Pokemon Sword and Shield - Transfers from Pokemon Home to Pokemon Sword and Shield is limited to Galar Dex

You can only transfer Pokemon to Sword and Shield if they are in the Galar Pokedex

During the previous Pokemon Direct on 6.5.2019, the Pokemon Company unveiled their newest cloud service, Pokemon Home. The cloud service will serve as a medium to transfer Pokemon from older games to the new titles. While it was not shown which Pokemon players can carry over, it cements the notion that old Pokemon are transferable. However, to what extent Pokemon could be carried over was not shown in great detail until the Treehouse live stream interview.

Treehouse livestream

In an interview with the company’s game producer, Mr. Junichi Masuda shared that not all Pokemon are transferable to Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield. As a matter of fact, he pointed out that only those that are present in the Galar Pokedex are transferable.

Quality over Quantity

Mr. Masuda explained the difference between Pokemon Bank and Pokemon Home. In Pokemon Bank, players were able to transfer Pokemon from older games through the Pokemon Transporter without restrictions. With Pokemon Home, however, he stated that the company needed to preserve the quality of their products without compromising the games’ release date. This ultimately led the team to cut the amount of Pokemon transferable to the new titles.

Possible Changes in the Foreseeable Future

We are still hoping that the company rethinks their decision for future titles, specifically the third installment. We understand that there are plenty of Pokemon to catch, with more than 800 models to update while meeting tight deadlines. However, a third installment might provide enough time to remove these restrictions.

The Pokemon Company has done a similar thing in the past, Pokemon Sun and Moon lacking a National Dex. This consequently limited players to having records of the region’s pokedex alone. Despite the lack of the National Dex, which enables players to record data of Pokemon that are outside their indigenous region, we still had the option to catch some Pokemon through Island Scans. We could also access our old Pokemon outside of the region through Pokemon Bank.

Maybe it’s too early for Gamefreak to reveal that they are working on getting everything to the game. Maybe they just need more time to implement them in the years to come. Hopefully we will witness the return of the feature and revisit the Galar region to go on a journey with our Pokemon from previous games.

Pokemon Sword and Shield release on November 15, 2019, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.

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