Pokémon TCG Pocket is about to turn two years old at the end of this month, and with that developers DeNA are announcing a bunch of changes that are coming to the mobile game. Alongside word that there will be new ways to get hold of the animated Immersive Cards, a way to build meta decks in-game, and a much-needed improvement to trading, there comes the very welcome news that the release cycle of new sets is finally due to slow down and become less overwhelming.
It might seem an odd complaint that PTCG Pocket is releasing too many new sets and gorgeously drawn cards, but if you’ve tried to keep up with the game over the last two years you’ll understand. Every month comes a whole new collection of packs to open, each coming with full-art cards of varying rarities to collect, and new abilities that up-end the battling scene. It has become exhausting to keep up with no matter how you approach the game, creating a severe FOMO effect. Slowing down this cadence sounds like a splendid idea, allowing more time to catch up with collecting recent sets, and slowing the rapidity of the changing meta.
“We have received feedback that the large number of cards being released in each pack up to B series has made collecting difficult,” reads the update, the “B” referring to the second year’s collection of sets. “In the new series, we will be changing the booster pack release cycle from the approximately four-week cycle to a cycle of roughly six weeks, with the hope that it will make it possible for even more players to enjoy building collections at their own pace.”
Submerged
Immersive cards are one of PTCGP‘s most endearing features, special cards that play out often stunning animations within the frame. But getting hold of them has been wholly based on luck. Their pull rates are said to be around 1 percent, and given the game gives you two packs to open a day, you can see why, with 30-day release cycles for sets, people weren’t likely to get the previous ones before the next lot entered the fray. The new plan is to offer a way to unlock them through missions based around “completing collections.”
I’ve played the game pretty much every day for the last two years, and my motivation has been to collect all the immersives. I’ve managed that for the A series, but a bunch from the B series have eluded me, and while you can get them through pack points, they require 1500 points specific to the set—a number only reached by opening a ludicrous 300 packs. (Fans have been desperately calling for pack points to be shared across all sets, but this still hasn’t been heard.)
Also new for C series will be something called Special Packs. These will open with their own unique “special pack stamina” that “recovers once a week.” The first lot is called First Partners, a set that will feature all 27 of the starter Pokémon, and that’s great! There will also be 1-star promo cards too as rewards for missions—until now promos have only been standard cards, so it’s nice that full-art cards are arriving here.
Trading up
Deck-building looks like it’s getting an overhaul, too. Right now you can make your own decks from scratch or “rent” decks created by the game, but now we’re getting Community Decks. These will allow players to build decks that are proving popular in the battling meta without having to look them up on external websites. In other great news, rental decks will no longer be limited to 10 uses, but rather be unlimited, and also be more easily available at the start of a new set launch.
Finally, and extremely welcome, is news that some of the most bizarrely absent features from trading are to be added. Right now, if you’re trading with someone on your friend list, the game seems to go out of its way to not tell you what cards they’re missing, and even more egregiously, won’t show you their complete wishlist. That’s all going to change, meaning no more wasted trade attempts when someone offers you a card you’ve already got five of.
What’s not mentioned is any improvement to the god-awful sluggishness of the app, which hangs and staggers when doing the most basic acts like changing tabs. It was supposed to improve with a wild 3GB update this July, but only seemed to get worse. It’s kind of galling that after two years, The Pokémon Company and DeNa haven’t gotten the game working properly on Android or iOS, and don’t seem to be promising to try. It also doesn’t help that of the 10 things we listed as needing improvement two years back, none have been addressed. It isn’t very surprising that the app has lost half its player-base since launch, when it refuses to make so many basic improvements. However, a lot of what’s listed in the new update is very welcome indeed.