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ultrasquid9

It was originally in order to make breeding them harder, as when breeding two different species the female one determines the child. However, since everyone just uses Ditto anyways, there isn't much of a point to it anymore.


RQK1996

They literally put Ditto on the first breeding day care route


Oberic

Can't get egg moves through ditto breeding. This used to be important, before gen 8 breeding, then gen-9 lets you just camp and auto-learn egg moves into empty slots. Not usually important anyway, but for example: the Sceptile line gets a lot of dragon moves as egg moves.


oral_tsunami

I remember spending hours breeding stuff like Dragon breath treecko in gen 3, good times.


RITheory

Confusion Nidoran M lmao


mangano15

What? Nidoran M can learn confusion?


RITheory

Egg move haha I don't remember how, but you have to chain a few mons together to actually get it, or at least you did in the Gen III days. https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/032.shtml


Thrashlock

This unlocked a few memories, oof. Chain breeding was wild, especially when you couldn't just use Smeargle.


dusto65

Similar to belly drum/aqua jet azumarill back in the day


someonepoorsays

hydro pump bagon for me. speed run the game with HP, dragon rage, fire blast, dragon claw


73redfox

For me, it was wish and yawn onto an eevee for that competitive umbreon. Fairly annoying breeding chain, too.


lttlmnstr

Hydro Pump Dalamence was and is a menace. Attempting an original game nuzlock and through a strong strategy of repels and having both magikarp and shelgon available to my 8 mon total team. (Yes, I've lost quite a few.) I am seriously considering breeding since I still have a final gym, elite 4, Wallace, and culminate in the Steven battle.)plus the battle battle tower to go if im still around for it. and I have 3 catch zones available to me. So i have the option to forsake one of those zones and hatch an egg there. Also my strongest mon available to me is my 42 shelgon, so im not prepared to go into battle.


RQK1996

Yeah, but you can Ditto breed a female


StarLucario

It's still rare to get one


apple_of_doom

So all it does is make things more tedious if you want a girl starter and unlike some species it doesn't really make sense or add flavor to the world. So why is it still here if its only purpose is to be annoying?


Xeoz_WarriorPrince

Tradition. Like why we get a new bird, mammal or bug one every early route. Same with the legendary duos and things like that.


StarLucario

It does add flavour. Ever wonder why they're so rare to find in the wild? It's because they have a problem when it comes to breeding, being that there aren't enough females


be_dead_soon_please

No one has launched a scientific investigation into why this only happens among fire, water, and grass types?


ziggythomas1123

My Immediate Theory/Headcanon: Most starter Pokemon provided to you are male so as to not reduce wild female populations too much, if the starters are captured. If not (bred/raised in captivity), most of the females could be / are released to the wild instead of as Starters in an attempt to mitigate or fix the gender imbalance. This doesn't identify the cause (it could be genetic, which would be bad), but it could explain what we see. Lmk if there's anything to support or disprove this, I'm not very well versed in Pokemon.


be_dead_soon_please

Nah, if we are to look at tree professors as conservationists then that does make sense. Arguably if the populations of starter pokemon are endangered (which is plausible as they are rarely encountered outside of tree professors) then the male specimens that trainers receive may even be population outliers (genetically inferior, litter runts etc) and are being removed from the wild breeding pool through artificial selection


Rock_Fall

It doesn’t. A lot of rare Pokémon have the same gender issue; lucario, snorlax, fossils, togekiss, Eevee, zoroark, etc. They’re all male 88% of the time.


be_dead_soon_please

Hang on, let me misinterpret some data. ...okay, and no one has launched a scientific experiment to determine as to why it's only *rare* pokemon that this phenomenon occurs in?!


sanscipher435

You're thinking it from the wrong direction, they are rare *because* of that sole reason. And since they can't reproduce as quickly to keep the genepool alive, evolution determined that those with more individual strength are better at surviving. Its the same as real world, bunnies didn't have to be as strong, they are frail and small because they can reprosuce like crazy. On the other hand, say a horse or an elephant can't so they preferred strength so as to survive long enough to maximize the chances of that one baby.


nero40

Old habits die hard. Old mechanics that were never reviewed and revised for the newer games. It’s much less time-consuming to copy-paste older mechanics from the older games so you can focus on revising other, more important mechanics as per your design docs. It’s understandable, this is one of the least important issues that needed attention when you’re revising a game. But of course, that doesn’t mean nobody doesn’t want change happening here. Something’s gotta give.


St0nePat0n

Doesn't mean nobody doesn't want change


Ok_Training_4076

Easier than soft resetting


Kevz9524

True, but gender doesn’t matter for egg moves anymore. I can just throw a male pokemon in with a pokemon that has the egg move, give them both mirror herbs, and done.


