ILCA developed Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl with the idea of bringing a faithful version of the original games to the Nintendo Switch while also adding quality of life changes and updating certain obsolete aspects of the game.
The remakes completely changed elements such as the Underground and Pal Park, and the newer titles don’t include the Global Trade Station (GTS).
The GTS introduced the ability to trade Pokémon with players around the world through the Geonet and the Nintendo DS’ ability to connect to Wi-Fi networks. Multiple Pokémon games would iterate on the feature over the years until the GTS become a footnote in the history of the franchise’s push into online play.
Because trading, battling, and other interactions with players on a global scale over Wi-Fi is a core part of the franchise, ILCA had no reason to recreate the GTS as it was in 2006. Instead, the studio could use it to reintroduce a feature many fans have been missing: Wonder Trades.
In its post about the day one patch for BDSP, Nintendo confirmed a future update will bring the new Global Wonder Station (GWS) online for players The building that took the place of the GTS will enable various types of Link Trades from the location, though the company didn’t share other details about the feature.
The name suggests Wonder Trades will make their return to the series for the first time since they were replaced by Surprise Trades in Pokémon Sword and Shield in 2019, even though both features are similar.
Wonder Trading allowed players to trade almost any Pokémon with a completely random user from anywhere in the world. The Pokémon you receive in return would also be entirely random, and you could use the feature as many times as you wanted.
Players used this as a way to implement challenges during their playthrough of games since the feature was introduced in Pokémon X and Y.
For the moment, this means that you can’t Wonder Trade in BDSP. However, once that future update goes live, the mechanic will likely be added and accessible from anywhere even if you don’t make a stop at the GTS after your first visit, similar to that of the Union Room.
