Pokémon Transfer Chart: How to Move Pokémon Between Games

Interactive Pokémon transfer chart from Red and Blue through DS and 3DS to Switch and HOME, including Pal Park, Poké Transporter, Bank and GO.

Published 1 Sep 2026 · Updated 30 Sep 2026

Choose a Pokémon to see where it can be caught, transferred, and moved to Pokémon HOME.

How to read the transfer chart

A run ending in an arrowhead is one-way: once a Pokémon crosses, it never comes back to that game. A run without an arrowhead moves 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. The 2026 Nintendo Switch release of FireRed and LeafGreen does not change this: its own saves link to Pokémon HOME, but a Game Boy Advance cartridge still has only Pal Park.

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.

From 7 October 2026, HOME version 4.1.0 also links the Nintendo Switch release of FireRed LeafGreen (on sale since 27 February 2026). HOME goes into maintenance at 9:00 a.m. Japan time that day — the evening of 6 October in the Americas — and comes back with the link. The door only opens outward: a FireRed or LeafGreen Pokémon can come back from HOME until it visits another game, and nothing caught elsewhere can enter FireRed or LeafGreen. The Pokédex syncs as well, and completing the FireRed and LeafGreen Pokédex earns a Celebi in the HOME phone app.

Pokémon GO is the one box with no run leading 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 in full colour; 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.

Transferring Pokémon between games: 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 Pokémon from FireRed and LeafGreen to Pokémon HOME?

Yes from 7 October 2026, if you play the Nintendo Switch release: HOME version 4.1.0 links it, one way out. The original Game Boy Advance cartridges still need Pal Park and the DS and 3DS chain, which closes on 25 February 2027.

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.