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What are Natures?

Natures are important to remember when breeding competitively. Now what are they? I still haven't got that have I? Natures can raise and decrease a stat. Depending on the nature, it may or may not benefit your Pokemon. Please look at the nature chart below.



Notice how on the Adamant nature, it raises the attack stat but decreases the special attack at the same time? This is what a nature does. Neutral natures cancel each other out therefore there is no stat increase nor a decrease. All stats will then be neutral.

This is important to remember when creating a competitive Pokemon. Let me use one of my team's Pokemon as an example. I will be explaining why I chose to do what I did. Nature will be in bold.



What it does: Standard Subchomp

As you can see, I've put my Chomp in a Jolly nature. Refer to the chart to see what it does. Notice how it raises my speed but decreases my special attack? this is beneficial for my Garchomp because Garchomp isn't much of a special attacker if you've compared his attack stat to his special attack stat. You can view Pokemon's max stats on any online Pokedex site: Bulbapedia, Serebii or Smogon, just to name a few.

Now that we know that Garchomp is a better attacker than special attacker why not just decrease the stat that would be pointless? It would be very stupid to decrease his defense stat rather than his special attack for instance. Defense still would come in handy, so no sense in hindering that stat. Just get rid of the pointless special attack stat since Chomp is going to be a full out physical attacker.

Jolly is my personal preference for Garchomp, but Adamant could have been the other. I chose Jolly because a max speed stat of 333 is very convenient and can outspeed many other Pokemon. Adamant would only be good for Garchomp if assisted with some speed, namely the Choice Scarf. My Garchomp would raise his attack via Swords Dance so no need for the max attack of 394. I hope that all this has made sense.


When would you need to use a neutral nature?

You would need to use a neutral nature when you do not want to decrease any stat in particular. Though at most times, people don't really use neutral natures as it is a waste. There is always a useless stat somewhere. So one word of advice, do not use neutral natures. Neutral natures are highlighted in yellow on the chart.


Conclusion of Natures

Hopefully you've learned something about natures, if not feel free to pm me and ask me more about this topic. Natures are very necessary when it comes to playing competitively, as it can boost up a stat that is very important to that Pokemon's success. Though there are a variety of ways you can use a Pokemon, so don't always boost the stat that is the highest as some Pokemon have other potentials rather than using that Pokemon for that stat, such as walling off a Pokemon.

Example:



What it does: Mixed Ape

I shifted Infernape into a nature that hinders a defensive stat, but that is because Infernape is strong in both attack stats and is quite capable of dealing massive damage to two types of walls now. Normally, if you ran a special attacking Infernape, Blissey would wall you like mad. If you ran a physical attacking Infernape, you would be walled somewhat by a Skarmory. Now that Infernape has decent attack stats, he can easily wipe out those two Pokemon without much fear of being walled.

Close Combat KOs Blissey (as Blissey's defensive stat is less than mediocre)
Flamethrower KOs Skarmory (as Skarmory's special defense stat is quite low)

No more fear of special and physical walls. This strategy can work on different Pokemon that are fast and have at least decent attacking stats.


How to breed for Natures

Now this is where the breeding part of natures comes in. How do you breed for natures you ask? That is quite an easy task really. Though before you can start doing this, you must go through a long that seems endless task of collecting Dittos of every nature. Now how do I get them easier? just chain Ditto out in the grass by Canalave City. Once you have gotten all the Dittos, you can start breeding for your own Pokemon that will be used in Wi-Fi.

First off, all you have to do is go get some Everstones, which you can find underground quite easily and equip them onto the Ditto. Why? because when Ditto equips this, it has a 50% chance of passing its nature down to the offspring. Of course, Ditto can act as both male and female in the relationship (a bit disturbing <_< hermaphrodite) thus you would think it doesn't matter who I breed with right? Wrong. You shouldn't breed with a female, because the males are supposed to be carrying down Egg moves, and Ditto passing over the nature. So when you are getting the parent, make sure that it is a male type. As mentioned earlier, Ditto can pass down its nature with a 50% chance of success. Once you receive an egg, you will either receive a random nature or the same nature that Ditto has. If you don't get the desired nature, pick up the next egg and check.

What are Individual Values?
Individual values (often shortened, respectively, to IVs) are the Pokemon analogue to genes. They are instrumental in determining the differing stats of Pokemon, most specifically of the same species. There are six IVs, one for each of the basic stats: HP, Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Attack and Special Defense; ranging from 0-31 (0 being the worst, 31 being the best).

How do you breed for good IVs?

Well, it's tricky. You technically can't breed for good IVs per say, but if you have multiple Pokemon, each with a good IV in a different stat (that are in compatible egg groups) you can transfer a max of three different IVs onto the offspring from the parents. So let's say I want an Eevee with 31 IVs in Speed, Special Attack and Attack (don't ask why I'd want such a thing, it's just an example). So I'd breed in the following way (note: I'm going to describe it with a Ditto to simplify it, but essentially any Pokemon in a compatible egg group could work):

• First breed an Eevee with a Ditto that has 31 IVs in Speed until you get an Eevee with 31 IVs in Speed.
  
  
• Next, breed an Eevee with 31 IVs in Speed with a Ditto that has 31 IVs in Special Attack until you get an Eevee that has 31 IVs in Speed and Special Attack.
  
  
• Then, breed that Eevee (with 31 IVs in Speed and Special Attack) with a Ditto that has 31 IVs in Attack until you get an Eevee that has 31 IVs in Speed, Special Attack and Attack.
  
  
• After that, you can breed that Eevee (with 31 IVs in Speed, Special Attack and Attack) with a Ditto that has the specific nature you want until you get that perfect one you'd want to keep.
  

It sounds simple enough, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Breeding for IVs is really a long process and will take many (MANY) hatched eggs before the right one(s) are bred out for each individual step. This of course is made even longer, when adding in the factor of breeding for certain natures, abilities and genders as posted previously in this guide.

Natures do not effect the HP stat at all; only Effort Values and Individual Values do. EV training is a different topic altogether and such questions will have to be directed at a thread more oriented towards that. I will make another guide on how I do such things later on, but in regards to a step-by-step process, it's pretty much similar to what you already posted, except I also infect my Pokemon with Pokerus and try to avoid the use of vitamins where ever possible just in case I need to do any quick retraining. Power Items + Pokerus gets EV training done in a jiffy afterall.

Ok... so I used a Hondew berry on my level 1 adamant Shinx, and its base sp atk is as low as it gets...

What kind of stats are considered good to have?

hi to get thedittos with the natures get hg or ss and get on route 47 it will take while after you beat some of the story that you can get there tho

It always depends on the Pokemon.
For instance your shinx would do well with both it's atk and speed maxed out or increased significantly. You can only max out two stats and even then only one stat will ever be the best it can be.