Credit: The Pokémon Company
You’ll have to pay for all the bells and whistles.
Since the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield, players have been waiting for a way to bring over their Pokémon stored in the Pokémon Bank (at least, the ones in the Galar PokéDex…). The new service that would do this, Pokémon Home, was announced a while ago, but has been somewhat murky in the detail department until today.
Aside from obvious features like moving Pokémon between the Bank, Sword and Shield, and the Let’s Go games, Home provides a handful of other tricks that cater to traders and trainers. Pokémon can be deposited into separate boxes for the Global Trading System (or GTS), as well as the Wonder Trade system, which exchanges traded Pokémon at random. A “Judge” feature is also available that will show you how your Pokémon stack up against others like them around the world, which could be handy for competitive players. Home can also be used on a smartphone in addition to a Switch console. In fact, some features, like trades and mystery gifts, can only be utilized through the mobile app, while moving Pokémon from games can only be done on a Switch.
Here’s where things get a little tricky; Pokémon Home comes in two different plans, Basic and Premium. The Basic plan, which is free to use, can only store 30 Pokémon, can’t move Pokémon from the Bank, can’t use the Judge, can only participate in trade rooms, and can only send a couple of Pokémon through the GTS or Wonder Trade at a time. The Premium plan has all of the features I mentioned before, can store up to 6,000 Pokémon, and can both host and participate in trading rooms. So the big question is, what’s the damage? Thankfully, the service is not especially expensive; you can pay in plans of $3 a month, $5 every three months, or $15 a year. Not terrible, though it is worth mentioning that it is a hike compared to Pokémon Bank’s $5 a year. You’ll have to decide how much you miss your Pokémon when Home launches some time in February.
