Trading in Pokemon TCG Pocket is a system that has a lot of restrictions, requiring Trade Tokens and Trade Stamina, as well as imposing restrictions on card rarities and what sets you can trade between (for example, you cannot trade any cards from the new Space-Time Smackdown set).
With the controversial trading system having gone live, it's worth understanding how the "T" in Pokemon TCG Pocket functions right now, what the limitations are, and how you use it to trade your cards with other players. We'll lay out the trade system in PTCGP below, how it works and what resources you'll need to do it.
How to trade cards In Pokemon TCG Pocket
To trade cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket, you need to do the following:
- Add the player you want to trade with to your friends list (you cannot trade with players you're not friends with).
- Go into the "Social Hub" via the icon at the bottom of the main menu and select "Trade".
- Pick the friend you want to trade cards with. Assuming you have Trade Stamina, you should be able to initiate a trade request.
- Choose the card you want to trade to them from your collection. If it's a rarer card, you will need to spend a certain amount of Trade Tokens, depending on its rarity.
- You can also apply Flair to the card at this point (if you own any). However, you will lose the Flair in the process.
- Confirm the trade request. It will then appear in the other player's Social Hub and stay there for two days before being automatically cancelled.
- The other player will then be able to see the card you've offered, and can pick another card to offer in return. Alternatively, they can choose to reject the offer by pressing "Terminate Trade".
- This is important: if they accept, then the other player, even though they have not initiated the trade, has to match your card's rarity, spend the same amount of Trade Tokens, use up the same amount of Stamina, and even make sure to apply a Flair effect to the card they're offering, if you did so to yours. The trade system of PTCGP is designed to ensure complete parity - there's just no way to trade a rare card for a common one.
- Having chosen a card to offer in return, you as the initial player will be able to see that offer in your own Social Hub - what you're offering and what they're offering.
- At this point, you can choose to either Decline or Trade. If you hit trade, all Trade Tokens and Stamina you initially invested will be officially spent and the trade will be done.
Obviously this isn't the most organic system, and some players are reportedly not thrilled with the limitations that mean trading any Pokemon TCG Pocket rare cards is very expensive, and often flat-out impossible. Let's explain that.
How to get Trade Tokens in Pokemon TCG Pocket
Trade Tokens are a new currency in Pokemon TCG Pocket that you need to spend to trade rare cards. You can get Trade Tokens by picking Duplicate cards in your collection that have a rarity of 3 Diamonds or above, and selecting "Obtain Items", as though you were about to obtain a Flair for that card. Now, however, there'll be a new option where you can permanently destroy the duplicate card for Trade Tokens.
The amount of Trade Tokens you get from the exchange depends on the rarity of the duplicate card you're destroying. Generally the rarer the card, the more Tokens you get (with a few discrepancies and inconsistencies).
- 3 Diamonds - 25 Trade Tokens
- 4 Diamonds - 125 Trade Tokens
- One Star - 100 Trade Tokens
- Two Stars - 300 Trade Tokens
- Three Stars - 300 Trade Tokens
- Crown - 1500 Trade Tokens
Cards of Two Diamond rarity or less cannot be exchanged for Trade Tokens. Likewise, Pokemon TCG Pocket Promo cards can't be used either.
Spending Tokens allows you to trade rarer cards as part of the exchange. Here's how much you'll have to spend to trade cards of the following rarities.
- 1 Diamond - 0 Trade Tokens
- 2 Diamonds - 0 Trade Tokens
- 3 Diamonds - 120 Trade Tokens
- 4 Diamonds - 500 Trade Tokens
- One Star - 400 Trade Tokens
Cards of higher rarity cannot currently be traded, but the fact that "ex" Pokemon are part of the One Star rarity tier means that you can start making some of the Pokemon TCG Pocket best decks through trading.
How to get Trade Stamina in Pokemon TCG Pocket
Trade Stamina is similar to Wonder Picks, in that players automatically restore Trade Stamina at a rate of 1 per 24 Hours, and have to spend 1 Trade Stamina per trade that they do.
You can get back Stamina quickly by spending Gold Bars (of course), but there's also a new currency called Trade Hourglasses that reduces the timer too. Those Hourglasses are supposedly going to be mission rewards in the future, but aren't currently available - presumably they'll be part of the new Pokemon TCG Pocket Space-Time Smackdown expansion.
Why can't I trade Rare Cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket?
The developers of PTCGP do not currently allow trading of promo cards, or cards of 2 Star Rarity or higher. You also can't currently trade any of the cards from the Space-Time Smackdown expansion, only the original Genetic Apex and the newer Pokemon TCG Pocket Mythical Island set, though they are "planning to continue to expand the selection of booster packs that you can trade from".
While no statement has yet been made that we can find on why rare cards can't be traded, it seems likely that this is to ensure that the developers continue to maintain some control over the game economy, and to prevent players from solely earning cards in trades without needing to open packs to do so.
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