Since we’re on the topic of Google Play Points and the perks you get from spending money on Google Play, like this 30% off promo for the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro, I wanted to make sure everyone saw the promos currently running for Pokemon TCG Pocket. This game is proving to be quite the hit in its early days.
As many of you know, Pokemon TCG Pocket has brought card collecting to all in a digital format, with quick battles as a part of the experience. What makes TCG Pocket so fun for casual players is the collecting part, as there are cards that feature some really neat artwork and animations, which you need to open plenty of packs in order to find. And that brings us to the point of this post which is a tip to get you opening more Pokemon TCG Pocket packs without having to spend much.
How to open Pokemon TCG Pocket card packs: Pokemon TCG Pocket is built in a way that allows you to open 2 packs of cards per day or 1 every 12 hours for free. There is a timer in the game that counts down to the point where a pack can be opened at each 12-hour interval. Of course, this is a modern digital card game, so there are ways for you to open packs quicker and that typically means spending actual money.
The game has several types of currency, but for opening packs you can use Pack Hourglass units or Poke Gold. Pack Hourglass units can be obtained by simply playing the game and completing daily missions. Each Pack Hourglass drops 1 hour off the pack opening timer, so 12 of them would let you open one pack and then another right away.
Poke Gold is another currency and it costs real money to buy. You can buy Poke Gold for as little as $0.99 (for 5 bars) or you can spend up to $99.99 (for 500 bars + 190 bonus bars). Sneaky games like this do that bonus bar thing to get you to spend more and it’ll probably work on. The folks who run these games are great at exploiting the worst parts of our brains. You need to spend Poke Gold bars in order to open a pack with a full timer.
Open Pokemon TCG Pocket packs quicker and for free: So now that you understand how opening packs works, this is where Google Play and Google Play Points come in to help you open them quicker and for far less money.
Currently, there are two Google Play Points promos running that you might want to consider taking advantage of if Pocket has captured your attention. The first is a “Boosted” promo that gets you Play Points for each $1 that you spend in Pocket. This boost gives you 7 points for every $1 for the next 7 days. The normal rate is 1 point for $1.
So yeah, you’ll want to do this and you’ll see why in the next section.
Google Play Points is offering up free coupons that you can use to purchase Poke Gold in Pocket. There are $15, $8, and $2 coupons that you can buy with Play Points. The $15 coupon costs 750 points, the $8 coupon costs 400 points, and the $2 coupon costs 100 points. I had a ton of points sitting around, so I was able to buy these coupons multiple times.
Free Poke Gold in Pocket TCG Pocket: Once you have those coupons “ready to use” in Pocket TCG Pocket, you’ll open the game, tap on the Shop section and then the “Purchase Poke Gold” button in the bottom right corner.
And now is where you realize that mobile games are such scams. So you just got free $15, $8, and $2 coupons to use in Pocket, right? Here’s the thing about those – you can only use them to buy items in the shop that are the exact same value of the coupon or more expensive. As you probably guessed, nothing in the shop is $15, $8, or $2. That means you’ll have to find items which are more expensive than the coupons, which yes, there are plenty.
Again, you can’t use the coupons for items less than the value, so you can’t use the $2 coupon for a $0.99 pack of Poke Gold. You also can’t use the $8 coupon for the $4.99 pack of Poke Gold. You can see this annoying fact in the image above. When a coupon is eligible to be applied, it will show up.
If you’d like to take advantage of these coupons, you will end up having to spend some money to cover the gap between the coupon and tiers of Poke Gold. It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is.
That said, remember that boost we put on our Play Points rate above for 7 points per $1? That applies for the real money you are spending to cover the coupon gap. While not a massive amount of points will be earned unless you really start spending, you can at least add to your total in hopes of grabbing another coupon before they go away.
So there you go, a pretty easy way to open more packs without having to spend nearly as much money as the game wants you to. Assuming you have some Google Play Points to part with and are into Pokemon TCG Pocket, it’s time to get after it.
Google Play Link: Pokemon TCG Pocket | Google Play Points
This post was last modified on November 5, 2024 11:19 am