Need help with breeding efficiency?

Question

How many IVs should each parent have for the destiny knot to become more effective?

For example:
DAD
31/22/25/27/31/31
MUM
31/4/25/27/31/31
I'd be guaranteed a 2IV Pokemon with a 1/31 chance of a 3IV.

But would't it be better if I breed these without the destiny knot in hope for a Pokemon with some max IVs that don't match up with one of the parents and switch them out then use the destiny knot?

Comments

You can breed a Pokemon with random IVs and then hyper train it. If you really don't want to do that, then what's the minimum number of perfect IVs you want on your Pokemon?

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I want to go from 1/2iv Pokemon and keep breeding up to 5/6iv but want to know when is best to start using the destiny knot as I'm guessing at the lower end its not worth it

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Which Gen? I used the destiny knot on a dozen boxes of shuckle breeding and eventually got a few perfects. It takes time, but satisfying when finished.

Answer 1

To keep the list concise, I'm assuming both parents have the same number of perfect Roman numeral 4s (and the perfects are in the same stats) and not looking at every possible combination.

1 perfect
The perfect Roman numeral 4 has a 1/2 chance of passing down. 3 are guaranteed to be random, and the remaining 2 or 3 are guaranteed to be imperfect. Average: 19/32 perfects
With destiny knot: You're guaranteed to get one random Roman numeral 4 with a 1/32 chance of being perfect. There's a 1/6 chance that the random happens to be the parent's perfect one, so you get 1 perfect the other 5/6 of the time. Average: 83/96 perfects

So if your parents already have perfect Roman numeral 4s, and you can use nothing or a destiny knot, then you should start using destiny knot immediately. However, this assumes you can't use any other items, such as power items.

With power item: You're guaranteed 1 perfect, 2 imperfects, and 3 randoms. Average: 35/32 perfects

2 perfects
With destiny knot: There's a 1/3 chance that the random Roman numeral 4 is one of the parent's perfects, so only the other perfect one gets passed down. The other 2/3 of the time, you get 2 perfects and 1 random. Average: 163/96 perfects
With power item: You're still guaranteed 1 perfect and 3 randoms. There's a 2/5 chance that the other perfect Roman numeral 4 passes down. Average: 239/160 perfects

So use nothing for parents with 0 perfect Roman numeral 4s, a power item for 1 perfect, and a destiny knot for any more perfects. (though definitely consider the fact that this answer has at least a 1/4 chance of being wrong)

Answer 2

Because the knot makes the offspring inherit 5 stats out of six, the chances for a new perfect stat are slightly lower. However, the offspring with a new perfect stat will likely have more perfect stats overall than if you don't use the knot.

If you can, I would use a stat boosting item on one parent to guarantee the passing down of a specific stat and the everstone one the other parent to keep the nature, then save the destiny knot for later.

Here are some crunched numbers:
If you use the knot, each egg has

• 1 in 64 (1.56%) chance of all of the original perfect stats (hp, sp Def, spd) and one new perfect stat
• 1 in 2 chance of retaining the three original stats
• 31 in 64 chance of retaining only two original stats

Using the knot, you would need ~64 eggs to gain a new perfect stat, but the Pokémon to hatch with a new stat would still have the three original stats. Each egg is guaranteed at least two stats.

Without the knot, hatched eggs have a higher range of possibilities.
Each egg has a
- 95.5% chance of at least one stat
- 54.1% chance of at least two
- 9.2% chance of at least three
- 0.74% chance of at least four
- ~.001% chance of any more
These statistics are not as good as using the destiny knot, but you will have a higher chance of new stats. Your chance of a new stat is almost 5%, one in slightly more than 20. This means that you could probably get a new perfect stat in a third of the time as using the knot.

Using a stat boosting item without the knot is a good alternative because of the higher chance of more stats while keeping the one in twenty chance of a new stat. After you have four ivs on a parent I would add in the destiny knot. This is because you cannot inherit four perfect stats from the parents without it. Also, do you specifically want all 6 ivs or just 5? Taking the last step to six ivs takes an annoyingly long time and is generally not worth it unless you are using both attack and special attack.
Good luck with the breeding.