Pokemon Home has added support for more Pokemon games with its new 2.0 update, and you’ll earn a special bonus for connecting those titles to the service. Transfer a Pokemon from Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl or Pokemon Legends: Arceus into Pokemon Home and you’ll receive free starter Pokemon from the Sinnoh and Hisui regions.
Here’s how to claim your free Pokemon.
How to get free Sinnoh starters
You can get a free Turtwig, Chimchar and Piplup for depositing a Pokemon from Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl.
The Pokemon Company
Everyone who deposits a Pokemon from the Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl games into Pokemon Home will receive the three Sinnoh starter Pokemon: Turtwig, Chimchar and Piplup. What makes these particular monsters special is that they all have their Hidden Abilities, which are normally hard to come by.
To get the free starters, first fire up Pokemon Home on Nintendo Switch, then connect to Pokemon Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl when prompted. Move any Pokemon from your game into Pokemon Home, then save and exit the service. After that, open Pokemon Home on your mobile device, and you’ll be greeted by a notification that the free Pokemon are available in your Mystery Gift box.
How to get free Hisui starters
Deposit a Pokemon from Pokemon Legends: Arceus and you’ll get a free Rowlet, Cyndaquil and Oshawott.
The Pokemon Company
Players who deposit a monster from Pokemon Legends: Arceus into Pokemon Home will receive that game’s three starter Pokemon: Rowlet, Cyndaquil and Oshawott. These three monsters likewise have a special characteristic. Each Pokemon has maximum effort levels, making them stronger than the ones you can catch in the wild.
The process to receive the free Hisui starters is the same as above. Open Pokemon Home on Nintendo Switch, then connect to Pokemon Legends: Arceus. After you’ve transferred a Pokemon from the game into the service, fire up the mobile version of Pokemon Home and you’ll see a message that the Pokemon are available in your Mystery Gift box.
The free starters are being given away to celebrate the release of Pokemon Home’s 2.0 update, which added the ability to transfer and store Pokemon from Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl and Pokemon Legends: Arceus. You can read additional details about the update on the official Pokemon website.
Pokemon Home is available on Nintendo Switch and mobile devices. The service offers free and paid plans, the latter of which costs $16 per year and offers expanded functionality. You can learn more about the service in our Pokemon Home explainer.