Poké Transporter

This article is about the application that transfers Pokémon to Pokémon Bank. For the feature that transfers Pokémon to the Generation V games, see Poké Transfer.

Poké Transporter
The logo of Poké Transporter.
Provider	Nintendo
Launched	December 25, 2013, January 21, 2014 (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) February 4, 2014 (Europe, Australia, and New Zealand) February 5, 2014 (The Americas)
Shutdown	March 27, 2023 (new users)
Service provided	Transferring Pokémon from Generation V and the Virtual Console releases of Generations I and II
Accessible by	Nintendo 3DS family of systems
Website	Pokemonbank.com/en-us/transporter/ (English)

Poké Transporter (Japanese: ポケムーバー PokéMover) is an application for the Nintendo 3DS line of systems, released on the Nintendo eShop. It allows for Pokémon to be transferred to Pokémon Bank from the Generation V core series games and the Virtual Console releases of the Generation I and II core series games. Currently, it is available as part of a paid Pokémon Bank subscription.

Poké Transporter's eShop download page is normally hidden from view, and can only be accessed by following a link within Pokémon Bank.

On January 24, 2017, Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter received an update that allows players to transfer Pokémon from the Virtual Console releases of Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow (Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow in Japanese) to Pokémon Bank. On November 19, 2017, it was updated again to be compatible with the Virtual Console releases of Pokémon Gold and Silver, along with Pokémon Crystal, which was released later. From Pokémon Bank, these Pokémon can then be moved to the Generation VII games (but not Generation VI games).

On February 16, 2022, due to the discontinuation of the Nintendo 3DS eShop on March 27, 2023, it was announced that Poké Transporter will become free to use on this date (though it will only be available to users who downloaded the application prior to the eShop discontinuation). Unlike Bank, Poké Transporter is not directly free to download; the user must have both a paid Bank pass and a 3DS core series game save file to access the option to download Poké Transporter.

Usage

Unlike Bank, Poké Transporter always defaults to the 3DS system language (or English if the system language is Portuguese, Dutch, or Russian). If the system language is Japanese, it always defaults to kana instead of kanji. The user may change the language at any time by pressing L from the title screen; this choice will be reverted once the app is closed.

The software allows Pokémon to be sent from the Generation V core series games and the Virtual Console releases of the Generation I and II core series games to Pokémon Bank. The service allows one-way transfer; once transferred, they cannot be moved back to the Generation V or the Virtual Console Generations I and II games.

Pokémon sent from the Generation V games can be withdrawn from Pokémon Bank in Pokémon X and Y, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Pokémon Sun and Moon, and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (although they cannot be withdrawn in the Generation VI games once they have been withdrawn by the Generation VII games). Pokémon sent from the Virtual Console releases of the Generation I and Generation II games can be withdrawn from Pokémon Bank in Pokémon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon only.

Poké Transporter allows the player to select an inserted physical copy of Pokémon Black, White, Black 2, or White 2, a Virtual Console copy of Pokémon Red, Blue, or Yellow (in Western languages) or Red, Green, Blue, or Yellow (in Japanese), or a Virtual Console copy of Pokémon Gold, Silver, or Crystal. While Japanese versions of Pokémon Black, White, Black 2, and White 2 are region-locked due to being DSi-enhanced, Generation V games of any region can be used with Poké Transporter.

Only the Pokémon from Box 1 can be transported (without the use of glitches), and the entire Box will be transported at once, limiting the transfer to up to 30 Pokémon at a time (20 from the international versions of the Generations I and II games); if any Pokémon in the Box are ineligible to be transported, they will simply remain in the Box while all eligible Pokémon in the Box are transported. The Pokémon transported to Pokémon Bank are placed in the Transport Box. A new transfer cannot be made if there are any Pokémon in the Transport Box.

Since Pokémon cannot be moved out of the Transport Box into Pokémon Bank without a save file from a 3DS core series game, this can cause the Transport Box to become "clogged" and block further transfers if the player deletes their 3DS core series save file(s).

Held items are handled differently depending on the source game:

• Any Generation V game: Pokémon holding items are transferred, but their held items are returned to the Bag, or deleted if the Bag is full.
• Any Generation II game: Any Pokémon holding items are not transferred and remain in Box 1, with the player being warned that some Pokémon could not be transferred.
• Any Generation I game: Pokémon that would hold items if traded to a Generation II game can be transferred as if they were not holding an item. Those potential held items are lost.

