Just a week after its official global release last 29 August 2019, Pokémon Masters now reached a combined total of 10 million downloads in iOS and Android. Since DeNA,Co. is currently working on making it compatible to more devices, expect the number of downloads to even double soon!
Pokémon Masters is a strategy role-playing game developed and published by DeNA, Co., a company which is 15% owned by Nintendo (fun fact: it's not pronounced as dee-na as I initially thought. It's actually pronounced as dee-en-ayy, as in DNA).
Anyway.
They had a beta sign up back in July but only available for those who live in Canada and Singapore, and those who managed to get in through VPN.
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I. Basic Info About Pokémon Masters
Pokémon Masters gives a new spin on the traditional Pokémon gameplay by requiring the players to invite trainer NPCs and their respective Pokémons (aka sync pairs) to form teams instead of the old usual way of capturing and collecting different Pokémons.
It's similar to most gacha RPG's these days, but instead of trainers having superpowers themselves, players get to "borrow" and control each trainer's Pokémon during 3-vs-3 battles in an artificial island called Pasio, owned by this snotty character named Lear.
Players can either go solo or co-op with friends, and collect 5 badges in order to qualify in joining (and hopefully, eventually winning) in the Pokémon Masters League tournament.
Currently it's semi-voice acted in 2 languages: Japanese and English. Semi because similar to other mobile games with visual novel elements, it's only basic expressions and the lines don't have full voice-over (which is alright in a mobile game because voice-overs and dubs eat more space and internet data).
The in-game text, on the other hand, can be set in 8 languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
In-game refresh time is at 6am UTC.
If you want to change your in-game name, you can do it once immediately for free. But after that, you need to wait for 30 days before you can change your name again (still free of charge).
You can change your characters look though anytime.
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| I wanted pink long hair for my character. But there really isn't that much option to choose from at the moment, so ok. |
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II. Pokémon Masters Requirements and How to Download
DeNA is still working on making this game compatible in more devices, however there's no specific timeframe when they'll be able to do so (hopefully before the Launch Celebration event ends this November).
As of this writing, here are the following minimum and recommended requirements.
A. Pokémon Masters for iOS
- Recommended: iOS 11.0 or higher
- Minimum: 64-bit CPU for iPhone 5s and above and iPad
- At least 2GB RAM
- 1 GB space
- Internet Connection
- Download Pokémon Masters in the App Store
B. Pokémon Masters for Android
- Recommended: Android Nougat (7.1.1) or higher
- Minimum: 64-bit CPU for Android Lollipop (5.0) and up
- At least 2GB RAM
- 1 GB space
- Internet Connection
- Download Pokémon Masters in Google Play
- Download Pokémon Masters APK in APKPure
C. Pokémon Masters for Emulators
Pokémon Masters doesn't run in any emulator as of this writing. Though I managed to install it in LDPlayer, it crashes every time I launch the game.
Others tried it in Bluestacks, Memu, Nox, etc. but no luck as well. As mentioned by user andr3174 in Reddit, most of these popular emulators simulate 32-bit android devices hence the auto-crash.
D. How to Know If Your Mobile Device is Running in 64-bit
After installing Antutu, click My Device and check if it's running in 64-bit or 32-bit.
For iOS users, you don't need to install benchmarks like Antutu because all you'll see is something like this:
No specific info if 32-bit or 64-bit. However, as long as you're using an iPhone 5s and up, or iPad running in Apple A7 and up, then you'll be able to play Pokémon Masters as all these are running in 64-bit (just make sure you're updated to iOS 11 or at least not in iOS 10 since the latter seems to bug the game and there are some players reporting that they experience crashes).
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III. How Much is Pokémon Masters?
Pokémon Masters is available as free-to-play--- we may survive as a F2P here BUT we just have to grind a LOT like in most other F2P games 🗿 : |
| Thank God for its auto feature though. |
Or be extremely lucky to get more 5-star scouts early on aside from Rosa to make our gameplay a bit less grindy in the long-run:
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| Nice one, Karen. |
For the few whales and a handful of F2P-turned-casual spenders who want to buy gems to be able to join the daily 100 - gem discount gacha, here are the in-game purchases:
Current Promo:
1600 gems (one time special only) - $10.99 / Php 5493200 gems (one time special only) - $21.99 / Php 1,090
5200 gems (one time special only) - $34.99 / Php 1,750
3200 gems (monthly special) - $23.99 / Php 1,190
Normal Rates:
100 gems - $0.99 / Php 49520 gems - $4.99 / Php 249
1600 gems - $14.99 / Php 749
3200 gems - $28.99 / Php 1450
6400 gems - $54.99 / Php 2790
9800 gems - $79.99 / Php 3990
Parents, watch your kids! I saw a screen prompt where kids are advised to ask permission from parents before spending-- but yeah, right.
Since I don't have a child, and I can't confirm if there's any built-in lock to protect your child (I think there's none) especially if he lies about his age, maybe double-check if you lock the spending in App Store or Google Play just to be safe.
