You will need to give your Pokemon to the Lady inside. As mentioned before, you need two compatible Pokemon. Firstly, you need a male and a female with one egg group in common. After a certain number of steps, an egg will be produced - this is dependant on the trainer numbers and the Pokemon species. After even more steps it will finally hatch. It will be level 1, as opposed to level 5 previously, and it will be in the same family as the FEMALE pokemon, in the lowest evolutionary stage. There are some exceptions to this:
- A baby hatched from a Nidoran F's egg will be either Nidoran M or Nidoran F.
- A baby hatched from an Illumise's egg will be either Illumise or Volbeat.
- A baby hatched from a Manaphy and Ditto egg will be a Phione.
- A baby hatched from an incense-compatible Pokemon. See below for details.
While the two Pokemon are in the daycare, you can check on the chances of getting an egg. Talk to the old man outside and he will tell you one of four things:
- "They seem to get along very well" There is a 70% chance of producing an egg.
- "They seem to get along" There is a 50% chance of producing an egg.
- "They don't seem to like each other" There is a 20% chance of producing an egg.
- "They prefer to play with other Pokemon than each other" There is a 0% chance of producing an egg.
The trigger for getting your egg occurs every 256 steps, so after you have taken that many steps, check back to the daycare center to see if an egg has been produced.
Abilities
There are three different ways a baby can obtain an ability. Firstly, set abilities. If it belongs to a family that always has only one ability, then the baby will also have this ability. Secondly, if it belongs to a family that has two abilities, then the baby's ability is random. Thirdly, if it belongs to a Pokemon family which changes abilities as it evolves, it will simply change its ability at each evolutionary stage to what is normal in that family. The baby will not obtain its mother's ability if the mother is evolved and it would not normally have the ability.
Attacks
Attacks obtained by the baby uses the same principles as in GSC.
- The baby knows all moves it normally has from level 1.
- If both parents know a move by levelling up, and the baby is able to learn the move by LEVELLING UP, NOT evolving, then the baby will be born knowing this move.
- If the father knows a move the baby can learn by TM then the baby will be born with this move.
- If the father knows one of the baby's egg moves, then the baby will be born with the move.
IV Inheritance
The parents of the egg are able to pass on up to 3 of their IVs to the child. These IVs are selected randomly from the IVs of both parents. The first IV can be any IV from either parent. The second can be any IV except for HP. The third IV can be any except HP and Defense.
Note: IVs can overlap. An egg could receive the father's Attack, then the mother's Attack, and then the father's Attack again. Though it would appear only one was passed on, all 3 were calculated by the game.
Natures
When an egg is produced, a nature is chosen at random for it. This is for stat modification. For more information on natures check out the Natures Guide. If the mother is holding an Everstone, there is a 50% chance of the baby having the same nature as the mother.
Note: When breeding with Ditto, it will act as the "mother" regardless. A Ditto with an everstone has a 50% chance of passing its nature on.
Hatching
Different Pokemon require a different number of steps to hatch. Below is a table showing an approximate value for how many steps is required to hatch each Pokemon. If you have a Pokemon with the ability Flame Body or Magma Armor in your party, then the number of steps required is halved.
