While Pokemon Champions expects you to use Pokemon Home to transfer in a majority of the Pokemon you’ll use from other games, you can also borrow Pokemon from the in-game recruitment option if you don’t have any Pokemon to transfer or want to try something new.
To do this, you’ll first need to go through the tutorial, which includes fighting Cordy, recruiting a single free Pokemon, and completing your first Ranked battle. Once you’ve finished all of that, you’ll be able to access the main menu, where you’ll be able to recruit even more Pokemon.
How To Recruit New Pokemon From Roster Ranch
As you might’ve guessed by the title of this section, the Pokemon you get from Roster Ranch are not yours to keep, unless you pay the VP cost to recruit them permanently. Instead, you can think of them as rental Pokemon, which is something you may be familiar with if you played Pokemon Stadium.
You will have already rented one for a trial period during the tutorial, but if you want to rent or collect more Pokemon, you’ll need to do it after you gain access to the main menu. When you do, head back to Roster Ranch by selecting the option to Recruit and then select the first option, ‘Recruit Pokemon’.
Pokemon can only be recruited once every 22 hours, where you will see a completely new lineup. That said, this waiting period can be sped up with Quick Coupons or by spending VP. If you select the option to recruit earlier than your scheduled time, the number of coupons or VP required will be scaled according to how much time you have left.
At this point, 10 Pokemon will be randomly selected from the available roster of Pokemon in the game and presented to you. There will never be any duplicate Pokemon in the same lineup, and you’ll only be able to select one, which you can then rent for a trial period or recruit permanently.
Regardless of which option you choose, once you’ve selected a Pokemon you’ll be forced to wait 22 hours for another list of Pokemon. For this reason, even if there’s more than one Pokemon you’d like from a roster list, choose the one that matters more to you, because there’s no telling when you’ll see it appear again.
This is also why transferring your favorites from Pokemon Home is highly recommended, as there are no known limitations other than your box limit, and it allows you to have all the Pokemon you want from the start.
Recruiting and transferring Pokemon can start to fill up your boxes pretty quickly, and you’ll need a paid membership to expand it, so keep that in mind before you start to view this as a collection rather than a box to build teams.
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What Is The Difference Between A Trial Period And Permanent Recruitment
As mentioned, you’ll have two options when it comes to recruiting Pokemon. The default is the trial period. The trial period is seven days, and since these are temporary rental Pokemon, you won’t be able to train Trial Pokemon and change their stats.
Even if you’re pretty sure you’d like to recruit permanently, it’s highly recommended that you trial every Pokemon first. There’s no consequence for doing this, and it saves you from wasting VP or Teammate Tickets you might regret later.
If you decide that you like having this Pokemon or find one you’d like to keep permanently, you’ll need to spend VP. That Pokemon will then become a permanent recruit, and you’ll be able to use them as if they were another Pokemon transferred in from Pokemon Home.
Trial Recruitment, after the allotted wait time, will always be free, whereas Permanent Recruitment will cost you 2,500 VP per Pokemon. You can also use a single Teammate Ticket to avoid paying the VP cost, if you have one. These are generally pretty limited and earned through the free and premium battle pass, so don’t spend them frivolously unless you know for sure you intend to use that Pokemon.
That said, if you don’t have enough VP to recruit a Pokemon permanently, you’re not entirely out of luck. All you need to do is collect them on a trial basis for free, then pay the cost before that seven-day period expires. So, even if you don’t permanently recruit at Roster Ranch, you will always have the option to do so from your box.
The yellow hourglass icon on a Pokemon in your box indicates they are a Trial Pokemon. You can check how much time you have left with them by reviewing their summary.
To do this, open your box and select ‘Recruit permanently’. This will show the same cost menu as before and ask you to confirm the amount. This amount will never change, regardless of how much trial time is left, and once you’ve paid it, you’ll now have access to this Pokemon forever and can consider it one of your own.
Pokemon Champions: How To Transfer Pokemon From Pokemon Home
While Pokemon Champions has rental Pokemon for you to choose from, if you want to use your own, you’ll need to transfer them from Pokemon Home.
