When you were younger. Did you trade Pokémon with yourself to evolve them? Or did you trade them with friends like god (Pikachu) intended?

[Cantaim]

I have decided that it was time to make the most important Pokémon thread in the history of this very old forum. The most heated question that plagues the Pokémon community. Trumping the removal of Pokémon, the loss of Mega evolution, the loss of Z moves, and even the change in direction the series has had over the years. Yes this is the most important question. How did you trade the pokemon that only evolve via trading?

Did you trade the way Pikachu intended and do it with friends and family? Did you get a second handheld and do it with yourself. Or did you break free of your constraints and not trade at all?

Please answer honestly or else.

Spoiler

I am very bored at work.

 

[GamerJM]

Traded with myself. This was actually the whole reason I bought a second GBC.

 

[Slappywag]

I was late on the Pokemon train, and none of my friends jumped on board with me until Sun and Moon. By the time they all started playing, I was losing interest. I don't think I ever traded a pokemon with anyone until Go. I'm a bad Pokefan.

 

[Cantaim]

Traded with myself. This was actually the whole reason I bought a second GBC.

I always wanted to do this but I could never get my parents to agree to the idea lol. Was hard to explain that it was definitely worth the money to do this all for Pokémon trading.

I was late on the Pokemon train, and none of my friends jumped on board with me until Sun and Moon. By the time they all started playing, I was losing interest. I don't think I ever traded a pokemon with anyone until Go. I'm a bad Pokefan.

I feel that. Took me till the DS era before I could trade. Even then it was only for two games lol.

 

[EvilChameleon]

The only era I was able to trade with myself was the DS era, since I have a 3DS and regular DS. Everything before and since, nope.

 

[Sheldon]

I traded with friends to evolve pokemon we wanted in our playthrough team, but when the evolutions were solely needed to complete the pokedex, I mostly left it for later when I had a secondary handheld device to finish everything on my own time.

 

[Pineapple]

Traded with "friends" aka anyone who actually had the ones I needed. It was rough in the early days, link cables were pretty rare around me so you had some kids charing for trades. lol

I'm glad the internet made trading so much easier even with the nonsense requests of the GTS.

 

[Pandora]

if pikachu is god then I have more reasons to be an atheist . Yes I traded with myself and sometimes i lament i have no need to do it again with the modern games as i approach owning 3 switch but home means there’s no point now.

 

[HockeyBird]

I'm the only person so far to vote trading with others. It feels good to have friends!

 

[Mekanos]

With the Game Boy games I would trade through Pokemon Stadium. GBA games I'd just borrow a friend's GBA or something. DS and up is very easy to trade with yourself.

 

[Lichtsang]

Or did you trade them with friends like god (Pikachu) intended?​

Arceus won't be happy about your blasphemy!

I mostly played the games by myself, never really did the trading. Even in-game I didn't trade with NPCs, because I didn't enjoy having Pokémon with nicknames.

 

[Tanooki]

I was late on the Pokemon train, and none of my friends jumped on board with me until Sun and Moon. By the time they all started playing, I was losing interest. I don't think I ever traded a pokemon with anyone until Go. I'm a bad Pokefan.

I’m the opposite of this. I traded with friends up until about Black & White when everyone around me had lost interest in the series & no one had the game. Luckily by this time I could use friends on forums to trade online.

 

[Pandora]

I'm the only person so far to vote trading with others. It feels good to have friends!

oh i had friends but i wasn’t gonna hound them to help me evolve my gengar versus like giving them a shiny celebi i totally didn’t gameshark.

 

[AndroidOS]

I mostly traded with my brother, but there was a couple of occasions when I traded with myself - that would have been in the DS era though, when I had both a DS Lite and the original DS.

 

[Cantaim]

Traded with "friends" aka anyone who actually had the ones I needed. It was rough in the early days, link cables were pretty rare around me so you had some kids charing for trades. lol

I'm glad the internet made trading so much easier even with the nonsense requests of the GTS.

The only kid that had a link cable in my area was such a butt about it lol. Once he to all the Pokémon that evolve by trade he was like “ok I’m good”. Had to beg the guy to get them to approach the idea again.

if pikachu is god then I have more reasons to be an atheist . Yes I traded with myself and sometimes i lament i have no need to do it again with the modern games as i approach owning 3 switch but home means there’s no point now.