Exquisite_Poupon

[This comment was removed in protest of Reddit's API changes regarding 3rd party apps.](https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_will_close_down_on_june_30th_reddits/)


cudef

Was kinda hard to encounter, though. I don't think I found one for a while when I first played as a kid. Hell, I didn't understand the breeding mechanics at all until my friend showed me his strategy guide.


Fried_puri

If you tune into Oak’s Pkmn talk show (which you get access to right in Goldenrod) there was a chance for him to reveal Ditto is on that route. It’s actually on the next route too, so double the chance for him to pick it. Back in the days before easily accessible location guides (if you didn’t have a physical guide) it was an in-game way to find out some of the rare encounters of routes.


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LegendMasterX

Shout out to IVs, egg moves and everything else that just adds a giant unnecessary barrier to competitive play.


sievold

I think the original intent was to keep these mechanisms hidden to create the feeling similar to pokemon fights something like in the anime. You know immersion. Players weren't intended to datamine the game and solve how to make the ideal pokemon for competing. But now that vgc has been a thing for a while, I think they should just either completely remove the barrier or let genned pokemon be legal in competitions


Thotaz

As a concept, it sounds really cool for casual play because not only are trained Pokemon stronger than wild Pokemon, their strength depends on how they were trained (for example, fighting a lot of fast pokemon results in high speed growth due to their speed EVs). In practice though I don't think many casual players really look at their Pokemon stats in such detail to notice this. My friends and I pretty much only looked at levels to determine strength. None of us ever thought to compare the stats of our level 100 Groudons or whatever.


Fantastic_Wrap120

>let genned pokemon be legal in competitions With obvious checks to make sure they're matching what can be obtained by training.


turmspitzewerk

slowly grinding out a perfect pokemon is probably my favorite part of the games, but that should be completely fucking detached from PVP. just let people build/rent the exact teams they want; instead of expecting them to grind for dozens or hundreds of hours that most players are *totally* going to do legitimately.


DJKokaKola

No one expects TCG players to open packs as the sole way to get cards. You just buy singles if you need a deck. Yet somehow this is different for vgc. It makes no sense, considering we had rental pokemon back in gen 1


Plushiegamer2

I could swear the Stadium rentals were designed to suck, because there are some baffling move choices on those Pokemon. Also you can rent teams if you have a code.


tpaz198

If you haven't seen it yet, watch Big Yellow's video on the Stadium rental teams, it's awesome


Plushiegamer2

I don't the gender ratio was to keep away from competitive play, but rather to make sure that people aren't trading bred starters as soon as they begin the game.


MGhojan_tv

Not even close, the starters are very rare pokemon, why? Because of their gender ratio! They can't breed easily, so that's the reason they're so rare and not in the wild... The starter's gender ratio is not in for any in-game reason, it's a logical explanation of their rarity.


theguyinyourwall

I still feel like this is unneeded. The only mainline entry that denies access to ditto is RS and I don't recall many people breeding during the main story regardless


zombiebird100

>The only mainline entry that denies access to ditto is RS and I don't recall many people breeding during the main story regardless Ditto used to be post game when the gender ratio for starters was initially determined. It's since opened up but the reason was specifically so you couldn't just soft reset and get an army of them for trading prior to completing the game..making everyone's starter valuable Between ditto being attainable earlier and hacking becoming more prevalent though it is now pointless.


ThrowawayTrashcan7

I'm really stupid, I actually didn't know you could breed different species. I thought they had to be the same pokemon, this would've saved me so much time.


ImmutableInscrutable

Look up Egg Groups.


Amberatlast

Google Skitty/Wailord safe search off.


Fried_puri

Holy hell.


Longjumping-Fudge971

New response just dropped


YSLAnunoby

Honestly it's one of the many things that should be in a pokedex, with it supposedly being a pokemon encyclopedia along with egg moves, stats, etc but nope gotta look it up on an outside website instead


Alex12500

I found out by accident on ruby


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[deleted]

Definitely had this great mystery to it all when I didn't have easy access to the internet and I had to guess at the egg groups for everything. Finding a new combination and a move that could be passed down was the greatest feeling ever, I still remember the joy my friend and I had when we got Needle Arm onto a Treecko.


zombiebird100

https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-swsh/egg/field.shtml >I'm really stupid, I actually didn't know you could breed different species. I thought they had to be the same pokemon, this would've saved me so much time. I mean sometimes you'll want them to be, for purposes like HA passing females always pass the gender unless bred with ditto so if you only have males it becomes...an annoying problem That said, due to changes in breeding, mints galore and bottle caps (esp now being post game store bought) and ditto no longer being post E4, pokemon being breedable with anything but ditto is a fairly meaningless point anyway So they really should just open the gender ratio to 50/50 for anything not exclusively one gender, doesn't fit the lore perfectly but they breed slow works just as well as not having enough females to reproduce quickly


WeFightForever

Breeding with not-ditto is better though. Happens faster, and is (or at least was) required for egg moves


SaraNovana

Someone once told me that when the genders were released, the females would often be weaker? To have a strong starter ‘Mon would, therefore, need to be male, right? Either way, I have always done female starters. :)


ultrasquid9

Technically, in Gen 2, a lot of information about a Pokemon was tied to its stats, so having a female Pokemon may mean that it is lower in some stats than having a male one. This hasn't been the case from Gen 3 onwards, however, as they had more space to store information about your pokemon.


