Full Pokémon TCG Pocket Trade Guide - Costs, Limitations, and Trade Tokens
Trading has been enabled in Pokémon TCG Pocket but players who want to swap cards with each other have multiple different steps they have to follow before even starting to trade.
If you want to trade in Pokémon TCG Pocket, you will need to manage your Trade Stamina, have enough Trade Tokens for the card you want to swap, and find the right way to communicate with a trade partner. Here is a full introduction to the TCG Pocket Trade mechanics and everything you need to know about how to use it.
How to Trade in Pokémon TCG Pocket
Trading in Pokémon TCG Pocket revolves around three core rules: you can only trade with friends, you can only trade specific cards, and you need enough Trade Tokens and Trade Stamina to complete a trade.
There are several rules for trading that you should know before getting into the currency required or other details. Here is a brief overview of some of the key requirements:
- Trades can be accessed in the Social Hub tab.
- You can only trade with friends, not strangers.
- Only cards from designated sets and of select rarity can be traded.
- You can only trade cards of the same rarity.
- You can only send one trade request at a time.
- Cards can be traded with Flair.
- Traded cards will not be removed from your collection database, even if they are your only copy.
- If a trade request is declined your Trade Stamina and Trade Tokens will be refunded.
You can't communicate with other players directly if you want to trade in Pokémon TCG Pocket. Instead, you can request a trade with any other player you are friends with by spending one Trade Stamina and selecting the card you want to send over—as long as you have the Trade Tokens to do so.
This means, if you want to get specific cards, you will want to try and set up communication with a trade partner via a third-party service like Discord or Reddit to ensure you have the best chance to fill out your collection.
Pokémon TCG Pocket - Trade Token and Trade Stamina, Explained
Trade Tokens and Trade Stamina are necessary to complete any trade in Pokémon TCG Pocket.
Trade Stamina works almost exactly like Pack Stamina and Wonder Stamina, in that it is a constantly regenerating timegate that you must use when trading. You consume one Trade Stamina when requesting or accepting a trade and renew it by using Trade Hourglasses or waiting for it to refill over time.
Trade Tokens are a currency you get via a few methods, with the most prominent being dismantling cards in your collection. Not every card requires Trade Tokens to swap once you start looking at higher rarity cards, you will need a lot of tokens to get a trade done.
Each card rarity will give you a different amount of Trade Tokens when you dismantle them, and the math works out that you essentially need to dismantle four cards of a single rarity if you want to trade one in that same bracket.
Pokémon TCG Pocket - All Tradeable Cards and Trade Costs
Pokémon TCG Pocket has two concrete limitations in place. You can only trade cards from specific sets and only certain card rarities can be exchanged within those expansions.
As of Feb. 11, players can only trade cards from Genetic Apex and Mythical Island. From those sets, you can only trade 1 Diamond to 4 Diamond or 1 Star rarity cards, with 1 and 2 Diamond cards not using any Trade Tokens when traded.
Here is a full breakdown of how many Trade Tokens you need to use per card when you want to make a trade, based on card rarity:
Card Rarity | Trade Tokens Needed |
|---|---|
One Diamond | None Needed |
Two Diamond | None Needed |
Three Diamond | 120 Trade Tokens |
Four Diamond | 500 Trade Tokens |
One Star | 400 Trade Tokens |
Pokémon TCG Pocket - When Will More Cards Be Tradeable?
The Pokémon TCG Pocket developers are looking into more ways to improve trading moving forward, but for now, one of the main changes has been adding more ways to get Trade Tokens through various giveaways or completing Missions.
Expansions like Space-Time Smackdown should become eligible for trading at some point in the future, along with other upcoming expansions. Updates like that might also take other player feedback into account to potentially remove further restrictions by adding the ability to trade higher rarity cards or request specific cards in return from other players.
