The Global Trade Station (GTS)

The GTS is thought of as an inferior resource for trading. Here's a guide to making the most out of the Global Trade Station.

It's a widespread opinion that the Global Trading Station in Jubilife City sucks. You can't see the natures, you can't see more than 5-7 offers, people always ask for impossible Pokemon or ridiculous Pokemon (such as a Dialga for their Ratatta), and you can only search for the Pokemon you've seen. Since the discovery of the GTS cloning trick, people have flooded the GTS with clones, and they also ask for ridiculous offers as well. Other people have said that the GTS is mostly a "seller's market" and to only offer instead of search out for them.

I disagree. I admit it's not pretty, but you can get stuff out of there. You just need to know the tricks and intricies of the crappy system. And I have a lot to show out of it. Whenever I show people the PC in my Diamond game, they all think I've cloned them all. Nope. The 21 Manaphy, four Jirachi, ten Deoxys, nine Lugia and six Ho-Oh, and tons of others, have all come from dogged GTS trading. And the payoff? I have a steady stream of PP Ups and Exp. Shares from the Jubilife Lottery, plus some nice Pokemon to trade for on GameFAQs.

Prepping up

The first step to fluid GTS trading is to open up your horizons. For some reason, the game only shows five Pokemon max when searching. Putting a Pokemon up for trade will increase that number to seven Pokemon. Make it brash and unrealistic, such as asking for a Level 100 Lugia for a Bidoof, or something like that. I have a lovely Psyduck that I put up, looking for a Level 9 and under Mew, for a couple of months now.

The second is to set up a box with hot Pokemon, Pokemon that you are willing to trade that you think are really hot. Trades can boil down to seconds - you need to be able to scroll through the box, select the Pokemon, and hit "trade" as quickly as you can. I set up Box 17 as my trading box, so that I only need to flip one box to the left when making a trade. It's full of Jirachi, Mew, Feebas, and Milotic.

The third is to get Emerald. Emerald cloning is fast, quick, and necessary. Being able to Pal Park the four listed Pokemon above is what keeps my GTS trading economy going.

What do you want to trade?

You need to set rules for yourself on what you're willing to trade. Make the rules and then stick to them. Some of my most regretful trades come from breaking my own rules - such as this one time where I traded away a Mewtwo for a Gardevoir. Now I strictly enforce a "Legendaries for Legendaries" rule, and even then there are specifics to what I will and won't trade. For instance, because I now have a MATTLE Ho-Oh in Emerald, I'm more willing to trade away Ho-Ohs. I Pal Park Jirachi, Mew, Entei, and Raikou specifically to be traded away, and will take nearly any offer for those.

What do you want in return?

This is important too. Set a goal and search for it on a daily basis. I used to be most interested in the psychic trio and Cresselia, but now I just search for Manaphy, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, and Deoxys. I search out for good-natured Legendaries and Japanese Pokemon.

A tip: Search by levels to increase the number of offers that you can see. For instance, when I look for Manaphy, I always set the parameter to Level 9 and under, then Level 10 and up. When I used to look at the psychic trio (Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit), I'd search for them normally, then I'd raise it to level 60 and higher. For Giratina and Heatran, I'd raise it to level 80, etc.

Another thing to consider is the practicality of what you're looking for. I want more Dialga and Palkia, but I've searched for them relentlessly and all they keep asking for is Dialga and Palkia. As I'm looking for those two, I'm not willing to trade the ones I already have for them. I'm considering stopping all searches for them because it's just getting too frustrating.

Do two trades at once

Sometimes you don't have what that particular person wants. For instance, someone who had a shiny Dialga was asking for a Level 100 Bastidon. I haven't touched the fossils, so I didn't have one. So I searched, and found one that wanted a Level 100 Lugia in exchange. I traded, and then traded that Bastidon for the shiny Dialga. This isn't always viable because, as I stated before, trades happen really fast. So expect to keep that Pokemon and be happy if/when the real trade - the one that you want - is still up.

Beating the cloners

Learning what cloners want comes from experience. After looking at hundreds of trade offers, I have a rough idea of what people want. A Level 100 Abra is one of the most popular ones that cloners ask. I don't have the guts to do such tedious work just for a few cloners, but there are others. The most common offer is the Level 9 and under Mew. there's an AR code floating around the Internet that creates a Level 9 Mew that the GTS will accept, so if that's your fancy, then hack to beat the cloners. The smartest ones ask for the truly impossible ones, such as Level 9 and under Gabite (Gible evolves into Gabite at Level 24), which again requires hacking. Others ask for Level 100 Jirachi or Level 9 and under Jirachi.

As stated earlier, I keep the "hot Pokemon that cloners ask for" in Box 17 so that I can trade them off as fast as I can. Because they're fast. Many times I've seen an offer and by the time I click on it and select the Pokemon, the GTS says that it was already traded off. It could be that somebody else beat you to it, but I think it's more likely that the cloner logged back on and pulled it off before anybody could try to trade for it.

Keep Rare Candies on hand

One of the best trades I've ever done was getting a Celebi for a Level 40 Croagunk. I didn't have one on me, so I disconnected and fed my Great Marsh Croagunk some 10 rare candies, keeping her from not evolving. The offer was still up there when I got back. Another time I had a Level 98 Linoone and someone was asking for a Level 100 one. I disconnected, fed him two candies, and got back on and made the trade for a Japanese Deoxys. This should only be used as a last resort. As stated earlier, the speed of the GTS makes this unfeasible. Use the rare candies before entering the GTS. For instance, it's never a bad thing to have a Level 100 Linoone, but if you have a Level 98 one, you can't trade him away to someone who is asking for a Level 100 one.

Search frequently

Again, this comes from experience. For some Pokemon, there is a constant and frequent influx of Pokemon going in and out. The highest rate of traffic tends to go to Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, and Deoxys. Other ones are much slower or don't move at all. Once I spent 40 minutes and watched this one person put up a shiny Lugia for trade. Twice I missed it. The other two times the GTS kicked me off, saying that it was "extremely busy." So now when I begin a GTS session, I search for Lugia first, evaluate the offers, then I go back and search for it near the end of the session. Sometimes it does move; other times it's a blank: some old offers have been pulled off, but there aren't any new ones.

Be wary of scammers

I've gotten scammed at least a half dozen times off of the GTS. I traded for two Japanese Jirachi that turned out to be pretty obvious hacks (they were caught in Master Balls). Thanks to the incredibly primitive system, however, there's really not that much you can do to prevent being scammed. Just know your events and the levels. Legit event Deoxys only come at Level 70 and higher. Legit 10 ANIV Celebi only come at Level 70 or higher; Japanese ones can come as low as Level 10. Nicknamed events are obvious hacks, since the ID number is different and cannot be renamed through the name rater.

Despite the hacks people have gotten, a lot of others have received rare events Pokémon and such. So keep it up!

Patience

Don't get discouraged. The GTS is hard work, but it does pay off. You can mine a lot of legit Shiny Pokémon and Event Pokemon off of the GTS. It takes time, but pull through and you will come out with benefits.

-Credits to hbdragon88 of Smogon University