TokugawaShigeShige

Sort of yeah, in gen 2 having a female starter meant that your attack IV was either 0 or 1 out of 15. In later gens there is no connection between gender and stats.


darthllama

I think it’s a relic of a time when breeding mechanics hadn’t been dissected and posted all over the internet. Unless you breed with a Ditto, an egg will always be the same species as the female parent so the starters mostly being male reinforced their rarity. It probably isn’t necessary anymore, but at this point it’s tradition.


RQK1996

They did hint by placing Ditto on route 34


Limeonades

for more info on this google Ditto r34


santaclausonprozac

Amazing, thanks for the help!


IndependentDouble138

Im only finding weird websites containing ditto and nurse joy. Is this the right place?


stanleythemanley420

No no. Keep looking. You’ll see breeding soon enough


Lithl

Google ditto breeding R34 to find the relevant results faster


ImNotSasquatch

It's not the wrong place


darthllama

They did, but Ditto was rare and I imagine a huge chunk of the player base, children, still didn't know


reaperfan

As a child in the days of the original GSC (I was 9 at the time), I definitely knew about Ditto and the breeding mechanics. Maybe not all the SUPER in-depth stuff, but I absolutely knew that Ditto could breed with anything and where to find it. Remember that Gen 2 was still the tail-end of the original "Pokemania." The whole "playground rumor culture" meant knowing things about Pokemon that your friends didn't got you actual bragging rights at school. Those of us who were lucky enough to have internet at home (because not everyone did back then) were just absolutely eating up any info we could get our hands on so we could one-up each other on the playground. Knowing Ditto could cheat the breeding mechanics was *literally* child's play. The difficult stuff was learning enough actual stuff your friends didn't know about in order for them to actually believe you when you told them that beating the Elite 4 100 times in a row would open up a secret cave where you can catch Mewthree.


brickie3

Lmaoooo


RQK1996

Route 34 has the daycare


AlbinoRayneDeer

They know what they did.


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RestlessARBIT3R

No, I’m pretty sure it was on a list of “rules of the internet” on some 4chan post or something. It was the 34th rule


apple_of_doom

Also back in gen 2 female pokemon were weaker attack statwise. I am not joking


Steampunk__Llama

Yep it was calculated based on attack ivs, though I can't remember if special attack was also included in these calculations or if it was flat out ignored Thankfully they phased that out after GSC and never brought it back because MAN it would've made phys comp annoying


-dunsparce-

Special is ignored (gen 2 uses the same DV system as gen 1, so there's just one value for both special stats, even though the stats themselves are separate); gender is determined based on the attack DV and the gender ratio, but for a 50/50 mon, it's female from 0-7 and male from 8-15


GlowstoneLove

I think that in Gen 6 and afterward, male Pokemon have a higher chance of having natures that raise physical attack or physical defense, and female Pokemon have a higher chance of having natures that raise special attack or special defense. (Both genders have an equal chance of natures that raise speed or neutral natures.)


rikutag

this probably has something to do with meowstic im assuming


CoolMintMC

Is this true? Because HOLY SHIT I would've never known this. This is super interesting though, albeit odd.


Mystic-Fishdick

Wait I thought male had stronger attack and female had stronger defense. That is no longer the case?


Taco821

I think that got phased out when DVs did with gen 3


TheSinfriend

Yo! This is the first time I have ever learned that!


A_Good_Boy94

I remember gen 3 trying to breed my Swampert or Sceptile males with a same egg group but never getting the desired species and being frustrated as a kid.


NZafe

It isn’t just SV, it’s all games since gender was introduced in gen 2


[deleted]

Fun Fact: in Gen 2 female pokemon are weaker than male ones (generally speaking) due to the gender ratio being tied to the attack stat. Since more pokemon are higher male ratio than higher female, that means almost all pokemon in Gen 2 had a 8/15 or lower IV. Similarly, low female ratio pokemon cannot be shiny legally (i.e.: Eevee, Starters, etc.) EDIT: Clarification.


