There have been many trades in the Pokémonseries of games. Many are simply middle road and good filler for the Pokédex, but there are some that are either outright steals or the biggest rip🐻 off's ever in Pokémon. When trading with an NPC there will be limits on how many there are in the game to encourage play💙ers to get together, but sometimes they can give a real helping hand in trying to collect all the Pokémon.
Looking throughout the whole series, there are a number of scams that the NPC's pull so you do all the work to get the rare Pokémon while giving you something common🔯 in retꦰurn. With enough foresight or sense, you probably avoided those trades and made the good ones that could have given you an end game Pokémon, or you're still bitter about those deals. either way here are 5 of the best and 5 of the worst trades in all of the Pokémon main-line series.
10 G🍒ood: Haunter for Alolan Grav🌜eler (Sun & Moon)
A more recent one, Gamefreak finally gave in to letting Peop෴le get trade Pokémon on their own without having to use LAN or direct link add ons like in previous games. This one is really beneficial because of he commonness of Haunter if you hit the haunted market, you could also run into a Gengar there while looking for a Mimikyu so there's no point in owning a Haunter anyways. Getting the Alolan Graveler is a big hat in your cap in completing the Pokedex plus you get a really good end game Pokémon for fighting the champion.
9 Bad: Raichu for E﷽lectrode (Red & Blue) 🌟
While the amount of Electrode you can find in gen 1 is limited, if you saved before interacting with one of the balls in the pꦰower plant you could be covered for catching it with a couple of resets when they decide to be jerks and blow themselves up. Getting a Pikachu to evolve can be so much worse of an experience in the Veridian Forest because it's rare. An Electrode is guaranteed, finding a Pikachu is not.
8 Good: Chansey for🦩 Aerodactyl (Silver & Gold)
Chansey can be a pain to catch and be really rare in gen 2, but considering your trading it for a dinosaur that no longer exists from some woman named Kim, it could be considered a good deal as you won't find it literally anywhere else in the region. Considering Aerodactyl's strength, it would be a good end game Pokémo꧒n if you trained it up and had it learn ancient power, while Chansey is most likely a place holder just to fill up your Pokédex.
7 Bad: Haunter for Xatu (Heart Gold 👍& Soul Silve♔r)
Haunter evolves when it's traded, you just got a bird you could find out in the wild in exchange for giving him a Gengar, something you wouldn't get unless you had a friend with a special link kit. Evolving Ghastly into Haunter isn't all that hard but the act of trading it for a P0kémon you can catch in the late game is insulting. What's worse is that it would evolve for him, and y💖ou aren't getting the same f▨or a Machop or something of the like. Good luck with the bird with the 100-yard stare, its best use is making sure it watches you in your sleep.
6 Good: Forretress for Beldum❀ (Heart Gold & Soul Silver) 🐻
Forretress isn't that horrible to get and evolve. You can also find some late game in the wild if you didn't feel like using that trainer exp on its previous form. To get Beldum, a first form, might at first seem like a rip-off, but considering that this will eventually evolve into MetaGross, arguably one of the tankiest and most devastating P0kémon up until gen 5, it becomes worth the inv♕estment.
Having a strong/steel psychic type never hurt anyone in battle especially when it's a Metagross in Heart Gold/Soul Silver. Beldum is slow to level up, so the trader is handing you quit▨e a fixer-upper, but being one of the only ways to obtain this P0kémon for the Pokedex and fill out each entry to Metagross you need it more than he does.
5 🌊 🐻 Bad: Ralts for Seedot (Emerald)
It's a horrible awful trade anyway you look at it. Ralts can be a pain to find out in the wild, where Seedot is an extremely common P0kémon, it should honestly be the other way around for the player to tღake the strain off of them. While gen 3 didn't really♉ throw any bones, this is just a case of you doing all the work for a P0kémon that will not benefit you at all, and will tick off when you run into it later.
4 Goo♒d: Any Pokemon for Steelix (Heart Gold & Soul Silver) ꦉ
Considering for the longest time Steelix was a trade-only P0kémon, HeartGold/Soul Silver really threw a lot of good bones with their game. Steelix was a decent P0kémon to use throughout the region and could learn a lot of useful HM's if need be. Trading whatever P0kémon you wanted for it was like receiving it for free, which is good for everyone's wallets because the original versions loved to push the link cables which you had to buy with real-world🎉 money.
3 Bad: Medicham for Everstoꦕne Haunter (Diamond & Pearl) 🐟
Gen 4 pulled off the 🦩ultimate sin with this one. If you knew you could get a Gengar by getting a Haunter in trade, you were very excited by this, and with a bunch of level 38 Medicham outside of the snowy city, literally in the first bush when exiting it, It seemed like a good and easy deal to get excited over.
But, 🌺no. Mindy pulled a jerkꦗ move and attached an everstone to that Haunter so it wouldn't evolve. You just ended up with another common P0kémon. Thanks, Mindy, you lazy bum.
2 Good: ♊Hippodown for Alakazam (Black 2 & White 2) ꦿ
Black 2/White 2 was the ultimate combinatiওon of user-friendly and P0kémon level of quality, where they threw some good bones your way without just handing them to you for no reason. Hippodown for Alakasm was a good example of that, where you found and evolved a rare P0kémon and you got an exclusive P0kémon in return, something Gamefreak seemed to learn at the time on how their in-game trades should work.
1 Bad: Obstagoon for Mr. Mime (Sword & Sheild) ཧ
In the latest generation of P0kémon, we have a screwy trade that does not justify actually taking part in. Mr. Mime once upon a time was worth a simple Abra, which you had to catch it before it teleports, maybe taking an hour if you looked hard enough in gen 1. In Sword and Shield, this guy expects a fully evolved P0kémon that has to be somewhere around the 40s in level in order to give you the same Mime. Oh, and that Mime cannot fully evolve and doesn't help all that much in filling the Pokedex for Galar, so this deal is unfortunately🌠 bad.