Global Trade System

The Global Trade System (Japanese: グローバルトレードシステム Global Trade System) is a feature introduced in Generation IV with the advent of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection that allows players to send and receive Pokémon on a worldwide network.

Access
In Generation IV, the Global Trade System is accessed at the, which in , , is located in the Global Terminal. In Generation V, the Global Trade System is accessed at the Global Trade Station which is part of the Global Terminal found at any Pokémon Center. In Generation VI, the Global Trade Station is accessed through the Player Search System, which in can be accessed through the  feature of the PokéNav Plus.

Due to the Wi-Fi shutdown, this feature is no longer officially supported as of May 20, 2014 for all Generation IV and V games. Unofficial support exists through the Wiimmfi service, which was developed to keep online services active for Wii and DS games.

In Generation IV
If the player talks with the woman at the counter of the lobby of the, she will direct them into a room where they can either put up a Pokémon to be traded or trade a Pokémon they own for one that has been put up for trade.

In searching for Pokémon, after the player chooses one species that they have seen, the search can be further narrowed down by level, gender, and the country where the person trading it is from. These four categories were introduced in order to mitigate trades being pushed to the bottom and becoming overshadowed by others. By level, players can search for and request Pokémon level 9 and under, level 10 and up, level 20 and up, and so on until level 100, or they can search for Pokémon of any level. Gender is similar, with the player being able to search for male, female, or either gender of the selected Pokémon, though searching for a genderless species automatically sets the gender to 'either'.

Offering a Pokémon is similarly restricted, such that the player can only request a Pokémon they have previously seen. Unfortunately, Pokémon that are offered cannot be bargained, and the player must choose a single Pokémon they want for the Pokémon they are offering, instead of having a more flexible list.

Like normal trades, a Pokémon can also hold an item when being offered or traded. This may add incentive for a player to trade his or her Pokémon for a Pokémon that they already own in order to get the item held, instead of just trading to complete the Pokédex. Pokémon that evolve after a trade, whether with or without items, will do so in the same manner they would after a normal trade.

The GTS also allows an individual to trade between two different games they own without using two Nintendo DS systems. However, such trading through the GTS does carry the risk that another person may trade for the individual's uploaded Pokémon before they can retrieve it.

Pokémon with the certain ribbons, such as or  cannot be traded here. Pokémon with the National Ribbon also can't be traded in the GTS, except for Generation IV.

It is recommended to check up on a deposited Pokémon every so often, as the Pokémon may flee if it is kept in the GTS for an extended period of time.

In Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver, the features of the Global Trade System are the same as the ones in, except that a choice to narrow the Pokémon found in Seek Pokémon feature by location has been added.

Mail System
The GTS in Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver has incorporated an e-mail system that allows players to be notified of completed trades; the player no longer has to periodically manually check if a trade is complete. The Japanese version sends notification messages to the player's e-mail address, so the messages can be viewed either on a PC, mobile phone or a Wii console. The North American and the European version's Mail System was downgraded to just using Wii messaging. By entering in a correct e-mail address, the Nintendo DS system will automatically send information directly to the player's computer, mobile phone, or Wii system.

In the international versions, if the player selects the "Wii Message Settings" and completes the setup, once their Pokémon have traded over the GTS the player will receive a Wii message on their Wii system. By adding "wfc-mail@nintendo.com" to their Wii console address book, as well as adding their Wii Number to the main menu on. Enter the players Wii Number and reenter it a second time for confirmation, then after connecting to Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, a registration code will be sent to the registered Wii system. Once the player's Wii number has been registered, they will be asked to set a 4-digit Wii number password to protect the Wii number.

The player is able to check and change settings using the Wii Messaging. Once the player has registered, a menu will appear on the main menu. There will be three options:


 * Check Wii Number: The player can check their Wii number they have registered here.
 * Set Wii Message Reception: The player can select whether or not they would like to be contacted by Wii messages once the trade has gone through the GTS.
 * Delete Wii Message Settings: The player can erase their Wii Number and the password.

In Generation V
In addition to the trading format introduced during Generation IV, a new format called GTS Negotiations was introduced. It allows two players to trade Pokémon using the same process as trading with players registered on their Pal Pad. This avoids the restrictions on normal GTS trading (where the player can only search for a Pokémon they have already seen in their Pokédex, and cannot trade certain event Pokémon), as a player can offer any Pokémon in their possession, even Pokémon Eggs.

When connecting to GTS Negotiations, the player may specify conditions such as the level (1-49, 50, 51-99) and type (cool, cute, scary, strange) of Pokémon desired, though these are only guidelines (they are not enforced during the actual trade). The player is also shown the greeting on the other person's and their number of successful trades.

