Pokémon TCG Pocket Fan Warns Players About Not Being Able To Open New Packs

Some players have encountered a Pokémon TCG Pocket feature preventing them from opening additional booster packs. The official mobile app for the perennially popular trading card game, Pokémon TCG Pocket grants players two virtual booster packs full of cards to open each day - more if they pay for a premium subscription. Players can also spend an in-game virtual currency, Pack Points, to unlock new cards individually. While Pack Points have their issues, many players have wasted no time in racking up as many of them as possible. That approach may have its issues, though, as one player discovered.

Reddit user thegreatska recently posted a PSA to the community, warning players that they can't open any more booster packs when they're maxed out on Pack Points in Pokémon TCG Pocket. The hard limit appears to be 2,500, after which players will have to spend their Pack Points or wait for them to expire before opening any further boosters. In the comments, thegreatska explains further that they've been playing consistently since the pre-release period, and simply hadn't spent a single Pack Point until they discovered the limit.

Opening New Packs Isn't Possible With Too Many Pack Points In PokémonTCG

Pocket Players Discover A Hard Limit

For many fans, this is a surprising restriction. Opening booster packs and spending Pack Points aren't seen as related activities; for all intents and purposes, they appear to be two totally distinct parts of the game. Some players maintained that free-to-play users would never experience this issue, as it's tough to rack up 2,500 Pack Points without spending real money on extra booster packs. However, commenter agrady262 did the math, finding that a player could theoretically hit 2,500 in roughly eight months without spending a dime. For users who spend just a little bit of money, it's even easier.

And at least one other Pokémon TCG Pocket claims to have been in the same position. Commenter Tuner89 says they also hit their Pack Points limit, and were forced to blow the virtual currency on a Crown Rare Charizard in order to keep ripping packs. However, they quickly regretted their decision when they found the same exact card just a few booster packs later.

Some commenters, however, suggested this feature might not be an arbitrary limit: it might be intentional, to prevent players from abusing the system. Commenter FuHiwou offers a hypothetical: without the Pack Points limit, a player could, in theory, keep buying booster packs until they had enough Pack Points to purchase all the cards from a particular set they were missing.

Whatever the case, game developers don't include a cap like this one for no reason: there's definitely something at play here. Whatever the exact cause, it's been causing frustration for some players, while others say their Pack Point counts are so low they doubt they'd ever be at risk of something like this.

Our Take: Can This Feature Be An Issue For PokémonTCG Pocket Players?

Potentially, But Cases Like This Are Rare

Yes, this problem is replicable, and could happen again to some Pokémon TCG Pocket players. If, theoretically, someone isn't interested in buying any of the cards released for an eight-month period - less if they buy even the occasional booster pack - they could rack up 2,500 points and be unable to keep going. Of course, they could always spend a few of those Pack Points on whatever card they liked, but what if they'd rather keep them? They shouldn't be made to give them up for an arbitrary limit.

And of course, there are always those rare cases is forced to spend their Pack Points on a card, only to pull the same one shortly afterward. It's an incredibly rare scenario, but it does happen. But there may be a perfectly good reason for this limit, as FuHiwou suggested. And frankly, it's highly unlikely that anyone, apart from those players who spend large quantities of money on booster packs, will ever run into this issue. It seems to impact only a fringe selection of Pokémon TCG Pocket players.

Sources: thegreatska/Reddit, agrady262/Reddit, Tuner89/Reddit, FuHiwou/Reddit