The Beginner's Guide to Pocket Master

by Stenjamesfar
AKA Jojo from S04 Cerulean City

My wireless is down, so I’ve allocated 20 minutes of my day to write up some very basic information about the game. Everything I write here is from memory since I cannot access the game right now. I’m writing this because when I started playing the game I desperately wanted more information and it was not available. Hopefully this will help out beginner players a little.

Pokemon Strategy-
The sword pokemon are designed for offense and have a 40% chance of inflicting a critical hit. The shield pokemon are designed for defense and generally have more health and a higher defense stat. The bow pokemon are designed for long-range attacks and typically have a powerful activated ability that deals damage to many enemies at once (Blastoid is one exception). The set of wings pokemon are designed specifically for healing and often have abilities that buff the team.

Defense pokemon are best placed at the front to absorb damage. Offense pokemon are best placed directly behind defense pokemon in order to attack, but not take damage. Healing pokemon have a limited range in which they can heal, so they need to be close to the melee pokemon, but still within the highlighted squares or they cannot heal. They also cannot heal if they engage in melee combat, so they should keep out of the path of approaching enemies.

Most players will opt for a combination of three melee, one healer, and one ranged (3-1-1) or two melee, one healer, and two ranged (2-1-2). The two melee are normally defense pokemon if they are using the two ranged strategy. There are many different strategies that may be effective only in certain PVP (player vs. player) situations. The use of defense pokemon and two powerful healers may win against another player, but may not be useful during an elite stage where there are three waves of enemies and a time limit. The same applies for a purely offensive team with low HP and defense. They may overrun the enemy before abilities activate in PVP, but lose against superior numbers while trying to complete a level.

Purely offensive teams are generally desired against thieves, Meowth, myth pokemon, and boss pokemon. During myth pokemon battles you can tap and drag your pokemon away briefly when they are low on health so that the enemy begins to attack a different pokemon. No healing should be required during such battles by disabling the auto AI and micromanaging wounded pokemon. Against bomb pokemon that appear in certain stages it is a poor idea to tank the damage. The best candidate to deal with this situation is a pokemon with a full rage bar. They can intercept the bomb pokemon and activate their ability to become temporarily invincible and avoid all damage.

In difficult stages it is a good idea to manually drag your pokemon forward out of the highlighted squares before enemies appear. They are able to inflict damage sooner and help avoid failure due to running out of time. Whenever a charge pokemon appears it is best to attack it with every pokemon possible before it can reach the gems on the right. Any enemy pokemon with the charge ability should be kept well away from the gems or it may unexpectedly end the level in failure.

The healer pokemon is the backbone of a team, so procuring the best healer possible is a top priority. Some healers can heal for massive amounts whenever they activate their ability while others can initiate a temporary stat boost. Some might have a more powerful auto-heal and others might have an increased healing range. If a team consists of Pokemon that push their enemies back or charge forward it would be useful to have a healer with increased range, so that they are able to continue healing. If a team relies heavily on defense it would be best to prioritize damage reduction boosts. If a team is based on DPS (damage per second) then attack boosts would be favorable.

Leaf (evolved from Eevee when Scyth is the team leader) is a terrific healer with abilities that provide a +2 healing range and a 21% damage reduction to all pokemon. Her final awaken ability increases attack speed by 30%. Sylph (also evolved from Eevee, but when Cabra is the team leader) is another excellent choice. She has a 1,200% heal as her activated ability, auto-heals for an additional 30%, raises team attack by 19%, and can increase her healing range by +2 as her final ability. Milo (evolved from Feeblebass) is a very popular healer as she also has a 1,200 heal activated ability. Her range only increases by +1 and her auto-heal is only enhanced by 18%, but her attack speed can be increased by 30% as her final ability.

