How To Hatch Eggs Faster In Pokémon Sword/Shield

Are you sick of waiting too long to hatch your eggs in Pokémon Sword/Shield? Good thing you came to the right place. In this guide, we’ll show you what you can do to hatch your Pokémon eggs faster.

If you’ve played a Pokémon game before, you’re probably familiar with a Pokémon Egg. You’re also probably aware that it takes a loooong time before you can get your eggs to hatch. But thanks to new mechanics introduced in the game, hatching eggs has never been easier.

Why Do You Need to Hatch Eggs Faster?

The answer is simple. To save you time. Hatching eggs feels unnecessarily long in Pokémon games. Eggs hatch based on how many steps you take. Some Pokémon eggs take a lot of steps before they hatch. A Bulbasaur egg, for example, will take around 5,000 steps before it hatches. So if you’re looking to breed Pokémon with specific natures and stats for competitive play or just trying to get a shiny Pokémon, you’ll want the best and fastest way to crack open these eggs.

How Do You Hatch Eggs Faster?

It goes without saying that the first thing you’ll need is a Pokémon Egg. You can get Eggs from a Pokémon Nursery when you leave two Pokémon of opposite genders from the same egg group. In Pokémon Sword and Shield, you can leave the Pokémon you want to breed at the Pokémon Nurseries located at Route 5 and the Bridge Field Zone in the Wild Area. 

Make sure that your Pokémon are compatible when you leave them there so that you can be sure they’ll have an egg. If you’re unsure of your Pokémon’s compatibility, you can just leave a Pokémon with a Ditto.

The next thing you’ll need is a Bicycle or, as it’s known in the Galar Region, a Rotom Bike. You’ll get this as you progress through the main story, right after you clear the first gym. By the time you get to the first Pokémon Nursery, you’ll already have a bike.

Lastly, you’ll need a Pokémon that has the ability, Flame Body. This is the most important step as, without it, your eggs will hatch at the normal rate. Having a Pokémon with Flame Body on your team will reduce the steps needed to hatch your eggs by half. There are plenty of Pokémon that may possess this ability but the easiest to catch are Rolycoly and Sizzlipede. You can catch both these Pokémon at Route 3 and the Galar Mine. In Rolycoly’s case, you need it to evolve to at least its second form before it gets the Flame Body Ability. Rolycoly evolves to Carkol at level 18. 

Now that you have everything, you need to keep the Pokémon with Flame Body in your party along with the egg or eggs you want to hatch. It doesn’t matter if they’re adjacent or not, the effect works as long as they’re in your party. Also, keep in mind that this effect does not stack. So it won’t reduce the hatching time further if you have more than one Pokémon with Flame Body in your party.

Once it’s in your party, just go and move around using your bike. You’ll notice immediately that it takes a much shorter time before you get a newly hatched Pokémon.

Useful Tips

1. Make sure to upgrade your Rotom Bike’s speed by talking to NPCs around the Wild Area who will do it in exchange for some Watts. Once it’s upgraded, you can press B for a speed boost while on your bike.

2. Find an area where you can move back and forth without any hindrances to meet the required steps needed to hatch your eggs. We would suggest the stretch of land that’s directly in front of the Pokémon Nursery in the Wild Area. Watch out for some wild Pokémon though.

3. If you’re looking to be more productive while hatching eggs, you can try doing the Rotom Rally. You’ll meet the required steps while also earning some Watts. You can access the Rotom Rally by talking to the NPC at the Meetup Spot near the entrance to the Wild Area.

So there you have it! Hatching eggs is a mechanic that’s never really fully explained in any Pokémon games. It’s up to us players to figure it out on our own. Hope this guide helps and have fun!