Pokémon that know HM moves can be transported without having to forget those moves (unlike Pal Park and Poké Transfer). Kyurem must be in its normal form to be transported. Eggs cannot be transported.

As a part of Pokémon Bank, the player must have a valid pass in order to use Poké Transporter.

Legality checking

Poké Transporter has a legality checker that is intended to prevent Pokémon obtained or modified through external devices or modified by a glitch such as the Rage glitch from passing through. However, it does not prevent all illegitimate Pokémon, and does stop some legitimate Pokémon. While legitimately obtainable (though not in Japan), Shiny Jirachi could not be transported prior to the release of the Shiny 2014 Tanabata Jirachi. Pokémon hatched from the Odd Egg cannot be transported unless they forget the move Dizzy Punch, as the Odd Egg is not obtainable in the Japanese version of Pokémon Crystal on the Virtual Console.

Only Mew with the original Trainer GF or ゲーフリ and Trainer ID number 22796 are considered legal, which are the Original Trainer and Trainer ID number of Mew obtained from the Generation I Virtual Console distributions (the Nintendo UK's Pokémon Festival Mew and the Japanese Game Freak Mew).

In the Virtual Console release of Pokémon Crystal, it is possible to catch a wild Celebi at level 30 due to the in-game GS Ball event. Poké Transporter will refuse to transport Celebi if its level is below 30. Prior to this release, Poké Transporter refused to transport all Celebi from Generation II.

Pokémon over level 100 can be transferred, but their level will be reduced to level 100.

Modifications to transported Pokémon

Nicknames and original Trainer names

Unnicknamed Pokémon

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Check unnicknamed Mr. Mime and Farfetch'd from Spanish and Italian games, and Mr. Mime from French games.

The names of unnicknamed Pokémon will be made to match the formatting of their species name in their language of origin in the Generation VI games. This is relevant for two main cases:

• Unnicknamed Pokémon originating in a Generation I to IV game (which have their species names in all-caps) have their names changed to be capitalized normally.
• Unnicknamed Pokémon transferred from Generation V that were evolved in a game of a language different to their language of origin (so that their name is in the language of the game they were evolved in instead of their language of origin) have their name changed to match their language of origin.

Due to a glitch, the names of several species of Pokémon from the Virtual Console releases of the Generation I and II games are not recognized properly. In French, if an unnicknamed Pokémon of a species that has a diacritic or ligature in its species name is transported from a French Generation I or II game, due to the Generation I and II games not using diacritics or ligatures, it will be given the nickname corresponding to the way its species name is displayed in Generations I and II (not changing upon evolution).

Unnicknamed Pokémon with special characters in their names were not recognized as being unnicknamed in version 1.2 due to improper checking of the special characters. This was corrected in version 1.3.

• In version 1.2, if an unnicknamed Farfetch'd was transported from an English Generation I game, its name would turn into FARFETCH D and be treated as a nickname (since this is different from its species name). Unnicknamed Farfetch'd can be normally obtained in Pokémon Yellow.
• In version 1.2, if an unnicknamed Mr. Mime was transported from an English Generation I game, its name would turn into MR-MIME and be treated as a nickname. (Glitches are required to obtain an unnicknamed Mr. Mime in Generation I.)

As a workaround, if the Pokémon's nickname in the Generation I or II game is set to a censored word, its nickname will be removed when it is transported to Pokémon Bank, causing it to become an unnicknamed Pokémon with the correct name.

Character limitations

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Whether Ä, Ö, Ü, ä, ö, ü are preserved in a Pokémon's nickname if sent from a non-German game. Whether the Á/Í in the OT (FALCÁN/MANÍA) of the in-game trade Voltorb/Shuckle is preserved when transferred from a Spanish and non-Spanish game. Check if any have been fixed with version 1.3

A name consisting of only spaces, which is only possible in Generation I, will remain unchanged. If a Pokémon has PK, MN, [, ], or × in its nickname or original Trainer, this will be converted to P, M, (, ), or x, respectively, upon being transported.

