Talk:Trade

In-game trades

Hey, since the Pokémon egg page lists eggs that are given to you in game, would it be cool if I listed in-game trades? I'll try and get started Manga-in-a-bottle 09:54, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Go for it. List the nicknames, too, and gender if it doesn't change depending on that of the player's. Like Charap the Chatot, both my friend and I got it as a female, so I think it may be set. And the OT/ID number it has, as well, since that's most definitely set. --TTEchidna 17:09, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

I support this fully. In fact, I wanted to do it at some point, but couldn't remember enough of the in-game trades to even start the list... ^^o --Pie ^~♪♫ 19:26, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh man, I like this idea. I can play through the Japanese Blue version to get the trades exclusive to that game as well if you'd like. ... I'll do it anyway :D MK 15:52, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Make sure that you take down their ID number and OT name. I think it'd be an internally stored piece of data, even in Gen I. --TTEchidna 17:24, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Nicknames and Original Trainers

Can they please be added for all the Pokémon received in trades? Zurqoxn 19:59, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

The Evolution Error

Which Gen I in-game trade made the famous "Your Pokémon went and evolved!" error? I'll add it to the article as trivia --Manga-in-a-bottle 12:08, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

It's Raichu for Electrode. --Shiny Noctowl^{Talk | Contribs} 12:16, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Um, your edit seems to have buggered up and I don't know how to fix it...Manga-in-a-bottle 12:54, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Isn't it incomplete?

IMHO, the article is incomplete. There are many things to be added: info about the in-game requirements to trade (especially between generations), about the Mobile System in the Japanese Crystal version, info about the in-game trades, short info about OTs and IDs (and the links to corresponding articles) and so on. Since Porygon-Z does not agree, it should be discussed. --Pokeresp 23:31, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

I 100% aggree with you. All that information is needed, especially the requirements to trade. I can't see any reason why this valuable information shouldn't be on the page.--Cjhard 08:40, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

you could also include that pokemon at certain levels wont obey you until you have a badge.--Darkcloud1111

Gen III trading

I have a question that is not adressed in this article: If say FireRed or LeafGreen goes far enough to trade with Ruby\Sapphire\Emerald gets a new Generation III Pokémon (i.e. Mudkip) and recieves one, Can the Mudkip then be traded to a FireRed or LeafGreen that has not yet gotten the national dex? If not what kinda mechanism stops this from happening? -- D558 18:02, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

It's a while since I tried this but IIRC the pokemon can be traded and will show up with question marks in place of the pokemon number. Plugwash

International trading in GenIII

There isn't anything on it in this article... only the fact that GenI/II corrupts your game with international Pokémon and that global trading was added in IV. But there isn't anything for III. I know for a fact that Japanese games can trade with English ones (Only the first five letters in English names are read on the JP version- ie: "HORSEA" becomes "HORSE" while Japanese names are fully recognizable on the English game), but I'm not sure about other languages... I'd add it to the article myself but not knowing about other languages kinda held me back there. Tina^♪♫ 02:27, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm wondering if after seeing this, I should've started the discussion in the Gen III article...

The article says that Pokémon traded from different regions will not retain their names in the versions they were traded to. This is partially correct, being it so in the case of trading a Pokémon from a non-Japanese version to a Japanese version. However, the opposite isn't true and trading the Pokémon back again to its original version will retain its original name. For example, trading a Squirtle to a JP version from an US/UK version will make the JP version show its name as SQUIR. If you check the Squirtle, now owned by the Trainer of the JP version, on your US/UK version or even if you trade it back to your game, you'll see that its name is still SQUIRTLE. But I have to look this subject more thoroughly, to check what happens with the names when the Pokémon evolves and you trade it back to its OT or when it's checked by another game other than the two involved in the trade. Pokemon lover 21:14, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

BTW, what happens when linking handheld and console games of different regions? Can someone try it out, please? I don't have any console games so can't say anything on the matter. Pokemon lover 21:37, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

I don't know about you, but when I traded un-nicknamed Pokémon between my Japanese HeartGold and my German other Generation-IV-games, I still got a Squirtle with its German name in my Japanese game and several Pikachu in my German game named ピカチュー. This article, however, says this issue was fixed in Generation IV? Eevee-Girl 19:28, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

