Pokemon Go babies: Egg hatching guide, buddy distances, and more!

After much teasing, and even a viral “leaked” corporate email, Niantic finally made their big announcement on Monday revealing that the Pokémon Go universe has expanded to include baby Pokémon from Generation 2! In a fun twist, the new Pokémon babies cannot be caught in the wild, but must instead be hatched from eggs in incubators.

Here is the playful video announcement from Niantic:

The clip starts off with the egg hatching animation sequence that every Pokémon Go trainer is all too familiar with, followed by Togepi and the message “New Pokémon are appearing!” Pichu then appears beside Toepi and the announcement continues: “…starting with Togepi, Pichu, and select others!”

The video then instructs trainers to “Hatch eggs to find these Pokémon!” amid a field of orange 5 kilometer eggs.

That’s all the video reveals, and as you might imagine, it caused an equal amount of excitement and curiosity among Pokémon Go fanatics as there was a mad scramble to figure out exactly which new Pokémon are now in the game, which eggs they hatch from, and more.

The official written announcement from Niantic did little to clarify:

Trainers, Professor Willow has discovered Togepi and Pichu hatching from Eggs! Starting later today, Trainers will have the opportunity to hatch these and several other Pokémon that were originally discovered in the Johto Region in Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver video games. These are the first of more Pokémon coming to Pokémon GO over the next few months. Be sure to use the hashtag #PokemonGO on Twitter to share your experiences as you explore your local neighborhoods with family and friends, walk to hatch these Pokémon from Eggs, and register them to your collection this holiday season. We can’t wait to see what Pokémon you’ve hatched!

Due to the lack of information given to players (which isn’t a bad thing – it’s kind of fun actually) we’ve compiled a list answering most all of your questions about the addition of Pokémon Generation 2 babies to the Pokémon Go app — or at least all of the questions we have answers to. Included in the Q&A is a chart showing exactly which baby Pokémon come from which eggs — but more on that in a minute!

Which Generation 2 Pokémon are now in Pokémon Go?

It appears that all of the Generation 2 baby Pokémon have been added with the exception of Tyrogue. It is believed that Tyrogue was left out because of his complicated evolutionary line. (Tyrogue can evolve into either Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, or Hitmontop — much like Eevee for those familiar with Pokémon Go Generation 1.) That means that you can now hatch the following Pokémon Generation 2 babies in Pokémon Go:

Pichu (Evovles into Pikachu)
Cleffa (Evolves into Clefairy)
Igglybuff (Evolves into Jigglypuff)
Togepi (Evolves into Togetic)
Smoochum (Evolves into Jynx)
Elekid (Evolves into Electrabuzz)
Magby (Evolves into Magmar)

Which Pokémon Generation 2 babies come from which eggs?

We have compiled a chart that shows you exactly which egg (2k, 5k, or 10k) that you can get each of the new Pokémon Gen 2 babies from:

Can you still hatch the corresponding adult Pokémon from eggs?

I think most everyone assumed the answer to this question would be no, but it appears to be yes — to all of the adults! So, in other words, you can still hatch the following adult Pokémon from the corresponding eggs:

Pikachu – 2k egg
Clefairy – 2k egg
Jigglypuff – 2k egg
Jynx – 10k egg
Electabuzz – 10k egg
Magmar – 10k egg

I was like many in that I assumed the addition of the baby Pokémon would eliminate the adults from the egg pool (it only makes sense right?), but numerous frustrated trainers have confirmed they have hatched Electabuzz, Jynx, Magmar, etc. with eggs received from Pokestops after the announcement. It is unclear at this time how the addition of additional Pokémon into the 2k, 5k, and 10k egg pools will affect the frequency of other Pokémon such as the coveted Snorlax and Lapras.

It seems counter-intuitive that you would walk the same distance for a baby as the adult. It’s not too bad right now because the babies are new and everyone wants to fill in their Pokedex, but it’s going to be a bit frustrating a month or more down the road when you walk ten kilometers and hatch that Magby, which you then have to spend candy to evolve. And speaking of “candy to evolve…”

Also, you might have noticed that trainers have to walk further to hatch Pichu (5k) than Pikachu (2k). I agree with most commenters that this seems a bit odd — but I guess Niantic wanted a balance and needed another 5k baby to go with Togepi.

How much candy do each of the Generation 2 baby Pokémon require to evolve?

