Pokémon TCG Pocket player reveals how much money he spent to get all the cards in the first set

Pokémon TCG Pocket is generating a lot of buzz after its launch at the end of October 2024. Although the game adapts the classic Pokémon Trading Card Game gameplay to a faster and more accessible format with great success, its freemium business model is very controversial. One Reddit user “volunteered” to answer the big question: how much money will it cost to get all the Genetic Apex cards, the game’s first expansion set.

Reddit user spends $1,500 to get all cards in Genetic Apex set for Pokémon TCG Pocket

As he reveals in a Reddit thread, user Weens4Life details that he had to spend a total of $1,500 to get all the cards in the Genetic Apex set, which is the first expansion available since the game’s launch. According to this player, completing the base card list cost him “only” $200, but getting the rarer cards took the most time and money.

The stats on this “feat” are impressive:

This user reveals that it took him the longest time to get the last three full art cards he had left to complete his collection: Venusaur, Gengar, and Machamp. These types of cards are much rarer than their regular versions because of their eye-catching artwork, which covers the entire card rather than being limited to a frame within the card design itself.

The sheer amount of money spent shows that there is room for improvement in Pokémon TCG Pocket’s booster opening system. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, another card game that can be considered its main competitor, is more “honest” in this regard, always showing that each expansion set is a digital “box” with a limited number of booster packs, and also showing which cards are still to come out. Pokémon TCG Pocket Sets, on the other hand, have “infinite boxes,” so the possibility of getting a card is always the same, which prolongs the process of searching and obtaining the missing cards, unlike the Duel Links model, where we will eventually get all the cards of the same set if we are thorough and open envelope after envelope.

Also, keep in mind that this significant investment was made to get all the cards in a single set. Over time, Pokémon TCG Pocket will add new expansion packs with new cards that will change the metagame, so to stay relevant in the competitive scene, it will be necessary to open these new packs to get more cards. In other words, this strategy, while conscientious, is not viable for the average user, as it will essentially be an “unlimited” expense as long as the game continues to be updated.

Although it is possible to get all of these cards for free using game mechanics such as opening free booster packs (one every twelve hours) or Wonder Picks (variable time), it is estimated that it would take about 655 days to get all the Genetic Apex cards without paying, so the “fast method” has the high economic cost that this user decided to bear.

This peculiar experiment has also captured the reality of free games with micropayments: the “whales”, or big spenders, who support many of these titles on an economic level. This is because most of the revenue for this type of game comes from users willing to pay a lot to gain advantages - in this case, more and better cards - over other users.

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