Pokémon Home explained free vs premium features and compatible games explained
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Pokémon Home is a cloud-based service where you can store and transfer Pokémon to and from modern Pokémon games.
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Category : Pokemon
This service is the next instalment in a long line of services and in-game features that have allowed you to bring your favourite Pokémon together in one place.
It all began in Pokémon Silver and Gold with the Time Capsule, leading up to the most recently Pokémon Bank.
Pokémon Home will be compatible with a variety of games, including Pokémon Go and Switch games such as Pokémon Sword and Shield – and has both free and premium features.
On this page:
- What is Pokémon Home? All Pokémon Home features explained
- What games are compatible with Pokémon Home?
- Pokémon Home’s free vs premium features, and price, explained
- What happens when your Pokémon Home premium subscription expires?
What is Pokémon Home? All Pokémon Home features explained
Pokémon Home is a cloud-based service being developed by The Pokémon Company where you’ll be able to transfer and store your Pokémon from mainline and other entries of the series, which will be available to view on smartphone devices and Nintendo Switch.
It is, essentially, the evolved form of Pokémon Bank.
There are essentially three key features of Pokémon Home – collecting, trading and transfers.
Pokémon Home Collecting
Pokémon Home allows you to amass your collection of Pokémon between games, and has a series of features to help support it:
- A National Pokédex will track your entries, including Mega Evolve and Gigantamax forms
- Mystery Gifts can be received for Sword and Shield, as well as additional ones specific to Home
- A ‘Your Room’ section allowing you to look at news about connected games and collect stickers for your profile based on completing Home-specific challenges
- Mobile-specific features, including searching Pokémon by ability or move; see progress on Ranked Battles and Online Competitions in Pokémon Sword and Shield, and look at Trainer battle data and popular moves used in competitions
- Earn Pokémon Home Points, which increase as you deposit more Pokémon, and can be exchanged for BP in core Pokémon games
Pokémon Home Trading
As well as the ability to transfer Pokémon to (and in some cases, from) Home to other Pokémon games, Pokémon Home will also allow you to trade Pokémon with other Home users – whether they’re your friends and anyone else around the world.
These trading features are exclusive to the mobile version of Pokémon Home, and works in four ways:
- Wonder Box trading, even when Pokémon Home is not being used
- Global Trade System trading, allowing you to specify which Pokémon you want to send and receive in return
- Room Trade, allowing you to trade within a private room with up to 20 others
- Friend Trade, allowing you to trade with those nearby
As for bringing Pokémon to Home, we have a dedicated how to transfer Pokémon to Pokémon Home page – but if you’re wondering about compatible Pokémon games…
What games are compatible with Pokémon Home?
Pokémon Home will be directly compatible with the following games:
- Pokémon Sword – Nintendo Switch
- Pokémon Shield – Nintendo Switch
- Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu! – Nintendo Switch
- Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee! – Nintendo Switch
- Pokémon Bank – Nintendo 3DS
- Pokémon Go (iOS and Android) – by the end of 2020
As shown in the above image, only Pokémon Sword and Shield will have the ability to both transfer and receive Pokémon from Pokémon Home. Other supported games, meanwhile, are a one-way trip.
Additionally, you can expect only supported Pokémon can be transferred to the relevant game. So you won’t be able to send anything post Gen 1 to Let’s Go Eevee! or Let’s Go Pikachu!, while Sword and Shield will only feature those featured in the regional Galar Pokédex.
Finally, it’s worth stating since Pokémon Home is compatible with Pokémon Bank, you can technically bring those supported mainline Pokémon games on Nintendo 3DS forward to Home.
Our dedicated how to transfer Pokémon to Pokémon Home page explains how to do all this in further detail.
With it finally in the wild, here’s how to start the Crown Tundra DLC and our full Pokémon Crown Tundra walkthrough. Plus, here’s how to catch Calyrex, Glastrier and Spectrier, the Regieleki and Regidrago puzzle solution and Regirock, Regice, Registeel locations, details on how to catch Legendary Birds Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres in the Crown Tundra, the Ultra Beasts and Necrozma adventure, Dynamax Adventures, including the legendries you can catch on these adventures, and the new Crown Tundra Pokédex and returning Pokémon explained. For Isle of Armor players, here’s how to find the Slowpoke, where to find Max Mushroom locations, and how to get Kubfu, become best friends and evolve it, plus all Diglett locations too! For the base game, here’s info on the ability to transfer Pokémon to Pokémon Home, the Wild Area, lists of all TM locations and TRs, all Galarian forms and finally our main Pokémon Sword and Shield walkthrough for the whole game.
Pokémon Home’s free vs premium features, and price, explained
Unlike Pokémon Bank, Pokémon Home is a free service with an optional ‘premium’ tier with additional features.
Pokémon Home’s Premium price is as follows:
This is more expensive than Pokémon Bank at £4.49 / $4.99 / €4.99 – but remember that Home’s core features are free.
Purchasing a ‘Premium’ Home subscription allows you to do the following:
- Transfer Pokémon from Pokémon Bank to Pokémon Home *
- Deposit more than 30 Pokémon in Pokémon Home (up to 6,000)
- Trade more than 3 Pokémon in a Wonder Box at once (up to 10)
- Trade more than 1 Pokémon in the GTS at once (up to 3)
- Create Rooms for the Room Trade feature (participation within a Room, however, remains free for all)
- Use the ‘Judge’ function to see how strong a Pokémon will be **
* Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter will be available at no cost until March 12th, 2020, allowing players to grab Pokémon from their 3DS games without a Bank subscription. However, you still need a Premium Home subscription to move them from Bank to Pokémon Home.
** Unavailable during Pokémon Home’s February 2020 launch.
What happens when your Pokémon Home premium subscription expires?
Though Pokémon Home has a free option, as shown above, there is a premium tier which expand the number of Pokémon you can deposit – from 30 to a whopping 6,000.
The question is – what happens to those Pokémon when your Pokémon Home subscription runs out? Here’s The Pokémon’s Company official statement on what happens:
“If you deposit 31 or more Pokémon in Pokémon Home while you have the Premium Plan, and your plan then changes to the no-cost Basic Plan, you will not be able to view or withdraw any Pokémon beyond the 30th Pokémon you deposited.
“By re-enrolling in the Premium Plan, you’ll be able to view all the information about the additional Pokémon as well as move them out of Pokémon Home.”
So your Pokémon will be safe – though most will be inaccessible until you resubscribe to Pokémon Home. This makes the decision to transfer Pokémon forward from previous generations more important – do you want to bring them to Pokémon Home at the risk of not being able to access them if your subscription lapses, or should they stay in those games where you could readily access them?
It’s a choice only you can make. Ultimately, it’s better than Pokémon Bank – which had a disclaimer it would remove your Pokémon if you didn’t keep up the subscription. At least in Pokémon Home, they won’t go anywhere!
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