Here are the evolution candy costs for each of the new Pokémon babies:

Pichu – 25 candies
Togepi – 50 candies
Cleffa – 25 candies
Magby – 25 candies
Igglybuff – 25 candies
Elekid – 25 candies
Smoochum – 25 candies

TL;DR Togepi costs 50 candy to evolve into Togetic, the others all take 25 candies.

Can you evolve Togepi into Togetic yet? And does that mean Togetic will be the first non-baby Generation 2 Pokémon in Pokémon Go?

Unfortunately there hasn’t been enough time yet to know for sure if Togepi can evolve, although he does have the evolve option on his scree. It requires 50 candies to evolve Togepi, and even if you were lucky enough to hatch two and receive the maximum number of candies for that, you would still be a little short. But don’t worry trainers, there are numerous folks posting on reddit and other forums indicating they are very close to 50 so we will know super soon. (I will update tomorrow with a definitive answer.)

UPDATE – And the answer is yes, you can evolve a Togetic in Pokémon Go! Here is the first instance I can find of some successfully evolving a Togetic from @Kellyffsweden on Twitter who says he hatched three different Togepi from 5k eggs, which gave him 51 candies:

And here’s his Togepi in a gym:

I appears to be official — Pokémon Go now includes a Generation 2 Pokémon that is not a baby!

Can you select a Pokémon baby as your buddy?

Yes! And when you do, you will see a brand new buddy pose from your avatar that will have you swimming in “Awwwwwwwww!”

UPDATE – It seems the bouncy Igglybuff is the only baby Pokemon that is not held in your arms when selected as your buddy. It hangs out in the traditional position beside your avatar:

Is there a “friendship” feature, like in other Pokémon games?

Not yet. My only experience playing Pokémon is via Pokémon Go, so I am not familiar with the friendship feature, but from what I have read on forums it sounds like an integral part of the game — especially after Generation 1 — so I’m guessing Niantic is working on some way to incorporate it into Pokémon Go.

Is there a Johto badge now that Generation 2 is officially in the game?

It was assumed by most that Niantic would be adding a Johto Region badge just like the Kanto Region badge for Generation 1, but those who have hatched Generation 2 babies are revealing that there is no new badge — yet — and the new Pokedex entries are simply being added to the Kanto badge.

How far do you have to walk with each baby as a buddy to find candy?

This answer is interesting because Togepi (as well as Pichu) is an anomaly that doesn’t fit the usual egg km/buddy km ratio.

Pichu – 1km
Togepi – 5km
Cleffa – 1km
Magby – 5km
Igglybuff – 1km
Elekid – 5km
Smoochum – 5km

What are the types and potential move sets for each of the Pokémon Go Generation 2 babies?

From Gamepress – links to each Pokémon included:

PICHU – Electric
Quick Attacks:
   Thunder Shock
   Quick Attack
Charge Attacks:
   Thunderbolt
   Disarming Voice
   Thunder Punch

TOGEPI – Normal
Quick Attacks:
   Zen Headbutt
   Peck
Charge Attacks:
   Ancient Power
   Psyshock
   Dazzling Gleam

CLEFFA – Normal
Quick Attacks:
   Zen Headbutt
   Pound
Charge Attacks:
   Signal Beam
   Psychic

MAGBY – Fire
Quick Attacks:
   Ember
   Karate Chop
Charge Attacks:
   Brick Break
   Fire Punch
   Flamethrower

IGGLYBUFF – Normal
Quick Attacks:
   Pound
   Feint Attack
Charge Attacks:
   Shadow Ball
   Body Slam
   Psychic

ELEKID – Electric
Quick Attacks:
   Thunder Shock
   Low Kick
Charge Attacks:
   Thunder Punch
   Thunderbolt
   Discharge

SMOOCHUM – Ice/Psychic
Quick Attacks:
   Frost Breath
   Pound
Charge Attacks:
   Ice Beam
   Ice Punch
   Psyshock

OK, I think that’s pretty much all you need to know about the Pokémon Go Generation 2 babies! Well, for now anyways. 😉 Now, go catch hatch ’em all!

* Please don’t take and repost the egg hatching chart — it took an embarrassingly long time to put together! (However, if you do insist on taking it, at least link back.)

Oh, and on a personal note, I’ve been kind of collecting “baby” Pokemon for a couple of months now, as in level 1 Pokemon with very low CP. (I was motivated to start doing this after I caught a 46 CP Snorlax and for some reason wasn’t disappointed at all! I thought he was awesome!) Ironically, it appears that I won’t be able to add the new actual Pokemon babies to my “baby” collection because the only way to get them in the current system is to hatch them, and I am above level 20. That’s kind of a minor, weird bummer for me.