When will trading come to Pokémon TCG Pocket? Release date confirmed

After all, anyone missing just one particular card of the Kanto Pokédex from the whole Genetic Apex set is really restricted to opening packs every day just to try and unlock the requirements to get a Mew card.

There are also plenty of players who will have missed out on some of the limited-time promo cards who will want the chance to trade and complete their collection.

With that, let's get into everything you know so far about trading in Pokémon TCGP.

Trading release date for Pokémon TCG Pocket confirmed

The release date of the trading feature in Pokémon TCG Pocket will be Wednesday 29th January 2025, the developers have now confirmed with an official blog post.

We already knew the rough release window, with the Pokémon TCGP Operations team previously stating that they would allow players to trade cards "starting in January 2025".

The "Trade" option itself is currently visible, as shown in the screenshot above, but will remain locked until the 29th January launch date. The recent announcement also divulged some details on what Pokemon TCG Pocket players will actually be able to trade.

Pokémon TCG Pocket's rules for trading

While we haven't received all of the details for trading in Pokémon TCG Pocket, these are the highlights of the trade feature's rules we have so far, as stated by the developer:

• Trades can be done between friends
• Trades can be done with cards of the same rarity
• At the time of the trade feature's launch, certain cards from the Genetic Apex and Mythical Island booster packs will be able to be traded. We are planning to continue to expand the selection of booster packs that you can trade from
• Cards with a rarity of 1-Diamond to 4-Diamond and 1-Star can be traded
• Items must be consumed in order to trade

Being limited to only trading cards of the same rarity isn't too big of a surprise for Pokémon TCGP's trading feature, since that will prevent players from exploiting it.

However, being locked between only being able to trade Diamond-rare cards and 1-Star rare cards from launch is unexpected since that technically prevents players from trading Promo-A cards, which are considered as their own rarity outside of that range.

The 1-Star rare limit also means that while you'll be able to trade rare full-art cards, like Bulbasaur (A1 227/226) or Marshadow (A1a 074/068), you'll be blocked from trading harder-to-find cards like the 3-Star Pikachu ex (A1 281/226) or the Golden Crown-rare Charizard ex (A1 284/226).

We also don't know at this point what the consumable items required to pay for trading will be, potentially being quite difficult to get and limiting the use of the feature.

Nevertheless, the Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket Team have made a point to say they will "continue to monitor player feedback and assess future updates to the trade feature", so they'll hopefully widen the pool of tradable cards further down the line.

In the meantime, the Trade option is present in the game's Social Hub section, but is simply being locked at the moment, with a "Coming soon" sticker in front.

Because of this, it's possible trading will end up being shadow-dropped, meaning it will be accessible after a quick update without any announcement until after it's launched.

No matter which way, we will update this article as soon as we've received confirmation and gotten extra details.

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