Easy Breeding Guide for Pokemon Sword and Shield
In this article I will cover everything you need to know about breeding in Pokémon Sword and Shield all the way from the very basics (what is breeding and how do I get eggs) to breeding shinies and competitive Pokémon.
You can find a guide for advanced breeding tips here, a guide for competitive breeding here and a guide for shiny breeding here.
Basic breeding:
How and where to breed:
- In Pokémon Sword and Shield there are two daycares: one on Route 5 and one in the Wild area right before the second stone arch bridge to the right.
- You can leave up to two Pokémon in each of the daycares by talking to the lady in front of the building. Leaving a male and a female of the same Pokémon will give you an egg after running around for some time. You will know when the lady in front has her arms crossed, talk to her and she will give you the egg.
- You can also get an egg by breeding a Ditto with the Pokémon you want to hatch or by breeding two Pokémon of the same egg-group (I will explain later why you would want to do that)
- You can only get one egg from the daycare lady at a time, so waiting after she already crossed her arms does not give you multiple eggs, but there is no limit to the amount of eggs you can get in total (other than running out of space in your boxes)
- Eggs are hatched simply by carrying them in your team while running around.
- You can’t breed legendary Pokémon
- Almost all Pokémon hatch in their first evolution form, although a few exceptions require additional items which I will cover further down.
Breeding and hatching speed:
A lot of factors come into play when it comes to how fast you get eggs and how quickly they will hatch. It is not all too complicated, though for some things you need to have progressed in the story quite a bit.
Let’s start with breeding speed. It is mostly affected by the Pokémon you put in the daycare.
- Breeding two of your own Pokémon is slower than breeding two Pokémon from different players.
- Breeding a Ditto with any Pokémon is slower than pairing two of the same species, but it is the most convenient method since you can just leave the Ditto in the daycare and swap out the other Pokémon.
- The oval charm is a key item that increases the rate of getting eggs in the daycare. You can get it in Circhester in the left hotel after beating the Champ. Go up the elevator and to the second room from the left. There one of the developers will battle you and give you the oval charm as a reward if you win.
Now let’s take a look at what affects hatching speed
- Every Pokémon has a certain amount of steps you have to run before it hatches. Some, like Magikarp will hatch rather quickly while others like Lapras might take a lot longer.
- Since riding a bike is faster than walking, you will reach the required amount much quicker. The bridge to the right of the Route 5 daycare is a perfect place to race across for hatching eggs.
- Having a Pokémon with the ability Flame body will cut the required amout of steps in half, basically doubling the hatching speed. Having two Pokémon with Flame body will not stack.
The following Pokémon can have the ability: Carkol, Coalossal, Litwick, Lampent and Chandelure. Sizzlipede and Centiskorch have it as their hidden ability, which is harder to find.
Additional Items for special cases:
As I said earlier, most Pokémon hatch in their first evolution. Exceptions to this are listed below. Here you have to give the parent Pokémon a held item when you put it in the daycare. Also you can’t breed with these first evolution forms, only with their evolutions.
- Munchlax (Snorlax with Full incense)
- Budew (Roselia/Roserade with Rose incense)
- Wynaut (Wobbuffet with Lax incense)
- Bonsly (Sudowoodo with Rock incense)
- Mantyke (Mantine with Wave incense)
- Mime Jr. (Mr. Mime/Mr. Rime with Odd incense)
All incenses can be purchased in Hulbury at the market in the southern part of the town.
You can find a full list of breeding items and where to find them here.
Where to find helpful Pokémon:
- Ditto: Raids, Lake of Outrage (North-west wild area)
- (Rolycoly: Route 3, Galar Mine, Motostoke Riverbank (Central wild area, during sunny weather and Sandstorm), Giant’s Cap (North-west wild area); does not have Flame body but evolves into Carkol, has to have the ability Heatproof)
- Carkol: Giant’s Cap (North-west wild area, during sunny weather and Sandstorm), Stony Wilderness (North-east wild area, during sunny weather), Bridge Field (Central wild area, during sunny weather)
- Coalossal: Raids, Lake of Outrage (North-west wild area, during sunny weather), Dusty Bowl (Northern wild area, during sunny weather)
- Litwick: Bridge Field (Central wild area, during sunny and foggy weather), Motostoke Riverbank (Central wild area, during sunny weather)
- Lampent: Lake of Outrage (North-west wild area, during sunny weather)
- Sizzlipede: Route 3
- Centiskorch: Raids