XD and Colosseum requirements

The Colosseum one I need to go back and check again but in XD Gale of Darkness you simply need to save Phenac Town to trade to the GBA, you don't have to beat Greevil. ShinyGlaceon 00:10, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Also at least for fire red and leaf green you have to meet certain requirements on the gameboy side to trade with colloseum and XD, i'm not sure if these are the same requirements as for trading with ruby/sapphire. I think ruby and sapphire can trade with colloseum and XD regardless of what stage they are at. I have no idea about emerald. Plugwash 20:35, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Just an idea...

I've got something i'd like to have tested out. Just say, for example, someone was trading an Infernape and a Weavile in the top floor of the Pokémon Center. Just a normal trade. And just say, once they left the room, the Weavile's trainer saved the game and turned it off, but the other person, the Infernape's trainer, turned it off WITHOUT saving. Would the Infernape appear on BOTH games, or would it just screw something up? Thanks!--Evilpichulady 20:07, 5 May 2010 (UTC)Evilpichulady

Good theory. The Infernape would appear in both games, however, it makes you save right after you leave the trade, so this would be impossible, otherwise you could do that with Caterpie and Mewtwo or something like that. ----Zewis29 (Talk, Contribs) 03:46, 4 July 2010 (UTC)

I thought it made you save right BEFORE the trade... meh. Evilpichulady 22:11, 2 August 2010 (UTC)Evilpichulady

I believe it does both. It saves before you enter the union room, and then it saves to complete the trade. Werdnae (talk) 02:11, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Something similar happened to me one time when I was trading with my brother between Generation I or II games and one of the Game Boys' battery ran dead during the trading process. So it is possible, but this situation was very hard to recreate, and it was practically not doable from later generations on IIRC. This was on European English editions sold in the Netherlands, to be exact. --Spenvdm 23:38, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Quote by Satoshi Tajiri in Trivia

The wiki says the following in the trivia (added in the revision as of 03:25, 5 September 2009):

"Satoshi Tajiri stated that if the games could not communicate with each other, his vision for the Pokémon games would be incomplete. (「別のソフトとの間で通信を行わないとポケモン図鑑が完成しない」)"

Now it could be that he said that, but the Japanese quote says something quite different. I would literally translate it as something like: "If you don't perform communication with another piece of software, the Pokédex will not be completed.". So unless some reliable source can be found to support this trivia, I'm afraid it is void. --Spenvdm 00:47, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Removed the trivia for now. We can always put it back if we have proper sources. --BlackySully 16:36, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Confusing language...?

Written in this section:

Generation V Black and White Versions

"Migrating with the Poké Transfer is one-way, requires both games to be from the same region"

Is this sentence referring to real-life regions (i.e., "region-locking") or in-game regions (Sinnoh, Johto, etc.)? I'm assuming it's the former, but on first glance I was wondering how two games, one of Generation 4 and one of Generation 5, could be from the "same region", as Unova is only available in Generation 5 in Black and White Versions... Fenyx4 10:04, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Region as in from North American, PAL regions, Japanese, Korean, etc. ^tc²₆tc₂₆ 11:18, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

This is really confusing. I might want to edit it a lil bit. "☆AngelGuardian☆" 11:30, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Generation V glitch?

Almost every time I make a trade over WiFi, when me and someone else are about to connect to the trade screen, it'll say "Player contacted you" or something like that, stay on that screen a bit, and say "Player failed to respond" with the whole trade being cancelled. This happens ALOT and RARELY do I manage to trade without that happening. I've traded with atleast 2 others over WiFi with one of them saying he's experienced this on his game alot as well. Does this seem like a glitch at all similar to the Platinum GTS glitch in early copies of the game? Shiramu Kuromu 19:43, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Trading During the Elite Four?

