Which Pokémon Have Unique Egg Group Combinations?

Breeding Pokémon is a favorite pass-time of many trainers out there, but to successfully do so you'll need to master the Egg Groups, which limit the possible pairings a Pokémon can have! But since Pokémon can have more than one Egg Group at a time that can lead certain pairings to be unique to one evolutionary line, so let's see which combinations of Egg Groups are only accessible with one Pokémon!

[@levin8199]

The reasoning I can give for Paras and Parasect being the only members of the Bug/Grass group combo is that unlike the other Bug/Grass Types it is both the bug and the plant. So either of the two is able to reproduce, whereas Burmy uses somewhat inanimate material and Sewaddle is just wearing a grass coat

[@aleksabanjevic8316]

Wormadam is the bug/grass type, tho I guess what u said is true, bury gathers material and stays that way then it Evolves, so my bad

[@shotguntornado]

For what it's worth, ice actually is a mineral in the real world, we just don't tend to see it that way because it's liquid at room temperature. But it checks all the boxes we attribute to other types of stone, so geologically speaking, Avalugg and Bergmite are right at home in the mineral group!

[@emperorcubone]

It's not that I don't believe you... but what exactly are these checklists? Because it really doesn't seem like water is very rocky.

[@jackleetch8511]

@@emperorcubone It's a crystalline structure, plus with the dissolved minerals and gasses when it solidifies all of the minerals are added to its structure making it technically a rock. (A mineral is a solid with a discrete chemical makeup and concrete crystalline structure, a rock is multiple minerals that appear homogenous)

[@shotguntornado]

@@jackleetch8511 right! I suppose using the word "stone" in my original comment was a little misleading (if still *technically* true), but the key word here is "mineral" since that's the egg group's name

[@jackleetch8511]

@@shotguntornado stone isn’t misleading since stones describe both minerals and rocks, I just said minerals and rocks bc he said rocky and the egg group is mineral

[@aleksabanjevic8316]

​@@emperorcuboneI mean, water is a rock at 0°c, the same way most rocks are a liquid at 1200°c. I mean, is mercury not a metal cuz it's liquid at room temperature?

[@adamj.cuthbert7528]

I still find amusing that due to their Egg Group combination, Wailmer and Wailord can breed with Seedot, a literal acorn seed.

[@emperorcubone]

I didn't get into it but them even being in Field makes no sense; Field is pretty much all land animals so whales being there is out of place. usually the defense is that "Field is for Mammals," which would explain the whales, but not the numerous birds and reptiles in the Group so either way SOMEthing doesn't fit here...

[@tomforge614]

How about the fact that a Pidgey and Ekans could be cousins via Farfetch'd?

[@alexgrissom3513]

Can’t forget Skitty

[@tomforge614]

@@alexgrissom3513 I think the idea is Seedot looking non-animal more than the classic pairing. After modern gens, Wailord-Skitty is only a legacy joke as the smaller Diglett is available for the size difference joke. Skitty and Wailord were only popular because they were the largest difference native to Hoenn. Granted, Seedot could be better juxtaposed with Pachirisu and Emolga with the squirrel-acorn relationship.

[@lionessoftor4139]

@@emperorcubone Maybe it's since whales evolved from land dwelling animals? The Egg Groupings are weird.

[@Fighting.Flower]

You always come up with such interesting and unique video concepts!

[@emperorcubone]

It just struck me like lightning one day, so I had to talk about it.

[@pikanonymous512]

​​@@emperorcuboneGood thing you have your Lightning Rod!!!

[@silenthesia4522]

I’m surprised that the Cacturn line are the only human-like and grass combination. It’s literally a tradition at this point to get a feminine grass type every gen. You’re telling me Leavanny, Tsareena and Roserade are not human-like?

[@emperorcubone]

I guess it's because of their previous stages, like Bounsweet is just a fruit and not very humanish, but if Cacnea counts than surely Petilil could be in the group!

[@FanOfAnimation]

@@emperorcubonethat’s even weirder cause Roselia also feels vaguely human shaped and Budew is a baby so it wouldn’t be able to breed.

