Egg groups determine which Pokémon are able to interbreed in Pokémon breeding. Pokémon were first able to breed in the Second Generation games Pokémon Gold and Silver. Breeding allowed Pokémon to pass down DVs and moves to their children. Moves usually are inherited from the male Pokémon, while the child takes on the form of the mother in her basic form. A baby would hatch out of an egg after a specified number of steps in the game and would always be at level five.

When breeding, one typically has a 50/50 chance of getting male or female Pokémon. If the Pokémon is a Starter Pokémon, or any of a number of other types which have different gender ratios than 50-50, the results are skewed. Some Pokémon are genderless; some species can be only male or only female. It's been mentioned on some web sites that there is a bug in the Third Generation games which makes some Azurills change gender when they evolve into Marills. This is the result of the fact that the gender ratios are different.

Breeding Chains

Many Pokémon are included in two different egg groups and can form what are known as breeding chains. These link many unrelated Pokémon together, allowing moves that would not normally be accessible to certain Pokémon to be legal, like Heal Bell on Blissey.

TMs are also passed down through breeding through male Pokémon. Doing this would cause the moves to appear in the Pokémon's moveset if said Pokémon can learn the move via TM or Egg Move.

Egg Groups

Ditto

Ditto can breed with any Pokémon except for Legendary Pokémon and Baby Pokémon. The following genderless Pokémon can only breed with Ditto:

No eggs (Group X)

The following Pokémon are incapable of breeding.

Plant (Group 1)

Many Grass-type Pokémon belong to this group:

Bug (Group 2)

Many Bug-type Pokémon belong in this group:

Flying (Group 3)

This is the group to which most of the Flying-type Pokémon belong:

Humanshape (Group 4)

The humanoid Pokémon belong here, including many Fighting-type and Psychic-type Pokémon:

Mineral (Group 5)

Rock-type Pokémon, Ground-type Pokémon and a Steel-type Pokémon belong in this group.

Indeterminate ( Group 6)

Poison-type Pokémon, Ghost-type Pokémon and a few others beclong in this group.

Ground (Group 7)

Fire-type, Water-type, Normal-type, Dark-type, Electric-type and Ice-type Pokémon belong to this group.

The presence of both Skitty and Wailord in this group has led to HSOWA gaining popularity in some sections of the fandom.

Water 1 (Group 8)

This is the group to which most of the Water-type Pokémon belong:

Water 2 (Group 9)

This is the group to which some Water-type Pokémon belong:

Water 3 (Group 10)

This is the group to which some Water-type (and some non-water-type) Pokémon belong:

Monster ((Group 11)

These are Pokémon that are monster-like.

Fairy (Group 12))

These Pokémon are considered to be shaped like fairies, and as such are part of the Fairy breeding group. They are:

Dragon ((Group 13))

Dragon-type Pokémon, along with those that resemble Dragons, are in this group.

Special Notes

Other important facts about breeding:
Azurill and Wynaut can be bred only by giving the Marill or Wobuffet parent a Sea or Lax Incense to hold. (respectively)
Pichu will acquire Volt Tackle if the Pikachu or Raichu parent is holding a Light Ball, but only in Pokémon Emerald.
Also only in Emerald, if the mother (or Ditto) is holding an Everstone, then the nature of either parent has a 50% chance of being passed down.

Egg Group

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