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| Don't mind me, I'm a vampire. |
There isn't an option to add our desired custom number of gems as max limit per month. However, during the first time you launch the game, you will be prompted with this message asking whether you want to turn on Spending Notifications for each spending "milestone".
You can also check your Poryphone, click Settings, and turn on Spending Notifications there.
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IV. How to Get Gems for Free?
Unfortunately there's really no faster way to get gems for free (legitimately) other than getting them from the:- Login bonus (extra 200 gems on top of daily 50-100 during the Launch Celebration event)
- Special events like the Launch Celebration and Blue events
- Main Story
- Sync Pair Stories
- Trainings
- Missions
- Time-limited Trainings
If you're planning to reroll, here are the gems you'll get quickly within around 30-45 minutes:
- Special Login Bonus (Launch Celebration Party) - 200 gems
- Normal Login Bonus (Day 1) - 100 gems
- Launch Celebration Present - 1000 gems
- Completing Chapter 1 - 90 gems
- Completing Chapter 2 - 240 gems
- Read Sync-Pair Scout Side Stories (Rock, Mysty, Whitney, Rosa and Barry) - 50 gems
- Missions - 80-100 gems
- Trainings (depends on what you are willing to complete) - 90-120 gems
- Additional Sync-Pair Scout Side Stories (assuming you got at least 1800 gems total from above and pulled 6 sync-pair scouts by now) - 60 gems
- Linking a Nintendo Account - 600 gems
- Partially completing Chapter 3 - 40 gems
You'll be able to pull single sync-pair scouts 7-8 times during the Launch Celebration event from completing the list above. However once that event over and assuming no other event is available (so that's less 1200 from a total of 2550 gems above), you'll only be able to pull 4 (or 5 scouts if you complete Chapter 3 and also do more trainings).
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V. How to Get 5-Star Scout in Pokémon Masters for Free?
Aside from Rosa, right now there's a Launch Celebration Event where players are assured to get a 5-star scout on the first 10th draw using paid gems until 28 November 2019.
The drop rate for all 5-star sync pair scouts combined is 7%. Correction: Instead of multiplying the offering rate by the individual rate below (as what I did previously), been told by my S.O. that the offering rate is already the sum of each scout per category and not a separate multiplier as what I initially thought.
So for Blue, since current event as of this writing is offering him at 2%, then we have 2% probability of getting him. The rest on the other hand like Olivia for example, we only have 1.4% probability of obtaining.
Regardless, the chance is still really small.
Not getting him hurts more if you're a paying player. So to save your sanity and wallet, you might first wanna try if these 2 methods in getting 5-star scouts FOR FREE works for you.
A. Lucky 11th
The first one is what a few players and I did which is collecting a few gems, and then start doing only single pulls every now and then each mission (doesn't have to be done straight).
DON'T CLICK "Sync Pair Scout x 10" and do multi. Just stick to single pulls. There are a few who get lucky with the multi pull. But just based on my personal experience regarding RNGs in other mobile games, and after reading a couple of Tweets and subReddit comments so far, I strongly believe easy buttons like that easily unlock doors to frustration and depression.
Statistically speaking, there's no difference between single and multi-pull.
RNG is RNG.
But doing the former in between missions is more psychologically manageable (and enjoyable) than hoarding those gems and ending up with a BIG disappointing shock in the end.
Click single "Sync Pair Scout" around 11 times (or less if you're luckier!) in between missions after collecting some gems. On the 11th pull (doesn't include Whitney!), you should get at least 1 5-star scout especially if you do the gacha during non-peak hours (more players playing at a certain time, less chances of winning imho).
So do it on the game's refresh time (6am UTC) or after lunch-- at least that's how we got Kris-Totodile and Phoebe-Dusclops sync pairs:
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Though I wasn't into using water-type Pokémons in the past, they said Kris-Totodile tandem is more useful in co-op chapters (than the crowd favorite Blue-Pidgeot) especially with her Waterfall that can flinch enemies, and being able to permanently evolve into Feraligatr which is great late game.
Dusclops on the other hand is very durable from the get go which is useful in auto-farming Training to level up your sync pairs scouts. Dusclops gives nice buffs for all allies especially during co-op where she can pass on 50% of her stat buffs if ever she faints.
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If you didn't get lucky and not a single 5-star scout appeared after your 11th pull, check your current sync pairs first and see where they stand in this updated tier list. Maybe you have sync pairs there that are also great once leveled up despite not being 5-star rating (such as Roxanne-Nosepass and Gardenia-Roserade imho), or anyone that matches your play style well and are personal favorites (I'm waiting for maybe Red-Charmander... pretty please? 🙏)
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| You know you got a 5-star sync pair scout once your Poryphone does this unusual spark of joy! |
I agree with this ranking by GameWith which summarizes whether it's worth it to reroll or not (I will insert Agatha-Gengar and Hau-Raichu in B-Tier though, Lyra-Meganium in support, and move Karen-Houndoom to A-Tier, hah!).
