Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-27408508-20160202123333/@comment-24577221-20160205214410

It has been a while since I tried to get a Rare single, but I think they're an exception to the rule -- I think the only way to get one is via the 2-triples, and that they can't be bred "by failure". I hope someone else can confirm/refute this, please..?

As far as I know, [X + Rare X -> some kind of X] has the same chance of yielding the Rare version of X (vs. the regular version of X) as any other combo that can give [some kind of X]. To take your "less stupid question" example, using the Rare version of one or both of the parents can definitely lead to the Rare version of the offspring, if it's available at that time. I don't think we've got any good statistics on whether it improves or harms the chances. (And your questions aren't stupid.)