## Egg Cycles & Hatching

A fresh Egg doesn't hatch on a timer — it hatches by **steps walked**. Each species is assigned a number of **egg cycles**, and every cycle is cleared after roughly **256 steps**. Quick-hatching Pokémon need around 5 cycles; the rarest and strongest can need 35 or more, which is thousands of steps of walking, cycling and surfing.

You can hatch Eggs much faster by keeping a Pokémon with the ability **Magma Armor** (Slugma, Magcargo, Camerupt) or **Flame Body** (Magmar, Magby) in your **party** — in Generation III this **halves** the steps each cycle takes. The effect doesn't stack, so one fire-bodied helper is all you need.

The Egg's cycle counter only ticks while it's in your party, so the fastest hatch is a full team of low-cycle eggs plus one Flame Body partner, walking back and forth.
