The Pokemon TCG Pocket Wonder Pick system explained
Nov. 12, 2024Wonder picking a card in Pokemon TCGP lets you choose from somebody else’s pack
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The Pokemon TCG Pocket Wonder Pick system is based on recharging stamina, with players able to pick one card from another player’s pack at random, as the five cards are shuffled and arranged face down first. It’s a good way to get rare cards or find specific ones that you were hoping for, though obviously you’re dependent both on the random cards that other players draw, and then the random one-in-five chance of getting a specific card from that pack.
As a major mechanic in Pokemon TCG Pocket, below we’ll explain the Wonder Pick and how it works, as well as look at whether there’s any working exploit that players can use to get a specific card, as there’s a lot of rumour and hearsay regarding that idea.
How to Wonder Pick in Pokemon TCG Pocket
The Pokemon TCG Pocket Wonder Pick system is how you can get the same cards as friends and other players. Here’s how it works:
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It’s a fairly simple system, but also arguably a pretty ruthless one. When a super rare card is an option, you can find yourself spending the higher costs in the hope that you get it, then find yourself drawing the common or just unhelpful card next to it. Andonce you’ve tried a Wonder Pick, you can’t repeat that choice. You get one shot at each pack, and then you’ll have to try others - so if any of thePokemon TCG Pocket best cardswere in there, you only get one shot.
With that in mind,we recommend being fairly sparing with your Wonder Picks, to save them for the cards you really want, or when you see selections showing up with multiple cards you’d be happy to draw. The slow speed of recharge attached to Wonder Stamina means that you might see a better draw before you get that energy (or the required Hourglasses) to try it.
You should alsomake as many friends on Pokemon TCG Pocketas possible. You’ll always have a random assortment of picks available, but having more friends broadens the pool of options you have at any one time. Plus, after a pick you can send a thanks to the player who generated it, which rewards them with a free Shop Token.
In early phases of Pokemon TCG Pocket some players were convinced that you could exploit the system by carefully watching the shuffling of the cards in the Wonder Pick and track specific cards. However,we have recorded and slowed footage of the Wonder Pick in the current build and can sadly state that the shuffling animation bears no relation to where the five cards end up.
This means that even if you track the movements of the cards with your eye, they probably won’t be the cards you expect. We can also confirm thatthere is no pattern to the placements of those cards, nor does skipping the animation change anything.
So yes, this is a random draw in every sense of the word. Remember, the game’s income depends on this being an unexploitable system and players only getting the card they want one time in five, so the developers would end up losing money if they put in some sort of exploit that players could use to guarantee certain rewards.
Stamina for the Wonder Pick is restored through Hourglasses and Gold Bars. Here’s how you can get them back as fast as possible.
There’s some cards you’ll never get this way, like the legendaryPokemon TCG Pocket Mewcard. Or if you want to find out if there’ll ever be aPokemon TCG Pocket PC port, check our attached guide!
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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and raconteur with a Masters from Sussex University, none of which has actually equipped him for anything in real life. As a result he chooses to spend most of his time playing video games, reading old books and ingesting chemically-risky levels of caffeine. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at USgamer, Gfinity, Eurogamer and more besides.
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