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Maxing IVs is important for competitive play; not so much for casual play.

Prerequisites¶

Benefits¶

How To¶

This is a method for breeding Pokémon in such a way as to breed them to have perfect IVs. Breeding Pokémon can be a tedious process, especially when you don’t know what you’re even passing down - the hold items can help, but…

Well, anyways, this method is to get you max IVs on all six stats - as you recall, IVs boost stat growth by their value (0~31) at Level 100, and proportionately at lower levels.

Combining this with an ideal nature allows you to effectively boost a stat 34.1 points above the base value - with maxed EVs (252) in a stat, you can increase a stat by almost 100 points!

When it comes to powerhouses like Rhydon in Attack (130 base) or tanks like Blissey (255 base HP), these are significant increases. God forbid you max out the EVs, IVs, and give an offense-centric nature to a Shuckle knowing Power Trick!

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Get used to cycling from dawn to dusk along Route 7, breeding Pokemon.

Anyways, the process requires a Ditto with two perfect IVs . Your best bet is the the Friend Safari, although you could try your luck in the Pokémon Village. You can also combine this with the Masuda method - previous sub-section - for somewhat likely Shiny Pokémon.

So, once you have the Ditto, you need a female of the desired Pokémon species. Whoever has the desired Nature should hold the Everstone during breeding to give it to the child. The child will have that Nature. Next, make the child hold a Destiny Knot and breed that with the second Ditto with different 31-IVs.

Once that Egg hatches, breed the child (this time now holding the Destiny Knot) with the third Ditto. Hopefully, this results in a child with perfect IVs - if not, the Destiny Knot’s RNG kinda screwed you, so try again!

Perfection Not Always Necessary¶

Often, even after persistent breeding, you’ll consistently end up with Pokémon that only have 5 maxed IVs at best. This is because Destiny Knot only guarantees 5 IVs will be passed down, so the 6th IV will always be random. However, a 5 IV maxed Pokémon isn’t necessary bad.

The main reason is that most Pokémon don’t need both Attack and Special Attack maxed, as trainers frequently opt to use an Physical-only (Attack/Defense) or Special-only (Special Attack/Special Defense) moveset. In this scenario, you’re free to stop breeding when you get a 5 IV Pokémon that doesn’t have the unneeded IV maxed.

If you’re running a mixed moveset though, you’ll have to cross your fingers for a 6 IV maxed Pokémon. Besides that, the only reason you’d want a 6 IV Pokémon is to use them as a seed for continued breeding with the Destiny Knot. Or maybe for bragging rights.

A More Detailed Example¶

Just in case the previous description wasn’t very clear, let’s just say you wanted a perfect-IV Delphox. First you want a perfect-IV Fennekin. So, this is what you need to bring to the situation.

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You can also RNG a Ditto with max IVs in previous generation games (or ask for one).

What You Need

• Delphox
• A Ditto nicknamed “HP/Sp.Atk”, with maxed Max HP and Special Attack IVs
• A Ditto nicknamed “Df/Sp.Def”, with maxed Defense and Special Defense IVs - must have the preferred nature
• A Ditto nicknamed “Spd./Atk.”, with maxed Speed and Attack IVs - must have the preferred nature
• One Destiny Knot
• One Everstone (if you feel like breeding a certain nature)

The Process¶

Generation 1

• Breed Delphox and a Ditto - for this, we’ll chose “HP/Sp.Atk.” to carry those IVs

• Whoever has the desired nature will hold the Everstone

• This results in a Fennekin with (at least) two perfect IVs
  Generation 2

• Breed the first-generation child Fennekin with Ditto - now the one named “Df/Sp.Def.” for those IVs

• The first-generation child Fennekin will hold a Destiny Knot, and Ditto with the Everstone

• This results in a second-generation child Fennekin, probably with four perfect IVs
  Generation 3

• Breed the second-generation child Fennekin (holding Destiny Knot) with the final Ditto, this one named “Spd./Atk.” for those IVs and holding the Everstone

• This generally results in a third-generation child Fennekin with 31 IVs in all six stats and an ideal nature, which you can level up to Level 36 to become Delphox