Throughout his time in the industry and as a hobbyist, the Pokemon series has been at the center of his childhood and adult gaming life. He’s played all the mainline titles as well as most of the spin-offs, and most recently, he has enjoyed exploring the wealth of lore and background context of the Pokemon Universe. His favorite title in the series is Pokemon Platinum on the Nintendo DS, and he’s eagerly awaiting Game Freak’s next entry to see what else they have in store following Arceus!
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Unfortunately, no. You cannot breed Paradox Pokémon. This means that if you want to nab yourself a few extra Paradox types, you’ll have to head into The Great Crater of Padea and hunt them down individually.
If you’re only looking to complete the Pokédex, though, you can simply pass Paradox Pokémon back and forth between your friends without impunity (you don’t have to permanently keep a Pokémon on you for it to register).
Nintendo hasn’t given any official reason as to why these types of Pokémon can’t be bred, but as far as the lore is concerned, the reason is thought to be due to their appearance as time-traveling entities.
The idea is that Paradox Pokémon couldn’t follow the same biological precedence as ordinary Pokémon because they can exist only as a sort of snapshot in time.
What Are Paradox Pokémon?
The Paradox Pokémon’s inability to be bread marks only one of its main oddities, the others being that they cannot evolve, are marked as ungendered, and bear strange resemblances to present-world Pokémon that will be familiar to you (you might think of them as ancient versions of the classics).
As has been deduced from the text within the Scarlet/Violet Book, Paradox Pokémon are thought to have essentially come from the distant past or future, and possibly from alternate timelines.
In this way, Paradox Pokémon may come from entirely different versions of the earth than the one we experience in the game.
There’s also the theory that Paradox Pokémon aren’t real in the literal sense of the word, instead manifesting from the dreams and imaginations of Professors Sada and Turo (you’ll find dialogue discussing this sort of thing a lot throughout the game).
There are 16 Paradox Pokémon to collect, with 8 available in each game (check this Blubagarden post for an exhaustive list).
Each Paradox Pokémon
Which Paradox Pokémon you can catch depends on whether you’re playing Scarlet (where Past Types are available) or Violet (where Future Types are available). The charts below are categorized as such.
Future Types
| Pokémon | Type | Stats |
| Iron Treads | Ground/Steel | HP:90,ATT:112,DEF:120 S.ATT:72, S.DEF:70, SPD:106 |
| Iron Bundle | Ice/Water | HP:56, ATT:80, DEF:114 S.ATT:124, S.DEF:60, SPD:136 |
| Iron Hands | Fight/Electric | HP:154, ATT:140, DEF:108 S.ATT:50, S.DEF:68, SPD:50 |
| Iron Jugulis | Dark/Flying | HP:94, ATT:80, DEF:86 S.ATT:122, S.DEF:80, SPD:108 |
| Iron Moth | Fire/Poison | HP:80, ATT:70, DEF:60 S.ATT:140, S.DEF:110, SPD:110 |
| Iron Thorns | Rock/Electric | HP:100, ATT:134, DEF:110 S.ATT:70, S.DEF:84, SPD:72 |
| Iron Valiant | Fairy/Fight | HP:74, ATT:130, DEF:90 S.ATT:120, S.DEF:60, SPD:116 |
| Iron Leaves | Grass/Psycho | HP:90, ATT:130, DEF:88 S.ATT:70, S.DEF:108, SPD:104 |
| Iron Boulder | Rock/Psycho | HP:90, ATT:120, DEF:80 S.ATT:68, S.DEF:108, SPD:1124 |
| Iron Crown | Steel Psycho | HP:90, ATT:72, DEF:100 S.ATT:122, S.DEF:108, SPD:98 |
Past Types
| Pokémon | Type | Stats |
| Great Tusk | Ground/Fight | HP:115, ATT:131, DEF:131
S.ATT:53, S.DEF:53, SPD:87 |
| Scream Tail | Fairy/Psycho | HP:115, ATT:65, DEF:99
S.ATT:65, S.DEF:115, SPD:111 |
| Brute Bonnet | Grass/Dark | HP:111, ATT:127, DEF:99
S.ATT:79, S.DEF:99, SPD:55 |
| Flutter Mane | Ghost/Fairy | HP:55, ATT:55, DEF:55
S.ATT:135, S.DEF:135, SPD:135 |
| Slither Wing | BugFight | HP:85, ATT:135, DEF:79
S.ATT:85, S.DEF:105, SPD:81 |
| Sandy Shocks | Electric/Ground | HP:85, ATT:81, DEF:97
S.ATT:121, S.DEF:85, SPD:101 |
| Roaring Moon | Dragon/Dark | HP:105, ATT:139, DEF:71
S.ATT:55, S.DEF:101, SPD:119 |
| Walking Wake | Water/Dragon | HP:99, ATT:83, DEF:91
S.ATT:125, S.DEF:83, SPD:109 |
| Gouging Fire | Fire/Dragon | HP:105, ATT:115, DEF:121
S.ATT:65, S.DEF:93, SPD:91 |
| Raging Bolt | Electric/Dragon | HP:125, ATT:73, DEF:91
S.ATT:137, S.DEF:89, SPD:75 |
Wrapping Up
I hope this article cleared up the confusion surrounding breeding Paradox Pokémon, and provided you with some important background information for understanding why. If you found this article informative, be sure to check out our other pieces, such as Every Pokémon Remake Ranked or our Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Review.
