Best Pokemon to Transfer to Pokemon Champions, Ranked by Usage
Best Pokemon to Transfer to Pokemon Champions, Ranked by Usage
TL;DR: The best Pokemon to transfer to Pokemon Champions are the ones you cannot recruit in-game — headlined by Eternal Flower Floette, a Legends: Z-A exclusive running a 58.3% win rate in our 14-day ladder sample — plus the meta staples you already own in Pokemon HOME, such as Incineroar, Garchomp, and Kingambit, each of which spares you a Roster Ranch recruit and the Victory Points it costs. Legendaries can wait: no legendary has appeared in the playable roster under either regulation set so far — launch Reg M-A or the current Reg M-B — so transferring one buys you nothing on the ranked ladder today.
The top 10 transfers right now, ranked by ladder usage
If a Pokemon is dominating the ladder and you already own a copy in HOME, it belongs on your transfer shortlist. Here are the ten most-used Pokemon across the last 14 days of ranked ladder and community tournament play, from PokemonHelper data:
| Rank | Pokemon | Battles sampled | Avg win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Incineroar | 2,080 | 54.2% |
| 2 | Garchomp | 2,080 | 55.2% |
| 3 | Sneasler | 1,872 | 53.3% |
| 4 | Sinistcha | 1,737 | 55.6% |
| 5 | Kingambit | 1,650 | 58.5% |
| 6 | Basculegion (Male) | 1,559 | 56.3% |
| 7 | Floette (Eternal Flower) | 1,150 | 58.3% |
| 8 | Charizard | 1,090 | 57.6% |
| 9 | Farigiraf | 1,077 | 57.3% |
| 10 | Whimsicott | 937 | 54.7% |
Two things stand out. First, every entry is a species most competitive players already own somewhere in HOME — Incineroar and Charizard from years of VGC, Sneasler and Basculegion from Legends: Arceus, Sinistcha, Kingambit, and Farigiraf from Scarlet and Violet. Second, the one Pokemon on this list you cannot obtain inside Champions at all, Eternal Flower Floette, also posts one of the best win rates in the sample. That combination — top-10 usage and no in-game acquisition path — makes it the single highest-priority transfer in the game.
The full leaderboard updates daily on our usage stats page, so check it before committing transfers; the meta moves.
How we rank the best Pokemon to transfer to Pokemon Champions
Most transfer tier lists were written in launch week and never touched again. Ours is different: the ranking above is generated from battles we sample continuously across the ranked ladder and community events listed on our tournaments page, aggregated over a rolling 14-day window.
That matters for a simple reason. The best Pokemon to transfer to Pokemon Champions is not a fixed list — it is whatever the current regulation rewards. When usage shifts, the value of a transfer shifts with it. A win rate attached to high usage is the strongest signal available: it means the Pokemon performs even when everyone is preparing for it. Kingambit at 58.5% across 1,650 battles is not a rogue pick catching people off guard; it is a proven core piece.
We weight battles sampled first and win rate second. A 60% win rate over 300 battles is noisier than a 55% rate over 2,000.
Transfer-only Pokemon you cannot recruit in-game
Champions launched with roughly 186 species, final evolutions only, and new recruits come from the Roster Ranch — a random selection of 10 Pokemon that refreshes every 22 hours. If a species never appears in that pool, HOME transfer is your only route, and that is what makes transfer-only Pokemon in Champions so valuable.
The confirmed headline case is Eternal Flower Floette. It requires a transfer from Pokemon Legends: Z-A — there is no way to recruit it with VP, no matter how long you wait on Ranch rotations. Given its 58.3% win rate and top-10 usage in our current sample, it is the clearest answer to "what should I transfer first" for anyone who owns a Z-A save.
Beyond Floette, availability varies by species, and the recruitable pool does not perfectly overlap with the transferable pool: around 153 species can come in through HOME, against the ~186 in the launch roster. Before assuming you can recruit something later, check its entry in our Pokedex, which tracks how each Pokemon is obtained. If the answer is "HOME only," treat it like Floette: transfer it while you can, because no amount of VP will substitute.
Recruit vs transfer: when HOME beats spending your VP
The Pokemon Champions recruit vs transfer decision comes down to one currency: Victory Points. Roster Ranch recruits are paid for in VP, and VP cannot be purchased — it is earned only through battles. Early on, your VP income is the hard limit on how fast your roster grows.
