Pokemon Go and Pokemon Home finally connect with each other!

The wait is over for trainers who have been dedicated to Pokemon Go to bring their Pokemon alongside them in recent games like Pokemon Sword and Shield, and hopefully more to come!

Trainers rejoiced this week, for that the most anticipating feature between mobile and core gaming for the Pokemon franchise is finally together on one platform. Pokemon Home has finally made the updates for trainers to connect Pokemon Go to the universal cloud-based system. Pokemon Home was announced earlier in the year for trainers to have all progress from prior saved games with Pokemon Bank and games that were released for the Nintendo Switch, which include the Let’s Go series alongside Pokemon Sword and Shield. Now, for the first time in the franchise’s history, players who collected Pokemon on the popular app can now play with the same Pokemon on the most recent game. The update took almost all year, but it has been the capping point after all the features of DLCs that have also debuted for the franchise.

With Pokemon Go updated with species from the Unova region and looming towards the possibility of adding Pokemon from the Kalos region. Trainers were starting to look weary after they have had so much space from keeping up to five generations worth of Pokemon. The update from Pokemon Home could not have come at a better time. Even for trainers looking to complete the Pokedex via Pokemon Sword and Shield or just having a Live Dex on Home was more than reliving to send Pokemon from their app to the cloud database. This was even bigger relief for players who have not played a Pokemon core series game and learned about new Pokemon exclusively through the app.

The connection from the app to the cloud system was an idea that surely had to be tested first. With Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee being the first games released on the Nintendo Switch, they were the first series of games that shared the same playing style as Pokemon Go did from a Kanto perspective. The transferring connection was made possible through Go Park in Fuchsia City, which replaced the Safari Zone from the prior games. Transferring Pokemon exclusively from the Kanto region and their Alolan counterparts were the only species available to send from the app to the game at the time. The results of the positive feedback from the connection of the two gave the major inspiration to the same for Pokemon Home, and include more Pokemon for the average trainer to have more fun with.

The access to send Pokemon from Go to Home requires a Nintendo account to be linked to the trainer’s Pokemon Go account through the settings. From there when the trainer chooses to send Pokemon to Home, the trainer has the ability to send a maximum of 25 Pokemon or when the GO Transporter Energy is totally exercised. Sending the Pokemon to Home will not allow Pokemon to return to the app, so the trainer has to be sure if they want to send the Pokemon to the cloud-based system. After the Pokemon transfer, the Pokemon that were chosen will give candy of their base species and will also give access to the Mystery Box so that the trainer can also collect more Meltan. For the trainer to access the transferred Pokemon, they must find the Pokemon Go feature on the home menu so they can transfer into the boxes in Pokemon Home.

The connection between Pokemon Home and Pokemon Go is still working out all the kinks for trainers. At the time of this post, trainers that have reached level 33 in Pokemon Go are the only members that can Pokemon to Pokemon Home. This is a feature that has grown to be a frustrating concept for players that have not been able to reach that level if they are fairly new to Pokemon Go after learning about all the cool features of synching the franchises together. The charging of the GO Transporter Energy is also a frustrating concept to the player, for after sending Pokemon to Pokemon Home on one day will force a player to wait for the energy to recharge for a few days, unless if they pay with PokeCoins in order to skip the process. A reserved feature that also limits players to continue to use the function, but forces the player to “pay to play” if they choose not to wait to transfer to Pokemon Home.

Another feature that seems to be limited is the ability to not allow trainers to send special edition Pokemon to Pokemon Home. Certain species of Pokemon that have holiday costumes or hats are not allowed to be transferred to Pokemon Home at this current time. The understanding is limiting the ability of trainers to play with Pokemon that have these costumes or hats on Pokemon Sword or Shield due to the idea that this would require a mass update for the game in order for this to happen. So that collection of special edition Pikachus that have balloons tied on or the ones wearing Ash’s hat cannot even be held in the collection on Pokemon Home for trainers to humble brag about. Shadow Pokemon that are normally under the captivity of GO Team Rocket are also not allowed to be sent to Pokemon Home. Unless the Pokemon is purified on Pokemon Go, the trainer cannot send a Shadow Pokemon to hold in their collection. With the early conditions of this connection just starting, this most likely will not be a permanent ban for these Pokemon.

This update for trainers is an event that can easily be celebrated for dedicated fans of the Pokemon franchise. Trainers who had an abundance of Pokemon that they wanted to train or play alongside in the core series of the game can now happen. With the potential of other games to be released for the Nintendo Switch, trainers will be ecstatic to have more Pokemon to play with from Pokemon Go. The possibilities are endless with the five-year anniversary of Pokemon Go coming next year, which also celebrates the 25th anniversary as a franchise as a whole in 2022. What will Niantic and Gamefreak have in store for trainers in the near future? Hopefully more fun to sync up with Pokemon Go and Pokemon Home.