In an unannounced move by Niantic and the Pokemon Company, The Go Transporter is now active, meaning it's now possible to transfer Pokemon from Pokemon Go to Pokemon Home!
Pokemon Home's long awaited connectivity feature with Pokemon Go was announced along-side the initial reveal of Pokemon Home back in May of 2019. The application, which is available on the Nintendo Switch and Smartphones alike, was launched in February 2020 with little to no talk of said Pokemon Go connectivity beyond a non-committal "It's coming". In recent months, dataminers have discovered numerous details related to the Go Transporter's release, giving us bits and pieces to work with as we prepared for Niantic and the Pokemon Company to give the go-ahead for its release. And that release is today!
We've already started compiling a hub page for the Go Transporter and other ways to transfer Pokemon to the main series. If you're interested in learning more about the details of this new system, take a look here:
What Does It Add To The Game?
As expected, the Go Transporter is largely no frills, and doesn't do much for Go players. Using it nets the player 1 candy of the same type as the Pokemon transferred and activates the Meltan box if it's already charged.
If you have a Pokemon Home subscription, then this is a far easier and more convenient way to activate the Meltan box than using the Let's Go series games.
For players of the Main Series, this is... largely mediocre. It's possible to obtain a Pokemon of choice via this method, but a transferred Pokemon has nothing special about it minus a mark that shows that it originated in Pokemon Go. It's mainly for dex fillers and obtaining breeding stock.
In short: the Go Transporter isn't bad, but it doesn't really change the game in any way/shape/form.
The Energy Issue
While more details are given in the Hub Page outlined above, the Go Transporter takes energy to use, and recharges slowly as time moves on. This is a huge issue for players that want to make use of the system to any great degree, as it takes a literal week for the Go Transporter to fully charge once its energy has been depleted!
That's right: a week. And to make matters worse, it's possible to fully deplete the transporter with a single transport if it's a shiny Legendary or Mythical Pokemon. The full list is available within the aforementioned Hub Page, but this is a huge problem that's made worse by the fact that we're expected to pay Pokecoins to recharge the Go Transporter early. That's right, yet another micro-transaction for a feature that was free in Let's Go.
But let's be honest; this system isn't extremely useful, so most players likely won't ever reach the energy limit beyond possibly transferring a few select Pokemon to the main series. So while this move feels antagonistic on Niantic and/or the Pokemon Company's part, it's really not on a par with issues like the Mega Evolution fiasco.