Prior to the update that accommodated non-Japanese games, whenever a player successfully trades with another player through GTS Negotiations, they will show up as Trade Pals on the Pokémon Global Link if they have Global Link accounts.

In Generation VI
In the Generation VI games, the Global Trade Station is accessible via the Player Search System. Unlike in previous generations, the player may now ask for or seek Pokémon not yet registered in their Pokédex by selecting "What Pokémon?" at the end of the alphabetical options and typing out a Pokémon's name, though the gender of the Pokémon cannot be selected in this kind of search. This manual entry is not case-sensitive, and entering "Flabebe" will return results for, but otherwise, if the player has not correctly typed an actual Pokémon's name in the language they're playing in, their search or deposit will fail. (In the case of depositing a Pokémon, the Pokémon will appear to be deposited successfully, but the Pokémon will not appear on the GTS.)

When starting a search for a Pokémon, it is possible to exclude players seeking special Pokémon (such as game mascots). Search results are now displayed in their entirety (up to one hundred results per page) starting with the most recent, and the player can filter these results by region (same or different from the player's) or solely to offers seeking Pokémon the player currently has in their party or PC storage (and can thus trade).

The player is not allowed to trade a Pokémon on the GTS if it is holding certain specific items (such as Mega Stones). Unlike in the past, specific event Pokémon cannot be traded at all, regardless of whether it is holding an event ribbon (such as caught in Newmoon Island); attempting to do so will yield the message "It's a special Pokémon. You can't trade it!". Attempting to trade a purified Shadow Pokémon with the will also yield this message. cannot be traded while fused.

In the Generation VI games, the system is not referred to as the "Global Trade System"; the acronym "GTS" is expanded as "Global Trade Station" by an NPC in Pokémon X and Y and official strategy guides.

In Generation VII
In the Generation VII games, the Global Trade Station is accessible via Festival Plaza.

The filter that allows the player to exclude offers looking for special Pokémon and Mythical Pokémon has been expanded to exclude all and Mythical Pokémon. If enabled, this filter also excludes offers looking for and Ultra Beasts, despite them not being confirmed to be Legendary or Mythical Pokémon.

Cloning glitch
There is a glitch on the GTS that allows the player to clone any Pokémon that does not have a Classic Ribbon. It involves turning the game off at precisely the right moment before the Pokémon is deposited. If the Pokémon is deposited in the GTS and the connection is interrupted at the right time, the Pokémon in question would be in the player's party (or PC Box) and in the GTS, requiring the undefined only to withdraw the Pokémon from the GTS to obtain the clone. In, however, the glitch of cloning via GTS was remedied; if it is attempted, the game simply reports a communication error and returns the player back to the main desk.

Trade evolution glitch
In Generation IV there is a glitch with the GTS that allows Pokémon to evolve by being traded, but without actually trading them. Players must first place a (with the correct held item, like  for  or Electirizer for ) onto the GTS. To prevent the deposited Pokémon from being traded away, players should request an impossible trade, such as a level 9 and under.

The player must then search for a Pokémon on the GTS and trade for it. After this has been done, returning to the Pokémon that was placed on the GTS by the player and taking it back will cause it to evolve.

It is possible that this was intentional. However, the fact that it was removed in Generation V makes this very unlikely. The risk of not being able to reacquire a Pokémon while trying to evolve it through trade evolution over the GTS is very great and this could have been a planned countermeasure. The requirement (a trade) must still be met in order for the Pokémon to evolve, but this system would prevent a player from potentially losing the Pokémon they wanted to evolve.

Morphing glitch


There have been somewhat numerous reports of a glitch happening in the GTS that causes a player's offered Pokémon to become "glitchy". The Pokémon's sprite will morph into a different Pokémon, and the gender might be swapped as well. It will also say it is the same species it used to be (example: A morphed Heatran would still be Heatran/Heatran) and will be holding a, a beta item. There is no confirmed way to deliberately access this glitch; however in many of the reports, people have claimed that the glitch happened right after the GTS came up with no searches for any of the Pokémon, but did not send out a Communication Error. After it stops blocking all access to other Pokémon, it is believed that is when the glitch is most likely to happen. Trying to withdraw the glitch Pokémon may result in a Communication Error but when the game lets a player withdraw the glitch, the Pokémon returns to normal.

Another glitch similar to the morphing glitch has been happening where the Pokémon in the GTS is morphed into the wanted Pokémon (as shown in the picture to the right). Instead of its name being the same as before, its name is now that of the wanted Pokémon, but still the same species as the Pokémon originally offered. There's also the possibility of the morphed Pokémon holding a. Most of the time, trying to trade for it will either cause a communication error or say that the Pokémon has been traded. In addition to this glitch, sometimes these glitched Pokémon will be the only that appear when searching for Pokémon of a certain level. This glitch has also been seen in Generation V.