[@jaschabull2365]

Leavanny is an insect which isn't a plant, it just wears leaves. Roserade evolves from the originally one-off roselia, which I guess is petite enough to more come off as spritely than humanoid. Tsareena, I'm not too sure about, my only guess is that bounsweet, unlike cacnea, doesn't have arms, so it's just a bit too big a stretch to call it humanoid.

[@marlonknockaert3233]

This why I subscribed to your channel all these years ago, the video themes are so niché and in depth, always fun to talk about pokemon in a more concise way

[@emperorcubone]

Thank you! I thought this one might even be too narrow for me, but it turned out more interesting than I expected!

[@blakdeth]

A mineral is any non organic compound. The chemistry definition of organic is a bit complicated but all we need to know is that it involves the way carbon links to other elements, but since water molecules don't contain carbon, water isn't organic. Therefore water/ice is a mineral.

[@atgosh]

Clobbopus is in the Human-like group because it's similar in shape to Cacnea, which is in the Human-like group. Cacnea is in the Human-like group for a similar reason, it resembles Clobbopus which is in the Human-like group, so Cacnea got put in there too

[@zimonzieclown1633]

*Clobbopus.

[@atgosh]

@@zimonzieclown1633 Thanks, autocorrect has it out for me lately

[@aspiringwayfarer]

This is a super interesting topic, which is only made more complicated by the addition of egg moves. Prior to Generation 9’s mirror herb/picnic trick, breeding was the only way to get egg moves onto Pokémon, which could only be done with other Pokémon that know those moves and are in the same egg group. And when Gen 8 decided to begin having games cut some Pokémon out, they must have realized that they would either need to constantly change Pokémon’s egg groups to ensure that they could still get the egg moves that weren’t covered by level up or TM/TR, or merely simplify the egg move process. And I’m so glad they decided to go with the latter, as now we can get egg moves from any Pokémon that knows the move, not just ones that share an egg group.

[@wolfekupo5651]

I did a Ice only playthrough of Sword last month, I would like to point out not many Ice types get Freeze Dry naturally in Galar, the only ones that get it without breeding are Galarian Mr. Mime, Articuno, Glalie (not Froslass), Glaceon, Vanilluxe, Cryogonal, Kyurem, Amaura, Eiscue and the Ice type Galar fossils, none of which I used, so ya I would have loved the Mirror Herb from Gen 9 to get it on my Ninetales and Lapras I used Alolan Vulpix, Alolan Sandshrew (Digglets on Isle of Armor), Snover, Snorunt, Sneasel, Froslass, Frosmoth and Lapras (I swapped out my Abomasnow for it because it is the only Gigantamax Ice Type)

[@pageclayton6850]

And for a while you could only have 1 egg move, meaning both kabutops and armaldo were stuffed out of a niche in gen 3 cause they can't have both Knock Off and Rapid Spin

[@TomAmit42]

11:28 They've renamed egg groups multiple times in the past, so they're not afraid of that.

[@emperorcubone]

I suppose, although some of the "renaming" was like from Stadium 2 and that hardly counts...

[@unhappyninetales]

I love these videos fr, I've never cared about egg groups but I'll be watching this video happily

[@emperorcubone]

Honestly I never even thought about this topic until a week ago! But thanks for watching!

[@alexgrissom3513]

“The question nobody asked” you can say that again 😂 great idea for a video though

[@PlumEXE]

Do you make your videos in powerpoint? the transitions crack me up so much lol good video tho

[@nicholaslogan6840]

How can you say Cacnea isn't humanlike after standing up for Ralts? Does the Ralts like even have a mouth? It has a vaguely human shape but I think plants are more closely related to primates than psychic aliens with no mouths.

[@emperorcubone]

Well firstly, Ralts does have a mouth, but also at least Ralts has legs instead of little nubs like Cacnea where they're basically just slightly bigger spikes. At that point we might as well say Geodude is Human-like because it's got a head and arms too...

[@jaschabull2365]

I can see why sewaddle's line isn't in the grass breeding group, they only wear leaves, whereas paras and parasect have mushrooms actually growing on them, so it does make sense. Though the dwebble line being in the mineral group while they also seem to just inhabit minerals rather than actually be them is pretty strange. Same with applin, really.

[@emperorcubone]

Sure, but they're still Grass type, and the whole "wearing flowers" thing was the excuse for why the Florges line WEREN'T Grass types, so something's not being consistent here...