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| Source: GameWith |
B. Reroll Master
It's kinda similar to the method above but instead of pulling single sync-pair scout 11 times in between missions during non-peak hours, you only do it 5-8 times during the Launch Celebration event, and 4-5 times after the event.If you kinda like your current sync pair lineup or wants to keep them, link a Nintendo account to save your data to cloud first before deleting the game and reinstalling it.
If you don't care about your lineup and progress so far at all and REALLY wants a fresh restart, then you don't have to delete and reinstall the game anymore. Simply go to Settings > Account in your Poryphone and click "Delete Save Data".
Start all over again and rush through the missions, and draw single Sync Pair Scout 5-8 times (or 4-5 times). Don't forget to collect extra gems from login bonus, sync pair stories and prizes for current achievements sent in under Presents.
If you finally get your coveted Blue or Olivia or whoever your target sync-pair scout is, then congratulations!
If not, go Delete Save Data again. Rinse and repeat.
Here's a nifty flowchart to visually guide you:
I personally don't recommend this even though this is the more popular method because I don't have any luck pulling any 5-star sync pair scout doing this on different times (i.e. refresh time at 6am UTC, lunch time, after lunch, evening, midnight), so imagine my frustration. I did get more interesting scouts near the game's refresh time (5-7am UTC) so maybe focus on rerolling and doing gacha around that time and see how it goes.
Good luck!
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VI. Troubleshoot Common Errors
Here are some errors I've encountered so far and how I remedied them.A. Error 20103 Please Check Your Connection
Check your Wi-Fi or data bar. You may turn it off, then turn it back on again just to reset your connection. Play in an area where you have moderate to strong internet signal to avoid getting disconnected in the game.
B. Error 30108 Please Check Your Device's Clock Setting
No need to actually check your clock settings. Just force exit from the game, check if you're connected to the internet or if it has at least 3 bars, then restart.
It's like the rubber-banding issue in FPS games, but here audio is processed faster than the game's animation. You may turn off any background apps that might be slowing down your internet speed and device. Make sure you have enough RAM too and have moderate to fast internet connection.
C. Game Won't Finish Downloading, Stuck at a Certain %
Either you might be downloading the game during the middle of an update, or it's a bug. Go to Settings, then Apps list. Select Pokémon Masters then click Clear Cache. Go to the App Store or Google Play, and resume downloading. It's better to download this using Wi-Fi, less frustration than using your mobile data.D. Game Crashes at Launch
Double-check if your device meets the minimum requirement. Also try clearing any open apps that might be using up your RAM.Back to Top
VII. Is Pokémon Masters Worth Playing? Pros and Cons.
It all depends on what you're looking for in a mobile Pokémon game. If you prefer something a bit old school and more challenge (and you have Nintendo Switch) then there's Pokémon Let's Go. Pokémon Sword and Shield is also coming later this year at November 19.If you're looking for something to pass time with friends who enjoy playing Pokémon games on mobile for free without having to go stroll around catching Pokémons (unlike Pokémon Go), and more focused on battle system, then it's worth giving Pokémon Masters a try.
So far here are its pros and cons:
Pros
- Gameplay overall is exciting enough, with bits of interesting easter eggs/lore here and there
- Real-time strategy
- Fresh take on the traditional Pokémon mechanics with modern visual-novel like interface
- Option to control the speed to make 3-vs-3 matches faster-paced and intense
- Can play for as long as you like, no annoying limit per hour or per day (you need enough self-discipline to stop when you need to stop though)
- Cute voice-over
- Nice graphics even in low setting
- Co-op play with friends
- Spending limit notification when topping up gems
Cons
- The grind needed to get gems per story can be a deal breaker (but then again, any Pokémon game is grindy to begin with)
- Connection issues sometimes
- Own character is stuck with Pikachu throughout the game (can't choose my old time favorite: Charmander 😾)
- No way to capture new Pokémon, need to recruit its trainers instead through the Main Story and by spending gems in the shop to experience using other Pokémons
- Not much option in clothing and hairstyle
- No way to refund any accidental purchase of gems even if not used
- Pricey gems not regionally adjusted
- Option for any paid gacha mechanics should be grayed out on kids' accounts, else this is very exploitative
- Recycled background music in some parts (Is it just me? I swear I heard those music before in other visual-novel type of gacha mobile game like *cough* Starlight Idol maybe, another grindy-slash-pricey gacha game giving me funny flashbacks)
Personally I find it ok. However, since I'm not really a heavy mobile gamer (especially now that I'm still allowing more time for my carpal tunnel on my right wrist to heal), I play it pretty casually just for fun but you won't find me grinding everyday to reach level 100 quickly. Am I gonna spend for gems in this game? Hell, no. Maybe if I don't see Charmander soon and get it, I might lose interest after a month or two, and move on to another mobile game-- which I'll definitely feature here soon!^_^
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