Toge (evolved from Tokebi) is less popular, but is a solid choice in the absence of better options. Her activated ability increases team attack by 15% for 20 seconds, her range can be increased by +1.5, she can reduce damage to the team by 8%, and her final awaken ability increases her attack speed by 24%. Garde (evolved from Ralit) is easily obtainable from the mall of a level five guild via fragments. She is generally a better option than Toge as she can heal for 1,200% as her activated ability, increase her range by +2, increase 10% attack for melee pokemon, reduce damage by 19%, and increase her attack damage by 30% as her final ability.

There are certain pokemon that are commonly used in PVP matches due to a unique ability. Laplace will reduce 70% of incoming damage to the team for 25 seconds following the defeat of a teammate. Once the damage reduction activates the entire team becomes nearly invincible with the assistance of a healer. Aggro-Iron (evolved from Armor-Iron) gains 15% damage reduction every 10 seconds while his attack decreases by 15% every 10 seconds. If a team relies heavily on ranged damage and he is utilized as the second line of defense it can stop the opposing team long enough for the pokemon in the back to activate their devastating abilities. Tyrant (evolved from Larva) reduces ranged damage by 50% for the entire team. His presence can make an even match-up very difficult for a ranged team. Geranium (evolved from Chicory) regenerates 1.2% HP per second. Her natural healing combined with external healing allows her to survive for long periods of time as a first line of defense. She is regularly seen used with two ranged, a healer, a ranged back-up, and either Laplace or Aggro-Iron as a secondary defense line (though there are many other strategies that she can be incorporated in).

Endless Trials-
In this mode you challenge progressively more difficult groups of pokemon. Every ten levels you face off against a single boss pokemon. Every five wins earns you a loot chest where you pick one of three for a reward (pokestones, evolution stones, dawn stones, etc.). At each stage you will be presented with three difficulty levels of adversaries. One star opponents will give you a maximum of three trial stars if you win without losing any pokemon. Two star opponents give you a maximum of six trial stars and three star opponents will grant you a maximum of nine stars for a flawless victory.

The trial stars that you earn are used to purchase buffs that are presented to you at regular intervals as you progress. The types of buff are random and could apply to attack, defense, HP, or skill damage. The buffs cost 5, 15, or 30 stars. If you only challenge the one star pokemon then you will not be able to afford the larger buffs. Once you have challenged one of the three opponents you will not be able to challenge the other two if you lose, but you will be able to battle the opponent that you lost to as much as you like.

The stages completed and stars earned during a particular run are recorded and the top players receive pokestones when the server resets. The stars that you “spend” on buffs are not subtracted from the total. A player with a higher number of total stars can still be ranked below a player that has completed more stages. If you were to get stuck on an opponent, reset the trials, and then earn fewer stars on your next try the game will retain your first attempt as your highest score for the day.

As you progress you will also gain trial coins, which can be used to purchase various items in the shop. The loot tab is where you claim trial coins based on how many chests you opened that day. If you do not claim the coins they will be lost the next day.

The Trials are separated into four groups based on the level of your equipment and the level of the pokemon in your current team. If just one pokemon from your team is even one level above the limit you will not be able to challenge that group of trials. If you challenge a group, leave, level up a pokemon beyond the limit, and come back you will not be permitted to access the trials again with that pokemon in your group. If you were to promote one piece of equipment and then level it up beyond the limit then you will also be restricted from that group. Once you choose a group you will not be able to select another group during that day even if you reset.

It is advisable to keep your team within the limit until you are able to adequately challenge the next group. Generally your team will not make it very far in the next group unless everyone in your team exceeds the limit. If one piece of equipment is beyond the limit you can swap it out with a lower level piece provided you have one available. If you don’t have anything available you can go to the switch tab of your pokemon team and create a new team with an empty item slot.

Exploration-
The exploration icon is a place where you can send your pokemon to explore and gain rewards. You are still able to use these pokemon normally, so there’s no downside to doing this. The rewards you gain are based on your pokemon’s OA (overall ability score) and how long you choose to explore for. You are given the option of exploring for 1, 3, or 8 hours at a time. The reward gained from doing 3 sets of 1 hour explorations is higher than doing one 3 hour exploration. Anticipated gold for one hour might be 17,000 and for three hours 34,000. If you reset every hour for three hours you would receive 51,000 gold. The likelihood of earning reforge crystals, dawn stones, pokestones, and magic stones is also slightly greater while using this method.

