Some people will tell you hoarding is bad, and to an effect, they’re right. But when it comes to Pokemon, there are many to have. Well over 300. As such, it’s natural for players to want to collect as many as they can, gotta catch ’em all, after all.
But sooner or later, the player is going to run into a hard roadblock no move can bring down. A limit that cannot be broken, a wall that cannot be torn down.
And that wall is inventory space.
There’s a cap?!
Like it or not, though most people learn not, there is always a hard limit to how many Pokemon a single player can carry with them. Even with the ability to offload Pokemon onto a safe farm, it still doesn’t change the fact that they can’t carry their entire collection with them.
And even if a player were to program the game to remove this limit, it still doesn’t change one hard fact. That a player cannot transfer Pokemon from one game to another.
Unless, of course, you have Pokemon Bank.
What is Pokemon Bank?
Pokemon Bank is, thankfully, not a bank where money is stored. Instead, it is a mobile app that lets players store up to 3,000 Pokemon from across a cloud. So, if you have a favorite in one game that you’ve come to love and rely on, but you’re starting a new game, don’t worry! You can still use that Pokemon. Or, if there’s a Pokemon that’s exclusive to one version, and you want to bring it over to the new one, Pokemon Bank has you covered.
That said, it is compatible with every Pokemon Game, so here is a list of Pokemon Games that work with the App.
- Pokémon X
- Pokémon Y
- Pokémon Alpha Sapphire
- Pokémon Omega Ruby
- Pokémon Sun
- Pokémon Moon
- Pokémon Ultra Sun
- Pokémon Ultra Moon
- Pokémon HOME
So, let’s go over 5 reasons to download the app!
5. It’s free!
As with most things in life, the best things are free. So when it comes to the Bank, that makes it a very handy app to have on your device if you’re a casual. Costing nothing to purchase and use, Bank is free to any Switch or 3DS. While it used to cost money, it has since become free on March 23rd, 2023. Meaning that any Trainer with Wi-Fi can now freely download the app, and begin transferring their Pokemon to compatible systems and games.
4. You can transfer exclusive Pokemon over!
Even in the early days, there were exclusives in the various games. For example, if a player had Gold but not Silver, they would not be able to catch an Ekans no matter how hard they tried. The only way was to have both games and then transfer it over with a cable. This required either a friend or the money and time to do so. But now, all you need is Pokemon Bank to move exclusives.
3. 3,000 Pokemon can be safely transferred.
3,000, as any struggling Master will tell you, is quite a large number. So large that it’s twice that of the current total. And all of them can be safely transferred to another game with the use of the app. To do so, you will also need Pokemon Home, another free app that lets you take care of your critters while they are in the virtual cloud.
2. And you can store that many Pokemon!
Even today, with all of the Pokemon games accounted for, there are 1,017 of them in existence. And Bank lets a user hold 3,000 in total. In other words, the player can hold one of every single one and have 2,000 spots left over. This means a player will have to collect and trade for a year before they come close to hitting the cap.
1. Generational transfer!
And with every Pokemon game, there are always game exclusives beyond what you can find in each region. For example, Silver has the Legendary Lugia, while Gold has Ho-Ho. Before, each game was limited to that generation, so there wasn’t a way to bring these mythical birds over if you managed to catch one.
And while that is true for the older games, the one listed above lets the player bring said exclusives to the next generation. So, if you manage to catch a legendary, you can bring that Pokemon over to Pokemon Ultra Sun or Ultra Moon with Bank.