[@jaschabull2365]

@@emperorcubone At least leavanny kind of has a reason, unlike sawsbuck and gogoat, which are just as much animals with leaves growing out of them as snivy is, but somehow get excluded from the breeding group while snivy doesn't. As for florges, I never really thought of it that way. Maybe it doesn't count as grass type because its flowers only serve a cosmetic function rather than any sort of battle function (I guess leavanny's leaves still at least count as some sort of armour?) and presumably it has some sort of magic protection to balance out any weaknesses the leaves would give it? Though it seems likely the real reason florges isn't grass type is because it's the first catchable fairy type in Kalos, and the developers wanted it to demonstrate the fairy type's attributes. Guess they learned after hearing the umpteenth player insist that rock is immune to electric because you won't see one that isn't ground type in Kanto until you either resurrect a fossil or make it all the way to the league. Then again, that still could've been done making only flabébé and floette pure fairy and still giving florges the grass type... Beats me, man.

[@LuigiTheMetal64]

Any neutral Nature Metamon Egg Group holding the Everstone will make any breed get a neutral Nature match, possibly saving you time when the overworld Ability effects do not work.

[@thecrazyimp99]

I think Impidimps are cute!

[@emperorcubone]

Like I said, I won't argue with people that do, it's just not my taste.

[@douglasandrews8977]

4:02: Volbeat and Illumise can produce each other through breeding, though, so I say that they still count as a family with a monopoly on Bug/Human-Like. 4:18: Finizen/Palafin did not do that alone, though. Fidough/Dachsbun had the pair with Mineral, which only Cufant/Copperajah had before. Also, Bug, Amorphous, and Water 3 have never been paired with Field, so there are still three more chances for a unique Field pair. 5:34: Lairon is actually in Monster, not Mineral. 7:03: You got that one backwards. Hawlucha was actually exclusive to Human-Like before Generation VIII added it to Flying. 11:01: While Rotom is technically in Amorphous, it is of unknown gender and needs Ditto to breed. If any other errors slipped my mind, then I will point them out when I find them. By the way, have you seen DeadBedSpread's cross-breeding videos yet? He had the idea a few years ago to allow two Pokémon to cross-breed if and only if they share two Egg Groups, which I consider a good compromise, although I would never be disappointed if it never came to be. I also find it disappointing that Generation IX did not give us a new Egg Group pair, being the first such generation (note that Generation IV's Shellos/Gastrodon had a monopoly on Water 1/Amorphous before Generation V introduced Stunfisk, as did Skorupi/Drapion on Bug/Water 3 before Generation VII introduced Wimpod/Golisopod.) What would you do for all of the Egg Group pairs that do not exist yet?

[@matthewwasser5621]

I always bought the players guide and used the breeding section of it to know what egg groups pokemon where in. Also the poke dex gave the same info. I guess not everyone looked at those books.

[@VCV95]

Pokemon ZA having a regional Flygon that is Bug/dragon, plus unique mega evolutions, would be an amazing way to acknowledge and apologize to fans for... Well, many things, but specifically our wishes being ignored.

[@vanguardluard8334]

I find it strange that they added the gardivoir line to the human like egg group but still haven't removed nedoqueen from undiscovered

[@emperorcubone]

Right!? Like if ANY Pokemon needed to change groups it's that one for sure!!

[@vanguardluard8334]

@@emperorcubone I can understand it in gen 2 because it was a bug in the code but in gen 3 they could have fixed it

[@adamj.cuthbert7528]

To be fair, it was established in Japanese media before Gold and Silver came out that Nidorina lost the ability to lay eggs after it was evolved from Nidoran-F. It is a bit strange that the pre-evolved form can breed with Nidoking, but Nidoqueen can't.

[@tomforge614]

​@@adamj.cuthbert7528I mean, while I'm familiar with that book as well, but it feels like it contradicts the established dex entries thar only have Nidoqueen described as a mother.

[@Quackabilly]

​@@tomforge614 Yeah, the only other way that makes sense is it evolved to protect its eggs, but...why can Nidoking breed but not Nidoqueen?!?!

[@LuigiTheMetal64]

Cross-breeding Egg Groups with the level moves that are also TM moves is how I got Airmed with Swallow Return from Oosubame. I have been able to get Sānaito with Shadow Ball and Thief.

