Whether you ’ rhenium looking for a socially-distanced lockdown battle, want to flex your skills when none of your friends are release or merely wondering if the game is for you before committing to buying hundreds of forcible booster packs, the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online offers a virtual way to experience the classic game. here ’ s how to get started with the app .
How to play Pokémon TCG Online
How do I download Pokémon TCG Online?
First of all, you need the game. Download Pokémon TCG Online on personal computer and Mac from the Pokémon web site or the App Store or Google Play on mobile .
On personal computer and Mac, once the file is downloaded, click “ run ” to enter the frame-up sorcerer. From there, follow the instructions to install the software. Your calculator of choice needs to meet identical minimal requirements and have around a gigabyte of detached space in order to play the game, so you shouldn ’ t have to worry.
To sign in, you ’ ll need to create a Pokémon Trainer Club report, or log in using your existing details. It ’ s the same bill that you need if you enter an official tournament for the forcible card bet on, so you may have already signed up .
Matches in Pokémon TCG Online are largely identical to their tabletop counterpart.
Getting started with Pokémon TCG Online
If you already know how to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the unskippable tutorial is infuriatingly boring. however, Professor Holly and her daughter Ella do offer the basics for raw players and teach TCG pros how things work on-line .
The game itself is identical to the in-person, in-paper TCG in that you need to knock out all of your adversary ’ mho Pokémon, take all your choice cards or deck your adversary – by causing their stack of cards to run out – to win. The on-line variant incorporates straightforward drag-and-drop shenanigans, but some of the more advanced tutorials offer handy in-game rewards .
Achieve seven wins with one of the subject decks against AI players in Trainer Challenge mood and you ’ ll unlock all of the cards for you to use in your regular matches .
We would recommend unlock each deck precisely to get a feel for them and add them all to your collection, but if you want to jump straight into battles with very opponents, stress on the Black & White : basic Blue, Red and Green decks as they give you a bunch together of handy trainer cards for building your own pack of cards .
Complete the app’s tutorials and you’ll unlock a number of decks to play with.
Pokémon TCG Online game modes
If you ’ re quick to move from battling AI trainers to playing real number people, you ’ ll need to head to the Versus mode – and make sure you have a legal deck .
TCG players will likely be familiar with the Standard and Expanded formats ; the early presently allows cards from the Sun & Moon – Ultra Prism series to present, and Expanded allows cards from Black & White onwards. These formats besides allow a host of other cards from blue-ribbon expansions and releases ( including those promotional cards that came free in McDonald ’ s glad Meals for a while ), which are the lapp for Pokémon TCG and TCGO, and can be found on the Pokémon web site .
however, Pokémon TCG Online besides boasts two other formats that you don ’ metric ton normally see at in-person events : Unlimited and Theme .
theme is self-explanatory : this fun format only allows the use of subject decks. This is where the likes of Charizard in Relentless Flame, Groudon in Towering Heights or Rillaboom in, well, Rillaboom, rule supreme. The Theme format is in great shape at the consequence, and is perfect for getting to know the ropes of on-line battles .
The Unlimited format allows any cards that have ever been legal, which leads to some break combinations of cards that never appeared together in Standard or Expanded formats. Expect to face first-turn losses or to be locked polish and unable to do anything in your sour thanks to singular pairings in this format .
You’ll find the same cards in Pokémon TCG Online as on the tabletop.
How do you build a deck in Pokémon TCG Online?
Making a deck in Pokémon TCG Online functions the lapp as building a deck in the regular Pokémon TCG ; basically, you want a balance mix of Pokémon, trainer and energy cards, picking cards that synergise with each early and exercise well together .
You can access your decks by clicking Deck Manager from the drop-down menu in the crown left of your screen. here you ’ ll see all your current decks, and you ’ re given the option to edit them or create a modern deck from scratch .
Clicking either will take you to the deck build page. This consists of two horizontal lines of cards – the buttocks is cards in your solicitation, and the top is cards presently in your pack of cards. Adding cards to your deck is angstrom simple as dragging them from the bottomland course to the top. Scroll through the check to add different wag types, or you can check the box saying “ Show not Owned ” to build a dream deck from cards that you don ’ thymine own so far .
Battling can earn you more PokéCoins, whatever mode you play.
