Before Pokémon Bank Shuts Down: The DS, 3DS & GBA Checklist

Pokémon Bank ends 25 Feb 2027. A tickable checklist of the Pokémon, events and ribbons to secure on old cartridges before the last bridge to HOME closes.

On 25 February 2027 Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter switch off, and with them the only road from a Game Boy Advance, DS or 3DS cartridge into Pokémon HOME. Whatever is not across by then stays on the old hardware forever — and a handful of Pokémon that only those games can produce become impossible to add to a modern collection. This is the checklist: what to move, what to catch, what to finish, ordered by how much it matters and how long it takes. Tick things off as you go; the ticks stay in your browser.

Deadline

25 February 2027, 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (early 26 February in Europe and Japan). Treat the last week of February as the real cutoff.

Who this is for

Anyone with Pokémon still on a Generation 3–7 cartridge or in Bank, or who wants a Pokémon that only those games can produce

You need

A 3DS with Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter already installed, a Pokémon HOME Premium Plan, and for older generations the hardware each item names

Start with

Items 1–2 — move what you already own first, then go hunting

First, the plumbing: how anything gets to HOME

Every item below ends the same way, so learn the route once. The transfer chart draws the whole network; the short version is that everything funnels through Pokémon Bank, and Bank has exactly one exit.

1. Generation 6 and 7 cartridges deposit straight into Bank X Y Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire Sun Moon Ultra Sun Ultra Moon — open Bank with the cartridge inserted and drag boxes across.
2. Generation 5 and Virtual Console go through Poké Transporter Black White Black 2 White 2 and the Virtual Console Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver and Crystal: Transporter empties the whole of Box 1 into Bank’s Transport Box. It cannot pick individual Pokémon, so arrange Box 1 first.
3. Generation 4 first climbs to Generation 5 Diamond Pearl Platinum HeartGold SoulSilver: the Poké Transfer Lab on Unova’s Route 15 pulls six Pokémon at a time across from a second DS, after the Hall of Fame — no held items, no Eggs, no HM moves.
4. Generation 3 starts even lower, at Pal Park Ruby Sapphire Emerald FireRed LeafGreen: an original DS or DS Lite with the GBA cartridge in its second slot migrates six Pokémon per day into a Generation 4 game. A DSi or 3DS has no slot.
5. Bank → HOME is the last step, and it needs Premium Open HOME on a Switch or phone signed into the same Nintendo Account, choose Pokémon Bank, and move whole boxes across. This needs a HOME Premium Plan and is one way — nothing ever returns to Bank. The Bank shutdown post has the step-by-step.

The checklist

Roughly in priority order: the cheap, irreplaceable things first, the long hunts last. “You are the OT” means the Pokémon carries your own trainer name and ID — the difference between a Pokémon you caught and a gift you were handed.

1. Move everything you already own into HOME Empty Pokémon Bank and every Generation 5, 6 and 7 cartridge you still have Pokémon on. This is the only item on the list that is pure loss if you skip it: anything left in Bank after the shutdown is gone. Do it now, while the servers are quiet, not in the last week. Full guide
2. Catch a Spinda that HOME will accept Spinda caught in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl cannot enter HOME at all — its billions of spot patterns broke the transfer (the chart still shows Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl lit, because a Spinda from anywhere else can be moved into them) — so every Spinda in a modern game came through Bank. Nearest catch: the tall grass on Route 113 in Hoenn, or Ten Carat Hill in the Alola games. RubySapphireEmeraldUltra SunUltra Moon Open on the map

   

3. Catch Celebi in Virtual Console Crystal — and shiny hunt it The 3DS Crystal turned the Japan-only GS Ball event into a built-in one: after the Hall of Fame, the Goldenrod Pokémon Center hands you the GS Ball, Kurt in Azalea Town examines it, and Celebi appears at the shrine in Ilex Forest at level 30. Generation 2 has no shiny lock, so soft-resetting at 1 in 8,192 is the only legitimate way to own a shiny Celebi with your own name on it — and it rides Transporter into Bank. Crystal Open on the map

   

4. Catch Victini as its Original Trainer in Black or White Victini waits at level 15 in the basement of Liberty Garden, reachable with the Liberty Pass — and catchable in any ball you like. The pass was a 2011 Wi-Fi gift, but the event still triggers on a 3DS pointed at a community Mystery Gift server, which makes this the one Victini outside Pokémon GO that can carry your own trainer name. Two badges are enough to sail there. BlackWhite
5. Catch Deoxys in the Delta Episode Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire’s post-game Delta Episode ends with Deoxys at level 80 as a normal catch — and, unlike Rayquaza a scene earlier, it is not shiny-locked, so it can be soft-reset. The most reliable Deoxys with your own OT outside GO; miss it and it returns to the top of Sky Pillar after the League. The older Birth Island version in Emerald and FireRed/LeafGreen needs an AuroraTicket that was never released outside events. Omega RubyAlpha Sapphire Open on the map Full guide

   

