Pokemon TCG Live: 10 Things Beginners Should Do First

Transferring Your Collection Is Permanent

Right after you log into your Pokemon account for the first time, you are asked if you want to move your Pokemon TCG Online account to Pokemon TCG Live, which sounds like a great idea. It may be tempting to skip over the small print, but you need to know that transferring your collection is a permanent change.

You will also be locked out of Pokemon TCG Online for good, so you won’t be able to get any of the special collectibles or items on that client. Also, if you don’t export any decks you’ve made before transferring your account, you’ll lose them.

You’ll Lose Cards Transferring Your Collection

When you move an account, for some reason we don’t know, you might lose some cards. Most of the cards you own will work fine when you move. Each unique Pokemon card can transfer up to four times, so if you have four regular Pikachu cards, they will all transfer. The same goes for all your holofoil Pikachu cards, reverse holofoil Pikachu cards, etc.

There is a limit with ACE SPEC, Prism Star, and Pokémon Star cards, as only one can be moved. The same is true for every part of a Pokemon V-UNION card. The other strange rule is that only 59 copies of basic Energy cards can be moved.

You Can’t Use Real Currency To Buy Packs

Older players probably won’t be surprised to hear this, but you can’t use real money to buy packs, decks, or accessories on the Pokemon TCG Live game client. You can still get cards and decks in other ways besides spending money, but you can’t do it directly by spending money.

Even though Pokemon TCG Online is also set up this way, it definitely follows the pattern of other major digital TCGs in that it encourages you to play more than buy your way to the top.

There Are Three Types Of Currency

When you look at all the different currencies you need to keep track of in Pokemon TCG Live, it can be a little confusing. You can earn gold coins by fighting, completing quests, and moving up in levels. You can buy things for your decks with these coins, but that’s about it. Then there are credits, which you can get by leveling up and getting to higher Battle Pass tiers. If you get more than four cards, the ones you don’t need will be turned into Credits, which you can use to make new cards.

Crystals are the last and most important thing. This is the most valuable currency, and you get more of it as you level up, finish quests, and move up in the Battle Pass. If you buy the Premium Pass of the Battle Pass, you can get more Crystals, but you need Crystals to buy it in the first place, so you might not be able to do so right away.

You Can Still Redeem Codes From Packs

In Pokemon TCG Live, one of the best ways to get new cards is to redeem Code Cards from packs. You can find these cards in physical packs of the Pokemon TCG. Each card has a QR Code and a string of characters that is only found on that card. You can get a free pack online by either scanning the QR Code or typing it in.

You don’t have to buy hundreds of packs to get these codes, and if you redeem a lot of them, you’ll get a lot of cards to start building your decks with.

There’s A New (And Better!) Battle Pass

Already mentioned briefly, the Battle Pass is one of the best ways to get new cards and Crystals in Pokemon TCG Live right now. Players will find rewards like free packs, credits, decorations, and more along the free track of the Battle Pass.

A new player usually starts with about 500 Crystals that they can spend in the Shop however they want. But if you keep those Crystals and get another hundred or so, you can get the Premium Pass, which gives you more Crystals, Credits, packs, single cards, and more. When you sign up, you also get the Regidrago VSTAR deck already put together so you can start playing right away.

Battling With Friends Is There, But Hidden

It’s not that well hidden, but I had to ask someone else to help me find it before I could even see the button. On the Profile Page, to the left of the title “Avatar Customization,” there is a small button that says “Friends.” You can add or remove friends and fight them with your decks from there.

Keep in mind that none of your Pokemon TCG Online friends will follow you over, so make sure you talk to your friends there before you move over.

You Can View Your Collection From The Shop

One of the strangest parts of the design is that you can access your collection from the shop. Once you’re in the shop, click on the Expansion tab, which is right next to the Profile button. By clicking on the set’s logo, you’ll be able to switch the set you’re looking at. If you click the “View Card Gallery” button below the set logo, you’ll be taken to a new screen where you can see which cards you already have and which ones you still need.

There’s no way to sort through cards on this screen, which is another strange design choice. On this screen, you can switch between Pokemon, Happy Wheels, and Energy cards, but you can’t filter out a certain color or stage.

No More Trading

Even though Pokemon TCG Live has a built-in friends list, trading between players has been taken out. This system was pretty good on Pokemon TCG Online, and it let players trade away cards or packs they didn’t want for new, better cards. This time, it looks like there’s no way for friends to trade cards with each other.

No one knows if this feature will come back later or if a new system will come out to take its place.

Blissey V Is The Best Deck To Start With And Upgrade

If you want to make an impact on the metagame and start taking on the ranked list, the Blissey V precon deck that is given to new players is your best bet. Blissey V is a strong basic colorless Pokemon that can attack with just one colorless energy. The attack does 10 damage by itself, but it quickly does a lot of damage because it adds 30 damage for each energy attached to Blissey V.

It can easily kill most Pokemon with just one attack if you give it a couple of Powerful Energies to boost its attack.