[@KrakenSlayer47]

Could be wrong, but I think the reason Wailmer and Palafin are in the Field egg group is because Cetaceans are descended from Ungulates, and there are a lot of Pokemon based on Ungulates in that egg group.

[@douglasandrews8977]

I think that the reason is simply that they are mammals, and most mammals that have nowhere else to go go there, although there are many non-mammalian Pokémon in that Group as well.

[@MontyMoleLoreMaster]

I guess the reason why Flygon was rejected so much was because of its war crimes that it commits (though Vibrava is easily the most vicious of the line).

[@VCV95]

Also Trevenant fans!!! Play Pokemon GO! Trevenant with a certain kind of stat spread is still one of the best great league pokemon around. Hilariously Ledian can be decent in great leaague, by almost maxing out its levels. Stunfisk and Toxapex are fairly viable too, and Regigigas finally found his home. Pokemon GO is weird, and a great place for some underutilized pokemon to shine.

[@TheRedSmarty]

11:00 Rotom is gender unknown so Dragapult actually can't.

[@TheRegionalVariantMaster]

Honestly they should make egg groups visible to the player especially since they streamlined everything else for breeding

[@user-gc3qj7md8c]

I love your videos so much!

[@emperorcubone]

Why thank you! I'm glad you enjoy. :)

[@camillalapolentona84480]

this video is super interesting

[@emperorcubone]

Thanks! Now we just need to let everyone else know!

[@SonicMeters]

I don’t really breed Pokémon together but I always thought it was strange that manphany can breed with ditto spite it being a legendary

[@emperorcubone]

Well it's either with Ditto, or another Manaphy but it's a LOT easier to find the little pink blob...

[@rockowlgamer631]

Interesting for egg groups, I'm sure more would be interested in this if it wasn't for.....................ditto lol.

[@Yousef77077]

Breeding was one of those things that were always a headache to figure out in Pokémon. I was massively disappointed with how gimped the move inheritance mechanic was and I’m not sure if underpowering it had any real purpose. All it did was make me engage with one less mechanic which I prefer not to since I try to explore every avenue in a series I like.

[@typemasters2871]

It would be interesting if we got a Pokemon with the move Sketch that is in the ditto egg group

[@RoninCatholic]

I can see Gallade in the Human-Like/Human-Shaped Egg Group, but Gardevoir? Come on man, it's not shaped like a human.

[@emperorcubone]

...and Clobbopus is? At least Gardevoir has two human arms and legs.

[@Dawg347]

In breeding, the egg will always turn out to be the species of the female Pokémon, unless bred with ditto. Instead, the result would be the non-ditto Pokémon, regardless of gender. If ditto is a failed clone of mew, there must’ve been a point in time where it didn’t exist. During that time, how did male only and genderless Pokémon reproduce? *I just had to get this out of my system*

[@emperorcubone]

Well like with Nidoran if you breed them it can result in either a male or female egg (as with any other kind of Pokemon) with this one simply resulting in different species. Same with Miltank/Tauros.

[@Dawg347]

@@emperorcubone I suppose, however genderless Pokémon can’t breed at all, unless it’s with ditto.

[@Dawg347]

@@emperorcubone plus, most male only Pokémon have no female counterpart, such a the hitmon line ,sawk and throh.

[@typemasters2871]

One thing I like seeing with egg groups is seeing pokemon with unique designs based of what Pokemon they breed with I.E. Different Riolu designs based off what the father species is, Lopunny father gives cotton ball looking tail, Furret father gives thicker stripped tail, Father mother gives zagged fur patterns

[@wildstarfish3786]

none of those would lay riolu eggs though

[@typemasters2871]

@@wildstarfish3786 thank you for letting me know of my mistake, I have fixed the comment by changing all instances of “mother” with “father”

[@douglasandrews8977]

@@typemasters2871 In doing so, you said "father mother" the third time.