Vanishing glitch
There have also been instances of a "vanishing" glitch on the GTS. After uploading a Pokémon to the server and checking its summary without changing the Pokémon, the "summary" button is sometimes replaced with "deposit," suggesting that the Pokémon has been traded. Selecting "Deposit" will cause a communication error, and the player will return to the front desk. Logging on to the server again will cause the Pokémon to reappear, with no noticeable changes.

Level display glitch
In early releases of the US version of Platinum, when seeking for Pokémon, the game will not display the level range of the wanted Pokémon. This can result in confusion, where a player apparently has the right Pokémon to offer but it will not be able to be selected, since it is not at the right (undisclosed) level.

This glitch is not present in the PAL releases or the original Japanese release, indicating that it was mistakenly left out in the North American release. Nintendo offers that any affected games can be sent in and replaced with a working game; however since it is the Game Card itself that is simply swapped out, the player will lose their save file.

DNS abuse
Several developers have created programs that allow a player to send Pokémon to and from their computer using the GTS servers. This will count as a trade on the player's.

Some players have created servers which allow the player to download custom "event" Pokémon. These can be accessed by disabling "Auto-obtain DNS" and entering the DNS required to connect to the server in question. Other possible results such as Pokémon cloning can occur from the use of these servers.

Masuda's method
In his online column, Junichi Masuda detailed that he programmed a method of easily obtaining Pokémon utilizing the GTS. Dubbed the Masuda method by fans, it activates when two Pokémon in the Pokémon Day Care are from games from different language regions. This significantly raises the odds of their offspring being a Shiny Pokémon.

If an is hatched from a Pokémon received from a game originating from a language other than the language of the player's cartridge, the chances of hatching a Shiny Pokémon from that egg increase. It will not work if both Pokémon are from the same foreign language, even if it is a different language from the game; or if the player uses one of his or her own Pokémon and the 's. This is because the Magikarp has been generated on the same game as the player's Pokémon.

The Masuda method is possible due to coding Masuda programmed into the games. If, in the Pokémon Day Care, the game recognizes one of the Pokémon as having a different home location as the other, the chances of having a Shiny Pokémon in the egg will be six times higher, increasing from 1/8192 to 1/1366 in Generation V, or five times higher to 1/1639 in the Generation IV games.

Though the odds of obtaining a Shiny Pokémon are still fairly low, the chances have now been increased so significantly that players are touting it as a more reliable method than the Poké Radar. In addition, it allows players to customize their team further, with specific Egg Moves and s that would be either unavailable or harder to obtain, making using Masuda's method even more appealing. However, when breeding with two foreign Pokémon, the 50% chance of passing down a parent's nature via an is not present.

Impossible trades
Although being a well-meaning trade function, the GTS has come under criticism. Many traders ask for a legendary Pokémon, such as, in exchange for a common Pokémon, and some players request Pokémon at levels it is impossible to legally obtain that Pokémon at, such as a "Level 9 and under". Other trades are dominated by demands for Pokémon often featured in Pokémon marketing, such as or. Prior to Generation VI, the inability to ask for a Pokémon that the player has not seen also made it impossible to trade for Pokémon that are event-exclusive (such as, except in Platinum) or that can only be found in Generation III games over the GTS without having already obtained them through some other means, such as local trades or GTS Negotiations. In Generation VI, it is also possible to request Mythical Pokémon such as that are actually prohibited from being deposited or traded on the GTS.

In Generation VII, it is possible to request a genderless Pokémon with a specific gender (eg. male ) or the other gender for single-gendered Pokémon (eg. female or male ).

There is also a risk of receiving hacked Pokémon, as information regarding the OT or the ID number when seeking Pokémon was not displayed in Diamond or Pearl (this information was added starting with Platinum).

Pokémon with a or  cannot be traded on the GTS, making event-exclusive Pokémon even more difficult to obtain as they frequently come with such Ribbons attached.

In Generation VII, depositing something while requesting an underleveled legendary will result in an error code, and the Pokémon will not be uploaded.

Temporary legendary Pokémon ban
On July 3, 2007, Legendary Pokémon became banned from being traded on the GTS. A similar incident occurred in Pokémon Battle Revolution on the same date.

The banning received a large amount of controversy. Nintendo stated that it was a "technical difficulty"; Legendary Pokémon were later allowed again to be traded over the GTS and battled in Battle Revolution.

Predecessor
In the Japanese version of, the Trade Corner in the Pokémon Communication Center uses a system that can be seen as the predecessor to the GTS. Players could request via the Pokémon Mobile System GB and specify the gender desired, if any.