Move your Pokemon
across 30 years of games.
From the original Link Cable to Pokemon HOME and Pokemon GO, every transfer method ever made - explained, mapped, and searchable. Pick where your Pokemon is and where you want it to go, and we'll plot the exact path.
Kanto remakes to Sinnoh remakes
Transfers are a one-way climb
Understand these two ideas and the entire 30-year system suddenly makes sense.
The Great Divide
Pokemon from Generation I and II can never reach Generation III directly. The jump to the Game Boy Advance broke the link forever - the only way across is the Virtual Console time-travel trick.
Read the deep dive →One-way ratchets
Most steps - Pal Park, Poke Transfer, the move into HOME - click forward and lock. Once a Pokemon climbs the ladder it cannot come back down. Plan your final destination first.
How ratchets work →Pokemon HOME ties the modern world together
Today's games move to and from HOME freely, while the past and Pokemon GO flow in through one-way doors. Watch the Pokemon stream along each connection.
Every transfer method
Link Trade
Two games connected by a Link Cable (or, later, wirelessly) swap Pokemon directly. This is the foundation every other transfer method is built on, and it is the only method that is reliably two-way.
Time Capsule
The Time Capsule lets Generation II games (Gold, Silver, Crystal) trade back and forth with Generation I games (Red, Blue, Yellow) - the only time the franchise allowed a brand-new generation to trade with the previous one.
The Great Divide
There is no way to move a Pokemon from Generation I or II directly into Generation III. The jump from the Game Boy to the Game Boy Advance changed the save hardware and the entire data format, severing the link forever.
Pal Park
Pal Park is an in-game area in the Generation IV games that imports Pokemon from a Generation III cartridge slotted into the bottom of a Nintendo DS. It is strictly one-way: once a Pokemon migrates, it can never return to the GBA game.
Poke Transfer
The Poke Transfer Lab in Generation V (Black, White, Black 2, White 2) pulls Pokemon up from a Generation IV game. Like Pal Park before it, it is permanent and one-way.
Poke Transporter
Poke Transporter is a free 3DS application that moves Pokemon from Generation V cartridges - and later from the Virtual Console releases of Generations I and II - up into Pokemon Bank. It only flows one way: into Bank.
Pokemon Bank Deposit
Pokemon Bank is the 3DS-era cloud box service. Generation VI and VII games deposit and withdraw freely with Bank, making it the central hub of the 3DS era.
Move to HOME
Pokemon Bank can send its entire collection up into Pokemon HOME, but only in one direction. Once a Pokemon moves from Bank to HOME, it can never go back down to Bank or the 3DS games.
Pokemon HOME Transfer
Pokemon HOME connects the Nintendo Switch games to one cloud. Compatible games deposit and withdraw two-way, but every game only accepts the species that appear in its own regional dex.
GO Transporter
Pokemon GO can send Pokemon to Pokemon HOME using GO Transporter Energy. It is one-way: a Pokemon sent from GO to HOME can never return to GO.
GO Park
GO Park is a complex in Let's Go, Pikachu! & Eevee! that receives Kanto Pokemon sent from a nearby Pokemon GO account. It is one-way and limited to the original Kanto species (and their Alolan forms).
Featured guides
The Great Divide: Why Gen II Pokemon Can't Reach Gen III
There is exactly one hard wall in 30 years of Pokemon transfers. Here is why it exists and the only way past it.
One-Way Streets: How Transfer Ratchets Work
Most transfer methods only flow in one direction. Understanding this "ratchet" is the key to planning any route.
Reviving a 1999 Pokemon into Scarlet & Violet
Follow a single Pokemon from the Virtual Console games all the way to the current generation.
Think you know your transfers?
Take the Transfer Trivia quiz - ten quick questions with explanations for every answer.
Start the quizSee the whole universe at once
An interactive map of every game and service, wired together by every transfer that exists.
Open the universe map