Hi there, I recently tried to trade between two Generation V games during the elite four (that is to say, I'd defeated one elite four member and used an IR trade). The strange thing is IT WORKED. I can't imagine this is intended (you could trade your Pokémon, heal them and trade them back etc.). Are there any other places/times where/when you can trade and it doesn't seem you should? And to what extent does this devalue the elite four itself? I don't know, maybe it's a glitch. Can anyone else do it? Narbo 17:40, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

I have a question can post this in the trivia that Generation V is the only Generation since Gen l that a new pokemon is introduced that evolves through trade without holding an item? VENUS,MEGA,SCEPT,TORTE,SERP 20:24, 1 May 2012 (UTC)

Trade evolutions in the Pokédex?

If, for example, I traded a Kadabra to my sister, would she get both Kadabra and Alakazam's entry in the Pokédex, or would she get only Alakazam's? --Abcboy (talk) 02:51, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

She would get Kadabra's too, because a Kadabra was briefly in her possession. CuboneKing 02:55, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

Gen V

In Generation V, is it possible to receive National Dex Pokémon before getting the National Dex? For instance, if I migrated some non-Unova Pokémon to Black, could I trade them to a Black 2 game that doesn't have the National Dex? I know this is possible in Gen IV, but the article doesn't whether it's possible for Gen V. RS89 (talk) 23:21, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

I remembered watching a playthrough on YouTube where the user imported a pre-GenV Pokémon to his Pokémon White game before challenging the Elite Four. So it could be possible, but the dex data won't be obtained for that particular Pokémon until the National Dex is obtained. Doesn't hurt to try, though, to make sure. Berrenta (talk) 23:42, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Intergenerational trades section needs updating

With the debut of Generation VI, Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter should be mentioned as this gen's means of trading with the past gen. Those services don't come out until December 27th, but we could at least mention them. --IWannaBeTheVeryBest 20:50, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Trade#Pokémon that evolve when traded

Why is that trivia even necessary? It can be clearly seen in the table below that most trade evolutions require an item. While we're at it, we could add other obvious trivia like "Feebas is the only older Pokémon to receive an evolution method in Gen V" and "Gen II introduced the most trade evolutions." --TheVeryBest 06:24, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

Most lists/tables work best with some introductory text. The point isn't trivia (therefore validating whatever other bits of trivia you might want to add), it's to ease the reader's transition into what follows. If you can think of a way to do that better that avoids recounting "trivia", feel free.

The first thing I can think of at the moment ("Some Pokemon evolve when traded (between two players)"...) is completely inane (it just repeats the concept). If nothing else, I suppose you could do a bit of a history. (Paraphrasing:) "Gen I started it, but when Gen II introduced held items, it also introduced Pokemon that could only evolve when traded and holding an item". (I don't make this change myself because I don't have a problem with the current text and I think a history is a bit overwrought.) Tiddlywinks (talk) 13:43, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

Something About Trading With Items

I noticed something about, well, the title says it. I'm just pointing this out. "All Pokémon that evolve from a Pokémon by trading with a held item that were introduced in Generations IV-VI, with the exception of Gigalith, have at least 1 R in their names. Proof-

Rhydon → Rhyperior Electabuzz → Electivire, Magmar → Magmortar, Porygon2 → Porygon-Z, Dusclops → Dusknoir, Boldore → Gigalith (No R, see?), Gurdurr → Conkeldurr, Karrablast → Escavalier, Shelmet → Accelgor, Spritzee → Aromatisse, Swirlix → Slurpuff, Phantump → Trevenant, Pumpkaboo → Gourgeist --PokemonRen (talk) 20:06, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

• headdesk* Far too specific, far too contrived.--ForceFire 01:32, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

You know another Pokemon with an R in its name? Farfetch'd. Flarn2006 (talk) 19:43, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Trading between X/Y and OR/AS

Does anyone know if it's possible to do any sort of trading between X/Y and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire? I'm asking in terms of local and wifi trading. the great MIKORO (talk to me) 04:36, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

As long as you are not trading any moves or items that were added in ORAS, you can trade freely between ORAS and XY. I'm pretty sure there's a wiki note around here somewhere. -Bomyne (talk) 05:22, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Trading between Generation II and III apparently is possible!