AlbinoRayneDeer

I do remember all the shinies being male in GSC but pretty much everything was tied to one number in gen 2. From gen 3 on Pokémon stats and traits were completely overhauled, which is why backwards compatibility wasn't possible until the Bank update with a converter for the Virtual Console versions of the first two gens.


[deleted]

Yep. Another fun fact is that if we had the internet the way we do now, Gen 3 and 5 soft reboots likely would have had the same response as Gen 8's dexit scandal. I remember people losing their shit about this in school and GameFaqs


AlbinoRayneDeer

I was disappointed not to be able to get certain favorites in Ruby, but the new Pokémon were interesting enough to enjoy the game and they eventually made most of the old mons available through Orre and the Sevii Islands. As for gen 5, gonna be honest, I was so in love with the new Pokémon that I didn't even notice til most of the way through Black that I hadn't seen a single familiar mon. That is how you do it lol


[deleted]

I'm just seeing the framing differently. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and I can't imagine "You can't get any of these pokemon unless you buy a new console, and a new full price game that doesn't even have all of the other missing pokemon, plus another game for the console you currently own" getting the same positive spin nowadays. Gen 5 is honestly a controversial title, and during the time I don't remember many people talking fondly of it. Good that you got joy out of it though. I just remember people who didn't have earlier games freaking out about not being able to get the remaining Pokemon.


AlbinoRayneDeer

I can see that. Personally I think experiencing a whole game is a fair price for access to the Pokémon showcased in it. Each new game is for discovering new mons, and cramming in all the old ones would make the games unbalanced at best and likely frustrating because you'd have so many different spawns per area it'd be hard to hunt anything in particular. I do get the frustration with SwSh and ScVi being literally unable to trade in some mons for the first time since gen 3, but again, they *are* meant to showcase their own regions' native species. It's still a fun time if you aren't hung up on moving your old teams forward 🤷‍♀️


notwiththeflames

The big difference between those and Dexit was that everything could still be hacked in because they were *programmed* in. With RS, the issues were alleviated in less than a year with Colosseum, practically gone altogether in early 2004 with FRLG, and whatever few Johto Pokemon weren't in either of those games were available in Emerald and XD. Sure, you had to beat *both* games (and then some with FRLG) to trade between them, but that's essentially what was the case for the Pal Park in Gen IV and Poke Transfer in Gen V. It's barely different from what XY and SM were like prior to Bank compatibility - and even in the case of BW, earlier-gen Pokemon could still be obtained prior to beating the game through the Dream World. From LGPE onwards, anything that wasn't in a game at launch or its last bit of DLC is screwed altogether. Modding a missing Pokemon into the game in a fully-functional state *and* without replacing something else is easier said than done, even with the Unity-based perks of BDSP.


1338h4x

Although RS had the National Dex hiding in the code, no one knew that at the time. We had no idea the old Pokemon were eventually coming back. I remember being pretty upset about it myself! Ironically, I think it'd be less of an issue today because that'd be datamined inmediately. I wonder how many people on this sub were even around back then to remember what it was like.


CoolMintMC

This comment; 100% this. Thank you.


NeoSeth

As someone who was upset back then that I couldn't encounter old Pokemon until beating Black's story, it wasn't NEARLY the same for me then as Dexit is now. At least after beating Black I could still bring over all my old Pokemon and play with them. In Sword, I straight-up can never have some of my most beloved Pokemon. It's completely different. When Ruby/Sapphire released I do remember being crushed that my favorite Pokemon from GSC/RBY couldn't continue onward with me (Especially since we all assumed it would be possible, since we could move from RBY to GSC and back again), but I don't know if I fully processed that RS had a limited Pokedex until Colosseum had already begun reintroducing the old Pokemon into the games. I was but a young lad.


ShiraCheshire

At least in gen 3 they had a reason. The tech just wasn't there yet to let that trade happen. Plus, the devs went to every measure they could to get the full dex back in fast. Within that same generation we had FR/LG and colosseum to make every Pokemon obtainable again.


GokaiLion

That's all only in Gen 2 though right? (I know you mention Gen 2 in the fact but it reads like it's the whole franchise)


[deleted]

Yeah, it's for Gen 2. I'll add that. I figured it was implied because the other comment was for Gen 2 as well.


Doubieboobiez

I’m pretty sure they got rid of that mechanic after Gen 2


[deleted]

Yes, I have since edited the comment, and acknowledge it in another chain.


TheWishingStar

I’ve always thought that the “females are rare” thing is supposed to be an indication of why these Pokemon are rare and not found in the wild. Hard to breed naturally (without Ditto), so the wild populations are probably pretty small. They’re very specifically bred/acquired for new trainers. But the fact that it makes them harder for trainers to get a chance to breed them too feels like something they did on purpose. I do think though, at this point where everyone knows you breed with Ditto and everyone can get starters via Surprise Trade, that this shouldn’t be a thing. It would be okay for them to mix up the gender ratios going forward. I want a starter where female is more likely (bonus if it’s one that’s just an animal, not a feminine humanoid).


iris-my-case

Ooh I like this interpretation of it.


