Pokemon accessibility has been an ongoing issue for the series that has only been worsened by games like Gen 8's Pokemon Sword and Shield and Gen 9's Pokemon Scarlet and Violet lacking a complete National Dex. Players looking to transfer their collection of critters to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have had to jump through numerous hoops to keep their beloved mons on the current hardware. Now, the unfortunate consequences of "Dexit" are about to come to a head as Nintendo has announced the shutdown of the 3DS servers in Spring of 2024 along with an uncertain future for Pokemon Bank that could leave certain mons stranded on the system.

The good new for players who have held off on transferring their 3DS critters to Pokemon Home is that Pokemon Bank and the Poke Transporter will still be operational for the time being even after the 3DS' other online functions go offline in Spring 2024. However, Nintendo has stated that it's unclear how long these services will remain active after the shutdown, and players should transfer their collections to Pokemon Home sooner rather than later. That being said, if players aren't able to transfer certain mons before the cutoff date, there are several that could become unavailable entirely.

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Pokemon That Would Be Trapped If the 3DS Servers Shutdown Today

• Snivy
• Servine
• Serperior
• Tepig
• Pignite
• Emboar
• Patrat
• Watchog
• Pansage
• Simisage
• Pansear
• Simisear
• Panpour
• Simipour
• Blitzle
• Zebstrika
• Furfrou
• Pikipek
• Trumbeak
• Toucannon
• Minior

The majority of the mons on the list that would become unavailable after the 3DS servers shutdown and Pokemon Bank and the Poke Transporter are no longer accessible are from Gen 5. However, some of these mons like Snivy, Tepig, Blitzle, and Pikipek are confirmed to be coming in The Indigo Disk DLC, meaning they will be accessible on the Switch by the time the 3DS servers shut down. Additionally, it is rumored that Minior will be included in the DLC as well, but this has not been confirmed.

Aside from those potential DLC critters, the remaining mons that would be trapped on the 3DS are Patrat, the elemental monkeys, and Furfrou. The Pokemon series has done very little with Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour since their introduction in Pokemon Black and White, and now they risk being unavailable on the Switch all together along with fellow Gen 5 mon Patrat. Furfrou is a native of Gen 6's Pokemon X and Y but has also seen very few appearances outside its original game.

It's possible that the reason mons like Furfrou and Minior have yet to appear outside the 3DS is due to their multiple forms, with Minior being available in several different colors and Furfrou having a variety of grooming styles it can take on. The resources it takes to include these models in recent generations must not be worth what these mons bring to the games given how they've seemingly been forgotten. At least Minior is rumored to be available in The Indigo Disk DLC, but Furfrou will seemingly get the short end of the stick without a Gen 6 remake or Pokemon Legends Kalos game to warrant its inclusion.

The Indigo Disk DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will likely help ease some of the concerns about mons being trapped on the 3DS by adding accessibility to some of these mons not previously available in the Gen 9 games. However, locking certain creatures behind DLC is never a good practice and only provides a temporary solution to a problem that will persist as the series continues. One day the Switch online servers will go down and if Pokemon continues to leave the full National Dex out of future generations, this problem will continue to occur.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available for Nintendo Switch.

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