Pokémon Scarlet and Violet player spends hundreds to ‘rescue’ their 15-year-old Charizard

As more and more Scarlet and Violet fans continue to transfer their Pokémon over from Pokémon HOME after the big update, one player has admitted to spending hundreds of dollars to transfer their favorite ‘mon all the way from the GameCube.

The player in question took to Reddit in a June 6 thread to announce they’ve finally been reunited with their childhood Charizard, which was originally from the Gen I remake, FireRed. The player had transferred the fire dragon from their copy of FireRed to Colosseum on the GameCube 15 years ago where it has been ever since.

Following the Pokémon HOME update last week, the player decided it was time to rescue their beloved Charizard from the GameCube—and it wasn’t certainly cheap.

The loyal Charizard owner estimated they spent close to $340 USD on the title-swapping endeavor, which did include the costs of buying a Game Boy Advance, a DS Lite, a 2DS, and multiple Pokémon games.

They then explained all of the steps involved: After buying a Game Boy Advance, a copy of Ruby, and a link cable, they started by transferring the Charizard from Colosseum to Ruby. From there, they went from Gen III to Gen IV to Gen V until they could safely transfer the ‘mon to Pokémon Bank and finally Pokémon HOME.

The admirable part is the player could’ve taken an easier and cheaper route to obtain a Charizard in Scarlet and Violet (i.e. transferring one from Gen VIII’s Sword and Shield instead of an old GameCube), yet they were set on reuniting with the same one.

The player stood by their expensive decision too, saying, “I don’t regret it.”