We’ve taken a very close look at its insidious nature Pokémon TCG PocketUnpleasant free modelbut one aspect of this strange and highly successful action spin-off from the historic card game is how much in-game currency it lets you play with. So far, there are twelvewhich is absolutely confusing.
Free-to-play games with multiple currencies, again, are nothing new, it’s all by design, all part of the psychological system that makes you top up desperately to keep things going if you can only Get three more and another thing will be unlocked! Again, the big question here is Pokemon Performing to an audience of large numbers of children, and indeed performing in the most sophisticated way imaginable.
To find out just how crazy this all is, on the game’s homepage, there’s a three-line button in the lower right corner. Click on it and under “Shop” there is an option called “Items”. Click on this innocuous little word and you’ll discover the madness.
Let’s lay it all out:
- Poké Coins (Free)
- Poké Coins (paid)
- light dust
- shop ticket
- Outlet Tickets
- Premium Ticket
- bag hourglass
- miracle hourglass
- event hourglass
- advance ticket
- Event Store Tickets (Meow Meow)
- Badge Coupon (Genetic Apex)
- rewind watch
Now, we’re being generous here and including two types of gold as one, for a total of 12. This is an ever-expanding list, and given the specificity of Event Store Tickets and Badge Tickets, we have to assume that other types will appear.
You might expect me to explain what each type does here, but you know what? Even The Pokémon Company seems reluctant to share this. The entry for the advance ticket reads: “This ticket cannot be used yet. Wait and see what it is used for!”
Well, no? Tell me? It’s annoying enough on its own.
Most of these currencies are used to purchase items from specific pages of the in-game store, which itself is laid out as if it’s been caught in one of Doctor Strange’s spells, with all the buildings and train tracks starting to spin and weave into each other. To consume event store coupons (Meowth), you need to enter the “Limited Time/Events” section of the store, and then enter the event page, which is different from the advanced page, Poké gold coin page, and mystery page, as well as the “Others” that are always empty. There is another “other” in the “main” part of the store, also empty! Is it nothing? No one knows!
Special store tickets are awarded when you sacrifice multiple versions of full art or better cards, which the game never explains at any point and requires you to somehow collect three or more of the same extreme Rare art. We’re talking here about cards that have a 0.3% (or worse, as low as 0.013%) chance of being drawn from a set. you get one The amount of each card (I know because, annoyingly, I somehow pulled out three gorgeous Snorlax full-art cards), and the cheapest item in this store costs seven Specials on store tickets. This is a demo background, not the fancy black and silver sleeves, playmats or coins you might want – they cost 12 tickets each!
Oh wait! Don’t hang up! it yes Thirteen currencies because I totally forgot to include gift points! Yes, there is another system that doesn’t even bother to remember when listing what you own. These are points you can use to exchange for cards you might want in your deck, these cards are obtained by opening packs and only appear while you are on the page and not while you are on the build pack or any card screen .
Who allowed this to happen?
I have to stop writing now in case I discover a fourteenth currency I’ve never seen before and have an aneurysm.
And why is this? Deliberately confusing you. To ensure that you are never sure which currency is the one you should be holding and which has no purpose other than to spend it on the spot. And numbers are constantly dangled in front of you, and as long as you buy a little bit of gold, those numbers will get higher. Some are straight forward, like Hourglass, which makes up for the shortfall with the gold you have; others only arrive when you buy the (terrible) Premium Pass, or are won by continuing to participate in an event that just ran out of Hourglass….. .
next time, eight Different pages for tasks!
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