F2P Guide: How to Play Without Spending

Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket (PTCG Pocket) is a free-to-play mobile game with the option to purchase a monthly subscription and in-game currency. Check out our tips on how to play Pokemon TCG Pocket entirely for free, without spending any money, recommended F2P decks, and the differences between the F2P and premium versions of the game!

How to Play Pokemon TCG Pocket Without Spending

Free-to-Play Tips
Restart for Better Cards Complete Missions for Rewards Check Wonder Pick for Rare Cards Collect Shop Tickets Claim Your Daily Gift Use Your Pack Points to Get Cards Participate in Battles Change Your Language to Get Foreign Cards

Restart for Better Cards

After starting the game, opening your first booster pack, and going through the tutorial, you'll be given enough Pack Hourglasses and missions rewarding Pack Hourglasses to open up several booster packs all at once.

This is the perfect opportunity to get good cards for free within your first dozen booster packs. If you don't like the cards you got after using up all your Pack Hourglasses, simply reset your account and do it all over again.

Make sure you don't link an account to your Pokemon TCG Pocket game yet until you have a card collection that you're happy with.

Reroll Guide: How to Reroll for the Best Start

Complete Missions for Rewards

Several different types of missions are available for you to complete, including missions related to filling out your Card Dex, collecting specific cards, and general gameplay. You can obtain Pack Hourglasses, Wonder Hourglasses, Shinedust, Emblem Tickets, and rental decks as rewards for completing missions.

Every day, daily missions will be available that reward you with Pack Hourglasses if you complete three of them. These are important to complete in order to get a regular supply of Pack Hourglasses, letting you open more packs.

Check Wonder Pick for Rare Cards

Using Wonder Pick gives you an opportunity to get more cards without having to open packs. Wonder Pick contains booster packs recently opened by other players, and you can get a random card from an available set by using Wonder Stamina.

It's best to save your Wonder Stamina for packs containing rare cards, which typically require more stamina, or a set with multiple cards that you don't have for better chances of getting a card that you want.

Each unit of Wonder Stamina regenerates after 12 hours, but you can also use Wonder Hourglasses to regenerate them. You can get a Wonder Hourglass for free every day through the daily gift.

How to Use the Wonder Pick Feature

Collect Shop Tickets

Shop Tickets can be exchanged in the shop for Houglasses, accessories, and certain item cards and support cards.

You can get more Shop Tickets from the daily gift, battle tasks, as thanks from Wonder Pick or battles, and from other players liking your showcased cards.

How to Get and Use Shop Tickets: Farming Guide

Claim Your Daily Gift

Every day, a free gift containing a Wonder Hourglass and a Shop Ticket can be claimed at the in-game shop. This free gift resets every day at 6 AM UTC.

List of Daily Tasks

Use Your Pack Points to Get Cards

You can craft cards by using the pack points that you earn each time you open a booster pack. This is a great option to have if you're just missing a card or two to round out a deck.

You can also take your time building up your pack points to be able to craft rarer cards. All cards that can be obtained from booster packs can also be crafted, including cards with a crown rarity, so no card is out of your grasp as a free-to-play trainer.

Pack Points Explained: How to Craft Rare Cards

Participate in Battles

Winning a solo battle against a deck for the first time rewards you with EXP, Pack Hourglasses, Shinedust, and Shop Tickets.

Battling other players in versus battles is a good way to earn EXP without having to open packs. You can also occasionally receive Shop Tickets as thanks from your opponents.

Battle System Explained

Change Your Language to Get Foreign Cards

If you want to make your collection more interesting, you can collect cards in different languages easily and for free! Simply change your language in the TCG Pocket app's settings before opening a booster pack.

This only affects the cards you obtain while your language is different. Other cards you've previously collected will remain in their original language, and changing your language back won't affect the foreign language cards you've obtained.

How to Get Other Language Cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket

Best F2P Decks to Build

Decks With Only a Few Expensive Cards

Exeggutor ex Deck	Marowak ex Deck
Frosmoth and Articuno ex Deck	Centiscorch and Moltres ex Deck

These decks can be built using mainly common cards with only one or two rare cards thrown in.

The Exeggutor ex and Marowak ex decks are especially easily to build if you picked either the Charizard or Mewtwo starter pack, since they're guaranteed to give the Exeggutor ex and Marowak ex card respectively, as well as the foundational deck to help you build them.

Articuno ex and Moltres ex are a bit more difficult to obtain, requiring 500 Pack Points each to craft, but if you get lucky with a booster pack or find them in Wonder Pick, the rest of the deck becomes easier to build. If you chose Pikachu as your starter pack, you'll have access to some of the common cards in the Centiscorch and Moltres ex deck already through the Rapidash Deck.

Decks Without Expensive Cards

Blaine Deck

Arbok Lock Deck

Both the Blaine Deck and the Arbok Lock Deck don't require any rare cards to build, so any cards you haven't obtained by opening packs are easy enough to craft using Pack Points.

Best Meta Decks Tier List

Premium Pass and Regular Pass Differences

Premium Pass Features
One extra booster pack every day Additional premium missions $9.99 per month

There are only two things you're getting with a Premium Pass—an additional, separate pack stamina, allowing you to open 3 booster packs in a day, and access to premium missions, allowing you to receive more Pack Hourglasses, Wonder Hourglasses, and Shinedust as rewards.

These additional benefits can make a big difference to players who spend a lot of time on Pokemon TCG Pocket, but the Premium Pass isn't necessary to enjoy the game and build good decks.

All cards from available booster packs are accessible to both regular and premium players. Regular Pass players are just able to open less packs in a day, with only 2 packs available without using Pack Hourglasses, and less options to earn more Hourglasses.

Premium Pass Guide and Features

Pokemon TCG Pocket Related Guides

Tips and Tricks

Gameplay Guides

Is There a Pity System?	How Booster Packs Work
Best Starter Booster Pack	How to Reroll for the Best Start
How to Use the Wonder Pick Feature	Trading Release Date
Best Device to Play Pokemon TCG Pocket on	Gameplay Loop: List of Daily Tasks
F2P Guide: How to Play Without Spending	Level Up Guide
How to Link Accounts	How to Add Friends
Best Pack To Open	Daily Reset Time: What Time Do Servers Reset?
How to Change Your Profile Icon and Settings	How to Change Your Username
Social Hub and Multiplayer Features	Bonus Pick Guide
10 Packs: Cost and Differences vs Single Pack	No Items Can Be Claimed From Thanks Explained
Pokemon TCG Pocket UI Explained	Is Pokemon TCG Pocket a Gacha Game?

Card and Pull Rate Guides

Card Rarity Guide	Best and Rarest Pull Rates
Alternate Language Cards	God Pack Pull Rates
Bent Corner Packs: Is There a Way to Identify Rare Packs?	-

Premium Pass Guides

Premium Pass Guide

Premium Missions and Rewards