Whether you’re trying to attain all starters quickly or consolidate version exclusives, trading with yourself has always been an alternative to the hassle of setting up trades with strangers.
Traditionally, past Pokemon games allowed players to do this by utilizing the Global Trade System. The only requirement being that player needed 2 copies of the game.
And while the method carried some risks, namely strangers stealing your trades, the process was mostly painless with some due diligence.
Can you self-trade in Pokemon Sword and Shield?
Unfortunately, it’s very expensive to do as of January 2020 due to the exclusion of GTS. The only way to trade with yourself is by owning multiple Nintendo Switch’s and 2 copies of the game.
Pokemon Home (an alternative to GTS and Pokebank)
Although not currently available, Pokemon Home will aim to bridge the gap between the trading functionalities of past generations and Pokemon Sword and Shield.
The service is said to not only offer centralized cloud storage, but also trading outright (the specifics haven’t been mentioned).
- The upcoming Pokemon direct on January 9, 2020 will most likely address the rollout of Pokemon Home
It will also offer players a way to transfer Pokemon stored in Pokebank as long as they’re included in Sword and Shield’s roster.
The only way to trade, as of now, is either through Link Trades and Surprise Trades. For those looking to get exactly what they’re after, using setting up Link Trades on places like reddit is the best option.
Pokemon Home should offer a solution to those who would prefer to catch everything themselves, but it won’t be until “Early 2020” until full fledged trading and storage make it to the latest release.
Lover of games, tech, nature, and strange electronic music. Shaped by Sega, PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox – platform agnostic ever since. Currently overwhelmed by choice on my Xbox Series X thanks to Game Pass.