Everything you need to know about the new Pokemon HOME

Bill Cooney

A brand new feature for Pokémon Go has rolled out that allows trainers to keep track of all their Pokémon in one central location, whether they’re on a Switch or mobile device.

Trainers have a few different options when it comes to collecting their Pokémon: including the Sword and Shield Nintendo Switch games and the old mobile standby, Pokémon Go.

To kick things off in 2020, the Pokémon Company has announced a new feature that will eventually let players bring all of their Pokémon, no matter the system, together at last: Pokémon HOME.

Players have had since 2016 to collect plenty of Pokémon with Pokémon Go.

The  feature will allow players to move or trade Pokémon between Sword and Shield and the Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!, and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! games.

Moving Pokémon from Pokémon Go is not included in the Pokémon Home feature at this time, but there are plans to add it in the future.

Besides moving their own Pokémon, players can also use the Home feature to trade pocket monsters with other players.

As with the “Move” feature, trading Pokémon between Go and Sword/Shield seems to be unavailable at the time of writing, but could make its way to players sometime in the future.

Pokedex Upset
Moving your Pokémon between a Switch and mobile device is still unavailable, for now.

The Home feature includes a number of other updates in addition to being able to trade and move your Pokémon between games, such as the National Pokedex.

Players were more than a little upset when the National Pokédex wasn’t included in Sword and Shield, but it seems like Nintendo was saving it for the Pokémon Home feature, which makes sense, since it will allow trainers to track their Dex no matter the game.

With the mobile app version of Pokémon HOME, trainers will be able to see Pokédex entries, along with each Pokémon’s Abilities, as well as moves it can learn in the future.

A full rundown of what supports what with the new Pokémon HOME feature.

Exactly when, or if, Pokémon Go will cross over with Sword & Shield and the rest of the supported games for the HOME feature remains to be seen. If it is implemented, there could be some restrictions for the feature to prevent a ton of OP Pokémon running around online.

Pokémon HOME will be available in February of 2020, according to the publisher. An exact release date is still unknown, so stick with Dexerto for all the latest Pokémon updates.

About The Author

Bill Cooney was a Weekend Editor on Dexerto's US team, specializing in Overwatch, World of Warcraft, GTA, Twitch, YouTube, and Esports content.