Pokémon TCG Pocket is gaining popularity by the day, with exciting events underway which include online battles. For players keen on PVP battling and collectors alike, it is crucial to understand how the packs and pull rates work.
Players can open a pack every 12 hours – so 2 packs per day. The premium subscription unlocks a third pack per day.
As most other games, a ‘premium’ subscription is available. This subscription, among cosmetic benefits, allows you to open 1 more booster pack per 24 hour period. The subscription does not alter the pack pull rates. Something that I’m really enjoying about TCGPocket so far is that it does not feel like you’re at an unfair advantage by being free-to-play.
Currently the game has one card ‘set’ which is called Genetic Apex. The set has three pack types – Charizard, Mewtwo and Pikachu. Certain cards only appear in certain packs, like the Pikachu Immersive card being exclusive to Pikachu packs. You can double-check the offering rates or owned cards to see which pack a card features in.
Packs will contain five cards, and each card will have one of the various rarities in the game.
| Rarity | Symbol |
|---|---|
| Common | One Diamond |
| Uncommon | Two Diamonds |
| Holographic | Three Diamonds |
| EX | Four Diamonds |
| Illustration | One Star |
| EX/Supporter Artwork | Two Stars |
| Immersive Art | Three Stars |
| Golden Full Art | Crown Rare |
Cards in each pack have set rates on the chance of pulling them.
Packs can come in the form of ‘Regular’ or ‘Rare‘ variants. There is a 99.95% chance that a pack will be ‘Regular’, which means it can hold any type of card. In contrast, ‘Rare’ packs have a 0.05% chance of dropping, but are guaranteed to reward Rare cards.
The pull rates for each pack can be found by clicking the ‘offering rates’ button on the bottom left of the screen when selecting a pack. This gives all the probabilities of pulling a particular card in a ‘Regular’ pack and a ‘Rare’ pack. Try not to be put off by these numbers, mastering the set is achievable!
We strongly recommend reading through the pull rates (referred to as Offering Rates in Pokémon Pocket) as it will help you decide which packs to focus on. It’s also important to note that certain cards have different odds in different packs. Paying attention to the pull rates can easily cut down on the amount of time you spend opening in search for a ‘mon and it can be done by selecting the ‘Offering Rates’ option.
Have you spent fruitless pack openings hoping for a specific card to complete a deck?
Every time you open pack you receive 5 ‘Pack Points’ which can be exchanged for cards according to the cards’ point cost. Basic Pokémon tend to be 35 points, with Stage 1 costing 70 points and Stage 2 Pokémon at 150 points.
The rarer cards do cost more Pack Points (up to 2,500 Pack Points) so it’s not a viable way to master the set unless you have 1 or 2 cards left, however if you’re looking for a card to complete a deck (such as Gardevoir or Hypno which are popular at the moment), it can be a quick way of doing so.
It is likely that current rates will be used as a baseline to see the player base reaction. A game of this nature functions best when free-to-play players can still access the rarer cards at a moderate rate, but feel incentivised to pay to speed up the process.
If the rates are set too low or too high, it may discourage people from making purchases. They want to reach a balance that supports both the business side and the importance of the “chase” factor, which will likely play a significant role in the game’s success.
