This is an adaptation of the incredible competitive breeding guide created by TheCrustyMustard on imgur, may it never be lost and often visited!
Breeding competitive level Pokemon really is not as hard as it seems. It does take a bit of time, but it’s really not that bad. You also almost need competitive Pokemon if you want to stand a chance against the Battle Tree to farm that sweet, sweet BP. Before we get started though, we need to know a few of the mechanics.
Individual Values
IVs (or Individual Values) are the inherent stats the Pokemon is born with. Think of this as the genetics of the Pokemon. There is a new way of checking the IVs of your Pokemon in Sun and Moon, called the “Judge App.”
You can get this app by hatching 20 eggs and meeting a man besides the PC at the battle tree after beating the main story. This will help immensely to see if and when our Pokemon are increasing their IV stats.
Side note: There also is a new mechanic called Hyper Training in the game. I do not recommend using this to train up your common, breedable Pokemon. The downsides of Hyper Training are that the Pokemon must be level 100 (which takes a very long time), you need a rare item called a Bottlecap, and you cannot breed down the stats onto your other Pokemon (so kiss the idea of maxing out a Ditto and using that goodbye 🙂 ).
EVs
EVs (or Effort Values) are stats that are gained from training your Pokemon. Each Pokemon has an Effort Value that is given to the Pokemon that knocks it out. Think of this as the “nurture” part of the nature vs. nurture argument. We will be talking about this more in depth a bit later.
Items
There are several items you will need to breed and train your Pokemon quickly.
- Destiny Knot: Can be found using the ability Pickup, Royal Avenue (48 BP)
- Everstone: Hau’oli City from Ilima, Steal from Roggenrola or Boldore
- Power items: Royale Avenue (16 BP each)
SOS Encounters
The new mechanic in Sun and Moon is SOS encounters. When a Pokemon feels threatened, they will call for help. The chance of them calling increases the lower their health, as well as when you use an item called an Adrenaline Orb (which can be found throughout the world as well as purchased at the Pokecenter for 100P). A lot of cool things can be done with SOS encounters, including Hidden Abilities, higher stats, and even shiny Pokemon. We will talk about SOS stuff a bit later. Sometimes, when a Pokemon calls for help, nothing appears…
… and other times, a whole new Pokemon appears! This Pokemon is considered the “ally” Pokemon. SOS chaining can get us some cool things, such as Hidden Abilities, higher stats, and even shiny Pokemon. We will come back to SOS chaining in a little bit.
Step 1: Catch your Pokemon!
So the first step of any competitive breed is to go out and find the Pokemon you want to breed. It will make it easier if it is a female, but that is not entirely necessary. Catch it in the Pokeball of your choice, and there you go.
Step 2: Egg Moves
One of the things you need to consider is what moves you want your finalized Pokemon to have. A lot of Pokemon can learn moves from breeding that they do not learn from leveling up. Those moves are called Egg Moves. I want my Tsareena to have Play Rough and Synthesis. Comfey, one of the Pokemon in its egg group, has both of those moves, so I will breed Bounsweet with Comfey first.
Step 3: Natures
Step 4: IVs
1. The Normal Person Route
2. The Overkill Route: Do what I did.
3. The Cheater’s Route: Do what I used to do.
Step 5: EVs and Level UP
The last step is to get your competitive Pokemon to level 50! There’s a couple of quick-ish ways to gain XP:
- ALWAYS give your competitive Pokemon a rainbow bean before leveling. 2 Affection hearts give 1.2x XP.
- Lucky Egg. Always.
- Beware SOS encounters outside of the Battle Tree and the Elite 4 give a lot of XP. (E4 gives money too).
And that’s it! There ya go! You now have a competitive Pokemon! Lather, rinse, repeat, and you got yourself a team!
