Breeding
- Breed and Gender Outcomes
- Gender, Breed, Crossbreeds or Hybrids
- Breeding for Color
- HEX vs. DEC., How is the baby's color determined?, Reading a HEX number and breaking it down: How do I get that color?
- Inherited Stats and Inbreeding
- Inherited Stats, Inbreeding
- Genetics
- The Basics, The Genes and Order of Dominance: Hair, Pattern (Body), Socks (Leg), Face; Breed Specific Genes, Basic Odds When Breeding and How We Get to Them
Breed and Gender Outcomes
When you breed two ponies, there's all kinds of outcomes you can get with the baby. Some of these things are determined by the baby's parents--like colors and genes and breed--and some are random--like gender.
Gender
The gender of the baby is a random chance between male and female, and in the long run you should have about just as many males as females.
Breed
With a few exceptions, the baby's breed is the same as either the mother's or the father's breed.
Pedigree does not make a difference in a baby's breed. The outcome when breeding two earth ponies with only other earth ponies in their pedigree will be the same as if you breed two earth ponies with other breeds in their pedigree.
Crossbreeds or Hybrids
Some breeds, however, do breed a little differently. These breeds are called crossbreeds or hybrids and can be bred by pairing two specific breeds together.
- The MerPony is a cross between a Sea Pony and an Earth Pony.**
- The Winged Unicorn is a cross between a Pegasus and a Unicorn.
- The Wishing Pony is a cross between a Fairy Pony and a Unicorn.
- The MerDragon is a cross between a MerPony and a Dragon Pony.
When breeding for a hybrid (not generating a starter), you need to find parents that are the two foundation breeds. You will have a 20% chance per breeding to get the mutation that gives you the crossbreed. The other 80% of the time, the baby will either be the father's breed or the mother's breed.
When breeding a hybrid pony--regardless of the pedigree--to anything other than a pony of the same breed, the hybrid will breed as one of its foundation breeds, so you will either get a baby that is one of the foundation breeds or the other parent's breed.
With one exception**, when breeding a hybrid pony to one of its foundation breeds, you do still have a chance to get the hybrid, but the chance is halved to 10% since it only has a 50% chance of breeding as the opposite breed.
Sometimes you can even get a completely different hybrid by breeding one hybrid to the foundation breed of the another hybrid.
** The MerPony breeds as its foundation breeds when bred to a MerDragon and you will not get a MerDragon from crossing a MerDragon with a MerPony.
Breeding for Color
HEX vs. DEC.
First, let's look at the color codes themselves. The color codes can be displayed in either HEX or DEC format--a preference that you can change on your profile. HEX is what the search will use if you want to look for a specific color. DEC is the default setting that is easier to read.
HEX is a hexadecimal number which represents the same thing as the DEC numbers in a much smaller space. The scale is 0-15, with 10-15 being represented by the letters A-F. (A=10, B=11, C=12, D=13, E=14, F=15)
Translating from HEX to DEC is actually very simple.
A HEX code has six numbers total, two for each color slot (Red, Green, and Blue).
0F0F0F is actually split up as follows: 0F0F0F
The right hand number you can just read as 0-15. The left hand number you would read as 0 to 15 multiplied by 16. (10 is 16, not "ten".) The actual math formula to use for each color slot would be: (L*16)+R=DEC
So 0F0F0F would translate to 015|015|015. 0=0 and F=15 for each slot.
To get 016|016|016, you would add "1" to the 0F for each slot, which turns the F (we can't go higher than 15 on this scale) into a 0 and puts a 1 in the first column for 101010.
A0A0A0 translates to 160|160|160 -- we've cycled 0 -> F ten times in the right hand column, so 10*16=160.
5F5F5F - (5*16)+15=95 or 095|095|095
Because the search uses HEX, if you're breeding for specific color codes, it may be easier to switch to HEX in your profile so that you can search more easily for what you would want.
How is the baby's color determined?
A baby pony's colors are somewhere between the mother's and father's colors in a RGB scale. So if you breed a green and a yellow pony you'll most likely get a greenish-yellow baby, but you can get a bright yellow or a bright green one as well.
When you breed two ponies, the system uses the method below to calculate the baby pony's color. This example is using the body color, but in practice, the same formula applies to all of the hexes.
Father: #2E0023 or 046|000|035 x Mother: #00AAA8 or 000|170|168
x
The system first calculates a random displacement number, it then uses this number on all the separate colors (R G B) to get a number in between the parents. Let's use + 10 from the lowest value for this example.
