How to Transfer from Pokemon GO to Pokemon Sword/Shield

 Are you looking to do an all shiny run of Pokemon Sword or Shield? Would you like to speed up the process, skipping the hours of grinding to hatch a shiny egg or hoping to get lucky in the tall grass on Route 2? I have a lazy alternative for you!

After about twenty hours of full odds shiny hunting in Pokemon Shield, I started to miss the charm (aka the better shiny odds) of Pokemon GO… It made me wonder if I could transfer my existing shinies from GO over to my Shield save, and the answer is--thankfully--yes. Here’s how to do so:

First, make sure you have Pokemon GO downloaded on your phone, Pokemon Sword/Shield downloaded on your switch, and Pokemon HOME downloaded and set up on both devices. (You’ll need to finish the tutorial for HOME on the mobile device.)

Next, open Pokemon GO and go to the settings, where you’ll find the “Connected Devices and Services” section. From there, you can select Pokemon HOME to link them. This will give you the ability to send Pokemon from GO to HOME, though there are some limitations I’ll warn you about:

- Pokemon sent to HOME from GO will not be able to return to GO!

- Only Pokemon that exist within Sword/Shield can be sent to it. (For example, you can send a regular wooper to Sword/Shield because they can be found in the Wild Area, but you can’t send a Paldean wooper because they are not already in Sword/Shield.)

- To send a Legendary or Mythical Pokemon to Sword/Shield, you must already have obtained the Pokemon in your Sword/Shield game.

- Transferring from Pokemon GO to Pokemon HOME uses GO Transporter Energy, which can take days to charge after use depending on how much energy is needed to send your Pokemon over. You can instantly recharge it, but it costs PokeCoins to do so. (It will already be charged up for your first transfer though!)

After you send your Pokemon from GO to HOME, open Pokemon HOME on your switch to receive your Pokemon. From there, you can move them between your HOME boxes and Sword/Shield boxes. Once your changes are saved, you can return to Sword/Shield and get them from your boxes!

As a bonus reward for figuring out how the heck to transfer between GO and HOME, you’ll be given a mystery gift in HOME containing a melmetal that can Gigantamax! If you’re doing a shiny only run this probably won’t matter much, but hey, at least it’s something. Maybe you’re not trying a shiny run, maybe you just need to transfer some Pokemon--I don’t know your life. I hope this transferring tutorial makes your life a little easier though!