Pokémon Transfer Chart: How to Move Pokémon Between Every Game

Every bridge from Red and Blue to Pokémon HOME on one interactive chart — Link Cable, Pal Park, Transporter, Bank, GO — and which ones are about to close.

Every mainline Pokémon game can pass its Pokémon forward to the next one — but never by the same door twice. A Link Cable, a Time Capsule, a DS with a cartridge slot, a lab on a Unova route, two 3DS apps and one cloud service later, a Bulbasaur caught in 1998 can stand in Paldea today. This chart draws the whole network in one place: every game family and app as a box, every way of moving Pokémon between them as an arrow, and the one bridge that is about to close.

Covers

Red Blue Yellow through Legends: Z-A, plus Stadium, Colosseum, Box, Ranch, Bank, HOME and GO

Closing

Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter end on 25 February 2027, 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time — the last bridge from any DS or 3DS game into HOME

One-way doors

Pal Park, Poké Transfer, Poké Transporter, Bank → HOME, and everything leaving Pokémon GO

Scope it

Type a Pokémon into the chart to grey out every game it can never enter and light up the routes it can travel

How to read the chart

Arrows with one head are one-way: once a Pokémon crosses, it never comes back to that game. Arrows with two heads move Pokémon freely in both directions — as long as the receiving game can hold the species at all, which is what the greying does when you scope the chart to one Pokémon. Every arrow carries the name of its bridge, and the bridges fall into three families:

Game Boy to Game Boy: the Time Capsule

The first two generations are the only ones that trade with each other directly. Gold, Silver and Crystal open a Time Capsule on the second floor of every Pokémon Center once Bill has visited, and it trades with a Generation 1 cartridge over a plain Link Cable — but only the original 151 species, and only if they know nothing newer than a Generation 1 move. A Pikachu with a Gen 2 move is politely refused. Stadium and Stadium 2 sit beside both generations as a box system, reading the cartridge through the Transfer Pak.

Game Boy Advance: link cables and Pal Park

Ruby Sapphire Emerald FireRed LeafGreen all trade with each other over a Link Cable, with one catch: FireRed and LeafGreen refuse Hoenn species until you have finished the Sevii Islands errand for the Ruby and Sapphire plates and hold the National Pokédex. The GameCube joins the same web through the GC–GBA cable — Colosseum and XD hand over purified Shadow Pokémon, Pokémon Box stores whole boxes, and the Colosseum Bonus Disc drops a Jirachi straight onto a Ruby or Sapphire cartridge.

Leaving the GBA means Pal Park: slot the GBA cartridge into the second slot of an original DS or DS Lite, and Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold or SoulSilver will migrate six Pokémon per day — one way, no HM moves, National Pokédex required. A DSi or 3DS has no slot, so this is the step most players find they cannot do any more.

Nintendo DS: Poké Transfer and the end of Wi-Fi

Generation 4 and 5 games do not trade with each other. Instead, Black White Black 2 White 2 pull Pokémon out of a Generation 4 game at the Poké Transfer Lab on Route 15 — two DS systems, six Pokémon per round, a short catching minigame, and no held items, Eggs or HM moves. It opens after the Hall of Fame. Within a generation, trades still work over local wireless; Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and the GTS closed in May 2014, so nothing on the DS trades online any more.

My Pokémon Ranch on the Wii is the era’s side door: it stores up to a thousand Pokémon from Diamond or Pearl and gives some back — Hayley’s Cherish Ball Mew and Phione are ranch exclusives.

Nintendo 3DS: Poké Transporter and Pokémon Bank

The 3DS replaced cables with two apps. Poké Transporter empties Box 1 of a Generation 5 cartridge — or of a Virtual Console Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver or Crystal — into Pokémon Bank’s Transport Box in one go. Pokémon Bank then moves Pokémon freely between X Y Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire Sun Moon Ultra Sun Ultra Moon, with one limit: Alolan species and forms cannot be withdrawn into a Generation 6 game. There is no direct trade between Generation 6 and 7 — Bank is the only bridge.

Nintendo Switch: Pokémon HOME is the hub

Pokémon HOME receives from Bank (one way, HOME Premium Plan required) and from Pokémon GO (one way, through the GO Transporter), and exchanges Pokémon with Let's Go, Pikachu! Let's Go, Eevee! Sword Shield Brilliant Diamond Shining Pearl Legends: Arceus Scarlet Violet and, since April 2026, Legends: Z-A. Each Switch game only accepts the species in its own Pokédex, which is why a scoped chart greys some of them out, and a Pokémon that visits a newer game can be locked out of older ones. Send it where it should stay.

Pokémon GO is the one box with no arrow pointing back into it: GO Park in Fuchsia City takes Kanto species, their Alolan forms, Meltan and Melmetal into Let’s Go, and the GO Transporter sends anything else to HOME — both for good.

Use the chart for one Pokémon

Type a name into the search box above the chart. Every edition the species can be caught, gifted or found in lights up with a solid badge; every box it can be moved into stays in colour; every box that has no place for it goes grey; and the arrows that actually carry it are drawn in full colour. The same scoped chart sits on every Pokédex page under “Games & transfers”, already set to that Pokémon.

Quick answers

Can I transfer Pokémon from a DS game to the Switch?

Yes, until 25 February 2027: Generation 4 → Poké Transfer → Generation 5 → Poké Transporter → Pokémon Bank → Pokémon HOME → any Switch game that holds the species. You need a 3DS that already has Transporter and Bank installed and a HOME Premium Plan for the last step.

Can I transfer from Ruby, Sapphire or Emerald to Pokémon HOME?

Yes, by the longest route on the chart: Pal Park into a Generation 4 game on an original DS or DS Lite, then the DS route above. Every step is one way.

Can Pokémon go back from Pokémon HOME to Pokémon Bank or a 3DS game?

No. Bank → HOME is strictly one way, and nothing in HOME can ever return to a 3DS or DS game.

Can Game Boy Pokémon reach modern games?

Only from the 3DS Virtual Console versions, through Poké Transporter into Bank. An original Game Boy or Game Boy Color cartridge has no bridge into Generation 3 or beyond.

What exactly stops working when Pokémon Bank ends?

Bank, Poké Transporter and the Bank → HOME transfer, all at once: 25 February 2027, 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Local trades between 3DS games keep working; there is just no way out of the 3DS afterwards.

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