As you increase in level you will obtain additional slots to allow multiple pokemon to explore at the same time. Above these slots is a portal that you can click on that allows you to rob other players who have sent their pokemon to explore. An automatic battle will ensue with your attack team vs. the player’s defense team. If you win the battle you will gain a small random prize. It costs five points to try to rob another player. These points regenerate at a rate of 1 per 30 minutes. It costs one point in order to generate a new potential player to rob. If the player has a much higher OA than you it is often a good idea to refresh in an attempt to find easier prey. Losing against another player will not cost you anything other than the points used to initiate the attack.

The Garrison tab allows you to set up your defense team against other players that seek to rob you. While your pokemon are exploring you may be robbed by another player and lose a portion of your rewards. You are given the option to seek revenge in order to win back what was stolen, but it is rarely successful unless your team has recently leveled up a great deal.

The key to protecting your gains is to have a competent defense team with a suitable composition of offense and defense arrayed in a strategic position. Most attackers will have their ranged pokemon in the middle behind their healer, which means that whoever you position in the middle will be taking constant ranged damage. If the ranged pokemon is able to shoot through multiple targets then everyone you place in the middle will be taking damage. It is usually a good idea to place your weaker pokemon away from the center line, but it depends on the circumstances.

Below your defense team is a place to insert the leader pokemon from your friends. The amount that is taken from you if you are robbed is reduced by a certain percent based on the OA of your friends’ combined leader pokemon. Every day you must reselect which of your friends you would like to include in your defense as it will reset to empty when the server refreshes.

Hero League-
The hero league is much like the arena except you are able to click on your opponent’s icon to view their strategic placement of pokemon. It also differs in the amount of tries you have per day and the cooldown period between battles. Be sure to note that instead of being able to endlessly refresh your list of opponents for free you will need to pay 10 pokestones for each refresh and your list is limited to three instead of five. Each of the opponents you are shown will be worth a certain amount of credits that you can earn by defeating them. Each player begins in the bronze league and must be in the top rankings at the end of the day to gain access to the next tier. If you are in a higher tier, but are ranked at or near the bottom then you will drop to the previous tier for the next day.

The leagues are highly competitive and challenging low credit opponents may not be enough to join a higher tier. Different tiers award different amounts of reputation per day, so being in a higher tier is greatly beneficial. Players that spend pokestones to refresh their list until they find a suitable opponent have the advantage. If you don’t wish to spend any pokestones, but are faced with impossible opponents then you can still earn 50 reputation points even if you lose against them. You can challenge the same players on your list until you run out of tries in order to gain some reputation points to spend in the shop.

The shop generally has an assortment of gems to purchase and usually a rare pokemon fragment. Be aware that certain fragments can only be purchased by those of a certain tier regardless of whether you have the points to afford it. If you wanted to purchase a fragment of Diamond you would need to be at or above the Platinum level. Every weekend the league is shut down for an entire day and then begins anew for the next week, but the shop is still available at that time.

It is highly advisable to view your opponent’s placement of pokemon in order to win. A team that consists of weaker pokemon can still defeat you with clever positioning. Once a match begins it is carried out automatically without any control over the pokemon. Active abilities are only used at their highest point (if a pokemon has three levels of an ability it will only activate upon reaching the last level). The game’s AI can be exploited using certain abilities in order to win against more powerful teams, but it is recommended that you play fairly.

Arena-
In the arena you are allowed to refresh your list of potential opponents as many times as you like by clicking the roll button. You are given a total of five battles per day with a 10 minute cooldown between each battle. You can to view your opponent’s team of pokemon down to the smallest detail before you fight them. You are able to tell if they get a boost from matching equipment, if some of their pokemon are leveled up more than others, whether they are using gems, if they have any rare pokemon, etc. You are given the ability to create both a defense team and an attack team. Losing a battle will give you 50 honor while winning a battle gives you 100 honor.