In Japanese, between September 22, 2017 and November 19, 2017 (after Pokémon Gold and Silver were released on the Virtual Console but before they were directly compatible with Poké Transporter), transferring a Pokémon from a Virtual Console game with an exclamation point or question mark in its nickname or OT would cause these characters to be converted into spaces. (This required trading the Pokémon to a Generation I Virtual Console game and then transferring through Poké Transporter. The Japanese Generation II games allow entering exclamation points/question marks but the Japanese Generation I games do not. This did not occur in other languages, presumably because it is possible to enter exclamation points/question marks in Generation I in those languages.) Conversely, the kana を / ヲ wo and small vowel katakana did not have this issue despite also being characters that could be entered in Japanese Generation II but not Japanese Generation I. This was later fixed.

In the Generation I and Generation II character encodings, several pairs of hiragana and katakana share the same code points due to being rendered the same way in-game; in later generations, this is not the case, with each character having its own code point. These characters are the hiragana へ (including べ and ぺ) and り and the katakana ヘ (including ベ and ペ) and リ. Poké Transporter converts the character to hiragana or katakana depending on the first character of the Pokémon's name that is not a space or a chōonpu (ー). If the first character is hiragana (other than the four kana in question), the character is converted to hiragana へ or り; if the first character is katakana or any of the four kana in question, the character is converted to katakana.

Pokémon from in-game trades

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Whether the replacement OT depends on the language of the Virtual Console game or the language of Poké Transporter, and as a result whether the Korean/Chinese OTs are actually used

In Generation I, the Original Trainer of Pokémon from in-game trades uses a control character (0x5D) that displays Trainer in the games' language (e.g. TRAINER in English). Transported Pokémon have this OT converted to regular capitalization and any abbreviations expanded.

Language	OT
	Gen I	Gen II	Bank
Japanese	トレーナー	トレーナー	トレーナー
English	TRAINER	TRAINER	Trainer
French	DRES.	DRESSEUR	Dresseur
German	TRAINER	TRAINER	Trainer
Italian	ALLEN.	ALLEN.	Allenatore
Spanish	ENTREN.	ENTREN.	Entrenador
Korean	N/A	트레이너	트레이너
Chinese (Traditional)	N/A	N/A	訓練家
Chinese (Simplified)	N/A	N/A	训练家

Censored words

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: For Gen V, whether the replacement OT depends on the Pokémon's language of origin or the game's language.

If a Pokémon's nickname contains a word which is prohibited by the Nintendo 3DS system's filter, the Pokémon's nickname will be erased, reverting to the default species name in that Pokémon's language of origin. (Since the Generation I and II games do not track language of origin, Pokémon transferred from the Virtual Console games have their language of origin set to the transferring game's language.) Poké Transporter will inform the user when this occurs.

If a Pokémon's original Trainer contains a word which is prohibited by the filter, the original Trainer will be replaced by a generic name, and Poké Transporter will also inform the user. The generic name depends on the transferring game and the game's/Pokemon's language. (As a result, the Chinese OTs exist in the data of Poké Transporter but are not actually used.)

Game	Language
	Japanese	English	French	German	Italian	Spanish	Korean	Chinese
Black, Black 2	ブラック．	Kuro*	Kuro*	Kuro*	Kuro*	Kuro*	블랙.	Ｂｌａｃｋ．
White, White 2	ホワイト．	Shiro*	Shiro*	Shiro*	Shiro*	Shiro*	화이트.	Ｗｈｉｔｅ．
Red	レッド．	Red*	Rouge*	Rot*	Rosso*	Rojo*	레드.	Ｒｅｄ．
Green	グリーン．	Green*	Vert*	Grün*	Verde*	Verde*	그린.	Ｇｒｅｅｎ．
Blue	ブルー．	Blue*	Bleu*	Blau*	Blu*	Azul*	블루.	Ｂｌｕｅ．
Yellow	イエロー．	Yellow*	Jaune*	Gelb*	Giallo*	Amarillo*	옐로.	Ｐｉｋａ．
Gold	ゴールド．	Gold*	Or*	Gold*	Oro*	Oro*	금.	Ｇｏｌｄ．
Silver	シルバー．	Silver*	Argent*	Silber*	Argento*	Plata*	은.	Ｓｉｌｖｅ．
Crystal	クリスタル．	Crystal*	Cristal*	Kristall*	Cristallo*	Cristal*	크리스털.	Ｃｒｙｓｔ．

This filter is applied after converting characters such as PK. For unknown reasons, since the Generation VII update, the filter is no longer applied to kana in nicknames or OTs, and Poké Transporter will not inform the user. (The filter is still applied to Hangul and Poké Transporter informs the user.)

