How Pokemon Gen 10 Breeding Could Be the Best of Recent Generations

Each new Pokemon generation has introduced new mechanics and built upon the foundation laid by its predecessor, and Gen 10 will likely be no different. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet‘s change to a fully open world necessitated a change to a core feature of the series in breeding, which was an improvement in several key ways. However, the breeding changes in Scarlet and Violet were also a step back from the previous generation in others, meaning Gen 10 could create the ideal Pokemon breeding system by taking the best of both gens.

Pokemon breeding has existed in the series since Gen 2, and has become an important feature for Pokedex completionists, shiny hunters, and competitive battlers. As such, it’s clear that breeding is a necessary part of the Pokemon experience that deserves to be streamlined for maximum efficiency. While Pokemon Scarlet and Violet takes the mechanic in a good direction, it abandons part of the efficiency of Sword and Shield‘s version of Pokemon breeding that should be reintroduced in Gen 10.

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Scarlet and Violet Breeding is a Step in the Right Direction

Historically, Pokemon breeding has been tied to the daycare, where players can leave two mons and wait for them to produce an egg after walking a certain number of steps. Whether players leave one Pokemon with a Ditto or two different gender mons of the same egg group, breeding prior to Gen 9 was fairly straightforward, only needing to manage two mons being left at the daycare until an egg is produced. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet changed things up a bit to make breeding more accessible but made some parts more convoluted in the process.

Breeding in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet can be done from almost anywhere since the mechanic became tied to the picnic feature. While this has made the feature much more accessible, since players don’t have to travel back and forth to the daycare to swap the critters they have there, it also complicates things since picnic breeding considers all mons in the player’s party instead of just the two left at the daycare. It is also harder to tell when an egg is waiting for the player in the picnic basket, since there is no visual cue to signal when one has appeared, like the stance change of the daycare worker in Gen 8 when an egg is ready to be picked up.

Pokemon Gen 10 Combining Gen 8 and 9 Breeding Methods Would Be Ideal

The ideal system for breeding in Pokemon Gen 10 would be to combine the elements of breeding in Gen 8 and 9 that worked while discarding the elements that were not as user-friendly. Being able to breed Pokemon almost anywhere in Scarlet and Violet was a game-changer, but having a way to visually indicate that an egg is available to claim is a must-have feature. Additionally, ensuring the two mons that a player intends to breed are the two that produced the egg is also important, so having a feature for selecting specific mons to breed is another important part of the puzzle that Gen 10 will need to address.

Perhaps the Gen 10 games can retain a similar feature to Scarlet and Violet‘s picnics, but improve the way that breeding works in conjunction with it. Having a specific menu for selecting the two Pokemon that the player wants to breed when starting a picnic would go a long way toward ensuring that any eggs produced are from the intended parents. A small touch like having the picnic basket shake when an egg can be claimed would also be a simple visual cue that would help prevent the player from needing to manually check the basket every so often, and save valuable time when breeding.

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November 18, 2022

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E For Everyone Due To Mild Fantasy Violence