Pokemon Home update adds Pokemon Legends: Arceus along with Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl
The update will also introduce Strange Balls.
The Pokemon Company and Nintendo have announced Pokemon Home v.2.0, which will add two additional games to be mutually compatible with the cloud service app.
With the newest version of Home, you will be able to connect Pokemon Legends: Arceus as well as Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl alongside past games Pokemon Sword and Shield, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eevee, and Pokemon Go.
The update will launch in the coming weeks.
If you are unfamiliar with Pokemon Home, it enables you to continue your Pokemon adventures beyond a single game system while managing your collection of creatures across many games; however, the Pokemon you can take to each game is limited to the Pokemon that appear in those games. You can view the details on which ones can be taken to which games from the Help menu of the mobile version of the app.
With the update comes the introduction of Strange Balls. Because Pokemon Legends: Arceus takes place in the distant past, Poke Balls from the other games do not yet exist. When creatures caught in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl or Sword and Shield are transferred to Arceus, they will appear in Strange Balls.
Strange Balls will only appear in Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. All Pokemon caught in Arceus that are transferred to Sword or Shield will appear in regular Poke Balls. That said, once the update drops you will be able to see the Poke Balls the creatures were originally caught in.
To celebrate the addition of Arceus and Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl to Pokemon Home, Nintendo will gift a special Pokemon when you link each game to the app.
After depositing a Pokemon from Arceus into the Switch version of Home, you will receive Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott with maximum effort levels as Mystery Gifts in the mobile device version of Home. Depositing a Pokemon from Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl into the Switch version of Home will net you Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup with Hidden Abilities as Mystery Gifts in the mobile device version of Home.
The moves your Pokemon can learn in Arceus, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and Sword and Shield will differ from those that they can learn in other games. This means the Pokemon's moves will not be reflected when it is transferred to another game. When it is taken to another game for the first time, the moves it can use will be determined by its level. However, if you bring it back to the game it was originally caught in, it will go back to having the moves that it originally knew.
You can learn more about Pokemon Home version 2.0 at the link.