That makes the math straightforward:
- Transfer when the Pokemon is already sitting in HOME. Every meta staple you bring over is a recruit's worth of VP you can spend on something you do not own. If you have an old Incineroar, Garchomp, or Whimsicott, moving it in is strictly cheaper than waiting for it to appear in a Ranch rotation.
- Recruit when you want a permanent Champions-native copy, or when the species never appeared in your other games. Note the lock direction: recruited Pokemon are locked to Champions permanently, while transferred Pokemon come in as visitors.
- Transfer first, recruit later is the default for a new account. Seed your roster from HOME, spend early VP only on gaps, and let the team builder tell you which slots are actually missing rather than recruiting on impulse.
One caveat: HOME's Friend Trade feature was disabled for bug fixes after launch, so verify its current status before planning to acquire missing species through trades with other players.
Legendaries: why they do not matter yet in Reg M-B
The best legendary Pokemon to transfer to Pokemon Champions right now is none of them. Champions has run two regulation sets so far — Reg M-A at launch, replaced by the current Reg M-B in mid-June — and neither has put a single legendary or mythical Pokemon into the playable roster. Until that changes, a legendary contributes nothing to your ladder rating.
There is also no cost to waiting. Transferring later is exactly as effective as transferring now, and holding off carries real advantages: you keep the Pokemon flexible in HOME for your other games, and you avoid committing before you know which legendaries a future regulation actually adds. No Champions regulation to date has included them, and guessing at a future list is how players waste transfer slots.
The practical play: leave your legendaries in HOME, keep laddering with the roster-legal core above, and revisit the moment a new regulation is published. When that day comes, this page will re-rank from the same live usage data.
Shiny and event Pokemon worth bringing over
Shininess has no competitive effect in Champions — a shiny Incineroar deals exactly the same damage as a regular one. But if you are transferring a meta staple anyway, the shiny copy is the obvious choice: same battle value, better cosmetics, and it still spares you a VP recruit.
Event Pokemon deserve more skepticism. Much of an event Pokemon's identity comes from exclusive moves, and Champions replaces any move that does not exist in its own move pool. If the special move is the whole appeal, confirm it exists in Champions before transferring, or you will receive an ordinary copy with a ribbon. The exception that proves the rule is Eternal Flower Floette, whose value is the species itself rather than a transferred moveset.
Pre-transfer checklist: what to do before you hit send
Run through this list for every Pokemon you move:
- Remove held items. Items do not travel through HOME into Champions. Anything attached stays behind, so bank your competitive items in the origin game first.
- Audit the moveset. Moves that do not exist in Champions get replaced on arrival. Check each move's legality and plan replacements before you build around a set that will not survive the trip.
- Confirm the species is transferable. Around 153 species can enter Champions; if yours is not among them, no preparation helps.
- Forget mechanics that stayed behind. Tera types, Dynamax, and Z-moves do not exist in Champions — Mega Evolution is the only special battle mechanic. A carefully chosen Tera type carries zero value here.
- Plan the build. Champions uses Stat Points instead of EVs and IVs, capped at 66 total and 32 per stat. Read our Stat Points guide before investing, because old EV spreads do not map one-to-one.
- Do not send your only copy blind. A launch-week bug left some transfers stuck in limbo. Transfers have been the standard path since, but if a Pokemon is irreplaceable, wait until you have confirmed a few routine transfers went through cleanly.
FAQ
Which Pokemon can be transferred to Pokemon Champions?
Around 153 species can enter Champions through Pokemon HOME, against a launch roster of roughly 186 final-evolution species. The pools do not fully overlap, so check each species individually — some Pokemon, like Eternal Flower Floette, are transfer-only and never appear in the Roster Ranch.
Should I transfer legendary Pokemon to Pokemon Champions?
Not yet. Neither regulation set to date — Reg M-A at launch or the current Reg M-B — has included a legendary in the playable roster, so a legendary provides no ladder value right now. There is no penalty for waiting, and holding off keeps your options open until a regulation actually adds them.
Do held items transfer with my Pokemon?
No. Items do not travel through HOME into Champions, so remove and store anything valuable in the origin game before transferring. Plan to acquire competitive items inside Champions instead.
Is Eternal Flower Floette worth transferring?
Yes, and it should be your first transfer if you own a Legends: Z-A copy. It cannot be recruited in-game, and in PokemonHelper data it holds a 58.3% win rate with top-10 usage over the last 14 days of ranked and tournament play.