[@typemasters2871]

@@douglasandrews8977 I don’t see where that is in my comment or how to fix the comment What I was trying to say is that I like seeing designs that people create based off the idea of two Pokemon breed together to make one without the Pokemon being a hybrid, an example being a Riolu with Cotten ball tail, bunny shaped ears, and slightly altered fur pattern to show what a Riolu might look like if a Lucario and Lopunny breed to create a Riolu

[@jerivingarcia4800]

Let us appreciate that even if the mushroom now controls parasect, they never gave it the GHOST/GRASS typing or make it amorphous in the end 😅

[@Wailerman]

honestly, this is such a stupid idea, please do more along this line (note, k do not mean to come off as offensive, i really love your content, this is just so random an idea)

[@jaidamwhi4589]

Back in gens two and three I knew absolutely nothing about egg groups but somehow every pair of Pokemon I put in there were compatible 😅

[@MeowsticKalos]

When I was younger, I loved the bug type and I got a Pokémon card of flygon and it said it was a bug type which is why I really like flygon but playing the game with it really let me down tbh

[@shadowmarauder6033]

For many of these that don’t make sense, it feels like the evolution or prevo does. Probably a trade off for the egg groups concept as a whole.

[@emperorcubone]

This is true; except for ones that don't at all, but it would probably make it way too hard if different stages were across varying Egg Groups. Although Shedinja is just in Mineral while the other two are in Bug, so it has been done before!

[@ofanichan]

Originally, and by that i mean gen 4 and before. The water 2 group was for salt water pokemon while the water 1 group was for fresh water. Im kinda surprised seeing the little pike pokemon mentioned here dince pike is a fresh water fish.. but you can find it in the sea in gen 9. So maybe it's still true? Water 3 is still a mystery to me

[@douglasandrews8977]

Water 2 is supposed to be for fish and Water 3 for invertebrates. I think that Water 1 is just a catch-all group for aquatic Pokémon, although a handful of them would fit one of the other two better. Chalk it up to GAME FREAK forgetting its own logic.

[@641mamaluigi]

I kinda want mew to be in the ditto egg group because well you know, ditto is a failed mewtwo clone (Also Rotom and drakloak can’t breed, Rotom is genderless thin can only breed with ditto) shedinja is a weird case where it’s egg groups are different than it’s base form, but it is also genderless, so when bred with ditto it can have male & female offspring

[@davwigglesworth]

I still wish Parasect was Bug/Ghost I also wonder what Egg Group combinations remain unused

[@Illumisepoolist]

Still waiting for an Amorphous and Human Shaped pokemon.

[@emperorcubone]

Well that's what Ralts is now!

[@soyalexpop]

I think types are secondary for egg groups but have to do more with animal grouping but ✨Pokémon✨ that’s why Paras is an anomaly. Might be wrong tho

[@joopvanhedel1372]

A question that no one asks for is putting it mildly. The only time you don't use ditto is for egg moves and that is useless if you use legendries

[@emperorcubone]

Hah, yeah... Maybe too niche for my own good, but I was curious!

[@joopvanhedel1372]

@@emperorcubone It wasn't meant in anger. It's just a bit of a useless mechanic. It's actually quite funny that a Skitty can have children with a Wailord. Or a gardevoir with muk

[@FroststormFrenzy]

@@joopvanhedel1372 Funny thing is, Egg Moves aren't a problem anymore, because you can transfer egg moves to a Pokemon without having to breed another one via Mirror Herb. So, use Ditto.

[@pyrosolrac2127]

Why do so many people mispronounce Archen and Archeops?

[@helixsol7171]

I wanna know why the Fuecoco line is exclusively in the Field egg group, when it feels like they should be in at least either the Monster or Dragon groups.

[@emperorcubone]

That's a good point; I didn't even realize it was solely in Field...

[@helixsol7171]

@@emperorcubone I didn't either until I looked it up the other day

[@douglasandrews8977]

@@emperorcubone It is very unusual indeed, especially considered that Generation IX did not contribute to the Monster Egg Group at all. (Initially it also snubbed Amorphous, but the Teal Mask gave us Poltchageist's evolution. Sure, they need Ditto to breed, but then I would need to strike Mineral from Generation VII because Minior and Dhelmise are in the same boat. Generation VII also did nothing for Human-Like; I think that Stufful, Bewear, Oranguru, and Passimian, all of which are exclusive to Field, deserved a spot there. Somehow Chimchar's evolution are the only primates in Human-Like that are not directly based on humans.)

[@CalebBlack92]

Technically there’s two egg groups Ditto can’t breed with. The undiscovered & the Ditto egg group. It can’t breed with so many different Pokémon except it’s own group made up of only itself.