6. Shiny Type: Null and Poipole in Ultra Sun / Ultra Moon Two gifts with full 1-in-4,096 shiny odds and no Shiny Charm boost: Poipole at level 40 from the Ultra Recon Squad after Ultra Necrozma, and Type: Null from Gladion after you become Champion. Both lines have never been shiny anywhere else with you as OT — a shiny Silvally or Naganadel means a full playthrough per attempt, so budget the evenings. Ultra SunUltra Moon
7. Shaymin and Darkrai in Diamond, Pearl or Platinum Oak’s Letter opens the Seabreak Path to Shaymin, the Member Card opens Newmoon Island to Darkrai. Both items were Wi-Fi gifts, so today they come from a community Mystery Gift server — or, in Diamond and Pearl, from the well-documented void glitch that walks to both islands without them. Neither Pokémon is shiny-locked, and the Switch remakes never offered Darkrai outside its 2022 event. DiamondPearlPlatinum
8. Hayley’s Cherish Ball Mew and Phione from My Pokémon Ranch The WiiWare ranch is the only source of a Mew and a Phione in Cherish Balls: Hayley trades the Phione as the ranch grows and the Mew once it holds 999 Pokémon. The ranch only reads Diamond and Pearl outside Japan; from there it is Poké Transfer, Transporter, Bank. DiamondPearl
9. The one cap Pikachu that can be shiny Of all the Ash-hat Pikachu, only the Partner Cap Pikachu handed out through Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon’s QR giveaway rolls full shiny odds — it shows no special colouring, only the shiny sparkle. Soft-reset the gift if the event still redeems for you. Ultra SunUltra Moon
10. Battle Bond Greninja from the Sun/Moon demo Finish the Sun and Moon Special Demo and it sends a Battle Bond Greninja to the full game — the only Ash-Greninja that ever existed. The demo cannot be downloaded any more, so this is only for systems that still have it installed. SunMoon
11. A Manaphy Egg from Pokémon Ranger The Ranger Net mission “Recover the Precious Egg!” unlocks with a code typed in on the Ranger Net screen and beams a Manaphy Egg to any Generation 4 game over DS wireless. It hatches with you as OT — the only Manaphy that ever does. One Egg per Ranger save; a shiny one is a legendary RNG project, not a soft-reset. DiamondPearlPlatinum
12. Jirachi from the Colosseum Bonus Disc The North American Colosseum Bonus Disc gifts a level 5 Jirachi to Ruby or Sapphire over the GameCube–GBA cable; the European Pokémon Channel does the same after a week of play. The disc is rare and expensive, the shiny frames are famously few, and the Pokémon then needs the whole Pal Park route — but no later game ever handed Jirachi out in a plain Poké Ball. RubySapphire
13. N’s Pokémon, Dream Radar and other Generation 5 one-offs Black 2 and White 2 hold Pokémon no other game produces: N’s Pokémon (his OT and ID, perfect IVs, found after Memory Link with a Black or White save), the Hidden Ability Therian Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus from the Dream Radar app, and the Dream World Pokémon you may still have parked. Memory Link and Dream Radar both work without Wi-Fi. Black 2White 2
14. Bring the Game Boy Advance era up through Pal Park Everything still on a GBA cartridge — the Regis, the Lati twins, your first starters — needs an original DS or DS Lite for Pal Park, six per day, then Poké Transfer, Transporter and Bank. Count the days: fifty Pokémon is nine Pal Park sessions before the rest of the chain even begins. The Emerald Mew and other event-ticket Pokémon are only on the cartridges that received their events. RubySapphireEmeraldFireRedLeafGreen Full guide
15. Send your Virtual Console Pokémon through Transporter The 3DS re-releases are the only Game Boy games with a road to HOME. Transporter moves a whole box at a time; the Pokémon arrive with the GB mark, and the old stat values decide whether they come out shiny — so a Generation 1 or 2 shiny hunt done now is a HOME shiny later. Original cartridges have no bridge. RedBlueYellowGoldSilverCrystal
16. Finish the ribbons only the old games award Contest ribbons from Hoenn and Sinnoh, the Battle Frontier symbols, the Sinnoh and Kalos Champion ribbons, the Footprint and Effort ribbons — a Pokémon that leaves its generation can never go back for them. If you are building a Ribbon Master, every ribbon from Generation 3 to 7 has to be on the Pokémon before it steps into HOME. Full guide

Bank-only Pokémon you can no longer get legitimately

These come up in every shutdown list, and they are real Bank exclusives — but their events are over and no legitimate copy can be produced today. They are listed so you can recognise them, not chase them.

Quick answers

When exactly does Pokémon Bank shut down?

25 February 2027 at 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time — which is 26 February at 04:00 in Central Europe and 12:00 in Japan. Poké Transporter and the Bank → HOME transfer end at the same moment.

Is Pokémon Bank free?

Yes, since the 3DS eShop closed in March 2023 — but only for accounts that downloaded it before then. It cannot be bought or downloaded fresh.

Do I need a HOME Premium Plan?

For the Bank → HOME step, yes. Everything before it — Transporter, Bank, the DS routes — is free.

Which Pokémon become impossible after the shutdown?

A HOME-legal Spinda, Battle Bond Greninja, the Poké Ball-pattern Vivillon, and shiny Celebi, Type: Null, Silvally, Poipole and Naganadel with you as Original Trainer. Everything else on the list has a modern source, just a worse one.

Do my ticks sync between devices?

No — they are stored only in the browser you tick them in. There is no account and nothing is sent anywhere.

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