Summary
- Emotes in PvP battles can enhance player interaction and engagement.
- An automatic coin toss button would streamline battles and save time.
- A speed-up button for auto-battles would improve player experience and game enjoyment.
The Pokemon Company’s new venture, Pokemon TCG Pocket, could benefit from several Quality of Life (QoL) updates. While the game is enjoyable and well-polished, its status as a recent release leaves room for improvements. Below is a wishlist of QoL features that could help Pokemon Pocket reach its potential as one of the best gacha-style Trading Card Games. (For those unfamiliar, QoL features are options or mechanics designed to enhance a game’s accessibility, customizability, or overall convenience.)
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10
Emotes in PvP Battles
Let Players Express Their Emotions
Many believe that Marvel SNAP’s card upgrades inspired Pocket’s introduction of mechanics like card flairs. Whether that’s true or not, there’s another feature from SNAP that could elevate Pocket’s battle experience: Emotes. Right now, players feel more like chess grandmasters—silent, focused, and detached—staring at their screens and wondering if their opponent is human or a Pokemon-loving bot. Emotes could inject personality and interaction into these battles, making them more engaging.
It’s understandable that Pokemon Pocket prioritizes being a safe and kid-friendly game. Adding in-game chat boxes or quick chat options might be asking too much from DeNA. However, incorporating a set of Emotes expressing basic positive emotions like happiness or joy could strike a perfect balance. These Emotes wouldn’t compromise safety and would enhance the PvP experience, making battles feel more engaging and interactive.
In Marvel SNAP, players can react to each other’s cards, a feature that would fit seamlessly into Pokemon Pocket’s focus on flairs and unique illustrations. For example, players could “like” specific cards on the board, adding a layer of interaction and appreciation. Similar to the “Thanks” mechanic, these reactions could even reward players with Shop Tickets.
9
Automatic Coin Toss Button
“In RNG Gods We Trust”
RNG is here to stay in Pokemon TCG Pocket, with more cards featuring the dreaded “Flip a coin” mechanic. While this aspect isn’t going anywhere, it doesn’t have to frustrate players. Adding an option in the battle settings for automatic coin tosses would streamline the experience. This feature would let the game handle the RNG, making battles smoother and less tedious for players.
An auto coin toss feature would make cards like Kangaskhan much less bothersome in the early game, saving time for both players. So, why not give players the option to skip the coin-tossing animation and just see the results? This would speed up the game without losing the essence of the mechanic.
8
Auto-Battle Speed Up
It Doesn’t Have to Take That Long
Auto-battle is already an excellent Quality of Life feature in Pokemon TCG Pocket. It lets players build a solid deck, select an AI opponent, and watch their setup take down the CPU. However, the “watching” part can become tedious, especially when the AI starts overthinking and drags out the match. A speed-up button would be a game-changer here. With this feature, players could finish solo battles faster, leading to quicker progression and more time spent enjoying the game.
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One could argue that the devs have avoided adding a speed-up feature to prevent reducing overall playtime. However, the main reasons players abandon a game are boredom and losing that initial excitement. Forcing the fanbase to endure unnecessarily long, dull sessions could backfire, pushing players away instead of keeping them engaged in the gameplay. Adding a speed-up feature would help maintain the thrill and keep players hooked.
7
Wishlisting Owned Cards
One Copy Is Not Plenty
The wishlist feature in Pokemon TCG Pocket works by allowing players to go into their Pokedex, tap on an empty slot (for a missing card), and mark it. When that marked card appears in the Wonder Pick offers a heart icon will appear next to it, reminding players that they could pull a missing card from that offer. It’s a handy feature, especially for those missing several cards and struggling to keep track. However, there’s a catch—players cannot wishlist a card they already own.
Owned cards can only be marked as “favorite,” but favorites aren’t highlighted in the Wonder Pick offers. The issue is that most decks require at least two copies of a specific card, and card flair requirements also demand multiple copies of certain cards. It would make more sense for Pokemon Pocket to allow players to wishlist any card they want, regardless of how many copies they already own. This would make the wishlist feature more useful and aligned with deck-building and flair collection needs.
