Can Egg Moves be Passed Down with Ditto?
Breeding Pokémon can be a tricky process, especially when it comes to egg moves. If you’re planning to pass down a specific egg move to your future offspring, you might be wondering if it’s possible to do so with Ditto, one of the most unique Pokémon. Let’s dive into the world of Pokémon breeding to find out the answer to this question.
Direct Answer: No
A Ditto pairing always produces an offspring of the non-Ditto parent, regardless of the moves they have learned. Ditto cannot pass or inherit any moves from another Pokémon, including egg moves. This means that, sadly, you won’t be able to pass down an egg move from a parent that knows it to your future offspring using Ditto.
Changes to Egg Move Inheritance in Later Generations
Egg move inheritance did receive some changes in later Pokémon games. In previous generations (Red and Blue, Gold and Silver), only the father Pokémon could pass egg moves to their offspring. However, as of Generation VI, both parent Pokémon (male and female) can pass on egg moves to their offspring.
Teaching Egg Moves to Pokémon
Teaching a Pokémon an egg move typically involves breeding it with a partner Pokémon that knows the egg move. A Ditto cannot learn a Pokémon egg move, as it can only reproduce a move it knows itself when a Pokémon hatches an egg. A Ditto that breeds with another Ditto produces only other Dittos, without ever contributing its own moves to their offspring.
When Can We Use Ditto for Breeding?
Since Ditto can’t pass its moves down to offspring, when do you have a situation where a Ditto can be useful for breeding?
If your goal is to pass a gene-neutral trait (like ball slot or ability) from a female or genderless Pokémon to the new egg, a Ditto can facilitate breeding. This is helpful if you want to transfer a neutral attribute but don’t care about the breeding strategy. For most moves, however, breeding with another non-Ditto Pokémon will be your better option.
A Quick Word about Ball Slot and Breed Gender
In case you wondered how Ditto’s breeding effects differ from regular breeding when a Ditto is involved as either the mother or father in reproduction:
- Neutral parent (non-Ditno, genderless, gender-invariant): The offsping’s ball is 50% of the neutral parent (non-Ditto)’s ball, 50% will not be a Ditto nor receive any information from the ditto.
- Male parent or Non-Ditno & Gender-defined parent: The offspring receive either the non-Ditto ball or gender-defined if mother Ditto breeds with Gender-definite, the parent Pokemon ball otherwise.
- When offspring gender defined and one-parent Ditto (Female Pokémon case): the offspring inherits that 50% probability of inherited Gender, so if only has a gender defined with half probability to inherit father-Ditto.
- and more see below and more see below *More Examples and Explanation see below 6
| | Case | Outcome | Mother, Ditto | Father non- Ditto | % |
| — | — | — | — | — | (%) | (neutral |
if the neutral parent then in 50%
offspring with and without that info if ditto mother to avoid the ditto mother case see above)
| # Table: How Ditto Br…
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