I'm not sure if this would belong on Bulbapedia or not, but apparently, through a highly convoluted method that involves external programs, you can trade any Pokemon on a Generation II game into a Generation III game. I'm not sure if this would be considered useful for Bulbapedia, but I think it's still notable in some respect; if only because, despite what we thought, it was possible to bring Pokemon from Gold/Silver/Crystal up to Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/FireRed/LeafGreen; just extremely convoluted and requiring external software. Tyruntrum (talk) 23:29, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

No, it's not notable. If it some glitch within the games made something like that possible, then it'd be notable. But when people expressly set out to circumvent the game's rules by sheer, brute force, success is not notable; if anything, it's practically inevitable. Tiddlywinks (talk) 23:54, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

Move: Link Trade

I don't think the page should be moved.

First things first, if Gen V is really the first game to give trading a special name (Link Trade), and previous games have all been happy to call it just "trading" (I honestly haven't checked for citable quotes in Gen I-IV, or that "Link Trade" never occured before Gen V), then I think that alone is probably plenty good reason to leave this page at just "Trade".

Beyond that, though, "trade" is just used (even in Gen V+) pretty commonly/freely in a lot of text. You can try to argue that the "proper" term is "Link Trade", but at the same time, if what you hear most often is simply "trade", then that's probably what people are gonna search, and where we should have the page. Even the official X/Y site only uses "Link Trade" on one page, while just "trade" is on five others. The ORAS site is a bit better, but still limits "Link Trade" to a few instances on one page, while another page uses just "trade" very freely.

In short, IMO "Link Trade" is just super jargony. We can include it in the page, but IMO we're much better off just keeping the page at "trade". Tiddlywinks (talk) 00:13, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

I think a move to Link Battle is a terrible idea. If I'm remembering correctly, isn't a Link Trade a specific kind of trade (one with other people nearby) and as such the name doesn't apply to Wonder Trades or in-game trades? --Abcboy (talk) 01:54, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Arguably, since there are quotes like "Have this Pokémon hold an Up-Grade, and Link Trade the Pokémon to evolve it."[1] in B2W2, a Link Trade is basically equivalent to any kind of trade. (If we nitpick, though, we can interpret Link Trade as a type of trade, and the statement does not strictly exclude other types of trade also causing evolution.) Strictly speaking, though, the Japanese (通信交換) does basically suggest action-at-a-distance, not like "You hand me your Poke Ball and I'll hand you mine" or something (as too the English does, roughly).

Also, if we also consider "Link Battle", that almost certainly applies solely to two players with two games (or at least "action-at-a-distance" again) and certainly not to the majority of NPC battles in the game. It would be reasonable to say, then, that "Link Trade" does not necessarily equate to all forms of trade. Tiddlywinks (talk) 03:53, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

I understand your point but it's also nonsensical to have "trade" as the translation of 通信交換 when that is officially translated as Link Trade ("trade" is simply 交換). Like mentioned above, there are other types of trades, like in-game trades, Trade Corner/GTS trades, and Wonder Trades. Perhaps it's better to leave this article at "trade" while reworking it into an access point for articles on specific trade types, including Link Trades (in a similar fashion to what we did to menu back when it was a mess of an article), at the same time. SatoMew2 (talk) 12:55, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

通信交換 seems to have been edited in sometime after BW was introduced. Since the user didn't include a reason, we can't be sure if they may have made a mistake and it should have just been 交換 or if they were somehow justified. (Someone could ask them, but the user has been inactive for a while, and the edit was a long time ago.) As far as I know, though, it is a mistake, so...I was ready to correct it before I saw you had. =P

While it might be useful to have a more explicit list of links to all the types of trading (I don't really know what a "Link Trade" page would look like if we wanted to include that as a "type" of trade, though), trading in general has a lot of commonalities; this page is very useful at covering those commonalities. Tiddlywinks (talk) 13:46, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Unofficial Gen II->III conversion notability

I don't think any mention of an "unofficial" Gen II-III trade/conversion deserves mention on this page. I really want to hear what other people think...

