For trainers looking to get the most out of their Pokemon team, breeding has long been an essential part of Pokemon games. Breeding Pokemon can help ensure your monsters have the best possible stats and abilities, but one thing about breeding is sure to annoy Pokemon Sword and Shield players: egg hatching. This part of the process can be extremely time consuming, so anything to make eggs hatch faster can be quite useful. That’s where Flame Body comes in. This guide covers which Pokemon have the Pokemon Sword and Shield Flame Body ability, as well as how much faster eggs hatch with Flame Body.
Pokemon Sword and Shield | Flame Body ability
In Pokemon games, the time it takes for eggs to hatch is measured in “cycles.” Each cycle is 257 in-game walking steps long, meaning you’ll basically have to run/bike back and forth in order to quickly hatch an egg. The number of cycles a particular egg takes to hatch depends on the Pokemon, however. You can tell how much longer an egg needs to hatch by looking for these messages, shown in the egg’s summary:
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- Five or fewer cycles left: “Sounds can be heard coming from inside! This Egg will hatch soon!”
- Six to 10 cycles left: “It appears to move occasionally. It may be close to hatching.”
- 11 to 40 cycles left: “What Pokémon will hatch from this Egg? It doesn’t seem close to hatching.”
- 41 or more cycles left: “It looks as though this Egg will take a long time yet to hatch.”
That’s right — hatching some Pokemon eggs can take more than 10,537 steps. This is why Flame Body is so important: When you have a Pokemon with the Flame Body ability in your party, it makes hatching eggs significantly faster, cutting the required cycles in half. You can find a list of all Sword and Shield Pokemon that can have the Flame Body ability below.
Pokemon with Flame Body in Sword and Shield
- Litwick
- Lampent
- Chandelure
- Carkol
- Coalossal
- Sizzilipede
- Centiscorch
If you’re in need of a Flame Body Pokemon, we recommend catching Carkol. While each of these Pokemon has only a chance of having the Flame Body ability, Flame Body is Sizzilipede/Centiskorch’s Hidden Ability, meaning they only have a chance of having it when caught in Max Raid Battles. Litwick and its evolutions are hard to find, only spawning in the Fire Type gym and in certain weather conditions in particular Wild Area zones. Carkol, on the other hand, can be easily farmed.
To quickly find a Flame Body Carkol, use the fast travel function to head to the Route 4 warp point just south of Turffield, then enter the Galar Mine through its north entrance. Continue inside until you reach the mine cart tracks, then follow these until a Carkol runs into you. Battle and capture it, then hit “See Carkol’s summary.” If it doesn’t have the Flame Body ability, walk out of the mine and repeat the process until you catch one that does.