Baby: #0A0A2D or 010|010|045
After this we add a random number between -20 and 20 to each separate color (R G B)
R: 0A (010) +6 = 10 (016)
G: 0A (010) -5 = 05 (005)
B: 2D (045) -11 = 22 (034)
Baby: #100522 or 016|005|034
Finally we check these new values against the parents. There cannot be a higher color value than the parent with the highest color value and there cannot be a lower color value than the parent with the lowest color value.
The only color that is out of range in this case is the blue, the baby has 034 and the minimum value is 035 so we simply set that color to 035.
Which gives us the final color of: #100523
In simpler terms, this means that you can never get higher than the highest number in a slot, or lower than the lowest number in a slot.
Reading a HEX number and breaking it down: How do I get that color?
You've picked out the perfect color for your ideal pony, but how do you get it? Let's use the body color of this unicorn as an example:
Her body is #F0E68C or 240|230|140. Now, if we just want to get close, it's a lot easier than if we want to hit it dead on.
Ideally, we'd want to find a pony that is F_E_8_ or 240|224|128 to 255|239|143 and breed it to a pony that is in the similar range, but what if there are no ponies like that available that meet the criteria?
By looking at the numbers, we need to find ponies that will give us high numbers in the Red and Green values and about a median number in the Blue value. This can give us a lot of options.
255|255|000 x 140|140|140 would work. So would 255|140|140 x 140|255|140. Even 255|255|000 x 000|000|170 could give us this as a possible outcome, although the range is much wider in this combination which will make your odds lower. However, if this is the only option that you have, it will still work with some patience and persistence.
The key to getting a certain color is to break down the color that you want into its components and look at the Red, Green, and Blue values instead of "Yellow" or "White" or "Pale green". Try breeding random colored ponies or even just test breeding them in the toolbox or on the Test Breeding gadget and see the outcomes that you get to help you understand how RGB values mix. It's not like mixing paints.
Inherited Stats and Inbreeding
Inherited Stats
Your pony will not only inherit its parents color and breed, it'll also inherit its stats. So if you breed a high leveled pony to another high leveled pony you'll be able to get a high leveled baby. The baby will get a random number somewhere between the parents added attribute points and then a random number between that and 0.
This is because even very highly trained ponies can get babies that aren't very good at contesting. So if the father has +1 in charisma and the mother has +3 the baby will have an added charisma stat of a random number in-between 1-3 and random between that and 0. Same goes for all attributes.
Example:
Father's stats:
Intelligence: 5 + 1 | Strength: 5 + 0 | Agility: 12 + 3 | Charisma: 8 + 4
Mother's stats:
Intelligence: 5 + 2 | Strength: 5 + 0 | Agility: 12 + 0 | Charisma: 8 + 2
Baby's stats:
Intelligence: 5 + 0-(1-2) | Strength: 5 + 0 | Agility: 12 + 0-(0-3) | Charisma: 8 + 0-(2-4)
Inbreeding
Inbreeding shows the percentage of the pony's pedigree within a certain number of generations that are related. The more times a pony shows up in that part of the pedigree, the higher the percentage. Therefore, it is possible to breed two ponies that are 0.0% inbred and have a baby with anything from a minimal amount of inbreeding (if the pony has several generations in their pedigree) to upwards of of 25% if you breed a pair of full siblings.
Currently, the only effect that inbreeding has on a pony is in the determination of levels at birth. A pony's final number of inherited levels is reduced by the percentage of inbreeding.
Genetics
The Basics
There are four locations for visible Sgenes in PI. Hair, Body, Feet, and Face. These four locations have two spots each for a gene. One of the genes will always be Dominant and one will always be Recessive. That is how genetics work. (PI's Sgenes are genetics in their most simple form, really.)
Genes on PI do not have a "strength". There is no such thing as a "strong" carrier or a "weak" carrier. A pony either is a carrier or isn't. If a pony is a carrier, it has a 50% chance of passing that gene (it will either pass normal or the gene).
A baby will inherit one gene for a location from its mother and one gene from its father. This may be a gene that is visible or a gene that is carried -- which is why it is not uncommon for genes to appear generations after the last pony with a visible gene. However, the only way to be certain that you have a carrier is to check for visible genes on the parents, or to do a lot of breeding.
The Genes and Order of Dominance
Hair Genes
Stripe is dominant to Rainbow which is dominant to Tips which is dominant to MultiStripes (MStripes) which is dominant to QuadStripes (QStripes) which is dominant to Hair Fade (HFade).
