Guide: IV Breeding

Since I've started getting into IV breeding, I thought now might be a good time to get into how it works and post a guide for everyone in the League.    This is some pretty hardcore Pokemon training, so you can feel free to ignore this whole thing.  But, I've included some homemade infographics that will make the whole thing easier to understand!

What are IVs?
IVs are Individual Values, and they are invisible points that determine how good your Pokemon is in certain stats.  Low IVs hurt your Pokemon's stat, and high ones boost it; they range from 0 (the worst possible IV) to 31 (the best possible).  Ideally, you want one with high IVs in as many stats as possible.  Unlike EVs, though, you can't gain them from battles.  Pokemon are born with them, and they cannot be changed.  Luckily for us, you can influence what IVs your Pokemon can inherit when you are breeding Pokemon.

Inheriting Individual Values
Starting from Pokemon Platinum onward, when your Pokemon in the Day Care produce an egg, it will inherit three IVs from its parents (the stat and which parent it gets it from is decided at random).  So, it might get its HP IV from its father, and its Defense and Speed IVs from its mother.  Or it might get HP, Attack, and Special Attack all from its mother.  The remaining three IVs that it didn't gain from its parents are decided at random.



Pretty basic.  It inherits three IVs, and the others are random.  If you want to make a Pokemon with a bunch of good IVs, there are two ways to influence them.

Influencing inheritance
The first are the Power Items.  Yep, the same ones we used in EV training.  When one of the parents holds one of these items while in the Day Care, it is guaranteed to pass on the stat corresponding to that item to its child.  The rest carries on like usual: 2 more inherited stats, and 3 random stats.



If both parents are holding Power Items, however, they do not both automatically donate the corresponding IV.  Instead, only one passes on its corresponding stat, and the remaining 2 inherited stats are chosen at random from every stat BUT the one corresponding to the second Power Item.  So if you have a father with the Power Weight (HP) and a mother with the Power Anklet (Speed), the child will either have the father's HP IV, or the mother's Speed IV, but never both.

The other item that influences IVs is the Destiny Knot, and this effect only works in Pokemon X and Y!  When either parent holds the Destiny Knot, instead of inheriting 3 random stats from its parents, the child inherits 5.  The single remaining IV that the child doesn't inherit is decided at random.



You can use the Power Items and Destiny Knot together to great effect.  The child inherits the corresponding IV from the parent holding the Power Item, then inherits 4 more IV at random, and the final IV is randomized.

Finding Individual Values
If you want to find out what IVs your Pokemon have, head straight to the stats judge, which is in every game.  He won't give you the numbers, but he'll tell you A) the approximate total of your Pokemon's IVs, B) the Pokemon's highest stat (and how high it is), and C) if you are playing X or Y, if you have any IVs that are 0.

Using him, you can easily find out if there are any IVs of 31 hanging out in any of your Pokemon.  And when it comes to breeding, in X and Y, baby Pokemon are now guaranteed to have 3 IVs that are 31.  So a good way to seek out those perfect IVs is to find a baby Pokemon that will evolve to be in an egg group in or close to the Pokemon you're breeding.

Example of IV breeding
I want a Bold Vaporeon with perfect HP, Defense, and Speed IVs.  I search through my boxes and luck out twice.  I have a male Eevee with a 31 in Defense, and a male Lucario with a 31 in HP, Special Attack, and Speed (since it was caught as a baby).  They're both in the Field egg group, so in order to make a breeding pair, I breed my Eevee with a Ditto while holding a Power Item, in order to get a female.

Now, in order to pass on as many good IVs as I can, I have my new female Eevee hold a Power Band, so it's guaranteed to pass on it's 31 in Defense.  I put a Destiny Knot on the Lucario to increase the chances of the child getting Lucario's IVs.  After several rounds of breeding, I get the Eevee with the IVs I want.



As easy it would be to stop here, I'm ALSO trying to breed for a Bold nature.  I technically could just keep breeding this until I have both the desired IVs and the desired nature, but the odds aren't in my favor.  My odds will get much better if I have a mother AND father each with the perfect IVs I want.

I take the male Eevee I just hatched and breed it with the female.  This doesn't change much at first, but two parents of the same species will breed faster.  I also have a 31 in Defense on both parents.  Since I know my female has a 0 in HP, which I definitely don't want, I put a Power Weight on the male, and the Destiny Knot on the female.  I keep breeding until I have a female with all the IVs I want.



Now I have a male with four perfect IVs and a female with perfect IVs.  If I breed these two with a Destiny Knot on one of them, the child is almost guaranteed to get all the perfect IVs that I wanted.  Now it's just a case of breeding for the right nature, and I get the one I want after about ten eggs.



One Water Stone later, I have my Bold Vaporeon with perfect HP, Defense, and Speed.    It also even has perfect Special Attack, which I wasn't specifically looking for, but I was lucky enough to have it come along for the ride.



So, that's my guide.  I realize it gets really complicated, but I tried to explain it in as simple terms as I could.  Let me know if you have any questions!

I have one thing to add. All of these apply specifically to Gen 6:

As an addendum for Hidden Abilities and Natures:

Both Hidden Abilities and Natures can be passed through the use of an Everstone. If you have one parent hold onto an Everstone in the Daycare, there is a 50% chance(might be higher now) that the parent will pass its HA, Nature, or both. However, male Pokes will only pass an HA through Ditto while female Pokes will only pass through a male of the same species(PokeDex #). To obtain an HA is possible through the Friend Safari or events. However, not all hidden abilities are available at this time, such as Tyrunt/Tyrantrum with Sturdy/Rock Head.