Here’s an important PSA for veteran Pokemon players: You should be downloading the Pokemon Bank app on 3DS very soon. One fan’s heartbreaking experience of losing nearly two decades of collected creatures serves as a wake-up call for members of the community.
Through a complicated process of transfers, trades, and imports, it’s possible to integrate Pokémon of all generations into modern games. (Original Game Boy cartridges are an exception, though 3DS Virtual Console versions of these titles can still be part of the transfer chain.) Every Pokemon you’ve collected over the years can live in the cloud via the app Pokemon Home, then be transferred to any modern game that supports those particular creatures.
You can read our Pokemon Home transfer guide for more details on how it all works, but there’s one important link in that chain that’s about to break: Pokemon Bank on 3DS. Banking is the only way to complete the arduous process of transferring all of your previous-gen Pokemon into the current Home app, and with the 3DS eShop looming on March 27th, you should download this app now before you go. be able to access it. . close.
On Reddit (opens in a new tab), a two-decade veteran of the Pokémon series by the name of Crusnik_Asparagus nearly came out of that shutdown badly. After a few years out of the series, they reasonably assumed that all Pokémon previously uploaded to Pokémon Bank would be available in Home. This was not the case.
“I’ve been playing these games for 18 years,” writes Crusnik_Asparagus. “140 hours per game. I bred pokémons in rare balls with hidden abilities, egg moves and 6 IVs. Handcrafted. Hundreds of hours and hundreds of hours. Pokemon rare event. ALL. HE LEFT. I didn’t even cry because I was in semi-shock.”
At the risk of sounding dramatic: this “20 years of game almost sold out” warning could apply to you after March 27th. This player would have been fine anyway since they had already downloaded Pokemon Bank and uploaded their creatures to it, as they will still be able to re-download Bank after the eShop is shut down as long as they have taken it at least once before, according to official notices from Nintendo(Opens in a new tab). (The annual bank fee will also disappear with the shutdown, but the Pokémon Company says the app will still work.)
But if you haven’t downloaded Bank before the March deadline, your old Pokemon will be stuck in your old Pokemon games. If you want to maintain official access to all your beloved teams, dust off your 3DS and make sure you have access to Pokémon Bank.
announcement today Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC and the reintroduction of over 230 Pokemon from past generations.