Initially when you reach a higher rank you will be sent a substantial reward via mail. If you rank down and then rank back up then you will not receive a reward. You only receive a reward when you break your personal record for highest rank. At the end of the day you will receive honor based on your ranking. You can spend honor in the arena shop on high level items, on a small selection of pokemon fragments, or on varying quantities of dawn stones.

Champion Tower-
The tower is similar to endless trials, but differs in a few major ways. The tower has a set amount of 10 stages to complete. You cannot reset it unless you are a high level VIP player. When you get to a loot chest the rewards are more likely to be equipment items and you cannot choose from three different chests. There is no option to choose between easy, medium, and hard opponents per stage. The buffs you can receive are always attack, defense, and HP restore and are available after every three victories. Your pokemon retain their HP and rage meter from the previous stage instead of receiving full health and having their meter reset. There is no time limit, so it is often a good idea to disable auto and move your wounded pokemon back to heal when there are few enemies remaining.

When a pokemon is defeated it can no longer be utilized in your current attempt at completing that floor, but can be replaced before the next battle by any pokemon above level 10 in your possession. After every win you will receive a random number of gear cards. The champion coins you win are influenced by three conditions. To get the greatest reward, which is 15 coins, you must complete the battle quickly (there is no visible timer during the battle), not lose any pokemon, and defeat the very last enemy pokemon using skill damage. Each day you are given the choice of resetting the current floor of the tower or advancing to the next floor, which has slightly higher level pokemon. The shop will generally have items, badges, chests, or various berries to purchase with champion coins.

Guild-
When you are not in a guild you will be shown a random list of guilds that can be refreshed. Once you join a guild this list will no longer appear. Certain guilds require that the player be a certain level. Some guilds are higher level than others, which allow you purchase a greater variety of items from the guild mall. Items in the guild mall are purchased using contribution points. Contribution points are earned by checking-in for that day and through donating. You can donate a small quantity of gold, a large sum of gold, a few pokestones, a significant amount of pokestones, or a great deal of pokestones. The more you donate the more contribution you earn. Donating daily is required by certain guilds and a history of your donations is available for all guild members to view under the member icon. Guild battles can be found through the exploration icon, but have not yet been implemented in S04 Cerulean City.

Myth Pokemon-
As you progress through the game you may trigger a myth pokemon event. Usually this happens while uncovering tiles, but it can also happen while auto-farming a completed stage. Once you receive the notification that you have triggered an event click on the myth pokemon clouds in the background of the main screen or on the icon that appears in the right hand corner. There is a time limit of 60 minutes before the myth pokemon escapes. You can challenge it for free and attempt to do as much damage as possible within a short time limit. After your attempt there will be a cooldown time of 35 minutes. You can remove the cooldown by using pokestones. The amount of pokestones required to remove the cooldown is based on the amount of time left on the timer. Without using pokestones you are allowed to battle the myth pokemon twice provided they are not slain at some point. During your battle you may randomly receive a myth pokemon fragment pertaining to the pokemon you are battling.

If you have friends you can either invite everyone or go through a list and individually pick who you want to invite. It is advisable to invite friends to battle the pokemon as you will receive extra dawn stones if you slay it within the time limit. Your friends can also invite you to battle their myth pokemon if they encounter one. Only a set number of myth pokemon battles will give you rewards for the day. The rewards are based on the percent of damage that you deal during the event. Usually the rewards do not increase by much after a certain amount of damage, so using pokestones to remove the cooldown may not be worthwhile unless you are in great need of gold and dawn stones.

Once you have battled in a certain number of myth events you can click on the loot tab to choose a fragment of a myth pokemon (Enten- melee, Raiko-ranged, Suiken-healer). If you do not select a fragment during that day then it will be lost when the server refreshes. Although there are only a limited number of battles you can earn rewards from you can still participate in additional battles to help your friends receive extra dawn stones for slaying their myth pokemon. If you enable the x2 button at the top right then the battle will only take about 15-20 seconds.

