Why did my Pokemon only breed when I moved the Everstone to Ditto?

Question

For context, I'm trying to get shiny Alolan and Galarian Meowth in Pokemon Violet and decided to throw in a Tandemaus in case I get lucky with a Fo3 (My party in the Picnic was Ditto, both Meowth forms (both female), and Tandemaus). I used Egg Power 3 to gather eggs.

• My first attempt at gathering eggs, I had both Meowth holding an Everstone, Tandemaus, and Ditto, and I got no eggs.

• The second attempt, I removed Tandemaus thinking it was the problem with both Meowth still holding everstones, but I still got no eggs.

• The third attempt, only Ditto had an Everstone, I brought Tandemaus back, and I got eggs from Tandemaus and both Meowth forms. However, the eggs I received from the Meowth forms were all Kantonian.

I know having both Meowth hold Everstones caused nothing in the picnic to breed, but why? Why didn't I get any Tandemaus eggs? Is there a way for me to get Alolan Meowth, Galarian Meowth, and Tandemaus eggs all at one time, or do I have to breed them individually?

Comments

Well the Meowth from the eggs are all Kantonian. Dang it.

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You didn't get the "they prefer playing with other Pokemon" message, right?

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I reworked my question to make it more coherent. This is Gen 9 where you use picnics for breeding, so there is no message like that.

With picnics, if you have multiple Pokemon in the party that can breed with each other, you can get eggs from multiple pairs. With my party, in theory, all Pokemon should have only been able to breed with Ditto. However, I got no eggs when both Meowth held everstones, even though both Meowth are female and Tandemaus is genderless.

You get eggs in batches of 1 through 10 when you check one of the baskets in the picnic. Egg Power 3 ensured I would get eggs quickly (as I did with my last attempt), but with my first 2 attempts at collecting eggs, I went several minutes without getting eggs, even when checking the basket periodically. So I can confidentiality say both Meowth holding the Everstone caused Ditto to not breed with anything.

Answer 1

Ok, here is what I think: The reason I think why no eggs were produced when Galarian and Alolan Meowth is because S/V basically looks at all the everstone holders and tries to determine one inheritance rule for the egg pool. The game basically gets confused because it can’t determine which everstone wins so it just shuts the breeding down. You didn’t get any eggs because the game generates eggs for the entire picnic at once. So, if the game fails to select a pair, no eggs are produced.
The problem with the second attempt is basically the same with the first attempt; the 2 Meowths were the problem, the Tandemaus was fine.
On your third attempt, the reason all eggs were Kantonian was because Everstone only passes down regional forms if held by the regional form Pokemon itself. You can’t get all eggs at once because, as mentioned before, you can’t have the 2 everstones in one picnic, and, the game chooses one breeding pair at a time. Adding tandemaus only dilutes the odds. You could always not use Everetones, but it’s inefficient.
The only way to do what you is by breeding them all separately, which is unfortunate. At least you get the results you want though. Source: Testing and experience
Sorry if some parts are wrong. I’ve just started answering questions like this. Hope I helped!

Comments

That makes enough sense, thanks!