How Apricorn Balls Interact with Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum

Upon the release of Pokémon HOME, I found that myself and many of my friends ended up revisting HeartGold and SoulSilver for Pokédex purposes. The Johto-based games feature Apricorns that can be turned into exclusive Poké Balls, and given that Poké Balls can now be passed down through breeding in generation 6 and onwards, Pokémon caught in Apricorn balls have become quite a sought-after collectible. Nothing like having that special Pokémon in a ball that matches, right?

I was trading some Pokémon between SoulSilver and Platinum and realised that my Pokémon no longer displayed themselves as being in an Apricorn ball, but a mere Poké Ball. This makes sense, given that those Poké Balls did not exist in the Sinnoh-based games, but I was curious as to whether the game still internally saves that data for when that Pokémon is sent back to a game where they do exist. Experiment time!

Test #1: HeartGold/SoulSilver to Platinum and back

Upon being traded to Platinum, the Love Ball on my Aipom turned into a regular Poké Ball.

When traded back to SoulSilver, the Poké Ball became a Love Ball once again. Good!

Test #2: Platinum to Diamond/Pearl

Apricorn Balls did not exist in any of the Sinnoh games, so it remained a Poké Ball upon trading. However, in doing this I wanted to check if it would still "remember" the Love Ball after being passed through multiple different Sinnoh games.

Test #3: Diamond/Pearl to HeartGold/SoulSilver

Upon arriving back in Johto, the Love Ball on Aipom began to exist again. Success! But, there's one more important thing to check...

Test #4: Diamond/Pearl/Platinum to Black/White/Black 2/White 2 (Generation 4 to Generation 5)

After struggling to find my generation 5 games for a solid hour, I finally began the Poké Transfer sequence.

Whilst it looked like a Poké Ball in Sinnoh, the game correctly parsed Aipom as being caught in a Love Ball once it was in Unova. Fantastic!

Conclusion

If you're trading Pokémon between your generation 4 games, any Pokémon caught in Apricorn balls will retain that ball even if the Sinnoh games don't display them. You can trade and transfer with no worries!

Page last updated on 1st March 2020 at 23:30 GMT.