6
Solo Battle Resets
Players Need More AI Content
One of the few ways to farm Pack Hourglasses and Shop Tickets is by winning Solo Battle matches. These standard games against AI opponents feature side quests like “Win by turn X” or “Drop X Basic Pokemon,” offering extra rewards. The problem is that there are only a limited number of these missions, and once players complete them all, they become pointless. Pokemon Pocket could address this by resetting the prizes every month or so, giving players a reason to return to Solo Mode and keep playing.
After the release of the Mythical Island expansion, new thematic Solo Battles were added, focused on the set’s featured cards. However, waiting for each new expansion or mini-set just to get a handful of new solo missions feels a bit unfair.
5
Meaningful Interactions with Friends
Pokemon Pals Should Be More Than Usernames
Currently, friends in Pokemon Pocket are simply a list of usernames under a tab with little opportunity for interaction. To set up a private match, players must navigate to a separate menu in the Battle section, and there’s no option to directly invite a friend from their profile. Additionally, it’s not possible to see which of your friends are online.
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Pokemon Pocket needs to improve the Friends tab with more QoL features, or else it will become an overlooked aspect of the game—especially since the pre-release marketing highlighted the importance of building a network of TCG lovers and being part of a large, engaged community.
4
Importing and Exporting Decks
Replicating Decks with Visual Memory Is Not Fun
Another QoL feature Pokemon Pocket could borrow from Marvel SNAP is deck import/export. In SNAP, players can easily copy and paste a deck link to replicate it in their game—assuming they own the required cards. They can also share their deck build with others via a link, making it simple for others to replicate with a single click. Pokemon Pocket could greatly benefit from this feature to enhance deck-building convenience and community sharing.
Currently, the metagame in Pokemon Pocket is fairly limited, and with decks restricted to 20 cards, it’s not too difficult to reassemble others’ decks. Plus, about 40 to 50 percent of decks are made up of repetitive META Trainer Cards. However, as the game’s roster expands, it would only make sense to add a quick deck-building button so players can copy each other’s decks without rebuilding them from scratch.
3
Expansion Progress Indicators
It’s Good to Know How Much Is Left
One of the irritating parts of collecting cards in Pokemon Pocket is that the game won’t be upfront about how many unclaimed cards there are. Players will need to use all sorts of tricks and workarounds just to figure out what percentage of an expansion they have unlocked. A QoL feature to help with that would be a progression indicator, a percentage on each expansion, showing how much of the set’s cards have been acquired.
The only issue is that such a progression indicator could reveal hidden cards. One of the fun aspects of card acquisition in Pokemon Pocket is discovering a card marked, say, 070/068. This indicates that the card exceeds the expansion’s card count and is a hidden card. Some might argue that showing, for example, 90% completion on an expansion with 68 cards when all 68 cards are collected could spoil the surprise about hidden cards. However, this trade-off seems reasonable, as most players are already aware that Pokemon Pocket expansions include surprise cards—and it’s not a big deal anymore.
2
Forgiving PvP EXP Distribution
Even Losers Deserve Compensation
In Pokemon Pocket’s PvP matches, the winner earns 15 EXP points, while the loser gets nothing. This doesn’t seem fair, as both players dedicate time and effort to playing the match. It would make sense for the loser to earn some EXP for their time spent. It doesn’t need to match the winner’s points, but perhaps a fraction, like 5 EXP for each lost match, would be fair compensation.
It’s also worth mentioning that Pokemon Pocket doesn’t have a ranked or ladder mode yet. Even if it did, EXP earnings wouldn’t be used to rank players—it would likely consider another metric, such as wins. So, giving experience points to losers wouldn’t disrupt the game’s balance. Instead, it would help both players stay motivated to continue playing.
1
Exchanging Card Dupes with Resources
Flairs Are Not Flourishing Right Now
The most critical quality-of-life feature that Pokemon Pocket needs is a new exchange mechanic for duplicate cards. Currently, players can exchange excess cards with flairs, and if they own multiple rare cards, they can use the card consumption feature to earn Special Shop Tickets. However, none of these options are worth the grind. Pocket needs to allow players to make the most of their hard-earned duplicate cards.
One way to improve the card acquisition experience for players is by allowing them to exchange duplicates for resources. For example, consuming each card could return 40% of its value in the Pack Point Exchange Shop. This would provide a better return on investment and could encourage players to grind booster packs, as pulling repetitive cards wouldn’t be as frustrating as it currently is.
- Released
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October 30, 2024
- Developer(s)
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DeNA
, Creatures Inc. - Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer