Now that Pokémon X and Y have been released (I bought Y) and the
Pokémon Bank + Poké Transfer will be out in about a month's time, everyone with older Pokémon games should be thinking about what they want to transfer over. (Never underestimate the importance of planning!)
Below is a list of what I have to transfer and what I still have to get. I want to take advantage of the free trial that you have until
January 31, 2014 to claim, and you probably do too. After the trial, you must pay $5 to transfer, and you have to renew your subscription to it every year (in other words, you have to keep paying $5 every year if you want to keep on transferring).
Pokémon White 2 to Pokémon Y
- my shiny collection (in PC, ready to transfer)
- the Pokemon I caught to complete the National Pokédex in White 2 (in PC, ready to transfer)
- my competitive teams (in PC, ready to transfer)
- Pokémon that have sentimental value (some in PC; most are still in Emerald, FireRed, Pearl and HeartGold and need to be transferred to White 2 first)
- female Pokémon in special apricorn balls, since X and Y let female Pokémon pass down their ball when breeding (still have to catch in HeartGold)
- legendaries and event legendaries (most are still in Pearl and HeartGold)
- Pokémon with moves taught by special move tutors that aren't available in newer games, such as Seismic Toss Chansey/Blissey (still have to research)
- Pokémon from NPC trades and gifts (still need to research)
Remember that the Pokémon Bank only lets you transfer Pokémon from Black/White/Black2/White2 to X/Y. You
cannot transfer items to X and Y. You also
cannot transfer your Notch-Eared Pichu from HeartGold/SoulSilver because it's impossible to transfer it to Gen 5 in the first place. Pokémon hacked using an Action Replay or a computer program probably won't be transferable too, unless you did a perfect job of hacking them. Duplicated/cloned Pokémon should have no problems, as long as the original was legitimately obtained. The image below is from the official Pokémon website:
When the Pokémon Bank and Poké Transfer features are released, I will be writing a step-to-step guide with pictures explaining how to use it, so look forward to that. For you collectors with older games, I will also be writing a guide explaining what move tutors you should be interested in, as well as how to get all of the NPC trade/gift Pokémon.