Eggs are one of the most reliable ways to get strong Pokemon in Pokemon GO, since hatches come with a better average IV floor than wild catches and occasionally include species that don’t spawn in the wild at all. Here’s how the distance tiers work and which Eggs are worth prioritizing.
How Egg distance tiers work
Eggs come in distance tiers — typically 2 km, 5 km, 7 km (from gifts), 10 km, and rarer 12 km strategic or event Eggs — and the distance tier broadly correlates with how rare or strong the species pool inside it is. Walking the required distance with the Egg incubating (using either your free standard Incubator or a Super Incubator, which hatches distance faster) is the only way to hatch it; there’s no way to skip the distance requirement.
Why hatches tend to have better stats
Hatched Pokemon have a noticeably better IV floor on average compared to wild catches, since the game weights hatch stats toward the higher end of the range rather than a flat random distribution. This is part of why Egg hatching is a recommended strategy specifically for finding usable PvP or raid-relevant Pokemon of a species that’s otherwise hard to find with good stats in the wild.
Which Eggs to prioritize
Longer-distance Eggs generally hold rarer species, but the exact pool rotates periodically, so it’s worth checking your current Egg pool in-game before deciding which ones to burn Incubators on. As a general rule, 10 km and 12 km Eggs are worth prioritizing with Super Incubators or Incense-adjacent double-hatch-distance events specifically because they’re the tiers most likely to contain a species you can’t easily catch in the wild.
Incubators — regular vs Super
A regular Incubator has unlimited uses but hatches distance at the normal rate, while a Super Incubator hatches distance noticeably faster but has a limited number of uses before it’s consumed. Save Super Incubators for your longest-distance, most valuable Eggs rather than using them on 2 km Eggs, since the time saved matters far more on a 10 km or 12 km Egg than a short one.
Egg-hatch events
Niantic periodically runs Egg-focused events that temporarily add specific species to the Egg pool, boost hatch rates for certain distances, or grant free Eggs through Field Research — these are usually the best windows to stock up on Incubators and burn through your Egg backlog, since the pool during these events is often better than the default rotation.
