Egg Groups are biological categories that Pokémon species are slotted into that determine which species can they interbreed with. The mechanical details of egg groups in the franchise mainline are at Egg Group.
Pokémon are slotted into the following egg groups as of Gen Ⅷ:
# | Name | Identifier | Description |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Monster | Monster or kaiju like | |
2 | Water 1 | Amphibious | |
3 | Bug | Insectoids | |
4 | Flying | Avians | |
5 | Field | Mammal / Terrestrial | |
6 | Fairy | Small, cute, moe | |
7 | Grass | Plant-like | |
8 | Humanlike | Fullu Bipedal | |
9 | Water 3 | Aquatic invertebrates | |
10 | Mineral | Inorganic | |
11 | Amorphous | Indeterminate form, ghosts, etc | |
12 | Water 2 | Piscine | |
13 | Ditto | Ditto | |
14 | Dragon | Draconic | |
15 | Undiscovered | Unbreedable |
A species, or rather an evolutive stage, can belong to up to two (2) Egg Groups.
This categorization introduces a number of problems because there is no clear distinction between the various values and Pokémon can belong to more than one at a time, for example the fact that Anorith can interbreed with Archen despite they belonging to entirely different clades, as well as the infamous “Hot Skitty on Wailord Action”.
For purposes of the Suocéverse, egg groups are somewhat more restricted, and even then in the wild breeding is restricted to one's own species, with most cases of inter-clade breeding only being viable in the laboratory.
In Suocéverse mechanics, a species is related to at least one (1) egg group, with no technical higher cap; however most species have one related egg group.
This canon also adds new egg groups, and reworks existing ones, with the purpose of having a more sensible and restricted reproductive relationship between species. Each new group added is based on a number of distinctive factors to filter some species from their originator egg groups listings:
monster
covered anything vaguely reptilian in nature. This is now reorganized across different groups:upright
.saurid
group which mostly covers small snakes and lizards, that don't really enjoy the “monster” or “kaiju” contexts that the original group had, and selects from the body shape squiggle
.field
covered anything mostly non-reptilian that lived on the ground (hence the original ident ground
). This meant it was a sort of “default bin” for egg groups as pretty much anything “animal-like” could end up there. This is now reorganized across different groups:field
itself is reorganized into a “mammalian
” or “cydonian” group, which covers mammal-like Pokémon.saurid
group into which some snake or turtle-like creatures are recategorized;terrarian
group which selects those creatures that live mostly or fully underground or in “underworlds” and are specifically adapted for that.mineral
covered anything that was “vaguely resembling an object”, even in the cases where those had an obvious or predominant organic component: compare eg.: Snorunt, who lives inside an inorganic shell, Frigibax who is fully organic, and Honedge who is literally a possesed object. This is now split into:mineral
itself, now rebranded as inorganic
.animate
group that covers those Pokémon that “exist” by possessing or imitating an object, and thus would have a a reproduction system wholly unlike that of organic creatures, if having one at all.fungi
group is split off from plant
to account for the vast organic difference between plants and fungii in general.The list of Egg Groups in the Suocéverse as of last edit of this article goes as follows:
# | Name | Description |
---|---|---|
1 | Monster | Reptilian or kaiju-like. |
2 | Amphibious | Amphibious: like frogs, turtles or seals. Formerly water1 . |
3 | Insectoid | Bugs, Insects and insectoids general. |
4 | Flying | Avians and avian-like. Might also cover Paraaves. |
5 | Mammalian | Mammalians, and Pokémon that live on the surface. Formerly field or ground (but see ground2 ). |
6 | Fairy | Small, cute, moe. |
7 | Grass | Plant-like, or having a significant plant component, such as Bulbasaur. |
8 | Humanlike | Mammalian or mammalian-like that are fully bipedal. |
9 | Water 3 | Mollusks, Crustaceans, Aquatic Invertebrates general. Formerly water3 . |
10 | Inorganic | Pokémon that live in a mineral / inorganic encased body. Formerly mineral . |
11 | Amorphous | Pokémon that have a gaseous, plasma-like or otherwise indefinite form. |
12 | Piscine | Piscine and piscine-like, such as cetaceans. Formerly water2 . |
13 | Ditto | Ditto. |
14 | Dragon | Draconic Pokémon: those for the most part recognized as “true dragons”. |
15 | Undiscovered | Pokémon who are not breedable with the usual mechanics. |
16 | Fungi | Fungi or mushroom-like as the primary component, or that have a “split” or multiple body like fungii colonies; separate from the Plant group. |
17 | Terrarian | Underground terrarian: Pokémon like worms or snails that live mostly or fully underground; separate from the Mineral and Field groups. |
18 | Animate | Pokémon that imitate an object or that possess an object to animate it, such as Honedge; separate from the Mineral group. |
19 | Saurid | Pokémon like snakes and lizards, reptiles in general without the more specific connotations of the “Monster” / “Kaiju” group. Could also be considered “Reptiles” as an alternative to #5's “Mammalian”. |
– | Specific | Pokémon in this group can breed only with their own species, Ditto, or with Pokémon that are selected specifically in a per-species basis. For example: Manaphy. |