Pokemon Go Puts Strict Limits on Trading Pokemon

Pokemon Go's new trading mechanic will have some strict restrictions, including that an individual Pokemon can only be traded one time.

Earlier this week, Pokemon Go announced that they were finally rolling out a much-anticipated trade mechanic. The new trade mechanic would have some limits - players can only trade with those on their Friend list, and players would need to spend Stardust to complete trades. In a blog post released last night, Pokemon Go gave some new developer insight into the trade mechanic and revealed how the game is trying pre-emptively crack down on cheating.

The biggest revelation coming out of the blogpost is that a Pokemon can only be traded one time. The primary purpose of this is to prevent players from spamming a stat re-roll system that rebalances a Pokemon's stats based on their level, but it also cracks down on potential "trading routes" that could potentially move mass amounts of Pokemon from one continent to another.

However, players will be incentivized for trading Pokemon that were originally caught far apart. Players who trade Pokemon that were caught in different states or on different continents will give both players more Candies for their new Pokemon, as a way of making regional trades more impactful.

The blogpost also confirmed how the stat re-roll system attached to the trading system will work. The game will automatically re-balance a Pokemon so that its level is no higher than that of the new trainer. The game will also establish a minimum stat value (including IVs) based on a player's Friendship Level with their trading partner. The higher the Friendship Level between two trainers, the higher the traded Pokemon's minimum stats will be.

As previously traded, players will also have a limit of one "Special Trade" (a trade involving a Shiny or Legendary Pokemon, or a Pokemon not found in a player's PokeDex) per day.

The new trading system should be a big benefit to those players who have a close-knit Raiding group or local Pokemon Go community, but it might not be as beneficial for solo players (like myself.) There also doesn't seem to be much benefit for befriending players who live far away....unless you have plans to meet up with them periodically to trade.

Pokemon Go's new trading system should roll out sometime this week.