Can You Trade Pokémon Without Friends?

As a passionate Pokémon gaming expert dedicated to helping fellow players, one common question I get asked a lot is whether you can trade Pokémon without having real-life friends who also play Pokémon games.

The short answer is: Absolutely, yes!

While historically, trading Pokémon required local wireless connectivity with another player‘s device, recent games have introduced great online trading features and workarounds that let you trade by yourself.

Overview of Pokémon Trading Features

Here‘s a quick look at trading capabilities across major Pokémon games:

As you can see, online trading is supported in the most recent mainline games on the Nintendo Switch, allowing you to connect with random players worldwide.

Local wireless trading is available across all major Pokémon games, but requires two Switch consoles within close physical proximity.

Certain games like Pokémon GO and Pokémon Legends: Arceus provide special mechanisms for obtaining trade-evolution Pokémon without actually trading.

So if you were worried you can‘t catch ‘em all solo – don‘t be! Game Freak has implemented great connectivity features to help all kinds of Pokémon trainers.

Trading Anonymously Online

Thanks to Y-Comm online connectivity in Gen 8 Switch games, you can easily tap into a huge pool of millions of strangers to trade Pokémon online anonymously.

I highly recommend joining subreddits like r/PokemonTrades where 1 million members actively exchange Pokémon. You can easily find trade partners for version exclusives or make exchanges to evolve your Haunter into Gengar.

If you‘re nervous trading with strangers, rest assured that Pokémon‘s trading system is very secure. As long as you don‘t share personal information, there are no major risks in anonymous online Link Trades.

Local Wireless Trading Tips

Don‘t have NSO? No worries – you can still trade locally without an internet connection. This does require two Switch consoles within a couple meters of each other.

If you happen to own two Switches, you can easily trade with yourself by owning both versions of the game. This makes obtaining version exclusives much simpler!

You can also finds local players to trade with in real life by checking out gaming shops, conferences like PAX, or even subreddits. r/Pokemongotrades has many people willing to become Ultra Friends and trade regionals.

I‘ve traded phone numbers with people I‘ve met randomly playing Pokémon GO at raids. While playing the Switch games, I hold up a sign saying "Trade?" and often find success connecting locally with others.

Evolving Trade Pokémon Yourself

As a mostly solo player myself, I‘ve discovered some fantastic techniques over the years for obtaining Gengar, Machamp and other trade evolution Pokémon entirely by myself, no friends required!

Here are the best methods in recent games:

• Pokémon Scarlet/Violet: Simply catch a Pinchurcin sea anemone Pokémon from the Paldea region and give it to Haunter or Machoke to induce evolution!

• Pokémon Legends: Arceus: Collect blue glowing Satchels which reward Merit Points. Save up 1200 MP to buy Reaper Cloth/Razor Claw from an NPC. Equip held item, level up at night for Dusknoir/Jolteon.

• Pokémon Home Mobile App: Transfer 25 Pokémon for free from GO/Let‘s Go to Home, then trade with yourself between linked user accounts! Evolve Feebas into Milotic and more.

• Pokémon GO: Catch Meltan from Special Research, walk as buddy for 400 candies to evolve into Melmetal. Also use glacial/mossy/magnetic lure modules while catching to randomize Evolution Item drops.

So as you can see, with a bit of know-how, you can self-trade to trigger evolutions without real life friends!

Valuable Trade-Exclusive Pokémon

Trading opens up access to some seriously awesome and rare Pokémon unobtainable through traditional catching methods.

Here are some top monsters worth trading for if you don‘t have buddy to exchange version exclusives:

I suggest checking Serebii‘s Version Exclusives list for the full scope of unique Pokémon in each game only obtainable via trades.

Gotta catch ‘em all, right? So get trading, trainers!

I hope this guide gave you lots of tips to successfully trade Pokémon even if none of your real life friends play Pokémon games. Online communities are super friendly and willing to make mutually beneficial trades for that Pokédex completion!

Let me know if you have any other questions – always happy to help fellow Pokémon masters strategize to catch those trade-evolutions and exclusives.

Now grab your Switch, boot up Y-Comm and start trading!