Summon-
The first option is to summon pokemon through hatcher cards and gold. You are able to summon a low-quality pokemon for every ten hatcher cards you collect. The second option is to summon a pokemon using 260 pokestones and gold. There is a summons count-down indicating how many more summons before you receive a five star pokemon. If it does not say that the next summon will be five star quality then you will most likely receive a four star pokemon. If you complete enough tasks in a day you will be granted a free summons following the stated cool-down period. The third option allows you to summon ten pokemon at once for pokestones and gold. It also has a summons count-down, but this one is in regards to a 15 quality five star pokemon rather than just a five star pokemon. The cost is presently set at 2,300 pokestones, but that price can change. The combine tab has a small number of rare pokemon that you can obtain by collecting a number of more common pokemon. When you collect the required pokemon they will be lost in the exchange, but you will be given back all invested potential points, awaken materials, and level-up berries.

Black Market-
The black market uses either pokesouls or pokestones for purchases. Usually equipment items will cost pokestones while pokemon, dawn stones, or pokemon fragments will cost pokesouls. Pokesouls can be obtained as rewards throughout the game, but can also be earned directly by sacrificing existing pokemon. It is generally a bad idea to sacrifice all inactive pokemon as they can be used in relationship slots to provide stat boosts to other pokemon or leveled up to complete entries in the pokedex for a permanent attack and HP bonus. Many pokemon can be obtained by consistently purchasing their fragments when they appear in the black market.

Factory-
In the factory there are enemies you can defeat for specific rewards. There are only a set number of rewards you can win from each group per day, but you are allowed to challenge that group as many times as you like until you win those rewards. The groups you can face award equipment, gold, or evolution stones. Each group has multiple difficulty levels that are accessible based on your OA. If the player loses to a higher difficulty they are still able to battle the lower difficulty for rewards. Some of the evolution stone groups are only available to challenge on specific days of the week.

Server Fund-
The server fund can be found under the events icon. The player must be at least VIP3 in order to buy-in for an initial cost of 1,000 pokestones. Whenever a certain number of people buy into the fund pokestones are given to the buyers. For example at 1,000 buyers you would receive 1,000 pokestones. At 2,000 buyers you would receive 2,000 pokestones. Currently the fund has maxed out at a 3,000 pokestone reward. In order to receive the most from the server fund the player would have to start from scratch on a recently created server and buy in from the beginning. In addition to the pokestones provided based on buyers there are also substantial rewards available for reaching specific goals in the game.

Potential Points-
These points retroactively increase stat improvements per level for a pokemon. If a pokemon gains 100 HP, 100 attack, and 50 defense per level then the successful use of a potential point will slightly increase those numbers to something like 101 HP, 101 attack, 50.5 defense (this is merely an example and not an actual situation in the game). In this example if the pokemon is level 60 then they will have gained 60 HP, 60 attack, and 30 defense from one potential point.

In order to activate the potential points there are three options. If you use pokestones you get a 100% chance to activate the point and a 40% increase to the stat improvement. The more points you spend the greater the cost of pokestones. If you use gold it will start out with a 50% chance to activate, but without the 40% increase to the stat improvement from pokestones. The probability to activate will decrease below 50% as you spend more points and the cost of gold will increase at regular intervals. If you don’t use gold or pokestones and just potential points then the chance to activate will be very low and will continue to decrease as you spend potential points. The decrease in probability to activate and the increase to cost only apply to that specific pokemon based on the number of potential points you have spent on it. If you switch to a new pokemon it will start from scratch.

Trainer Points-
On the bottom of the screen there is a menu with an icon for pokemon team. In the pokemon team there is a title written vertically under the switch icon that displays your current level of trainer. Each trainer upgrade costs three stars and will provide a permanent stat boost to your pokemon. The stars can be obtained by defeating the boss pokemon of a stage (the one with a skull icon when you are uncovering tiles in a dungeon) without losing any pokemon during the battle. The stars you use to increase your trainer level also unlock rewards from the chest in the lower left corner of the stage map. The stars are not spent when opening the chest.

