Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl wouldn't be a Pokémon game without trading. Keeping with tradition, both remakes contain Pokémon exclusive to each version, and some only evolve upon being traded. As such, trading online or locally is an essential tool for filling out your Pokédex and evolving your Pokémon.
In this guide, we explain how to trade online and locally in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
Read More: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Walkthrough: All Guides in One Place
How To Locally Trade
To trade locally with friends in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, you'll need to defeat Oreburgh Gym's leader, Roark, first. As the first gym leader, it won't take long to reach him. Once done, head to a Pokémon Centre and go upstairs. Then, speak with the woman behind the middle counter, who'll offer three options:
- Pressing "Yes" will place you into an online Local Room with random people.
- Selecting "Yes, with a Link Code" lets you create groups for specific friends, requiring an eight-digit Link Code.
- Finally, if you previously created a group and want to trade again, select "Yes, with my group."
Once you've entered the Local Room, you can then interact with other players, offering you the option to trade. Choose which Pokémon you'd like to trade and if your friends offers don't take your fancy, you can just back out!
How To Trade Online
For online trading in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, make sure you've signed up to a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, as this will otherwise be unavailable. This time, head downstairs in the Pokémon Centre and speak to the woman on the middle counter to access the Global Room.
Aside from swapping to online play, Global Rooms function almost identically to Local Rooms, so you can otherwise follow the previous advice. Once you're ready to leave, head to the yellow circle at the bottom of the screen.
How To Trade At The Global Wonder Station
Presently, Jubilife City's Global Wonder Trading is unavailable in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, alongside Pokémon Home functionality. Nintendo has confirmed it'll be added in a future update in 2022, so we'll keep this updated once that goes live.
That's all you need to know about trading online in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. With new Pokémon in your party, consider taking them for a stroll in Amity Square or looking at how to evolve them with our evolution guide and evolution stones.
This article was updated on the 1st of December 2021 by Kelsey Raynor.