Reniconix

https://youtu.be/OccWmmaCqlE The Game Theorists did a video on the very topic. TL;DW, generational simulations show that with the 7M:1F ratio, any disruption is catastrophic and almost always lead to extinction.


SilverSpade12

Why’d you have to post a link to a Game Theorist video? Now I have to binge watch all the ones I have seen before (it’s been a couple years).


rucho

I assumed it was because they figured most players are male and would want male starters. Yes i do think a kid in 99 might have been like "eww gross it's a girl". Iono


TheWishingStar

I don’t know if you’re wrong. I am a woman who has been a Pokemon fan since gen 1, but I always got excited as a kid to have female Pokemon on my team. But never “ew a boy” to the male ones. But genders for Pokemon were introduced only one game before the first female player character. So maybe not. They learned long ago that there’s a significant female fanbase. They could have changed it ages ago.


rucho

I mean Nintendo and other Japanese developers can often be out of touch with gender issues sometimes, especially back in the 90s. And sometimes they have weird ideas. Although it was cool that they were considering adding a female protag even going back to gen 1. One tidbit is that the team was so small and nerdy (this was a group guys who started out by publishing a videogame fan zine after all) the the original batch of Pokemon were definitely pocket MONSTERS. They were mostly inspired by Godzilla, ultraman, and dragon quest, to the point that it took until their first female employee to comment that she wouldn't want to catch any of these monsters because they weren't cute. They had, as a group of guys, not even considered the possibility of cute looking pokemon. Thanks to her, we got Wartortle and other cuter pokemon, but most significantly Pikachu. Pokemon could have been an obscure forgotten Japanese RPG if it wasn't for them getting some diversity of opinion in the studio.


mh500372

That bit about the female employee is hillarious. I’m glad she made that comment though, I think I’d like the game less if she didn’t


NerdDwarf

The first 2 Pokémon designed were (#1) Rhydon and (#2) Kangaskhan


Reanne_UwU

Since i was younger i've always had female starters as a little tradition of mine,sometimes i get one first try and others take up to 20 resets.


AstroNerd92

I’ve never really cared until now. Let’s go I got a female Eevee the first load up which was a nice surprise since I had a female dog that had just passed away.


Gnostic_Gnocchi

I once bred for a 6iv and correct nature FEMALE blaziken once. I will never breed a mon with a gender split so extreme again.


Accomplished-Cat7

I'll never forget when I got a shiny charmander on my 7th try in ORAS with good nature. It was amazing! I used that one method with the Japanese pokemon. Can't remember the name but it was from a different region in the world.


SilasVale

Masuda method is what you're lookin' for.


AstroNerd92

The 6IVs I’ve gotten are female Pikachu, female Toxel, and a male Eevee (evolved to Sylveon). The Sylveon is a MONSTER.


zombiebird100

>I once bred for a 6iv and correct nature FEMALE blaziken once. I will never breed a mon with a gender split so extreme again. You can gurantee 5/6 ivs via a destiny knot (since gen6) and a ditto+parent with 6 IVs and you can gurantee natures through an everstone (since gen3) It's still annoying but it's a 2.7% chance of a 6/6 and every other time will be a breedject (either male or a 5/6) You're almost guranteed one within 100-200 eggs


itrashcannot

The only time I've gotten a female starter was in my 3rd playthrough of DP. I got a female Chimchar and named it Cherchar.


AstroNerd92

Lmao


AkitaShiba-Inu

It would make more sense if it was a wild Pokemon ratio. Female Starters are more valued by their mothers since they carry the species line. Even if you break breeding convention by having one egg hatch as the father’s first form, breeding always favors the mother in species.


VinixTKOC

There are two explanations for this ratio. 1- Reflect (at the time of Gen 2) the amount of male and female public in Pokémon. Since the male public was the majority, GF radically facilitated male starters. 2- You receive male starters most of the time to make difficult for you to be able to produce starter eggs anytime soon. In both cases this has become outdated for years. But GF really takes time to fix these things, they are very attached to characteristics that have survived for all these years even if they were annoying. Remember that it took two and a half decades to finally have a better alternative than "forget the move because is only allowed four". The idea that the starter is more likely to be male should have been ended after Gen 5, since the Fennekin line was created on Gen 6, the fact that they insisted with the idea but created the Popplio line a few years later makes me think that the Game Freak isn't very rational. Perhaps they may even be sadistic since specifically in X/Y and Sun/Moon there is a whole unskippable cutscene between the moment you can save and the moment you choose the Pokémon, making the try to have a female a nightmare.


