This guide lists all baby Pokemon, how to get them and evolve them, and what makes them babies to begin with.
List of all Baby Pokemon
The following table lists all the baby Pokemon, among with their evolutionary family, how to evolve them, and their associated Incense, if they have one.
- Note: Tyrogue will evolve at Level 20 into Hitmonlee if its Attack is higher than its Defense, into Hitmonchan if its Defense is higher than its Attack, and into Hitmontop if its Attack and Defense are equal.
What Makes a Pokemon a “Baby” Pokemon?
A baby Pokemon isn’t just the first stage of its evolutionary line. It’s the first stage of an evolutionary line that is part of the No Eggs Discovered Egg Group, while its evolutions aren’t. In other words,baby Pokemon can’t make Eggs, but their evolution(s) can.So a Pokemon like Eevee, which can evolve and also produce Eggs itself, isn’t a baby Pokemon, but Riolu, which can evolve but can’t produce Eggs the way its evolution Lucario can, is a baby Pokemon.
How to Obtain Baby Pokemon
Like all Pokemon, there are different ways to obtain baby Pokemon in each game. Sometimes baby Pokemon can be found in the wild, and sometimes they can be given as gifts from NPCs, usually as an Egg that you have to hatch yourself. Other times they can be a reward for completing a task, such as theshiny Munchlax reward for mastering Ogre Oustin’in The Teal Mask.
The most common and consistent way to obtain baby Pokemon, however, is by breeding one of their evolutions and hatching the resulting Egg.Sometimes, however, the Pokemon must be holding a special Incense item to produce an Egg with a baby Pokemon inside.
Why do Some Pokemon Need Incense to Make Baby Pokemon Eggs?
Incense are items that, in addition to having an in-battle effect, allow the Pokemon to produce Eggs with their evolutionary line’s baby Pokemon. Not every line with a baby stage has an associated Incense, however.Incense are exclusively for cross-generational baby Pokemon after the second generation, such as Azurill and Munchlax. Baby Pokemon that were introduced in the second generation or at the same time as their evolutions don’t have any associated Incense, such as Riolu and Toxel.
Why did cross-generation baby Pokemon after Gen. 2 need Incense to begin with? Incense’s main purpose was to maintain “consistency” with previous generations. When the mechanic of Pokemon Eggs and breeding was introduced in Pokemon Gold and Silver, baby Pokemon could only be found in Eggs, so it wouldn’t “retcon” any evolutionary line to add a baby Pokemon to it. You can see a similar phenomenon with cross-generational evolutions: why wasn’t Gallade or Froslass discovered in Ruby and Sapphire along with their pre-evolutions Ralts and Snorunt? Because there was no Dawn Stone item.
Starting in Ruby and Sapphire, however, this method wouldn’t work for baby Pokemon anymore. Marill and Azumarill made Marill Eggs in Gold and Silver, so how can you introduce a new baby Pokemon, Azurill? The answer was to add Incense items. Now Pokemon like Marill and Azumarill can make Azurill Eggs as long as one of them is holding the “newly discovered” Sea Incense item while in the Day Care. If not, they will just make Marill Eggs. But is this still the case?
Do Pokemon Still Need Incense to Make Baby Pokemon Eggs?
In Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Incense is no longer required to make baby Pokemon Eggs. In fact, Incense items are not available in Scarlet and Violet at all.As of Scarlet and Violet, it is no longer possible to hatch Marill, Wobbuffet, Roselia, Chimecho, Sudowoodo, Mr. Mime, Chansey, Snorlax, or Mantine from Eggs. While this streamlining does remove some special Egg Moves from each of the affected evolutionary lines, the convenience makes up for it. The removal of Incense is also similar to other evolution method changes over the years, like the altered ways toevolve Feebas into MiloticorEevee into one of its many evolutions.
Niki Fakhoori
Niki’s love for video games encompasses a wide range of genres, but she is especially fond of RPGs, adventure games, visual novels, simulation games, and fighting games. Her favorite video game-related pastime is asking her unwieldy backlog why she doesn’t have any new games to play. When she isn’t playing or writing about video games, she’s playing with cats, journaling, painting, or obsessing over the latest news in the world of stationery and planners.
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