How To Hatch An Egg In Pokèmon Go
Hunting Pokèmon in the wild isn’t the only way to catch them all. You can actually hatch your very own Pokèmon from an egg. Of course rearing Pokèmon isn’t something you’re taught in school so you probably have questions as to how to get an egg, how to care for it, and how to actually get it to hatch. The process is simple but it is time consuming. As with most things in the game, you need to walk in order to hatch an egg but you also need an incubator as well as an egg. We’ve detailed below how to get an egg and hatch it. We should point out that this post contains no cheats or shortcuts to hatching the egg. We’re detailing the plain, simple, and legit method for hatching eggs in Pokèmon Go.
Getting Eggs
You must be level 6 to get an egg. You do not need to join a team or a gym in order to get or hatch eggs. Eggs can be obtained from Pokèstops. To obtain an egg from a Pokèstop, visit it and spin the circle. It might drop an egg.
It’s also said that you can obtain an egg from a wild Pokèmon, when you catch it. We’ve only managed to get an egg from a Pokèstop so far and from what we can tell no one has yet reported getting an egg from a wild Pokèmon. It might just be conjecture.
Types Of Eggs
There are three types of eggs; 2km, 5km, and 10km eggs. The ‘km’ here refers to the unit of distance ‘kilometers’ and indicates how far you have to walk in order to hatch an egg.
You can store a maximum of 9 eggs.
Lucky Eggs
Lucky Eggs are an in-game item that double your XP gained for 30 minutes. They are ‘activated’ much the same way as incense is i.e., you tap the lucky egg in your items list and it is activated. Lucky eggs can be bought via the in-game currency or you can get them for free as a reward when you hit levels 9, 10, 15, 20, 25.
Incubators
An incubator is an in-game device for hatching eggs. You get one incubator when you hit level 6. This incubator can be used for an unlimited number of times. You might also obtain incubators from Pokèstops and as rewards for leveling up but they will likely only be good for limited use. The incubators can seen in your ‘items’ list.
Hatching An Egg
To hatch an egg;
1. Tap the Pokèball at the bottom of the screen and tap Pokèmon. Swipe left on the ‘Pokèmon’ tab to switch to the ‘Eggs’ tab.
2. Each egg shows how far you need to walk in order to hatch it. Tap the one you want to hatch and then tap ‘ Start Incubation’.
3. Select which incubator you want to use. The egg will be added to it.
4. Start walking.
Measuring Distance
A critical bit of information you need to know before you start walking is how the game measures distance. The game doesn’t measure distance the same way Google Maps does i.e. distance traveled from Point A to Point B. Instead, the game calculates distance between Point A and Point B drawing a straight line between the two. It is basically calculating the vector value between two points without any regard to the route you took.
This is important because you might travel several kilometers everyday thinking it will hatch the egg but the game will in fact measure distance differently. If you plan on taking the game with you on a run, don’t run a circular track. Look for something linear so as to maximize the distance.
We should also mention that at this point, the game isn’t great at getting GPS information and users have reported their eggs gaining distance even though they’ve just been sitting at home or at work. We’ve personally experienced 0.3km being added to an egg’s distance whilst sitting in a parked car.
Walking And Driving
You probably know that you can play Pokèmon while in a moving vehicle (you should NOT be driving said vehicle) and that it’s one way to get around and play the game. You might also be thinking a few long drives is all it takes to get your egg to hatch. You’re wrong.
The game can detect when you’re moving too fast i.e. at super-human, probably-in-a-car, speed and it will not register that distance. It will have no effect on the eggs and you’ll only have lost gas.
You can probably ride your bike around and add some distance to your eggs. You can also drive your car really really slow if you’re very averse to walking.
What Pokèmon Will Hatch From My Egg?
Eggs can hatch very rare Pokèmon and players suggest that it’s easier to get a rare one by hatching an egg instead of hunting for it. That said, there is no way to predict which Pokèmon will hatch from an egg. The following chart that comes courtesy of Serbii will tell you which ones are likely to hatch from an egg. Click the image to see a larger version of it.
Happy parenting.