All I can coherently think is that cheating can do anything, and this is a perfect example of a not really surprising brute force hack accomplishing something the games don't. Any other arguments I try to make turn into a colossal wall of text... Also, the hack is terribly, terribly complicated. (You have to get from a real cart, to your computer, run a conversion that "transfers" into Gen III, move to Gen IV, and then go back to a real cart by way of a flash cart... To put it "simply".)

So yeah. Thoughts? Tiddlywinks (talk) 14:26, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

I agree that it's unnotable for mostly the reasons you described. I think it would only deserve mention if it was widely known, but this is the first I've heard of it. We can't go around adding every little thing you can do in the games with outside resources because, like you say, almost anything is possible. slimey01 16:19, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

I also agree that it's unnotable, for the above reasons as well as bacause that process involves hacking, which is illegal. Litwick96 16:22, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Hacking being illegal is utter nonsense. And either you accept articles and mentions on ethically controversial things like this or you don't, you can't have it both ways without looking selectively biased ("this method of cheating/hacking/modding is totally wrong, we don't want it here", "hmm this one is bad too but not as much as the other one so it's OK"). Of course, not every little thing is notable but this one is. If you think it's trivial, then add it under Trivia. サトミュウ (SatoMew) 17:03, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

In other places where cheating is mentioned (check out the links), it's mostly to expound on something that's already in the games. For instance, items (like the GS Ball) or the behavior of the Johto Safari Zone if you don't enter legitimately. This Gen I/II->III transfer process, however, is fabricated out of whole cloth. Hell, it basically comes down to using a save editor; and a save editor can do a LOT (for instance, it could certainly inject an "event Pokemon"), but that doesn't make it notable or even necessarily Trivia-notable.

I'm not unsympathetic that someone might like to know about a Gen I/II->III hack, but I have to doubt whether we really need to be concerned about that. (I definitely don't think we need be so concerned as to mention a hack right in the middle of conveying "legitimate" information, though.) Tiddlywinks (talk) 17:39, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Trading with SMUSUM

The line that says, "Starting in Generation VII, these Pokémon cannot be traded at all[citation needed], but can still be transferred through Pokémon Bank." (under the "Pokémon that cannot be traded" section) when talking about certain Gift Ribbons like the Classic Ribbon, is there an actual list anywhere of the actual Pokemon that can't be traded or the actual ribbons that cause the Pokemon to not be tradeable? Is it actually because of those ribbons or is it because of other values for that particular Pokemon to not be tradeable? Ie, new moves, held items, moves, abilities, Pokemon, etc that are introduced in USUM is the actual reason that certain Pokemon can't go from US to S and not because of the Classic Ribbon or another Ribbon? Terraferme (talk) 22:17, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

Replace Pal Pad with Link Trade icon for all Trade Evolution references

The Pal Pad sprite is an outdated reference to a feature unused in the core series for almost a decade. Instead, we should switch to something more universal and time-proof, like the Link Trade icon used in the Y-Comm. Even if future games don't use the Y-Comm, the Link Trade icon itself is is still carried over. TehPerson (talk) 17:53, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Mega Evolutions in Trade Evolution table

A lot of the Pokémon that have no further evolutions listed can Mega Evolve, and it makes sense to me to list those Mega Evolutions in the table. Does anyone else have thoughts on that inclusion? –Butterfreeism (talk) 19:44, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

I tend to think that I'd (personally) not include Mega Evolutions, since they're largely irrelevant when it's all about (proper) evolutions. Nescientist (talk) 20:29, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Mega Evolution is not an evolution, but a transformation of the same species, i.e. Alakazam doesn't become a completely new Pokemon, it's still an Alakazam.--ForceFire 04:25, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

That all makes sense to me! Thanks for that sanity check. :) –Butterfreeism (talk) 03:56, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

Porygon Table Sillyness

I love fun tables as much as the next guy, but I think the Porygon rows are a bit much. I get that putting all 3 stages on the same row would contradict the labels, but then I think the labels should be just so slightly reworded. --GopyXP (talk) 04:18, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

Two Pokémon Requirement

Gen III allows your second Pokémon to be an Egg, while Gen V does not, you actually do need two non-Egg Pokémon to trade in that generation. More testing is needed for how other generations handle this case.--Gou (talk) 23:42, 28 August 2023 (UTC)