Pokémon Home version 2.0 compatible games, free vs premium features and price explained

Publish date: 2023-04-19

Pokémon Home is a cloud-based service where you can store and transfer Pokémon to and from modern Pokémon games.

It's the next instalment in a long line of in-game features - starting with the Time Capsule of Pokémon Gold and Silver - and services, like Pokémon Bank, which grant you the ability to bring your favourite Pokémon together in one place.

Pokémon Home is compatible with Pokémon Sword, Shield, Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl and Legends: Arceus, along with Pokémon Bank and Pokémon Go.

Aside from transferring Pokémon, this service has a variety of features divided across free and premium tiers.

On this page:

Pokémon Home features: Nintendo Switch and mobile version differences explained

Pokémon Home is a free-to-access cloud-based service which allows you to store, trade and transfer across the mainline game series and Pokémon Go, as well as Pokémon Bank if you pay a subscription fee.

It's essentially an evolved form of Pokémon Bank and is available on both the Nintendo Switch and smartphone devices; exactly what features Pokémon Home has, however, depends on which platform you're using it on.

Pokémon Home's features can be divided into three key catorgies - collecting, trading and transferring.

We have a dedicated guide on how to transfer Pokémon to Pokémon Home and, if you'd like to learn which games are compatible with the service, visit the next section.

Here we'll give you an in-depth look in to both the collecting and trading aspects of Pokémon Home. First, however, let's take a look at the differences between the Nintendo Switch and smartphone version of the service.

Nintendo Switch and mobile version differences

Below you can find the differences between the Nintendo Swtich and smartphone versions of Pokémon Home:

FeatureOn Nintendo Switch?On Smartphones?
Transfer Pokémon from / to Pokémon Legends: ArceusYesNo
Transfer Pokémon from / to Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining PearlYesNo
Transfer Pokémon from / to Pokémon Sword and ShieldYesNo
Transfer Pokémon from / to Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!YesNo
Transfer Pokémon from Pokémon GoYesYes
Transfer Pokémon from Pokémon BankYesYes
Judge PokémonYesYes
Trade PokémonNoYes
Receive Mystery GiftsNoYes
Check Battle DataNoYes
Check NewsNoYes
Exchange Pokémon Home Points for Battle Points (BP)YesNo

As you can see, both versions of Pokémon Home serve quite different purposes. Thankfully, with the service being free, it's easy to access all of the features - you just need to make sure that the Pokémon Home app can run on your phone!

Collecting with Pokémon Home

Pokémon Home allows you to consolidate your Pokémon collections from various games into one massive Pokémon horde.

To help you keep track of all these Pokémon, the service includes a selection of features to help you discover which Pokémon you're missing, analyse the ones you have, follow the latest Pokémon news and celebrate your collection:

Trading in Pokémon Home

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.

There are four different ways to trade in Pokémon Home and all of them are exclusive to the smartphone version of the service:

Having a Pokémon Home subscription will increase the amount of Pokémon you can trade via the GTS or Wonder Boxes at one time, along with granting you the ability to create rooms for Room Trades.

What games are compatible with Pokémon Home?

Pokémon Home will be directly compatible with the following games:

Thanks to the release of Pokémon Home's 2.0 update on May 18th 2022, you can transfer Pokémon from Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl to Home.

It's important to note that transferring Pokémon to a game they weren't orginally caught in, such as from Legends: Arceus to Brilliant Diamond, may cause the Pokémon's moves and level to change. You may even find that Pokémon's Poké Ball has changed too!

You can also only deposit Pokémon that can be caught once during regular Pokémon Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl gameplay once per save data in Pokémon Home.

Meanwhile, Origin Forme Dialga, Palkia and Giratina will revert to their base form, as will Arceus, when transferred to Pokémon Home. Sky Forme Shaymin, however, will remain the same upon being deposited in Home.

Alpha Pokémon transferred into Home from Legends: Arceus will retain their Alpha status, along with the symbol which represents this fact.

When it comes to transferring Pokémon from Pokémon Go into Pokémon Sword and Shield, you must first ensure you've either already caught said Pokémon or that its registered in the Galar Pokédex.

You can also only transfer Pokémon which appear in the Galar Pokédex into Pokémon Sword and Shield.

Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! also have a similar ceveat - where you can only transfer Gen 1 Pokémon into either game, since neither game has a National Pokédex.

It's also important to know that if a Pokémon orginally from Let's Go, Pikachu! or Let's Go, Eevee! is transferred into Sword and Shield, it can not be moved back to either of the Let's Go games. You can, however, easily transfer Pokémon between the two Let's Go games.

Premium tier Pokémon Home players also have the ability to transfer Pokémon from Pokémon Bank into Pokémon Home - freeing them from the confines of the Nintendo 3DS. Yet, if you transfer a Pokémon from Bank, you won't be able to move it back.

Our dedicated how to transfer Pokémon to Pokémon Home page explains how to do all this in further detail.

Finally, when a Pokémon orginally caught in Pokémon Sword, Shield, Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl is transferred into Legends: Arceus they will be kept in a Strange Ball; with the same thing occuring if you transfer a Pokémon from Legends: Arceus into Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl.

This change occurs because the modern day Poké Balls don't exist during the time period of Legends: Arceus, just like how the primitive Poké Balls of the Hisui era are no longer used in the modern day Pokémon world.

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

While Pokémon Home is a free service, there is an option Premium tier that, when paid for, grants you access to a number of features.

It's important to note that the subscription prices for the Premium tier differ depending on whether you wish to purchase it via the Nintendo eShop or the mobile version of Pokémon Home.

Pokémon Home's Premium tier subscription fees are as follows:

SubscriptioneShop priceMobile price
30 days£2.69£2.99
90 days£4.49£4.99
365 days£14.39£15.99

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:

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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