Location data

Pokémon sent to Bank via Poké Transporter only display the region corresponding to their game of origin as their met location. (For example, Pokémon from Pokémon HeartGold will display "Johto", regardless of whether they were met in the Kanto or Johto region.) Pokémon met in Pokémon Colosseum or XD display "a distant land" instead of the name of the Orre region.

For Pokémon transported from the Generation I or II games, because these games do not record game of origin, the Pokémon is assigned the game it was transferred from as its game of origin. Additionally, their met location is displayed as "Seems to have traveled across both space and time to reach you from the Kanto/Johto region in the good old days." (This differs from the text used for Pokémon from Pokémon FireRed, LeafGreen, HeartGold, and SoulSilver only by the text "in the good old days.")

For Pokémon originating in a Generation V game, their met location data is preserved internally, but not displayed. For Pokémon originating in a Generation III or IV game, their met location was lost when transferred via Poké Transfer. For Pokémon originating in a Generation I or II game, because only Pokémon Crystal records met location data, no met location information is preserved by the transfer.

If a Pokémon was met in a fateful encounter, this information is retained upon transfer. Mew and Celebi transferred from the Virtual Console games are also flagged as being met in a fateful encounter.

From Generation V

• Several species of Pokémon have their Ability changed:
  • Blue-Striped Basculin with the Ability Reckless will have their Ability changed to Rock Head upon transportation.
  • Starly that have their Hidden Ability flag set (such that they would evolve into Reckless Staravia) will have their Ability changed to Reckless upon transportation.
  • Venipede, Whirlipede, and Scolipede with Quick Feet will have their Ability changed to Speed Boost upon transportation.
  • Due to Ability no longer being determined by personality value, Pokémon obtained in Generation III who would change Ability slot upon evolution (due to gaining an Ability in Generation IV) will be locked into their current Ability slot upon transportation (although it can still be changed using the Ability Capsule).
• Due to gender no longer being determined by personality value, female Azurill that would evolve into male Marill will be permanently locked into being female upon transportation. (Male Marill or Azumarill that evolved from female Azurill remain male.)
• Pokémon transferred from Generation V with more than 252 EVs in any stat will have the extra EVs removed.
• Since the Shiny chance was doubled in Generation VI, some personality values that were not Shiny in Generation V would become Shiny upon transfer. Specifically, if the Shiny value is between 8 and 15, the Pokémon would not be Shiny in Generation V but would be Shiny if it had the same PID in Generation VI onward. To prevent this, if the Shiny value is between 8 and 15, the Pokémon's personality value's most significant bit is flipped.

From Generation I and II

• A transferred Pokémon's nature is that nature whose index number corresponds to the Pokémon's experience modulo 25.
• The Pokémon's experience is then reset to the minimum amount of experience required for its current level.
• Any Pokémon transferred from the Virtual Console releases of the Generation I and II games have their Hidden Ability.
  • Pokémon with no Hidden Ability in Generation VII will not have their ability slot index number set to the Hidden Ability slot, they will always be assigned slot 1 instead. As an example, a Koffing from Virtual Console transferred through Pokémon Bank, Pokémon HOME and arriving in Generation VIII would not retroactively gain its Hidden Ability Stench upon arriving in Generation VIII, it would remain Levitate, as that was the only possible ability for Koffing in Generation VII.
• The method of assigning gender has varied between versions of Transporter:
  • In version 1.2, gender was assigned randomly (regardless of the Pokémon's Attack IV).
    • Due to gender being determined randomly instead of being determined by the Attack IV, it was possible for Pokémon with a gender ratio of "1 ♀ : 7 ♂" to be both female and Shiny, which is impossible in the Generation II games (and thus in Poké Transporter version 1.3 onward as well).
  • In version 1.3 onward, Pokémon transferred from the Virtual Console games have their gender assigned based on their Attack IV, the same as in Generation II.
• The IVs of Pokémon transferred from the Virtual Console games are randomly generated, but three are guaranteed to be 31 (five if the Pokémon is Mew or Celebi).
  • This also means that the type of the Pokémon's Hidden Power will usually differ from its type in the Generation II games.
• Stat experience is completely erased, so that the transferred Pokémon has 0 EVs in all stats.
• The method to determine whether a Pokémon is Shiny after transfer has varied between versions of Transporter.
  • In version 1.2, Poké Transporter determined whether a Pokémon would be Shiny based on how Shiny Pokémon were determined in Generation II, but erroneously switched the IV requirements for Attack and Defense. (In Generation II, a Pokémon is Shiny if its Defense, Speed, and Special IV are all 10, and its Attack IV is 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14 or 15.)
  • In version 1.3 onward, this was corrected to match the Generation II games.
• As these games do not keep track of which Poké Ball is used to catch a Pokémon, all transferred Pokémon will be in a regular Poké Ball.
• As these games do not keep track of the language or game of origin, these are set to those of the game from which they were transported.
• Pokémon transported from the Virtual Console games have the File:GB icon.png origin mark.
• The Pokémon's country, location, and 3DS region are set to those of the Nintendo 3DS.
• The Pokémon's Secret ID number is set to 00000.

