Playing POCKET MYTH on a monthly card budget

Preface: this guide only applies to light spenders, or to stubborn zero-spend players. If you own a Four-Nine divine beast, please do not treat this as your own situation, because PVP also hands out plenty of upgrade resources and I have folded the two together here. Now, on to the guide.

First of all, you absolutely must buy the monthly card in this game. The main reasons are:

• 200 diamonds a day plus 100 stamina and fatigue combined, which works out to roughly 250 diamonds of income per day
• A 10% EXP bonus. Daily EXP is basically fixed, so the buff lets you level up faster
• One-tap sweeping, and mushrooms are an important upgrade resource

Team choice and Pokémon training

Team choice

Early on, keep your Elite Four team and your ladder team as overlapped as possible so that resources stretch as far as they can. On a modest budget, pick Water and Ghost, which are fairly well-rounded teams. Do not worry about weather teams for now: early on they cannot decide a battle, and they are easily countered by the meta. Spend every free ticket on held items, not on Pokémon, because you cannot pull shinies from the Pokémon gacha.

Pokémon choice

In the main team, Tera, held items and abilities are the important defensive tools. Because percentage damage exists in this game, do not pour every resource into damage output, or you will easily end up with a full team that cannot beat a single opposing Pokémon.

Below I use a Ghost team as the detailed example. It does not have to be a Ghost team, since the roles carry over and only the abilities, moves and typing combinations change.

Lead: Prankster (Mega Banette). Its effect gives every status move priority. The shortcoming is that it does nothing against Dark types, but Destiny Bond is not included in that: Destiny Bond only fails against Dynamax and is otherwise always effective, which makes it a must-have for dirty plays. Run Trick, Curse, Destiny Bond (TM) and Knock Off. After Mega Evolving it has a 180 Attack stat, so early on it is a superb support, and if you switch fully to PVP later, swapping Trick for Ambush or Ghost Claw is not a bad idea either. Curse, as long as it is not used by a Ghost type, is simply an attack-boosting, speed-lowering setup move.

Second: Unaware blocker (Skeledirge). Unaware ignores the opponent's stat changes, both boosts and drops, while Will-O-Wisp still works. In other words, plus 6 and minus 6 are the same to Unaware, but a burned opponent still carries the halved Attack debuff. With this ability the crocodile can simply stack bulk. Give it the Binding Band: this held item cannot be pulled from the gacha, so early on you can trade every SSR selector box and fragment box for it, and feed it all your generic SSR held items too. At 6 stars its effect makes binding moves drain 30% HP each turn, which hurts badly, and combined with burn at 5% HP per turn, anything without healing dies within 3 turns. The moveset is Will-O-Wisp, Fire Spin (TM), Rest (TM), plus one free slot of your choice. There are three weaknesses: first, it cannot bind Ghost types; second, under Kyogre's heavy rain it cannot use Fire moves; third, it is helpless against the Flash Fire ability, which grants immunity to all Fire moves and therefore leaves no binding debuff either.

Third: Flash Fire Tera Flying (Chandelure) with a Beautiful Shell. It is immune to binding, Shadow Tag, Fire moves and Ground moves, so this single Pokémon cannot be touched by Perish Song Gengar, the Fire crocodile or Groudon, all three at once. It is a popular pick that basically every team runs one of. Run Shadow Ball and use its 140 Special Attack to force the opposing Gengar and Fire crocodile to Terastallize, and once they do, our own Gengar and Fire crocodile can trap them.

Fourth: Good as Gold (Gholdengo), arguably mandatory on a Ghost team. The ability is simple and brutal: immunity to status moves, though it does not block Destiny Bond or Haze. It can serve as the main carry, but later on (past 10,000 combat power) its damage is far from enough, so it is better to build it for utility: both STAB moves together with healing and Nasty Plot. It needs no TMs. Tera a defensive type, stay on the field, set up and sweep.

Fifth: Shadow Tag trapper (Mega Gengar), whose main job is trapping the opponent's Unaware Pokémon such as Pyukumuku or Clefable. My own Gengar is built bulky so that it can gamble on trapping the opponent's main carry, but there are many stat spreads. With Hypnosis, Perish Song (TM), Destiny Bond and Shadow Ball on a speed and special attack build, the training cost is the lowest: use the high Special Attack to force Ghost types to Terastallize, or to suppress a Tera Ghost. For the held item you can take a shell to stop it being trapped, or a Ghost Gem to add pressure. You can also go HP and speed with Perish Song, Taunt, Rest and Protect. Once a bulky Gengar is trained enough it can trap the opponent's main carry and remove it on contact, which is hugely profitable. The downside is that it is all TMs, so it takes a long time to save up.

Sixth: Prankster screen setter (Sableye). The Ghost and Dark typing is very valuable: immune to Fighting, Normal and Psychic, so Mega Mewtwo Y just shakes its head at it, and only weak to Bug and Fairy, which are rare in the meta if not exactly absent. Without Mega Evolution it has Prankster and can learn Light Screen and Reflect (both TMs), halving physical and special damage. Being a Ghost type itself, Fighting's Brick Break cannot reach it and cannot break the screens, so the screens reach full value. Against a support opponent you can Mega Evolve for Magic Bounce to reflect status moves, making it a top-tier support.