Stripe |
Rainbow |
Tips |
MultiStripes (MStripes) |
QuadStripes (QStripes) |
Hair Fade (HFade) |
Pattern (Body) Genes
Paint is dominant to ZigZag which is dominant to Light Dapple (LDapple) which is dominant to Heavy Dapple (HDapple) which is dominant to Body Fade (BFade) which is dominant to ClownFishBreed which is dominant to ZebraBreed which is dominant to TarantulaBreed which is dominant to MonarchBreed which is dominant to FawnBreed which is dominant to ZebraFinchBreed
Paint |
ZigZags |
Light Dapple (LDapple) |
Heavy Dapple (HDapple) |
Body Fade (BFade) |
ClownFishBreed |
ZebraBreed |
TarantulaBreed |
MonarchBreed |
FawnBreed |
ZebraFinchBreed |
Pattern Colorize (PColorize) is a special gene that will color the body gene that it is paired with.
Colorized Paint |
Colorized ZigZags |
Colorized Light Dapple (LDapple) |
Colorized Heavy Dapple (HDapple) |
Colorized Body Fade (BFade) |
Colorized ClownFishBreed |
Colorized ZebraBreed |
Colorized TarantulaBreed |
Colorized MonarchBreed |
Colorized FawnBreed |
Colorized ZebraFinchBreed |
Socks (Leg) Genes
Socks are dominant to Stockings which are dominant to Faded which is dominant to Okapi
Socks |
Stockings |
Faded |
Okapi |
Socks Colorize (SColorize) is a special gene that will color the leg gene that it is paired with.
Colorized Socks |
Colorized Stockings |
Colorized Faded |
Colorized Okapi |
Face Genes
Star is dominant to Freckles which are dominant to Blaze which is dominant to Face Fade (FFade)
Star |
Freckles |
Blaze |
Face Fade (FFade) |
Face Colorize (FColorize) is a special gene that will color the face gene that it is paired with.
Colorized Star |
Colorized Freckles |
Colorized Blaze |
Colorized Face Fade (FFade) |
Colorize genes must be paired with another gene from the locus to truly be visible to the eye. The search can show a pony that is "visible" colorize if it inherits two Colorize genes, but the pony will look normal.
Breed Specific Genes
Each breeds Breed Specific S-gene is like a normal pattern gene with one exception: It can only be generated on that breed. So you cannot, for example, generate an EarthPony with the ClownFish gene, it can only be generated on SeaPony starters. It can, however, be breed into any other breed. So to generate a ClownFish starter, you would have to select both parents as SeaPonies.
ClownFish is native to the Sea Ponies:
Zebra is native to the Unicorns:
Tarantula is native to the Mountain Ponies:
Monarch is native to the Winged Unicorns:
Fawn is native to the Reindeer:
ZebraFinch is native to the Pegasus:
Basic Odds When Breeding and How We Get to Them
When breeding two carriers, they each have 1 in 2 (50%) chance of passing the gene, so your chance of getting a visible baby is only 1 in 4 (25%). (1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4 or .5 x .5 =.25 or 25%)
When breeding for two carried genes on two ponies, each gene has a 1 in 4 (25%) chance of being visible, so your chance of BOTH genes being visible is 1 in 16 (6.25%).
So if you breed a Paint pony to a pony with no body gene, you will always get a Paint carrier.
If you breed a Paint carrier to a pony with no body gene, you will sometimes get a paint carrier. Sometimes no genes will pass from the parents.
If you breed a Paint carrier to another Paint carrier, sometimes you will get a baby with visible Paint, sometimes the baby will carry Paint, and sometimes the baby will get no genes from either parent.
If you breed a visible Paint pony to a pony that only carries paint, sometimes the baby will show Paint, but it will always carry Paint.
If you breed two ponies that both show Paint (and for this example, carry nothing else), you will always get a baby with visible Paint.
If you breed a pony with a visible gene to a pony that has a gene in the same location that is either dominant to or recessive to its gene, you will get a pony that shows the dominant gene and carries the recessive gene.
Taking that one step further, if you breed two ponies that both show one gene for a location and carry another, you can get some very different outcomes with the baby.
Breeding two colorized genes together has a similar result as above, since the colorized gene is not a single gene and will not pass as "Colorize Paint" or "Colorize HDapple". Instead, each parent will pass either the Colorize gene or the regular gene. This also means that one of your possible outcomes will look "normal" like it has no genes at all, but it really has two colorized genes, and if bred to a pony with a visible regular gene, you will always get a colorized result.
Again, with colorized genes, either the colorize gene will pass or the regular gene, so if you breed a pony with a colorize gene to a pony with a non-colorized gene in the same location, some of the babies will have the colorized version of the gene, and some will show the regular gene. The example below also shows what happens if you breed a pony with a colorize gene to a pony with a different regular gene in the same location.