Reforge-
Reforge is similar to potential points except it applies to equipment rather than pokemon. You don’t need to use pokestones or gold to reforge an item, but there is a random chance the item will become weaker instead of stronger. The probability that the item will become stronger per use of reforge is much higher than the probability that it will become weaker. If it becomes weaker the player can just reforge it again to make it stronger.

Awaken-
In order to unlock a pokemon’s abilities beyond the default ability you will need to awaken it. Initially the awaken process requires a very small amount of dawn stones and gold. Some lower quality pokemon will have fewer abilities to unlock. The first three times you awaken will add a +1, +2, or +3 to the name of your pokemon and significantly increase its attack and HP. The fourth time you awaken it will unlock a new ability, but require another pokemon to be consumed instead of dawn stones (gold is still required). Once you consume a pokemon the portrait border will change color and you will essentially start the process again. There will be another three stages that increase stats and require dawn stones and gold before you can unlock a new ability by consuming a pokemon. The last ability is unlocked a little differently in that the pokemon you consume must be the originial version of the pokemon you are trying to awaken. Certain rare pokemon require specific pokemon to be consumed in order to awaken. At the beginning of the game there is a limit to how far you can awaken a pokemon based on player level. Evolving a pokemon can change what abilities have already been awakened and what abilities will be awakened in the future.

Promote-
Ordinary items will naturally max out at level 40 unless you promote them. Each promotion will raise the level limit by 10 and consume a qualified item. Initially an orange item will require a purple to promote it while a purple will require a blue one. Promoting an item does not automatically level it up those additional levels. You must spend gold to level up the equipment after a promotion.

Gems-
Gems are most often found in the hero league shop although they can be obtained through other means. Gems are separated into various types. Similar types can be combined to upgrade a particular gem, but the success rate is based on the quality of the gems used in the combination. Using four level one gems to upgrade a level three gem is likely to result in failure and all four lesser gems will be lost. Gems do not grant additional abilities to a pokemon, but rather enhance existing abilities or increase stats. The most powerful gem early in the game is the integrity gem which increases HP and attack by 800 at level one and doubles that amount at level two. Other gems may enhance abilities such as freeze, poison, slow, and blind.

Friends-
The friend icon allows you to search for friends, add friends, delete friends, mail friends, and accept friend requests. It also allows you to send and claim stamina. Every day you are allowed to claim stamina from a maximum of 30 friends. You cannot claim stamina if your friend has not first sent it to you. Each friend can send you 2 stamina points per day. You can send stamina to your friends even if they are not online at the time. When you send stamina it does not take stamina away from your own individual pool. The maximum number of friends you are allowed to have grows as the player levels up. Friends can invite you to their myth pokemon events where you can obtain rewards based on how much damage you deal. During certain battles you can swap out one of your pokemon (although not your leader or back-up pokemon) for the leader pokemon of one of your friends. Whether you win or lose that battle you cannot use that particular friend’s leader pokemon again until the next day.

Pokedex-
This is where you can learn about every pokemon in the game (whether you have encountered them yet or not). You can view the base stats on each and learn how their abilities progress after they evolve. The portrait will only fill in after you have possessed that pokemon in that particular form. There are filters located at the bottom right that will separate the pokemon based on whether they are defense, attack, ranged, or healing.

The bonus tab allows you to see which bonuses are granted to each of your pokemon. Pokemon are separated into groups with a specific bonus listed above. Once you fill up every slot in a particular group you will receive the stated bonus to each of your pokemon. Once you fill in a slot it will stay filled in even if you later sacrifice that pokemon to the black market or consume it in to awaken another pokemon. Some groups are more difficult to fill than others. Eevee’s group requires you to own each of her evolved forms, but once Eevee has been evolved she cannot be reset to her original form (the reborn tab gives you back awaken materials, potential points, and berries, but not evolution stones and the pokemon will be a level one pokemon of that evolved form). In order to complete groups where a pokemon has multiple forms the player will need to obtain the original form of that pokemon more than once.

