If you already have your perfect Pokémon, but it has the wrong Ability, skip to the Changing Abilities section by clicking here. 

Intro to Abilities

Abilities are a crucial part of VGC, and ensuring your Pokémon have the correct ones is imperative to success. It’s all well and good clicking Aqua Jet into your Coalossal until you find out it doesn’t have Steam Engine! But how do we get the Abilities we want onto our Pokémon, even the elusive Hidden Abilities? 

Every Pokémon has up to 3 Ability slots up to two standard Abilities, and in most cases a Hidden Ability (often abbreviated as HA).

Before starting the breeding process, you should have in mind the Ability you’re looking for, and whether it’s a Hidden Ability or not. For this example, we’re going to breed a Gothita with Shadow Tag, which is its Hidden Ability.

If it’s a Hidden Ability, you’re going to need to obtain that Pokémon with its Hidden Ability first, before breeding down for a competitive-ready one. In Pokémon Sword and Shield, Hidden Abilities can be obtained through Max Raids and Dynamax Adventures.

Getting the Parent

Hidden Ability Gothitelle, for example, can be found in two Max Raid Dens in the Wild Area - both of which pull from the same pool of Pokémon. Info on this den can be found here. To catch this Gothitelle, I’m going to put a Wishing Piece into one of the Max Raid Dens shown at the bottom of the Serebii page. I’m looking for a red beam to come out of it - Gothitelle is not available in the rare purple beam here. Thankfully, purple beams are only a 10% chance. If you do by chance get a purple beam, feel free to defeat the den and try again.

Once I get a red beam, I’m going to ‘date skip’ for a Gothitelle raid. This is done by pressing Invite Others in the den, changing the date on your Switch, and then backing out of the den and reopening it. This will only work if a Wishing Piece was used to create the beam! I’ll repeat this step until I get a raid for the Pokémon I want - in this case, Gothitelle. I’ll defeat the Gothitelle raid and catch it in the type of Pokeball I want my future Gothita to be in. When playing offline, all Max Raid Battles (except events) have 100% catch rate, so there’s no need to worry about failing the capture. After this step, make sure to double check that the Pokémon you caught has the Ability you want. If it does, great! If not, repeat this step or go to the Changing Abilities section.

Passing Down Abilities

Now you’ve got the parent, you’re going to want to head to the Pokémon Nursery of your choosing. The one you choose is personal preference alone - it has no impact on the breeding itself. 

The process for breeding a Pokémon with the desired Ability follows mostly the same process as breeding for IVs and Natures, as mentioned in their respective guides.

During breeding, the chance to pass down the parent’s Ability is dependent on the combination of parents. The female parent will have an 80% chance to pass down her Ability (60% if it is the Hidden Ability). Otherwise, the Ability will not be passed down, and the offspring will have one of its non-Hidden Abilities selected at random. Pokémon that have had their Ability changed using an Ability Capsule or Ability Patch will pass down their current Ability, not their original Ability.

Here’s our Shadow Tag Gothita! It has perfect IVs in everything except Attack, and just needs a Timid Mint!

Special Abilities

Some Pokémon have special Abilities that cannot be changed. These include Own Tempo Rockruff (only Rockruff with this Ability can evolve into Dusk form Lycanroc), Battle Bond Greninja, and Power Construct Zygarde. Zygarde’s Ability can only be changed using the Zygarde Cube.

Got your perfect Pokémon, but with the wrong Ability? No need to worry! Two items exist to help you - the Ability Capsule and the Ability Patch! Both items that can be purchased in Pokémon Sword and Shield. They are consumed after use, but you can purchase them as many times as you want.

The Ability Capsule, which allows you to change a Pokémon’s non-Hidden ability to its other non-Hidden Ability, can be bought for 50 BP at the Battle Tower, or 50 Dynite Ore in the Crown Tundra’s Max Lair. Other means of obtaining Ability Capsules can be found here.

The Ability Patch, introduced in the Crown Tundra DLC, allows you to change a Pokémon’s non-Hidden Ability to its Hidden Ability. They can be purchased for 200 Dynite Ore at the Max Lair. You can also get one for free if you show Peonia a Necrozma caught in Dynamax Adventures. Dynite Ore can be a little tricky to get in large quantities, but the best way to farm it is to play Endless Dynamax Adventures, with friends if possible. 

Unfortunately, as of Sword and Shield, a Pokémon with its Hidden Ability cannot have its Ability changed to one of its non-Hidden Abilities.