Pokémon Masters is the latest game in the series to hit mobile phones, and it’s quite different from some of the other Pokémon games we’ve played thus far. Rather than focus solely on developing and evolving your monsters, you also collect a roster of famous trainers that increase in power alongside their partner Pokémon. For combat, that means battles with several trainers controlling their own Pokémon at once, and keeping track of everything can be difficult for newcomers. We’ve collected our best Pokémon Masters tips and tricks so that you can get the hang of the game and become “the best there ever was” in no time.
Pokémon Master tips and tricks
Do your story quests before visiting the store
Pokémon Masters is a free-to-play game, and with that model comes microtransactions at the in-game store. This is where you can acquire new trainers through the Sync Pair Scout system, and it costs gems in order to do this. This can be a good way to bolster your party down the line, but completing story quests will give you all the trainers you need early on. The prices for getting additional gems is also not cheap, and you don’t want to waste them all at the beginning of the game.
It’s okay if your team is not balanced
You’ll notice almost immediately that your team composition in Pokémon Masters looks unbalanced. This might be one reason why you check the store so early. However, this is by design. The chapters you start to complete in the story each have enemies with the same general weaknesses and strengths.
Having all grass and electric Pokémon isn’t an ideal strategy in the other games, but it will work here. As you push forward in the story, you will meet trainers that balance your party out, and you can then get more creative with battles.
Always use the best Pokemon for the job
Three trainers and their Pokémon are deployed at once during battles, which might suggest to you that you need to be using all characters equally in order to win. This is not true. It is a completely valid strategy to have your strongest character attack exclusively, as the recharging move bar at the bottom of the screen is tied to your entire team rather than an individual Pokémon.
If your Pikachu just attacked three times and can’t move, neither can your other two Pokémon. Certain Pokémon can also damage multiple enemies with one attack, and if the enemies are weak against it, attacking repeatedly can end a battle quickly.
Double-tap the enemy you want to attack
Pokémon Masters generally does a good job of relaying information, but it is very easy to accidentally attack the wrong enemy, wasting your powerful abilities. Before you choose your move, double-tap on the targeted enemy to ensure the attack goes to the right target. This is particularly important if a separate enemy just fainted, as the game can auto-select an enemy that doesn’t make sense to attack with your current Pokémon.
Skipping conversations won’t affect rewards
Alongside story quests, you’ll also see something called “Sync Pair Stories” on the “Explore” section of the game. These are conversations you can optionally complete that give you more information about the newest members of your team, with later ones also giving you access to things like evolutions.
There is a lot of chatting during them, however, you don’t actually have to do the conversation if you don’t want to. Select the right arrow in the corner of the screen when dialogue begins, and you will instantly skip it without affecting your gem haul.
Sync Moves can change the course of a battle
If a battle isn’t going your way, you can always pull out your secret weapon: the Sync Move. Unlike standard attacks, you can’t simply wait in order to use Sync Moves. Instead, they become available after you’ve done a certain number of attacks in a battle already.
If you attack a Pokémon’s weakness with a Sync Move, it will decimate their health. Should your other attacks not be doing much damage, focus on those that only use one bar of your move gauge so that you can get the Sync Move ticker down to zero as quickly as possible.
Complete Training missions
A few chapters into Pokémon Masters, you’ll unlock the Training category on the “Explore” page. As with the Sync Pair Stories, these are optional objectives, but they give you the chance to unlock power-up items and increase your trainers’ levels before attempting harder story content. Some of them will be too difficult you to beat right off the bat, but check back to Training periodically to see what you’re able to complete. There’s no drawback to trying, and the levels you gain just might put you over the edge in the next story chapter.
Don’t worry about over-leveling one character
After you’ve completed several missions in a row with a particular trainer in your lineup, they can start to dwarf the rest of your roster in terms of level. This is generally a bad thing in the main role-playing Pokémon games, but it doesn’t matter all that much in Masters because it’s quite easy to get everyone else up to the same level.
As you progress and make your way through battles, you’ll earn “Level-up Manuals” that can be applied to individual trainers to level them up in between story chapters. Just a few of them will usually be enough to make your weakest Pokémon more formidable.
Claim your mission rewards
It can be easy to forget if you are barreling through story quests, but head back to the main screen and check your missions on your Poryphone in the right corner of the screen. These missions don’t need to be accepted ahead of time, and give you rewards for doing things like obtaining a certain type of item, competing battles, or evolving a Pokémon. There are “general” missions as well as “daily” missions that you can complete every day. Your reward is often gems and Level-up Manuals, both of which you will often be short on otherwise.
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