Pokémon TCG Pocket has a monthly subscription called the Premium Pass. The shiny golden ticket may entice you on the home screen, but should you buy it? Is it worth buying?
We explain below, breaking down the math, if the Pokémon TCG Pocket Premium Pass is worth buying and explain when the best time to activate your two-week free Premium Pass trial may be.
Is the Premium Pass worth buying in Pokémon TCG Pocket?
Yes, the pass is worth it if you want packs and you plan on investing money into the game, while playing daily. Here’s our math to explain:
The pass is $9.99 per month and it lasts 30 days.
For $9.99 you can get 57 Poké Gold at its usual rate or 72 Poké Gold as part of the “release celebration” sale. One Poké Gold reduces the pack timer by two hours (so six Poké Gold grants you a complete pack cycle, reducing the timer by 12 hours). This means that for $9.99, you can get nine or 12 packs, depending on which gold bundle you buy.
The Premium Pass nets you the following:
- Monthly premium missions that reward 11 Pack Hourglasses, eight Wonder Hourglasses, and 29 Premium Tickets, if you complete all the required missions
- One extra pack per 24 hours (as indicated by a Delibird timer that will show up on your home screen)
- Access to the Premium Shop, where you can buy special Promo cards and deck accessories in exchange for Premium Tickets
That being said, the pass can net you at least 30 packs for $9.99, so long as you login every day to claim that extra pack, this is worth it way more than just paying gold for $9.99.
The premium missions are also pretty easy to complete from just playing the game — it’s loaded with tasks that involve just opening packs or finding specific types of cards. So if you are just opening your daily packs, you’ll likely complete these missions, netting you all the rewards, and thus additional cosmetics.
When should I redeem the Premium Pass free trial?
There are a few things to keep in mind if you’re trying to stay free-to-play and want to strategically claim your free two-week Premium Pass trial: the missions reset time and the collectables in the Premium shop. Unfortunately, since the game just launched, we don’t have concrete experience with how these mission timers and shop rotations work, so we’re going to work with the in-game timers we’re seeing right now.
Assuming that the missions didn’t reset on Nov. 1 because the game launched on Oct. 30 (and thus would only give you around two days to complete) and assuming that they will reset on Dec. 1, the best time to redeem the free trial would any time during the week before Dec. 1. This would allow you to claim two months worth of missions, thus double the rewards, allowing you to get 22 Pack Hourglasses, 16 Wonder Hourglasses, and 58 Premium Tickets. (The missions do complete even when you don’t own the Premium Pass — you just need the pass to claim the rewards.)
Image: Creatures, DeNA/The Pokémon Company via Polygon
The next thing to keep in mind is what’s in the Premium Pass shop. As of this writing, there’s a Pikachu promo card and Mewtwo-themed accessories. The Pikachu card has no timer on it, though the Mewtwo accessories have a timer set for Jan. 1, 2025, which is when it’s assumed that these accessories will rotate out and get replaced with a different cosmetic theme. If you hate Mewtwo, you may want to hold on to your Premium Pass free trial until these change.
That all being said, again, this is working off some assumptions. Feel free to hold on to your free trial if you hate Mewtwo or want to try to maximize it in late November, but we also can’t promise that the pass will work that way, yet. (We’ll update this guide down the line when we can confirm more information, though.)