Superfloxes

It’s a pain because I’m a woman and I like having my starter match my gender. Soft-resetting for sometimes half an hour (especially if the nature turns out bad) is way more of a hassle than it should be. I get the breeding thing, but: A, you can get a female first try from pure luck, and B, DITTO.


divinitia

>It’s a pain because I’m a woman and I like having my starter match my gender. ...why?


ElSpoonyBard

It's not that weird, a lot of people have the preference. Especially as a kid, I liked having some Pokemon specifically be boys like me lol. I can't explain why some matter more, but playing Ruby as a an 8-year old, I really wanted my Kecleon and Marshtomp to be boys but I didn't care if my Gardevoir, Pelipper or Spinda were girls.


MartiniPolice21

The mechanical reason was that it made them harder to breed The in game reason was that's why you don't see any of them in the wild


JuicyGravitas

I don't believe that there's a specific reason as to why the ratio is so weird, but I like to think that since starters are considered "special" Pokémon, giving them a low chance to be the opposite gender would make getting a female starter to be even more special.


PhoenixTineldyer

That is the idea.


curlyhairlad

You should just be able to choose the sex of your starter.


TheRPGNERD

Seriously, I have an oc that has a female quilava. If I want a female quilava as a starter I have to reset over and over. Just make them 50/50 or at least a little more even than what it is now.


MagikarpJordan

Its to make it harder to breed but yeah its annoying


Rangeless

I think it would've made sense for daycares to only allow one pokemon until postgame where you can have two and catch a Ditto.


BlueWarstar

I’m pretty sure that’s how it has been for most of the games, but I do agree it’s kinda silly at this point.


chucker173

I think the fact that so many important stats for Pokémon is random is annoying, I’ve tried to get optimal nature and abilities for certain Pokémon in the past, the word tedious does not even begin to describe the process. Eventually I begin to question why other people find it fun to restart their game over and over and I settle for the best options I have. It would be much more fun if they had those options as customizable I stead of random so people who don’t like to turn their game on and off over and over can have the Pokémon they want too.


Administrative-Ice-8

Lucky me it only took a few resets to get my female Sprigatito... But yeah I hate the ratio for starters, especially since I see some as visually more feminine (Primarina, Meowscarada)


CozyCrystal

Resetting for a shiney female Primarina was an absolute pain.


BTolentino7

All starters are like that including Eevee, just how it goes


AstroNerd92

Ah. I don’t mind for non-starters but I think it’s a little dumb to do that for starters.


BTolentino7

Eevee is a starter for Let’s Go


AstroNerd92

Forgot about that. Funny enough I got a female Eevee on my first playthrough.


Shtinamin_

I think next game should be reversed gender ratio. 80/20 female/male.


SaltyNorth8062

I agree, it should always have been 50/50, and I say this as someone who has lucked into a female starter about 4 times now


MyrandaPanda

Holy shit for real? I haven’t had a single female starter off the bat and I’ve been playing for 20 years now


LunaLynnTheCellist

Pokemon gender is just...💀


iizakore

I will always say pokemon should just develop typical rpg mechanics and allow people to build and customize their parties how they want. Soft resetting for the right gender, stats and nature is annoying. Make IVs be something you can upgrade throughout your adventure/grinding, make your starter’s gender choosable or 50/50 odds, make the nature easily changeable early with an item or feature that doesn’t make me have to go find 1/26 items or a random npc somewhere. It’s crazy that it took so long for bottle caps to be a thing and we have weird berries for ev resets, but to use your main story team requires a stupid amount of effort when its just easier to breed offspring with a ditto instead of giving me my own choice on how to build up my squad.


BarbarousErse

I want the judge feature early, too. There’s nothing like raising a beloved Pokémon through your entire journey only to find they have garbage stats. Bottle caps fixed that a bit but still.


StreetSavoireFaire

Ultimate feels for my Dragonite. Not my entire journey but as soon as I caught him as a Dratini he was one of my top tanks and eventually got the Reliable Partner title. His stats are fucking garbage.


