One of the most important aspects of building a competitive team of Pokemon is breeding. If you want to get those perfect Individual and Effort Values, you'll spend a lot of time riding your bike back and forth while two of your Pokemon are hanging out in the daycare, with one of them probably being a Ditto.
However, this isn't a mechanic that every Pokemon can explore. In fact, a whole Egg Group dedicated to Pokemon that cannot breed called "No Eggs Discovered" is filled with Pokemon where the stats are what you get. So let's look at these Pokemon.
10 Baby Pokemon
The idea of Baby Pokemon was introduced in Gold and Silver along with the breeding mechanics. To qualify as a Baby, these Pokemon must be the first member of their evolutionary line and not be able to breed. Also, these Pokemon are often hard to find in the wild and obtained through breeding, specifically with some kind of incense.
This makes total sense. In any species, a member would not be able to breed until they mature enough. This just raises the question of why the first members of other evolutionary lines can breed like Pidgey, Poliwag, or Abra.
9 Unown
Unown is a Psychic-type Pokemon that originally appeared in the Ruins of Alph in the Johto Region. These sentient hieroglyphics make up every letter of the English alphabet as well as an exclamation point and a question mark.
The explanation for Unown not being able to breed is pretty easy to figure out: they are literal letters. If anything, Unown is meant to be a glorified collectible that you can add to your collection. They're also terrible in battle, meaning there isn't a reason to breed them anyway. Unown can just sit pretty in the box and enjoy existing.
8 Legendary Pokemon
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Legendary Pokemon are larger-than-life Pokemon that are immensely powerful and incredibly rare. Often, a player will only run into one of these during a playthrough. A Legendary Pokemon will either be on the front of the game's box, be part of a trio/group, or have significance to the story.
While it makes sense that a Legendary can't be bred to make more Legendaries since it would break the game, it raises questions about how they came to be in the first place. The only ones with any explanation are the Legendary Birds since their eggs are found in Pokemon Snap and Mewtwo, which was cloned from Mew's DNA. And speaking of Mew...
7 Most Mythical Pokemon
Mythical Pokemon are so rare that characters in the game question their existence. They are made even rarer in real life since a majority of them are obtained through events, hence why they were initially referred to as Event Legendaries. If you could get these through breeding, it would make them feel much less special.
But there's an exception. Manaphy is the only Mythical Pokemon that can be bred with Ditto, and if you do, a Phione will come out of the egg. However, Phione will never evolve into Manaphy and only make more Phione when bred. This makes both of these Pokemon unique from the other Mythicals, even if it questions whether Phione is a Mythical Pokemon or not.
6 Ultra Beasts
Ultra Beasts are terrifying Pokemon that come from another dimension. They originally appeared through Ultra Wormholes in the Alola Region, but have since been seen in the Dynamax Adventures found in the Crown Tundra.
While there is no explanation regarding why the Ultra Beasts can't breed, it feels self-explanatory. These aren't just Pokemon from outer space; they're from an entirely different dimension. Therefore, there wouldn't be any compatible partners found in our dimension. The closest example to this is from the movie Alien, and we all know how that worked out.
5 The Galarian Fossil Pokemon
The Galarian fossil Pokemon are the most clever interpretation of fossils in the entire series. Instead of just bringing a single fossil back to life, all four of these monstrosities are fusions of two fossils from different creatures. They represent the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, a group of prehistoric skeletons that were misassembled and labeled as new discoveries.
Dracozolt, Arctozolt, Dracovish, and Arctovish are examples of man's hubris. They can barely function properly, with the Pokedex noting that Dracovish, a Pokemon built to run fast and hunt, can't even breathe out of water. It only makes sense that they can't breed as well.
4 Ditto With Another Ditto
Now we start to get into the ones that are harder to justify. Ditto is a unique Pokemon since the only move it can learn is Transform, changing it into whatever Pokemon is in front of it. Not only is this useful for countering Dynamax Pokemon, but it also means that Ditto is the perfect partner for breeding the perfect competitive Pokemon.
But there is one regular Pokemon that Ditto can't work its magic with, another Ditto. While this seems strange, it is justified a little bit in Pokedex entries. These note that Ditto "does not get along with fellow Ditto" and "When it encounters another Ditto, it will move faster than normal to duplicate that opponent exactly." It seems that when you can become anything, the last thing you want to see is yourself.
3 Special Pikachu Forms
Throughout the franchise, different looks for Pikachu have been released. This includes Pikachu In A Cap, released over a series of events throughout Generation 7 and 8, and Cosplay Pikachu, which can be obtained in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. While these are all very cool, there is no way to pass their unique moves or style down to other Pikachu.
This is strange because regular Pikachu can breed, and I'm sure fans would love to have multiple versions of all of these Pokemon. However, the Pokemon Company wants to keep these forms special. While it seems that the easiest solution would be to just have these Pikachu make normal Pikachu or Pichu, it was decided to get rid of that ability altogether.
2 Battle Bond Greninja
Battle Bond Greninja is a powerful form of the popular starter based on Ash's Greninja from the anime. Instead of Torrent or Protean, it has the ability Battle Bond. This allows Greninja to transform into the appropriately named Ash-Greninja after defeating a single Pokemon. Not only does this increase Greninja's stats, but it guarantees that Water Shuriken will always hit three times.
This Greninja not being able to breed is just as strange as all of the different Pikachu forms. However, Battle Bond Greninja will be incredibly rare soon since the only way to obtain it is through the Special Demo Version of Sun and Moon, which will leave the 3DS eShop once it closes in March 2023.
1 Nidorina And Nidoqueen
And here it is, the most baffling members of the "No Eggs Discovered" group. Nidorina and Nidoqueen are the female counterparts of Nidorino and Nidoking, respectively. And even though both males can be bred with other Pokemon and even a female Nidoran, neither of the female Nidoran's evolutions can breed.
This is honestly mind-boggling. It's established in some Japanese Pokemon books but never fully explained why. There is evidence of Nidoqueen successfully laying eggs in the film Mewtwo Returns, where clone versions of Nidoqueen and Rhyhorn create eggs that hatch into a baby Rhyhorn and a baby Nidoqueen. That just raises more questions.