Pokémon TCG Pocket will amend the way trading works at the end of this month, following previous criticism of the feature.
Trading was added to the digital card game back in January, but players quickly criticised the need for an extra currency, calling the system “a joke”. Then, back in March, The Pokémon Company acknowledged the backlash and announced an overhaul.
Today, an in-game notification states an update will take place on 29th July. This will discontinue trade tokens and instead the existing shinedust will be used for trading. In addition, players will no longer need to consume cards in order to trade.
To compensate, the amount of shinedust acquired for duplicate cards will be doubled. Trade tokens will also be exchangeable in the shop for pack hourglasses and shinedust.
The exchange rate will be as follows:
- 1 x pack hourglass = 1 x trade token (maximum 60 exchanges)
- 10 x shinedust = 1 x trade token (unlimited exchanges)
- 100 x shinedust = 10 x trade tokens (unlimited exchanges)
- 1000 x shinedust = 100 x trade tokens (unlimited exchanges)
Due to this update, the trading function will be unavailable from 25th July 7am until 30th July 06:59 am.
Another addition will be a Wishlist feature, where players can indicate to others which cards they’d like to trade for. This will make trading for the right cards considerably easier.
The Pokémon Company previously stated these changes would arrive by the end of autumn 2025, so this update is arriving a lot sooner than expected.
The annual Pokémon Presents livestream will take place on 22nd July, which was teased yesterday with a Pikachu at a set of DJ decks. Perhaps we’ll receive an update to Pokémon TCG Pocket too.