Pokémon HOME is now worthless following Sword and Shield’s Pokédex Decision— Here is Why

Not worth the purchase.

Pokémon HOME was announced a few weeks ago during a Pokémon Press Conference in Tokyo to the roar of its fans. The service, becoming the new Pokémon Bank, allowed players to store their most beloved and cherished Pokémon into the cloud to transfer into the next games of the series.

It all sounded too good to be true, and sadly, that seems to be the case because of a new decision made by Game Freak to not bring a National Pokédex to Pokémon Sword and Shield, meaning certain Pokémon can never join the game.

On paper, Pokémon HOME was a great idea to bridge the gap between all generations and provide you with a service that offers something for everyone, but Game Freak and the folks over at the Pokémon Company seem to have fallen at the first hurdle.

So, why do we say Pokémon HOME is now not worth the purchase?

Well, it is simple while you can store all your Pokémon from games from every series into HOME, the only game that you can take Pokémon from the HOME service in Pokémon Sword and Shield.

That means, say you have a rare Legendary Pokémon like an event Greninja, and that Pokémon is not in Sword and Shield, it is stuck in Pokémon HOME until Game Freak, and Nintendo makes a new Pokémon game that allows you to transfer that Pokémon out of the service.

In that respect, Pokémon HOME is more of a Prison than a warm place for your Pokémon to hang as there is physically no way for you to use those Pokémon you have saved again until Nintendo and Game Freak decide to let you use them in a future installment.

Of course, Game Freak could change their decision with future updates for Sword and Shield or allow you to transfer Pokémon back to Bank from HOME in the future, but for the time being, there is no reason to invest in the service other than for the few Pokémon you can transfer between titles.