I am making my first attempt at breeding (ever) and I have noticed that my experience does not meet my expectations, given the breeding guides that I have read online. I am playing Heart Gold.
Specifically, I am referring to the Power {Item} method of passing down IVs. I am trying to breed a Horsea with 31 IVs in HP, Defense, and Sp. Defense. I have a Horsea with 31 IVs in HP and Defense and I have a second Horsea with 31 IVs in Sp. Defense and Speed. I give the first a Power Belt and the second a Power Band and leave them in the Day Care.
So far, I have breed 10 Pokemon and 3 of them did not receive their Defense and Sp. Defense IVs. The guides that I have read indicate that the IVs are guaranteed to be passed down, but it does not happen every time.
Just to make sure that I am not crazy, I made a Ditto with all 31s and shipped it over with sendpkm.py, equipped it with a Power Band and breed it with the first Horsea. The first pokemon that came out indicated a "Mischievous" characteristic, which would indicate to me that the first 31 IV in the hierarchy is Sp. Attack and the Power Belt was ignored (i.e., given the characteristic, I would expect that if HP, Att., or Def were 31, their characteristic would preempt the Sp Att characteristic).
So, are the guides wrong that the IVs are guaranteed to be passed down?