Pokemon Home

Pokemon Home is a cloud-based Pokemon storage service released in February 2020 for Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. It is published by The Pokemon Company and connects several Pokemon games rather than functioning as a traditional adventure with a region, Gym challenge, or story campaign. Its central feature is the National Pokedex, which records species registered through Pokemon deposited into the service. Pokemon can be viewed in individual boxes, searched by species and other attributes, and, where supported, moved between compatible games. The Nintendo Switch version is primarily used to organize and transfer Pokemon. At launch, it supported Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu!, Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee!, Pokemon Sword, and Pokemon Shield. Compatibility later expanded to Pokemon Brilliant Diamond, Pokemon Shining Pearl, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Pokemon Scarlet, and Pokemon Violet. A Pokemon can only enter a game if that game's data includes the species. This means Pokemon Home does not make every Pokemon usable in every title, even though it can retain Pokemon that are unavailable in a particular game. The mobile version includes several trading systems. The Global Trade System, usually called the GTS, lets users request a specific Pokemon in exchange for one they offer. Wonder Box places Pokemon into a random trade pool. Room Trade allows participants to trade within a room, including rooms that can accommodate many users, while Friend Trade permits direct exchanges between registered friends. The mobile application also provides access to certain Pokemon Home Mystery Gifts and lets users inspect Pokemon deposited from compatible games. Pokemon Home offers a free Basic Plan and a paid Premium Plan. The Basic Plan has limited storage, while Premium Plan subscribers receive substantially more box space. Premium membership is also required to transfer Pokemon from the Nintendo 3DS application Pokemon Bank into Pokemon Home. The Bank transfer process uses a moving key generated by Pokemon Home, allowing eligible Pokemon stored in Bank to be moved forward into the newer service. Transfers from Bank are one-way; Pokemon cannot be returned to Pokemon Bank afterward. Pokemon Home also preserves title-specific data when Pokemon move among modern games. For example, a Pokemon's available moves may be handled differently depending on the game to which it is transferred, because individual titles have different move data and rules. Pokemon Legends: Arceus additionally uses its own mechanics and move styles, so Home acts as a bridge while respecting each game's restrictions. By combining storage, Pokedex registration, transfers, and trading, Pokemon Home serves as the main cross-generation Pokemon collection service for the Nintendo Switch era.