Pokemon Home, a new cloud storage service in the vein of Pokemon Bank for 3DS, is set to launch on Nintendo Switch and mobile devices this month. While we've known about Home since last June, The Pokemon Company has only recently shared full details about the service, including how much it will cost and what kind of features it will offer.
Ostensibly the biggest appeal of Pokemon Home is being able to bring over monsters you've caught in previous games to Pokemon Sword and Shield on Switch, but the service provides other functionality as well. As we recently learned, Pokemon Home also allows you to trade Pokemon with other players outside of the actual games, and you can use it to check information about Pokemon as well as battling stats.
To help catch you up on everything the service entails, we've rounded up all the most important details about Pokemon Home below, from its price and features to all the games that are compatible with it. You can learn more about Pokemon Home on its official website.
What Is Pokemon Home?Like Pokemon Bank, Pokemon Home is a cloud service that allows you to store Pokemon you've captured from various games in one place and easily move them between titles. The service also offers a handful of other ancillary functions, such as the ability to trade Pokemon, view detailed information about your monsters, and check battle data for online competitions happening in Sword and Shield.
How Much Does Pokemon Home Cost?Pokemon Home will be available in two tiers: free and premium. The former can be used at no charge and gives you access to most of the service's features, albeit in limited capacity; for instance, you will only be able to store a maximum of 30 Pokemon in the cloud using the free plan, and you can only deposit a single Pokemon in the Global Trade System at a time.
The premium plan, on the other hand, carries a subscription fee and offers more benefits, including greater storage capacity. With a premium plan, you will be able to deposit 6,000 Pokemon in Home, and you can place three Pokemon in the GTS at a time. A premium plan also gives you access to some additional perks and features, such as the Judge function, which allows you to view your Pokemon's base stats.
The premium Pokemon Home plan will cost $3 USD for one month, $5 USD for three months, and $16 USD for 12 months--slightly less than the price of a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. You can see the full breakdown of features for each tier of the service below.
Description Basic Premium Moving Pokemon from Pokemon Bank Unavailable Available Number of Pokemon that can be deposited 30Pokemon 6,000Pokemon Number of Pokemon that can be placed in the Wonder Box at once 3Pokemon 10Pokemon Number of Pokemon that can be placed in the GTS at once 1Pokemon 3Pokemon Room Trade Participate Participate and host Judge function Unavailable Available Do I Need Nintendo Switch Online To Use Pokemon Home?Pokemon Home is a separate service from Nintendo Switch Online, so a subscription for one does not grant you access to the other. You don't need to have a Nintendo Switch Online membership to use Pokemon Home, but you do need a Nintendo Account, which can be created for free on Nintendo's website. However, a Switch Online subscription is required to use the online features in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
What Games Are Compatible With Pokemon Home?The Nintendo Switch version of Pokemon Home is compatible with both Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee and Pokemon Sword and Shield. Additionally, both the Switch and mobile versions of the service are able to connect with Pokemon Bank, allowing you to bring your Pokemon over from 3DS to Switch. However, you will need to have a premium Pokemon Home subscription to transfer Pokemon from Bank.
Pokemon you've moved from Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee to Home can either be retrieved in those games or in Pokemon Sword and Shield, provided they appear in the Galar Pokedex; however, any Pokemon from Let's Go that you've taken into Sword or Shield can no longer be used in their original game. Similarly, Pokemon you've transferred from Bank to Home can no longer be returned to 3DS.
In addition to those titles, Pokemon Home will also be compatible with Pokemon Go; however, support for the mobile game will not be available when the service launches and will implemented sometime in the future.
What's Different Between The Switch And Mobile Versions Of Pokemon Home?You'll have access to both the Switch and mobile versions of Pokemon Home, provided you own the appropriate hardware and have linked them to the same Nintendo Account. While many of the service's features are available across both platforms, each also has some unique functionality. For instance, only the Switch version of Pokemon Home is compatible with the Switch Pokemon games. The Switch version also allows you to exchange Pokemon Home Points--which you can accumulate by using the service--for Battle Points, a type of in-game currency used to purchase special battle-focused items at the Battle Tower in Sword and Shield.
The mobile version, meanwhile, offers the ability to trade Pokemon and receive exclusive Mystery Gifts. On top of that, the mobile version displays more detailed information about a Pokemon, such as its Abilities and what moves it is able to learn. You can also use the mobile version to check news updates as well as battle data for Sword and Shield's online competitions, although this functionality will be added sometime after the service launches. You can see which features are available in each version of Pokemon Home below.
Feature Nintendo Switch version Mobile version Move Pokemon with Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee Available Unavailable Move Pokemon with Pokemon Sword and Shield Available Unavailable Move Pokemon with Pokemon Bank Available Available Judge Pokemon Available Available Trade Pokemon Unavailable Available Receive Mystery Gifts Unavailable Available Check Battle Data Unavailable Available Check News Unavailable Available Exchange Pokemon Home Points for Battle Points Available Unavailable How Do You Trade Pokemon Through Home?As previously mentioned, the mobile version of Pokemon Home offers you the ability to trade Pokemon with other players. The service features four different trading options: the Global Trade System, Wonder Box, Room Trade, and Friend Trade.
The Global Trade System allows you to offer up a Pokemon in exchange for a specific monster. You can specify which particular Pokemon you're looking for--even if you don't have it registered in Pokemon Home's National Dex--down to its gender and level. When another player offers a Pokemon that matches your criteria, the monsters will automatically be traded. You will also have the option to search Pokemon other players have put up on the GTS and seek out potential trades yourself.
Wonder Box, meanwhile, functions much like the Surprise Trade feature in Pokemon Sword and Shield. A Pokemon you place in the Wonder Box will be traded for a random one offered by another player. The free version of Pokemon Home allows you to place three Pokemon at a time in the Wonder Box, while the premium plan gives you the ability to place 10.
Room Trade allows you to set up a room and trade with the other players who join. Rooms can host up to 20 players at a time, and you won't know which Pokemon you'll be receiving until the trades are complete. All Pokemon Home users will be able to join rooms, but only those who have a premium plan can create one.
Finally, Friend Trade allows you to trade Pokemon directly with other players you've registered on your Pokemon Home friends list. The Pokemon Company notes, "The features related to adding and managing friends in Pokemon Home cannot be used by users under the age of 16."
When Does Pokemon Home Launch?The Pokemon Company has not yet pinned down an exact release date for Pokemon Home, but the service is slated to launch for Switch and mobile sometime in February 2020.
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