Server issues

On December 25, 2013, Pokémon Bank and the Poké Transporter were both released in Japan, South Korea, and other Asian territories. Due to high volumes of traffic throughout the Nintendo Network caused by a large volume of Nintendo Network IDs being created, the Nintendo eShop was temporarily inaccessible. When the Nintendo eShop was accessible again on December 29, 2013, Pokémon Bank was removed from the Nintendo eShop (although players that had previously downloaded Pokémon Bank could still download Poké Transporter, which can only be downloaded through Pokémon Bank).^{[citation needed]} In addition, the release of Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter for the Americas, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand—originally set to be December 27, 2013—was delayed due to the aforementioned issues.^{[dead link]}

On January 21, 2014, Pokémon Bank was re-released in Japan, South Korea, and other Asian territories. The service was then launched in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand on February 4, 2014; and in the Americas on February 5, 2014.

Version history

Version	Release date	Changes
1.1	December 25, 2013 January 21, 2014 February 4, 2014 February 5, 2014	Initial release
1.2	January 24, 2017	You will be able to transfer Pokémon from the virtual console versions of Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow into your copy of Pokémon Sun or Pokémon Moon. A new Pokédex feature has been added.
1.3	September 5, 2017	Adjustments have been made to make for a more pleasant gaming experience.
1.4	November 19, 2017	Pokémon Gold Version and Pokémon Silver Version on Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console are now supported.
1.5	February 11, 2020	Updated to accommodate the Pokémon HOME distribution.

Gallery

• 

  Japanese logo

• 

  Home Menu icon

Trivia

• Unlike Pokémon Bank, Poké Transporter stores no save data.

In other languages

Language Title Chinese Cantonese 寶可夢虛擬傳送 Pokémon Hēuiyíh Chyùhnsung Mandarin 寶可夢虛擬傳送 / 宝可梦虚拟传送 Pokémon Xūnǐ Chuánsòng French Poké Transfert German PokéMover Italian Pokétrasferitore Korean 포켓무버 PokéMover Russian Поке-Транспортёр Poke-Transportyor* Spanish Poké Trasladador

References

Inter-generational transfer
Gen I Time Capsule • Poké Transporter → Bank Gen II Gen III Dual-slot mode → Pal Park Gen IV Dual-slot mode → Pal Park • Poké Transfer • Relocator Gen V Poké Transfer • Relocator • Poké Transporter → Bank Gen VI Poké Transporter → Bank Gen VII Poké Transporter → Bank • GO Park • HOME Gen VIII Bank → HOME • GO Transporter Gen IX

Side series Pokémon games Stadium series: Stadium (Japanese) • Stadium • Stadium 2 Storage software: Box RS • My Pokémon Ranch • Bank (Poké Transporter) • HOME Orre games: Colosseum • XD: Gale of Darkness Other games: Battle Revolution • Pokéwalker • Dream World • Dream Radar Pokémon game templates Core series • Side series • Spin-off series • Pokémon mini • Individual spin-offs • Betas • Demos

This game mechanic article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.