[@emperorcubone]

Which does beg the question; how do we keep getting more Ditto? Do they keep failing to clone Mew in almost every region?

[@CalebBlack92]

@@emperorcubone all of its eggs are secretly Dittos, obviously. Seriously though, I could see them reproduce like cells & splitting in half. Maybe they lose that ability when caught & can only breed with other Pokémon at that point.

[@CalebBlack92]

Most pokémon can breed. Maybe it can breed & the trainers who catch it trying to force it produce a different Pokémon than itself is the problem.

[@Erudaft]

What was the game at 0:50 great video btw !

[@Palpi301]

Looks like Uranium to me

[@emperorcubone]

Yeah I think it was the fan-game, Uranium. Same with that chart at the very end.

[@vaalalves]

Non-sense, Ogrepon IS breedable

[@edgargaebolg9307]

Buddy wants to bang a citrus bush

[@JoseF420]

🤨

[@nettlesandsnakes9138]

I think Less use the incense.

[@pablesm]

Why is there no mineral/humanlike pokemon?

[@emperorcubone]

I don't know; Garganacl wouldve worked pretty well!

[@pablesm]

​​​@@emperorcubone But nacli wouldn't work, because it is just a ball. Golurk would've been better.

[@thefirespecialist9007]

Interesting... sounds not working for me.

[@emperorcubone]

That's odd. Maybe try refreshing...

[@pokemonviolet5418]

Water 1 is for semi-aquatic tetrapods so why the heck is Feebas there?

[@jaschabull2365]

There are other fish in the water 1 breeding group like remoraid and alomomola. At least milotic can be interpreted as resembling a serpent, which is technically a tetrapod.

[@douglasandrews8977]

@@jaschabull2365 Both of those (Remoraid and Alomomola) are also in Water 2, though. Personally, I think that Water 3 would fit Remoraid and Octillery better because the latter is an octopus, and thus I say the same for Clobbopus and Grapploct. To be honest, there are a LOT of Water 1 Pokémon that would fit Water 2 or Water 3 better.

[@jaschabull2365]

@@douglasandrews8977 Yeah, it is a bit odd that most of the cephalopods aren't in the shellfish group (Water 3). I guess at least in octillery's case, it'd be weird for remoraid to be able to breed with a bunch of invertebrates... Though it still can breed with the likes of kabutops as-is... And that raises the question as to why it's too weird for a fish to be able to breed with a jellyfish, but just fine for a turtle and dinosaur to. And I can't even guess why inkay and clobbopus were left out of that group.

[@douglasandrews8977]

@@jaschabull2365 Well, is it not just as weird that Octillery can breed with fish?

[@jaschabull2365]

@@douglasandrews8977 No weirder than octillery evolving from one, I suppose.

[@zacharyheidt5682]

Hi

[@emperorcubone]

Hello there!

[@tuxedobird]

I think every Pokémon should need a specific incense to breed and they should be tucked in random obscure corners of the game, fan-favourites being put in post-game

[@emperorcubone]

Hmm, that would actually explain why they didn't breed at all in Gen 1, so that might be cool! Gives it some more effort than just finding the Daycare...

[@darkwolfz8272]

To this day I still don't understand how Nidoqueen is in the undiscovered egg group

[@emperorcubone]

Yeah; I mean if it were a glitch that'd be one thing, but they've had Decades to fix it!

[@darkwolfz8272]

@@emperorcubone word

[@jaschabull2365]

Lockstin & Gnoggin's best guess is that it's just about impossible to get a rhinoceros pregnant in captivity. I guess that doesn't apply to rhydon, as it isn't female specific?

[@douglasandrews8977]

@@emperorcubone "Pocket Monsters Encyclopedia," a book released only in Japan in 1996, stated, even before breeding existed, that the female Nidoran cannot breed after evolving. It was never a mistake.

[@chiefgitsu]

they need to introduce new pokemon that can only be obtained by breeding two other pokemon

[@emperorcubone]

Well it's called Phione, and it's kind of terrible...

[@chiefgitsu]

@@emperorcubone not mythicals and not with ditto.

[@pablesm]

It should be a mule Pokemon that can be made by breeding a horse and donkey pokemon.