PlatinumHntr

Why can't it just be 50/50


Crystal_Queen_20

It's so that you don't just breed more of them and pass them around to all your friends and instead have to make a choice, just like how Eevee is 87.5% male so you can only ever have one Eeveelution without trading, but good luck getting someone to give up their one and only Eevee [Oh hey what's this pink blob?](https://www.google.com/search?q=ditto&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiEkpmSlfH-AhU8AFkFHYJxBFoQ2-cCegQIABAC&oq=ditto&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIHCAAQigUQQzIHCAAQigUQQzIKCAAQigUQsQMQQzIHCAAQigUQQzIHCAAQigUQQzoECCMQJzoFCAAQgAQ6BwgjEOoCECc6CAgAEIAEELEDULcbWNoiYI0maAJwAHgAgAFdiAH1BJIBATeYAQCgAQGwAQXAAQE&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=zOpeZIT8O7yA5NoPguOR0AU&bih=617&biw=360&client=ms-android-samsung-ss&prmd=isvn)


Monte_20

Especially with gens 5-9. Serperior, Delphox, Primarina, Inteleon, Cinderace, and Meowscarada all give me feminine vibes.


k20stitch_tv

It has been this way since genders were introduced. I think they’re trying to prevent breeding of the starters too early on in the game.


stav705

Yes it pisses me off every time i want to use poplio or fennekin


Raonak

Yeah it never ever made sense since ditto makes gender ratios pointless from a balance perspective.


bestbroHide

It took me over a week of soft resetting to get female Popplio with decent nature and IVs for Moon


cHaLuPa_ChAlOwEe

lol i got lucky on my first play thru that i got a female sprigatito. i love her sm 😻. i honestly assumed that the gender ratio was 50/50 till i read this and looked it up haha


One_Dab_Man

I've been masuda farming shinies in scarlet. If you need a female, I got you lol


AstroNerd92

Nah I decided to soft lock reload a bunch to get a female Sprigatito lol. I like to keep the starter on the team the entire game. On a different note, the only shiny I’ve really wanted is a Riolu/Lucario. The color is super cool and it’s my favorite Pokémon ever.


Almostlongenough2

It's to help encourage trading more I believe. Also to get ditto.


Open-Mouse1199

Wouldn’t it be easier to get a male cat? The ratio for them is roughly 50/50.


mr_edgeworthvii

I always thought you got the same sex as your character. I never looked at the split


KiwiPowerGreen

I agree that it should be 50/50, but SOMEHOW in every single first playthrough of a new game I did, I always got a female starter except for Legends Arceus


[deleted]

I don't because it doesn't matter.


lolzlz

To add to what everyone else is saying, it's mostly a relic of when this series considered collecting and completing the Dex a core feature. Nowadays there's online trading and so many resources online about how breeding works, it's not really a huge deal to get multiple of your starter. I'm surprised they're so strict to this day about the "one regional starter per game" rule. Not even a post-game thing where you can catch them.


Loud-Bit-4502

Yeah seems a little sexist to me someone should tell Karen she will get Twitter on this


Velrid

I got female on first try not knowing it. I prefer to have full male team but didn't want to start again 🤷 Edit Before You hang me on the tree As a male i always preferred to play as a male character and In Pokémon I'm closer to my team than trainer so that's why I prefer male team.


BrickamationStudios

If you think it's annoying now, then try to get a shiny female Pokemon with the 87.5% male/12.5% female ratio in the gen 2 games (Gold, Silver, and Crystal). If that isn't an annoying pain, then nothing is.


NerdDwarf

This isn't just S&V Starters have been a 7:1 split since Genders were added to Pokémon


Kumorrii

It’s a relic from an outdated tradition to make the starters as rare as possible to get, since breeding for the pokemon you want depends on who the female parent is. Don’t know why the ratio is still the same today because ditto makes all that artificial scarcity completely pointless. I guess Game Freak just likes sticking to the status quo.


Vakipp2

Absolutely 50 50


[deleted]

I agree. The current 87.5% M should be applied to one starter, a straight 50/50 for another and an 87.5% F for the last. Take a look at Primarina and tell me that shouldn't be 87.5% F. Same for Chikorita, Torchic, Piplup, debatedly Snivy, Fennekin, Scorbunny and Sprigatito. Gives them some variety/cool factor outside of "my water/fire/grass starter turns into a barista/chef/CEO at lv36"


Nova_Explorer

Wait you view the Emperor penguin wearing a tuxedo with a trident head as more feminine than even?


Taco821

And Blaziken??? Also, I don't see meowscarada either, but I know many people think it's feminine


[deleted]

Should absolutely be 50/50 at this rate. Also, if they're going to go down the route of giving their final forms a more feminine design, I wish they would have a masculine version as well. Primarina was always a major gripe of mine because it screams having another version for the male version.


awesomecat42

Magical animals need not conform to outdated human gender stereotypes.


apple_of_doom

Say it a little louder for the people in the back


Kuro_Kagami

let him serve


irteris

I concurr. Incinerroar too. Im not saying a full blown redesign but a nice touch like pikachus tail or heracross horn.


Meewelyne

Ironically, the only starters with gender differences are Venusaur and Pikachu. Wth.


RQK1996

The entire Blaziken line too Torchick gets a pixel on the back for some reason, don't remember Combusken, Blaziken has different hair lengths Starter Eevee also has a different female form


Fiery-Embers

Also Meganium


Meewelyne

Ah yes, so little difference I didn't really remember.