Relationships-
In the pokemon team icon there is a place in the lower right for relationships with several diamonds that can be filled in. The diamonds represent how many stat boosts that particular pokemon has based on relationships. Each pokemon has their own list of pokemon that will provide a stat boost if they are active on the team at the same time or if they occupy a relationship slot. If two pokemon are listed for a stat boost that means both are required in order to receive the boost. Relationship slots can be purchased at the appropriate character level for an increasing cost of pokestones. The final slot costs 2,000 pokestones to purchase while the preceding slot costs 1,000. Each slot allows the player to gain relationship stat boosts to their pokemon without actually having that pokemon active on the current team.

Whenever a pokemon is placed in a relationship slot it will be inaccessible on that team until it is removed. It can still be used in one of the other teams the player is allowed to create without removing it from the first team’s relationship slot. Each of the three teams you can create has their own set of relationship slots. The slots do not carry over from one team to the other and must be manually configured to provide a bonus. A pokemon in a relationship slot does not appear on that team’s switch menu until they have been removed from the slot.

Pokecodes-
Only one pokecode has been released so far. It can be found on the in-game notice board and is labeled as the newbie pokecode. The newbie code is 248859220610

Player Profile-
If you click your player portrait at the top left you will open up a menu that allows you to change your player name. It shows what level you are and how many experience points are required to reach the next level. It shows how much stamina you possess and how long before you earn another point. There is also a timer indicating how long before you fill up your entire stamina bar. There is a feedback button that allows you to report bugs, ask questions, or file a complaint. The options button lets you customize your game. The poke code button allows you to enter the only existing poke code so far.

The purchase button allows you to buy more pokestones. A month card costs $6 and gives you 300 pokestones immediately and the ability to claim 120 from the bonus tab each day for 30 days. If you buy another month card it will also give you 300 pokestones and then extend the number of days you can claim pokestones by 30. Each month card is a single payment of $6. It does not auto-renew or charge you for each day of the month. If you buy two you will be VIP3 and will be allowed to buy into the server fund for 1,000 pokestones in order to receive thousands more.

Boss Pokemon Debut-
This icon will alternate between Zap-dos or Mutant. When the event is not currently active it will display a count-down detailing when the event will start. Once the event starts everyone on the server will have a maximum of 15 minutes to slay the boss pokemon. A challenge button will appear that will initiate an attempt. Each attempt provides the player with 40 seconds to deal as much damage as possible. After an attempt there will be a 60 second cool down before you can try again. You can remove the cool down for 10 pokestones and receive a 10% increase to attack during the next attempt.

The ranking tab shows how much damage you inflicted compared to other players and updates constantly throughout the event. Loots will show you what reward you can expect based on the percent of damage you inflicted. If the boss pokemon is slain it will have increased HP during the next event and if it is not slain it will have reduced HP.

Gear Center-
This is where you can spend gear cards or pokestones in order to obtain gear. Combine is where you can exchange five items of the same quality for one item of the next higher quality. The exchange will melt items that have been leveled up for free (usually it costs pokestones in order to retrieve invested resources from an item), but it will also charge a significant amount of gold based on the quality of the items being combined.

Mall-
The mall is a place to buy items with pokestones. The most common item purchased in the mall is bread, which grants 30 stamina points when consumed. The cost of bread increases by 10 pokestones for every purchase that day.

The end. If I’ve made any mistakes I apologize in advance. Please do not message me directly as I am not a game guider and do not have the time or experience to answer difficult questions (unless you are a cute girl in which case I’m all ears). You can direct your questions to the Pocket Master Facebook group where various members are frequently happy to provide an answer or at least an opinion.

For reference I have been playing the game (regularly) for a week and a half. I usually have Venus, Alligator, Tyrant, Machochamp, Milo, and Needlequeen (full relationship boosts) as my main team, but I regularly swap out certain members for Geranium or Poliwrath based on the situation.

**This is the updated version where I added the pokemon strategy section and made two items easier to understand.  It did not allow me to edit the original document that I uploaded, so I'm hoping I can modify this version as needed.**