onto newer hardware, the fine details of Pokemon Breeding have shifted throughout the years.

Trainers normally use Pokemon Breeding as a means to get perfect Pokemon to use competitively, as with hard work and a lot of patience, players could fully customize the desired Pokemon's movesets and stats with the right items and conditions.

With Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl finally here, players will want to know how to effectively breed their Pokemon to dominate the metagame. However, breeding is a lot more complicated than just sticking two Pokemon in the Nursery in Solaceon Town and hope they lay an egg. Here are some things you can do to hatch the perfect Pokemon in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

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Pokemon Breeding: Making your Million Dollar Mon

Pokemon Natures

A Chimchar with a Jolly nature. This nature boosts the speed stat while lowering the growth of the special attack stat. (image via The Pokemon Company)

The first thing to keep in mind when breeding a Pokemon is what nature you want the offspring to have. At first, the nature of a Pokemon may just appear to be flavor text in a Pokemon's summary screen, but really, it's the determining factor of how your Pokemon's stats grow. Most natures boost the growth of one of the Pokemon's stats while hindering another, while others do not change growth rates at all. A detailed list of Pokemon Natures can be found here.

While any Pokemon's stats can be influenced to mirror that of a nature through the use of Nature Mints, those cost an astonishing 50 BP at the Battle Tower, and they do not pass that given nature down to its offspring. There are a couple measures players can take to get the right nature for their desired offspring Pokemon.

The NPC that gives you an everstone at Snowpoint City (Image via The Pokemon Company)

By giving the parent Pokemon with the desired nature the Everstone item, that parent will always pass on their nature to the offspring. The Everstone can be found in the Grand Underground through mining or the player can get one from trading a Medicham for a Haunter in the house in the northwest corner of Snowpoint City.

Another way to influence the nature of any Pokemon is through the use of the ability Synchronize. This guarantees you find a Pokemon with a suitable nature before you start breeding, as it is more so used to find a best parent Pokemon to pass on a desired nature.

With a Pokemon with the Sychronize ability at the front of the party, players are guaranteed to find a Pokemon with a matching nature to that of the Sychronize Pokemon. For example, if a modest-natured Abra with Sychronize is at the front of the party, you are guaranteed to encounter a wild Pokemon with a modest nature.

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Pokemon IVs

This NPC goves you the "Judge" function to check IVs in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (Image via The Pokemon Company)

While these tend to matter much less nowadays, getting a Pokemon with perfect IVs cuts down heavily on grinding time, as it saves players the trouble of grinding the Battle Tower for Bottle Caps and the Elite Four for EXP. IVs or Individual Values are the true defining factor in what makes every Pokemon unique. IVs, much like natures, determine how a Pokemon's stats will grow and if these stats are capable of reaching their maximum values.

To see a Pokemon's IVs, make your way to the Battle Tower. In the lobby, make your way over to the PC and talk to the scientist NPC next to the trainer with the Pikachu; he will give you the ability to check IVs from the PC. From there, press the "+" button on your controller to see your Pokemon's IVs; stats marked with "Best" have maximum IVs.

The exact location of the Destiny Knot in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (Image via The Pokemon Company)

To pass on maximum IVs to the offspring, simply give the other parent Pokemon the Destiny Knot item. The Destiny Knot passes down 5 random IVs, chosen at random from both parents, to the offspring. If both parents have maximum IVs in every stat, that means that through the use of the Destiny Knot, the offspring is guaranteed to have 5 stats with maximum IVs.

To find the Destiny Knot, players first have to obtain the National Pokedex. This can be done by beating the Pokemon League and seeing every Pokemon in the Sinnoh Region. Afterwards, players will want to make their way to Victory Road and go to the cave that was previously blocked by an NPC before the player had the National Dex.

The quickest way to get here is by flying to the Pokemon League, then taking the exit. After making their way through this area, players will find the Destiny Knot in a patch of grass on Route 224.

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Egg Moves

Egg Moves are attacks Pokemon can only learn through breeding. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl made this process easier through the Grand Underground, as Pokemon found there have one Egg Move chosen at random.

When breeding a Pokemon, it is recommended to check that Pokemon's Bulbapedia page to see what Egg Moves it can learn, as well as what the parent Pokemon will have to be to obtain these moves.

To pass down an Egg Move to the offspring, one parent must currently have the move that the offspring can have as an Egg Move. For example, Shellder can learn Rock Blast as an Egg Move and Omastar learns the move naturally. If the Shellder's father is a Rock Blast Omastar, the offspring Shellder will have Rock Blast.

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Egg Groups

When it comes to breeding, there are rules one must follow. Aside from making sure both parents are the opposite gender, there exists a catalog of Pocket Monsters that are capable of breeding with each other. These are called Egg Groups. A list of detailed Egg Groups can be found here.

With this information, players have a brief overview of all the information they need. Breeding the perfect Pokemon can take a lot of patience but hardcore players will find the results to be worth all the time and effort.