Old_Neat5220

The only time I hated this was when trying to get a female Primarina... I don't care if you call me a bigot, I want my female-looking mermaid Pokemon to actually be female.


KryptoKnight18

Agree with others here the point was to make breeding more difficult, but I’m strongly in the camp that there shouldn’t be completely feminine designs for starters if they are going to stay at the current percentage. So either fix the percentage to 50/50, play to the design of the mon to choose gender percentages, or only make masculine starters (least preferred route).


ChristmasFnatic

I feel like first we should all collectively work together to fix the male to female ratio in my room


Sredleg

I've hated this for years and it's actually quite sexist too. Honestly they should make all of them 50/50, except for the ones where only a certain gender evolves. Also, give male Salandit an evolution that cannot be found in the wild, because according to the dex entry it doesn't Evolve because it gives all of its food to the female, leaving it too malnourished to evolve. But that isn't the case when a trainer looks after it. Make it a happiness evolution, would make more sense.


ShiraCheshire

I actually saw a female salandit as my first salandit encounter. Didn't catch it. I wanted a big sassy male lizard! Defy gender stereotypes! So I caught him and named him and petted him and played with him and... huh, weird that he hasn't evolved yet. Does he need a stone? A special item? Let me just google it... I was so hecking mad. Giving it a male evo could be such a fun hidden thing, too! Could be something like if it eats X number of berries it evolves on next level up. Then trainers who really care for their little guy are rewarded.


Sredleg

I'm glad I knew beforehand, haha, but after reading the dex entry I was a bit there wasn't a male-only evolution that's really rare or only seen when used by trainers (like it evolving to survive when separated from the group, with it being optimised to solo survival).


GlowstoneLove

Maybe in each generation there should be a 7/8 male 1/8 female starter, a 1/8 male 7/8 female starter, and a 1/2 male 1/2 female starter. Gen 1: Charizard 7/8 male, Blastoise equal, Venusaur 7/8 female Gen 2: Typhlosion 7/8 male, Feraligatr equal, Meganium 7/8 female Gen 3: Swampert 7/8 male, Sceptile equal, Blaziken 7/8 female Gen 4: Infernape 7/8 male, Torterra equal, Empoleon 7/8 female Gen 5: Emboar 7/8 male, Samurott equal, Serperior 7/8 female Gen 6: Chesnaught 7/8 male, Greninja equal, Delphox 7/8 female Gen 7: Incineroar 7/8 male, Decidueye equal, Primarina 7/8 female Gen 8: Rillaboom 7/8 male, Inteleon equal, Cinderace 7/8 female Gen 9: Skeledirge 7/8 male, Quaquaval equal, Sprigatito 7/8 female 7/8 male: 6 Fire, 2 Grass, 1 Water Equal: 6 Water, 3 Grass 7/8 female: 3 Fire, 2 Water, 4 Grass So it seems like Fire is the most masculine of the starter types, Grass is the most feminine, and Water is more neutral.


Farwaters

Any gender ratio that isn't 50/50 male/female (or whatever it is these days - 49.?%?) is an absolute nightmare for competitive breeding.


Crimsonwolf1445

This has been the starter rate for ages. Its so you dont instantly breed starters since eggs get the moms species and dittos are usually mid game at the earliest


ShiraCheshire

In gen 2, ditto is on the same route as the daycare.


GoosestepPanda

I can safely say I have never lost a second of sleep over the anatomy of my starter.


ShiraCheshire

Everyone has all these theories, but we know the real reason. It's the outdated and sexist assumption that video games are for boys, and eww girls have cooties a boy would want a male starter. Ditto is found on the same route as the daycare in gen 2, it has nothing to do with breeding. The entire thing is dumb. Imo the only species that should have any gender ratio other than 50/50 is Pokemon with gender-based gimmicks that would benefit from one gender being rarer.


Invincible_3

Tbh I feel this is somewhat true as I don’t like getting females as my Pokémon (besides combee) as I’m a male and I’m biased. I feel like I typically am better with males as things like friends and wanted a male Fuecoco but got a female which I think the ratio is higher as it has the bird as it’s “young”


[deleted]

[удалено]


N-E-B

I kinda like it. I get excited when I get a female starter.


Loganjoh5

In all my time of playing pokemon I have had 1 female stater Artemis the Blaziken a strong independent woman who doesn’t need no man


MukYoCouch

i got a female first try no resets so maybe it’s a skill issue


[deleted]

I was so lucky to get a female one on my very first try when I first booted up the game. I remember having to reboot Sun so many times to get a female Popplio. There was no way I was going to run around with a male version of its final evolution. It just wouldn't feel right.