The Pokemon series has being going strong for eight full generations now, with each new set of games bringing new Pokemon, new mechanics, and a new region to explore. While players are certainly encouraged to engage with the native species of the new game's region, the series has always taken care to ensure Pokemon from past games can be brought forward.
With this in mind, it's possible to transfer Pokemon from as far back as the Gamecube games all the way into Sword and Shield. This is a fun process to try out if you have all the necessary games and hardware, as well as an essential part of the ribbon master challenge, and with the 3DS servers' imminent shutdown meaning the end of Pokemon Bank is on the horizon, there's no better time to take your Pokemon on an inter-generational journey.
Can You Transfer Pokemon From Generation 1 And 2 Games To Generation 8?
The answer to this question is a little bit complicated. If you're talking about the original Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, or Crystal, it is technically possible, but doing so requires messing with external tools, moving Pokemon outwith the actual games and hacking 3DSes, which most people would agree isn't within the spirit of things (or the law, arguably).
However, if you simply want to catch a Pokemon in, say, Blue, and transfer it to Sword and Shield, you're in luck. If you download the Virtual Console versions of any of the Generation 1 or 2 games on the 3DS, they'll be compatible with Pokemon Bank, meaning you can transfer your Pokemon straight from your 3DS into Home, and then into Sword and Shield, or into a Generation 6 or 7 game if you want. They'll just miss out on seeing all the older regions along the way.
How To Transfer Pokemon From Generation 3 To Generation 4
With generation 1 and 2 out of the way, the first generation of games where Game Freak's commitment to Pokemon transfer comes through is making the jump from generation 3 to generation 4. You can transfer Pokemon from any generation 3 game, including Colosseum or XD, but the Pokemon will need to be on a Gameboy Advance cartridge, so you'll need to trade any Orre Pokemon over to Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, or LeafGreen using a Gamecube or Wii, Gameboy Advance, and Gamecube linking cable.
Furthermore, a Pokemon that knows an HM move cannot be transferred, (a protection against potential soft locks - you don't want to be stuck in Pacifidlog Town with your only surfer haven taken the one-way trip to Sinnoh or Johto) so some visits to the move deleter might be necessary to get your Pokemon ready to go. You'll also need to make sure the Pokemon you're transferring are in boxes in the PC, and not in your party. Once you have the Pokemon you want to transfer all ready to go on a GBA cartridge, either by trading from Orre or simply catching them in a Hoenn or Kanto game, you'll need to get things ready on the generation 4 end of things.
To unlock the Pal Park in the Sinnoh games, you need to have not only beaten the Pokemon League in Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum, but have unlocked the National Dex, which requires seeing every Pokemon in the region. This can be done with relative ease by fighting every trainer, which will leave you with only a few legendaries and special Pokemon like Rotom to track down. It's a bit easier in HeartGold and SoulSilver, however - you simply need to have visited Fuchsia City.
With the National dex unlocked, you can finally access Pal Park, which means it's transfer time. You'll need an original DS or DS Lite, as transferring requires you to boot up a generation 4 game with the GBA cartridge containing your Pokemon also inserted into the console. You should now see a new option on the main menu - "Migrate from [Gen 3 game]". Click this, and you can choose six Pokemon you want to transfer - be aware that in Diamond and Pearl, there's a 24 hour cooldown on this, meaning you have to wait a day to transfer another six.
Load into your gen 4 game and head into the Pal Park, where your tranferred Pokemon will be awaiting you as encounters in the long grass. This is a little tedious, but at least the Park Balls you get are guaranteed to catch the Pokemon. With that, your Pokemon has made the first step on its journey! (Or second, if it's coming from Orre).
How To Transfer Pokemon From Generation 4 To Generation 5
As with generation 4, there are some requirements you'll have to meet in Unova to be able to receive Pokemon - namely, beating the game. You don't have to mess around with the national dex or exploring the postgame this time - simply defeat the Pokemon League and have the credits roll and you're good to go. Head east of Nimbasa City and you'll find the Poketransfer Lab - Unova's equivalent of the Pal Park.
To perform this transfer, you will need a second DS, but given that a 3DS will be needed for the upcoming steps anyway, you should hopefully have one of those to hand that you can use. Put the generation 4 game containing the Pokemon you want to transfer in one DS, and your generation 5 game in the other, and talk to the man in the Poketransfer Lab.
