After a long wait, The Pokemon Company has finally confirmed that Pokemon Home compatibility will be brought to Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, as well as Legends: Arceus. Players will soon be able to transfer Pokemon between Sinnoh and Hisui, though some exceptions may apply.
The announcement comes following recent leaks about when Pokemon Home would be made compatible with the latest game releases, as well as how this would look to players. With Pokemon now going public about these developments, it seems that initial rumors projecting Home's compatibility were true, but there's still some details fans have yet to learn about its rollout.
How Pokemon Home Compatibility Rumors Shaped Up in Reality
In April, a Twitter account named CentroLeaks leaked Pokemon Home integration with Legends: Arceus as well as Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. One initial point of discussion centered whether ot not Home would recognize the variety of unique Poke Balls introduced in Legends: Arceus. Pokemon’s official announcement goes some way to confirm this, citing that Pokemon transferred from Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl or Sword and Shield to Legends: Arceus would appear in "Strange Balls" due to other devices having not been invented by the time of the Hisui region. However, while the reverse is the same for transferring Pokemon from Legends: Arceus to Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, transferring to Sword and Shield will set Hisui Pokemon in standard Poke Balls. No official artwork or images have been released at present to show how Strange Balls will appear, either as a sprite or as an in-game model.
Further details confirm that starting with version 2.0 of Home, the National Pokedex will expand to include native Pokedexes of each region and generation, including for Legends: Arceus. The completion of Hisui’s first Pokedex in Home will be dependent on the player’s save game data, and will update as the player finishes their Pokedex in-game.
Lastly, as is tradition at this point, when linking new Pokemon games to Home, special monsters will be awarded as Mystery Gifts to commemorate the update. For linking Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, players will be gifted the 3 Sinnoh starter Pokemon: Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup, all with their Hidden Abilities. Likewise for linking Legends: Arceus, players will receive the 3 Hisui starters: Cyndaquil, Rowlet, and Oshawott, all with maximum effort values in lieu of abilities.
Transferring Between Sinnoh and Hisui Comes at a Cost
As previously suggested by CentroLeaks, The Pokemon Company has confirmed that when transferring Pokemon to a game they were not originally caught in, certain moves and levels are likely to change. This was expected due to the differences between Legends: Arceus and other mainline games, having reworked certain game mechanics for battling and leveling up in Hisui, but this will be a disappointment to some fans who are cautious about changing some of their favorite Pokemon just to see them in later games.
Information regarding how Home might integrate into the narrative of Legends: Arceus and extend into the modern-day games remain elusive. Regardless, the update does bring good news to players who will be able to continue bringing their partners along on their journey through all Pokemon games, including the upcoming Scarlet and Violet that are set to kick off the series' Generation 9. Scarlet and Violet are expected to launch by the end of this year.
Pokemon Home is available now for Nintendo Switch and mobile devices, and version 2.0 is expected to be released later this year.