Let’s not get crazy now. Pikachu didn’t become god the easy way.

Arceus won't be happy about your blasphemy!

I mostly played the games by myself, never really did the trading. Even in-game I didn't trade with NPCs, because I didn't enjoy having Pokémon with nicknames.

Arceus has nothing on em! The big P giveth and the big P taketh!

Oh don’t even get me started on the NPC nicknamed Pokémon. I hated all of them they never felt like they were ever mine cause of that.

I'm the only person so far to vote trading with others. It feels good to have friends!

What are friends?

 

[kimbo99]

Never traded outside of Gen 2. I usually just rolled with a Kadabra or Machoke in the Elite 4.

 

[Ecliptor]

I traded to Pokemon Stadium 2 and then Colosseum. When I first did it on Stadium I didn't know it was gonna trigger the evolution, so I was happy.

 

[Robert]

Trading with friends is for suckers.

 

[Chrdmart]

100%, none of my friends played Pokemon as a kid

 

[ArchedThunder]

I voted trade with myself, but I did both. I had a few friends that were into Pokemon until Ruby and Sapphire.

 

[TaySan]

Never really traded as a kid

 

[9-Volt]

Traded a lot with my brother.

We had this game start ritual. One player restarts game every time after trade becomes possible and trades the starter to other. We repeated this until other player, most commonly me, has one pair of each starter. Then my brother starts his true game and I trade the extra starters to him. We skipped Ruby Sapphire as we went different colleges and separated but resumed with Diamond and Pearl thanks to online.

 

[OldSkOoL]

My younger sister had red, I had blue so we just traded with each other, have kept the tradition going since, every mainline game we would get the opposite of each other and still trade

 

[Leo]

I would have traded with myself if I could afford another game boy.

Trade evolution has to be one of the stupidiest mechanics in a game ever, even if it ultimately contributed to Pokémon becoming a juggernaut.

 

[Cantaim]

Never traded outside of Gen 2. I usually just rolled with a Kadabra or Machoke in the Elite 4.

The disrespect, smh you putting them to shame.

Trading with friends is for suckers.

Ah finally my kind of people

My younger sister had red, I had blue so we just traded with each other, have kept the tradition going since, every mainline game we would get the opposite of each other and still trade

Im Jealous my sister went in and out of Pokémon through the years.

 

[Rooster]

A little of column a, a little of column b.

 

[Robert]

I ended upgrading my DSs and 3DSs several times, so by the virtue of my many upgrades I was able to trade with myself. Heck, I still have almost all of my 3DSs. Need to get the batteries replaced in all but my Pikachu N3DSXL, though. Bulging batteries abound.

 

[OldSkOoL]

The disrespect, smh you putting them to shame.


Ah finally my kind of people


Im Jealous my sister went in and out of Pokémon through the years.

We’re only 14 months apart and did everything together as kids. She was naturally more tom boyish in nature so when my interests skewed to video games it was only a matter of time before she followed

She’s more a PC gamer now but I got her a Switch Light when it launched as she’s embraced her Nintendo love again

 

[Tangerine_Cookie]

Traded with classmates and even other random kids.

At the peak of the initial craze, it wasn't weird to see circles of kids playing, and i actually made some lifelong friends like that.

 

[Yzz]

There were precious times were I was able to trade, but most of the time I was alone (I have a Jasmine avatar for a reason).

 

[xsquiddox]

With childhood friends we even had the link cables and the wireless adapters etc. Now i do so with my girlfriend we get opposite versions always.

 

[Roppongiwarrior]

Trading with myself on the ol' nocash gmb (I lost my OG by then)

 

[garf02]

you people had 2 gameboys when kids?? Damm

 

[Kasur1309]

The first 3 generations of pokemon i bought every single game and also traded with myself. I was kinda pokemon crazy i guess.

I even had a Gameboy printer and printed the paper that you get for catching all 150 pokemon.

 

[Smilator]

I was the kid with the link cable, so during summer on the beach I'd trade Pokémon with a lot of other kids.
Good times-

 

[tender]

a little of column a, a little of column b

i voted friends though because that what i did initially when i just had a game boy pocket and red. eventually i got a game boy color and blue though and could also execute the trading myself.