What is the difference between baby and basic Pokemon?

Question

Togepi and Riolu are babies, but Bulbasaur is a basic Pokemon. Any pointers?

Comments

In addition to the current answers, in the TCG, the evolved forms of basic Pokemon can only be played by evolving the basic Pokemon. The evolved forms of baby Pokemon can be played as basic Pokemon.

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List of baby Pokemon here:
http://pokemondb.net/mechanics/breeding

Answer 1

Frankly, in the main series games, Baby Pokemon are an underdeveloped concept. There is really only one thing that is universal between all Baby Pokemon -- they are not able to produce offspring under any circumstances. Most of them were added in a later generation to expand an evo-chain, except Togepi and Riolu.

Some Baby Pokemon can only be obtained by breeding with a specific Incense. In order to obtain the Baby, the mother must be holding the corresponding Incense in order to produce the Baby. This can cause some complications when performing competitive breeding, as you have to give up either the Destiny Knot (passing IVs) or the Everstone (passing Nature) in order to hold the Incense.

A final note is that sometimes the Baby will have different Egg Moves than the rest of the evo-chain.

Comments

Can a Bulbasaur breed?

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Yes, Bulbasaur can

Answer 2

While most of the differences between them are found in the anime (with baby Pokemon acting more like small children, or... Well, babies, and basic stage Pokemon being more comparable to a child around the 8-12 age range), the core differences in the game are

• They're in the Undiscovered egg group (for obvious reasons)
• They're obtainable by (in some games, exclusively) breeding in the games they're in

On a final note, not all baby Pokemon have this, but all the ones who have this are baby Pokemon: they're only breedable with an incense. However, like I said, this doesn't apply all the time.

Hope I could help!