How to earn PokéCoins in Pokémon TCG Online
PokéCoins are the in-game currency used to buy subject decks, booster packs and cosmetic items in Pokémon TCG Online .
You can ’ t buy them with real number money, but there are a few ways to earn them, largely through battle. You ’ ll get a handful of PokéCoins as a reward for participating in any battle ; more if you win, based on how much price you inflict on your adversary.
however, winning battles in the Versus mode takes you up a lucrative ladder of rewards : more wins, better loot. This is a capital way to get booster packs, earn PokéCoins and obtain rare cards that rotate and reset every third Monday .
From here, it ‘s easy to expand your solicitation and build better decks .
How to get more cards in Pokémon TCG Online
In the begin, your collection will likely look a bit meager, but there are a few ways to quickly build it up .
first, you can buy digital versions of all the latest Pokémon TCG promoter packs or root decks in the on-line storehouse much like you can buy forcible packs in local stores, using PokéCoins alternatively of real money .
If you ’ re going down the theme deck route, the Laser Focus deck offers loads of versatile cards that fit into a kind of decks, but the Relentless Flame, Towering Heights and Rillaboom theme decks are all big to use straight from the box .
Although you can’t bring your library of physical Pokémon cards into the app, some boxes do include codes for digital goodies.
Can you use real Pokémon cards in Pokémon TCG Online?
The bad newsworthiness is you can ’ t truly do this. There ’ mho no button to magic your paper deck into pixels. however, there are some workarounds .
Remember those little code cards knocking about the back of each pack of physical Pokémon cards you ’ ve bought ? Yeah, scamper down the back of the sofa and search every collector ’ s tin you have to find some of them, as they can be redeemed for their virtual equivalents. ( If you ’ re very struggling, many people sell them on eBay for pennies. )
If you ’ ve bought a physical Pokémon TCG subject deck, scanning the QR code or typing in the alphanumeric code will provide you with the same deck in switch over. Redeeming a code from a supporter pack will give you a tamp down of the like expansion – however the contents will be randomised .
Transferring your collection substantial Pokémon cards to Pokémon TCG Online is imprecise and a little boring, but it ’ s the cheapest way to kickstart your on-line collection and get into battles .
Just like the tabletop game, you can trade cards with other players in Pokémon TCG Online.
How to trade in Pokémon TCG Online
The final examination method acting of expanding your collection is through the Pokémon TCG Online trade forums. You see, you can ’ t good turn up at your local gambling club with a bag full of spares in the hope that person has an supernumerary Jirachi or Zapdos .
Accessed from the toolbar at the circus tent of your filmdom, the trade forum is basically Pokémon TCG Online ’ s own version of eBay, hosted wholly within the game .
To make a list, select the wag or cards you ’ rhenium looking for in the appropriately-named “ Looking for ” part, and then list what you ’ ra will to give person in fall on the early side. It ’ second helpful to browse what other people are listing for the same card to get a feel for an accurate monetary value .
You can list cards, cosmetic items or supporter packs that you ’ rhenium uncoerced to part with, or research for early people selling the cards you ’ re after with prices that are in your budget – or at least your spares pile .
One last period is that many cards and packs you earn from in-game rewards are marked as “ Untradeable ”, which ( obviously ) means they can ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate be traded. These cards are placid useful for building your decks, but are worthless on the marketplace .
With the ability to quickly search through your collection of cards, building a deck is fast and easy.
How is Pokémon TCG Online different to Pokémon TCG?
In conflict, everything is very alike to how you ’ d play the Pokémon TCG in real life. however, random events like coin tosses and shuffle will be automated and randomised by the computer quite than your rickety hands.
Read more: The Great EarlyGame URF Tier List Guide
Searching your deck and discard throng is ampere comfortable as scrolling through Twitter, and zooming in on cards to check their moves and abilities is deoxyadenosine monophosphate bare as a right-click .
There ’ second besides an emote organization to make up for not being able to talk to your adversary from across the table. Feel free to use any of the friendly preset phrases, but don ’ triiodothyronine be surprised when it all deteriorates to sarcastic “ well played ” messages after you mess up a mint chuck or, heaven prevent, misclick. Don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate worry, you can be just as piquant on-line as you can across the table .
