Allow me to tell you a tale of pocket monsters and sharing. And learning. And then doing.

Buckle up.

A good friend of mine bought Pokemon Moon when it came out. I bought Pokemon Sun. We didn’t plan to do that strategically, it was just a fortuitous happenstance.

I love strategy guides, and while perusing mine, I came across a grid of which Pokemon were specific to Sun and which to Moon. When I realized I wouldn’t be able to catch my own Sandshrew, I was so disappointed. But my friend said he would catch one for me (and he did!). I, in turn, offered to catch him a Vulpix (exclusive to Sun), which I did, and when we traded, it was a glorious day.

We talked about which Pokemon from the opposite game we’d like the other person to find for us. He wanted Tirtouga, and this is where my story begins.

This is Tirtouga. He is one adorable turtle.

The only way to get him (at least initially) is to purchase a fossil at a particular location (you are only allowed to buy one in the entire game, at least so far as I can tell), you take that fossil to a totally different location for someone to basically bring him to life, and then, then you have Tirtouga.

But if I could only have one, how would I give one to my friend?

Good question.

I decided to venture into something I barely touched upon in Pokemon X (the only other Pokemon I’ve played at length): breeding.

I didn’t know what I was doing then, and I didn’t now. All I knew was that I needed a Ditto if I wanted to breed any given Pokemon.

Here is my friend, Ditto. I spent hours trying to find one and, after about three hours, I ended up with two. Hooray!

So I took my Ditto and my Tirtouga to the Pokemon Nursery and hoped for the best.

In the meantime, I also consulted a group I’m a part of online and some super lovely people gave me great advice on eggs and how to hatch them quickly.

What I didn’t know was that eggs generate incredibly fast at the nursery. I would get on my Tauros, run in nine circles in the small area right in front of the nursery, and as soon as I’d talk to the nice lady outside, yet another egg would be ready. I’d do that until I had about five of a specific Pokemon I was trying to breed, then plop them into my party with my Magmar (who has Flame Body, which makes the eggs hatch faster!), and begin to run in circles again while a new Pokemon was breeding in the nursery. In the meantime, I’d be hatching my current eggs by running around.

Someone in my group told me if you get on Tauros and run in circles (something I was already doing), the eggs would hatch faster. Indeed! After a minute or two of running, sure enough, all the eggs would hatch.

It is an addicting cycle.

It also allowed me to create five more Tirtougas. This pleased me greatly.

I also learned (from my trusty game guide) that if you put eggs in the Poke Pelago island of Isle Avue (the hot springs), when you take them out, they will hatch faster.

I can confirm that this seemed to be the case! Of course, running around on Tauros seemed like it was nearly as fast with less of a hassle so I will probably continue to do that.

I am now in a wonderful cycle of breeding neato Pokemon, hatching neato Pokemon, and hoping to trade some of them to fill out my Pokedex.

It’s funny that trying to find a particular Pokemon for my friend turned into a whole new aspect of the game for me. I absolutely loved the campaign of Pokemon Sun, and I can tell already I will be spending even more time with this feature.

Cheers to all those unfound Pokemon out there; I will find them! And I hope to bring some of the rarer Pokemon I currently have to others.

Ahhh…sharing. ‘Tis the season and all that jazz.