Pokemon TCG: Trading Feature Overhaul Announced

The Pokémon TCG Pocket trading feature, launched January 29th, 2025, has faced significant player backlash, prompting developer DeNA to promise improvements. The core issue? The high cost and restrictive nature of the trading system.

Pokémon TCG Pocket: Player Complaints Following the Latest Update

The High Cost of Trade Tokens

The trading feature, while intended to help players complete their Pokédex, allows trading only 1-4 star rarity cards from Genetic Apex and Mythical Island booster packs. The required "trade tokens" are expensive to acquire, obtainable only by sacrificing higher-rarity cards. For example, trading a 4-Diamond card requires 500 tokens, while selling a 1-star card yields only 100. This forces players to essentially "burn" rare cards to facilitate trades. In response to this criticism, DeNA, in a February 1st, 2025, Twitter (X) post, committed to offering additional ways to obtain trade tokens, including through events. Currently, only 1-Star cards are tradeable.

DeNA clarified that the strict rules were implemented to prevent botting and multi-account abuse, aiming to balance fairness and the core collecting aspect of the game. Further changes to the trading system are yet to be announced.

The Apparent Disappearance of Genetic Apex Packs

Following the January 29th, 2025 release of Space-Time Smackdown booster packs, some players reported the Genetic Apex packs as missing from the main screen, leading to concerns about their removal. This, however, was a UI issue. The Genetic Apex packs remain accessible via a small, easily overlooked "Select other booster packs" option in the bottom right corner.

While understandable from a marketing perspective, this design flaw caused unnecessary worry among players who hadn't completed the Genetic Apex collection. Players have suggested a UI update to display all three booster pack sets prominently on the home screen to avoid future confusion. DeNA has not yet addressed this specific issue.