6 IV parents producing 4 IV offspring?

Question

I am breeding Togetic for Abilities and Nature. The parents are Ditto and Togetic which both have flawless IV's. I know the Destiny Knot only passes 5 IV's and the last one is random, so how are my Pokémon only passing 4 flawless IV's?

Answer 1

Short Answer: Because of the way the Destiny Knot works

Long Answer: The Destiny Knot allows for 5 IVS to be passed on. These IVs can be the same, therefore the maximum isn't passed down. Example:

• 5 IVs are passed down, they are HP, HP, Attack, Defense, Speed.

The Destiny Knot will pass the Attack, Defense and Speed down but you can't have more than 2 sets of IVs in a stat so only HP, Attack, Defense and Speed have been passed on.

Comments

Ohhh that's so weird I didn't think about that! Thank you!

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I don't understand why it happens so inconsistently.  Over the course of my Shiny breeding, I had a good 2 days where my 6 IV Ditto and 6 IV Skarmory kept producing 4 IV children.  But, in the weeks since, and the months prior, this never happened.

???