He'll start the DS' wireless communication, and an app will be downloaded on the DS with the generation 4 game to facilitate the transfer. The same restrictions apply here as in the previous step - no HM moves, and make sure the Pokemon are in boxes, not your party. You can, however, transfer less than six Pokemon this time, if you so wish. There's one other weird restriction - you can't transfer the spiky-eared Pichu from the HeartGold/SoulSilver event out of generation 4. This is the only case of a Pokemon being unable to be transferred forward in series history, so while it probably won't affect you, it's interesting to note.
With your chosen Pokemon loaded into the transfer app, you have to play a minigame in the Poketransfer Lab where you snipe the newly transferred Pokemon with a Poke Ball crossbow as they jump between bushes. Once that's done, your nomadic buddies are free to roam Unova!
How To Transfer Pokemon From Generation 5 To Generation 6
Things get a lot easier from here. All you'll need is your 3DS, with Pokemon Bank installed. Open up Pokemon Bank, and you'll see the option to download the Poke Transporter, which is what you'll use to get your Pokemon from generation 5 into Bank. It's also what you use for the Virtual Console games mentioned earlier.
Insert your generation 5 game with the Pokemon you want to transfer into the 3DS, and open up the Poke Transporter. It will recognise the game and you can begin the transfer process. You can now transfer up to 30 Pokemon at a time, but it does this by simply taking your whole Box 1 in the PC, so make sure your first box in the Unova game has only the Pokemon you want to transfer and nothing else.
The chosen Pokemon will be brought into the Pokemon Bank transfer box. Be sure to take them out of there, as if you try to transfer another batch of Pokemon without emptying the transfer box, the first batch will simply be overwritten and lost forever. With this, you can move your Pokemon from Bank into a generation 6 game by opening Bank with the desired game inserted into your 3DS. That's not all you can do, however.
Bank works a lot like Home, but for the 3DS. You can transfer Pokemon from generation 6 to generation 7, or take the generation 5 Pokemon straight to generation 7. If all you care about is just getting them onto the Switch, then it's also how you transfer your generation 5 Pokemon directly to generation 8, as well as transferring generation 6 Pokemon to generation 8, or generation 7 Pokemon to generation 8. It all just depends on how much of a tour you want your Pokemon to go on. The only limitation is that Pokemon can't move backwards, so a Pokemon that's been in a generation 7 game can be brought back into Bank, but can't then go to a generation 6 game. Furthermore, once they leave Bank to go to Home and the generation 8 games, they can't return to the 3DS.
How To Transfer Pokemon From Pokemon Bank To Pokemon Home
It's time for the final step of the journey. Get your Pokemon ready in Bank, either just by keeping them there after the generation 5 transfer, or moving them into Bank by inserting the game cartridge they're on into your 3DS. Boot up Pokemon Home on your Switch, and you'll have the option to move Pokemon over from Pokemon Bank. You'll be prompted to create a Moving Key, which you can enter once you click on the option to transfer Pokemon to Home from the Pokemon Bank menu.
This will connect the two games, and you can select as many Pokemon as you like to move from Bank to Home. The transfer will begin, and once it's complete, your voyagers are ready to go forth into the world of Nintendo Switch Pokemon games! (Which, at the time of writing, is just Galar, since transfers out of Let's Go games are one-way).
Getting Pokemon out of Home and into a generation 8 game is the easiest process in this whole guide, and is similar to using Bank - simply insert the relevant generation 8 game, open Home, and move the Pokemon from your Home boxes into your boxes in the generation 8 PC
How To Transfer Pokemon From Pokemon Go To Pokemon Home
While Pokemon Go doesn't fit into the relatively linear journey Pokemon can take through the regions, it's worth including here since it does fit into the world of Home functionality. Your Pokemon Go will need to be linked to the Nintendo account associated with your Pokemon Home - you can take care of this in Go's settings. Open up Pokemon Go, and in the menu you'll see the option to transfer to Home, which is where you can load up the Pokemon you want to transfer. These transfers expend an in-game resource which accumulates over time, so you'll be limited if you want to perform lots of transfers.
Similar to choosing to transfer Pokemon in from the 3DS, there's an option on the Pokemon Home menu to bring Pokemon in from Pokemon Go. Select this option, and Pokemon Home will link with Pokemon Go to bring the Pokemon over!