Trade

Trading confirmation screen in Diamond and Pearl

A trade is a process in which Pokémon Trainer sends one of his or her Pokémon to another trainer in exchange for one of the other trainer's Pokémon. In every Pokémon game, trading is necessary to collect all Pokémon.

Starting from Generation II, items can be attached to Pokémon when traded. Certain items, when held by the correct Pokémon, will trigger an evolution when traded to another player. Mail may also be attached to send a message.

Benefits of trading

Trading is necessary in order to collect every Pokémon in the Pokédex, as some Pokémon aren't available in each edition. For example, Meowth cannot be found in Pokémon Red, and the player must trade with someone who has a copy of Pokémon Blue. Some Pokémon only evolve after being traded. Trading away a Pokémon will not remove its Pokédex entry.

Traded Pokémon gain 1.5x the normal experience after a Pokémon battle. Pokémon traded from another country will gain 1.7x experience.

Drawbacks of trading

A traded Pokémon is referred to as an Outsider Pokémon, and will only obey a trainer with the sufficient number of gym badges. In addition, a traded Pokémon's nickname cannot be changed except if traded back to the original trainer.

Traded Pokémon are identified by the Pokémon's Original Trainer name and a five-digit ID Number. Even if two games have the same name and ID number, each trainer also has a secret ID number. The odds of two trainers having different secret ID numbers is 99.998%.

Limitations on trading

Trading between game generations

Trading between different generations of Pokémon is possible, with two major limitations: trading between Generation II (GB/GBC) and Generation III (GBA) is impossible, and trading from Generation III (GBA) to Generation IV (DS) is one-way only.

Pokémon can be traded from Generation II back to Generation I games using the Time Capsule feature. For compatibility purposes, the Pokémon to be traded cannot hold any items, or have any attacks which do not exist in Generation I.

Pokémon can be transferred from Generation III to Generation IV using the Pal Park feature. However, they cannot be traded in the opposite direction.

Trading from Generations I and II to Generation III is impossible for two reasons. Firstly, hardware reasons prevent a GBA game from linking to a Gameboy Color game. Secondly, the Pokémon data structure was changed significantly, and the two are no longer compatible. Likewise, the Nintendo DS has no link cable support. Enterprising players may use a cheating tool such as Pokésav to re-create their Pokémon in Generation IV.

International trading

Trades between two different language Pokémon cartridges caused corrupt data in early versions of the game.

The Nintendo DS Pokémon games fully support international trading, including Internet trading via the Global Trade Station in Jubilife City.

Hardware requirements

Trading requires two game consoles and two copies of the game. Nintendo's intention is that players trade with friends, although some serious players purchase two consoles and two copies of the game.

Prior to Generation IV (Nintendo DS), trading required a Game Boy link cable, or a GBA Wireless Adapter (Generation III). Although the Nintendo DS supports Generation III (GBA) games, it cannot be used to trade between those games as the DS lacks hardware support for the link cable.

The Pal Park feature of Generation IV games uses the GBA slot of the Nintendo DS, so unlike other trading requires only one game console. However, it is not compatible with the Nintendo DSi, which does not have a GBA slot.

Requirements for trading

Generation I

The player cannot trade Pokémon before getting a Pokédex from Professor Oak at Pallet Town.

Generation II

The player cannot trade Pokémon before transporting the Mystery Egg to Professor Elm. The Time Capsule cannot be used until the player has met Bill at Ecruteak City's Pokémon Center.

Generation III

Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald Versions

The player cannot trade Pokémon before getting a Pokédex from Professor Birch at Littleroot Town. To trade, the player must have at least two Pokémon in the party. In Emerald, trading with Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen is prohibited unless the National Dex has been obtained, while trading with FireRed and LeafGreen in Ruby and Sapphire will itself activate the National Dex.

FireRed and LeafGreen Versions

The player cannot trade Pokémon before getting a Pokédex from Professor Oak at Pallet Town. The player must have at least two Pokémon in the party in order to trade. Trades with Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald are possible only after bringing Ruby and Sapphire to complete Celio's Network Machine.

Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD

The player cannot trade Pokémon with the GBA games until this has beaten the final boss of the game (Evice and Greevil, respectively). Also, trading unpurified Shadow Pokémon is prohibited.

Generation IV

Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum Versions

The player cannot trade Pokémon before getting a Pokédex from Professor Rowan at Sandgem Town. Also, the player has to have at least two Pokémon in the party. Migrating Pokémon from the Generation III games through Pal Park cannot be done until the National Dex has been obtained. In Platinum, the player is now able to press B to select the "CANCEL" button.

My Pokémon Ranch

Hayley will only offer to trade with the player after they have completed a wanted request, and will only trade specific Pokémon and only if she has already brought one of them to the Ranch.

Pokémon which evolve when traded

Many of these Pokémon also require an item to be held by them at the time of trading for their evolution to take place.

From Generation I

• Kadabra → Alakazam
• Machoke → Machamp
• Graveler → Golem
• Haunter → Gengar

From Generation II

• Poliwhirl → Politoed (if King's Rock is held)
• Slowpoke → Slowking (if King's Rock is held)
• Onix → Steelix (if Metal Coat is held)
• Seadra → Kingdra (if Dragon Scale is held)
• Scyther → Scizor (if Metal Coat is held)
• Porygon → Porygon2 (if Up-Grade is held)

From Generation III

• Clamperl → Huntail (if DeepSeaTooth is held)
• Clamperl → Gorebyss (if DeepSeaScale is held)

From Generation IV

• Rhydon → Rhyperior (if Protector is held)
• Electabuzz → Electivire (if Electirizer is held)
• Magmar → Magmortar (if Magmarizer is held)
• Porygon2 → Porygon-Z (if Dubious Disc is held)
• Dusclops → Dusknoir (if Reaper Cloth is held)

See also

• List of in-game trades

Trades in the anime

Despite it being one of the key aspects of the games, trading is unusually rare in the anime. Only a few trades have taken place, and only four of them thus far have been truly significant. Fans have often speculated about the reason for this. Rather than simply exchanging Pokémon, most trades are carried out by placing Poké Balls into a specialized trading machine, with a monitor that displays silhouettes of the two Pokémon as they pass each other.

• In Battle Aboard the St. Anne, Ash traded his Butterfree for a Gentleman's Raticate. He wasn't happy with the trade, however, so he traded it back by the end of the episode.
• In Tricks of the Trade, Jessie unintentionally traded her Lickitung for Benny's Wobbuffet.
• In Here's Lookin' at You, Elekid, James is forced by Jessie to trade his Victreebel for the Magikarp salesman's Weepinbell.
• In Throwing the Track Switch, Ash traded his Aipom for Dawn's Buizel.

The trade machine used in the anime has seemingly been adapted into the game canon, with Professor Oak's laboratory in both Template:En and Pokémon Stadium 2 having this type of machine for trades. In the same way, when link cables were finally able to accept the data of two Pokémon being sent at once (rather than one at a time as in Generations I and II), the Pokémon are shown passing each other in the link space.

Trivia

• In Pokémon Red and Blue there is a Scientist at the Pokémon Lab in Cinnabar Island that would trade a Raichu for an Electrode. If the player talked to him after the trade, he would mention that the Raichu evolved, which is not possible. This mistake, which was due to the original translation of the Japanese Blue's script, was corrected in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.
• Likewise, if the player traded a Raichu under level 30, the player will receive a Electrode, yet underleveled.