There are a few more options. Taunt Annihilape: use Taunt against half-supports like the crocodile, take hits to raise Rage Fist damage, and Rest to heal and clear status. After six hits Rage Fist hits for 350, which is world-ending. Lightning Rod Tera Fairy Alolan Marowak: Marowak itself is easy to raise, but its exclusive Thick Club is hard to obtain. Starting from 2 stars it needs 1,358 upgrade materials per step, eating the base form and rainbow generic held items, and at full stars it is also world-ending: triple physical damage, enough to tear the roof off, while Lightning Rod plus Tera Fairy makes it immune to Electric and Dragon, so Miraidon cries in the corner. There are plenty of non-Ghost utility picks as well, none of which need investment, and wild Pokémon will do: Focus Sash Scrappy Taillow with Endeavor and Shock Wave can hit Ghost types; Red Card Sturdy Naclstack for a one-time hazard block; Focus Sash Prankster Whimsicott with Endeavor and Leech Seed; Lightning Rod Tera Fairy Goldeen with Whirlpool and Horn Drill, and so on.

To sum up: early on, choose with a goal and lean towards one complete system. When resources run short, use utility Pokémon to fill the slots. That is how you take an early PVP advantage.

Held items: at SR rarity, upgrade Black Sludge first. For Poison types it is Leftovers, restoring 1/8 HP per turn at full stars, a blessing for Gengar. At SSR rarity, upgrade Binding Band first, since the crocodile can only hold this and without it the crocodile has no damage. At UR rarity, if you run the screen-setting Sableye, upgrade Clay twice; if not, upgrade Leftovers. As for exclusive held items, I recommend Marowak's bone, and if you run a Water team, Greninja's shuriken.

Resources and dungeons

Daily accumulation

There are many kinds of daily resources, and I will go through them in mission order. All of these are must-claims every day, because small amounts add up. If you cannot clear something, your investment is simply not enough: once Gholdengo passes 10,000 combat power you can clear everything, and until then you grind it out slowly with PK.

• Trainer dungeon: after the first clear, run it at least 10 times a day, more is better. It gives charms and quality upgrades.
• Gym dungeon: clear the Abyss level, then sweep it every day for badge materials.
• Pokémon Star: at least once a day. Early on, when fragments are short or you are stuck on level, clear it fully; later fragments overflow, but still give it a tap.
• Elite Four dungeon: clear the Abyss level and sweep it daily. It gives nature-changing honey, and unlucky players will always be short of it.
• League Conference: once a week, clear all of it. It gives Awakening Stones and Mega fragments.
• Eevee dungeon: clear it and sweep it. Early on, when money is short, buy extra Moon Eevee attempts; later, when you are not short, do as you like.
• Daily boss: come here right after sweeping the trainer dungeon. Bring a Grapploct, which at 3 stars or more will basically hold the line. Tera Dark and apply Salt Cure, and pick a Fairy-type main carry so you can beat it yourself.
• Endless Tower: early on just boost and push through. If you cannot survive, bring two Whimsicott with Prankster, with a Regenerator Pokémon holding an Eject Button between them. Use Memento to drop both defenses, use the Eject Button to pivot, then bring the main carry in to boost and push. Pokémon with Stored Power are especially recommended, Gardevoir for example. The rotation is: Whimsicott uses Memento (priority), faints, you switch to the Regenerator holder with the Eject Button, it takes a hit and is switched out by the button, Regenerator heals it, then you bring in the second Whimsicott and repeat, three times in all. When the main carry comes in the opponent is at minus 6 in both attacking stats, so you can boost safely, heal up all status, and start farming.
• Trial Grounds: once a week. It is hard to push when your investment is low, but the rewards are excellent: friendship cans and TMs, and at least one red TM a week. One recommendation here is Toedscruel, with 100% sleep plus percentage HP drain from binding. It takes no damage from everything except Grass and Ghost. The jellyfish does need some investment to guarantee it moves first.
• Dynamax dungeon: 1,000 diamonds buys 3 extra runs a week and there are 8 runs in total, so buy them all. The strategy needs a Mega Banette and a Pyukumuku. The Pyukumuku does not need its ability switched on, but it does need investment. Because the Abyss tier opponents all hold Leftovers, the Banette's job is to Trick their Leftovers away; if it carries a Life Orb, Trick the Life Orb over instead, giving the opponent an extra 10% HP loss per turn. If you did not pull a Life Orb, use a Lagging Tail or Full Incense instead. Against everything except Gengar you can send in Raticate with Super Fang, which halves HP in one hit. Finally bring in the carry to finish, and it needs to hit for roughly 2,000-3,000 damage to have a chance. You can also bring Whimsicott to weaken the opponent, then Pyukumuku (do not switch on its ability) with Pain Split, and finish with the carry in the last two turns.
• Ladder: early on, if you cannot beat real players, farm the bots, since outside BP mode you rarely meet humans. Farm honor: you can win 5 matches at noon and 5 more in the evening. Honor is extremely useful and buys feathers, moves, friendship, Alpha materials and most other resources.
• Elite Four Cup: go for the corresponding Elite Four member. Note that the team is decided by the base typing: Groudon, for example, can only join a Ground team, and even though it becomes Ground and Fire after Mega Evolution it still cannot enter a Fire team. Likewise Mega Gyarados can only enter Water and Flying, not Dark. You must do the Elite Four Cup, because the Elite Four plates give 5% move damage and 10% type resistance early on, which is quite tasty.
• Double Battles: without a fixed team, just play out five matches. You can collect 200 diamonds and a small amount of honor.
• Guild boss: Annihilape's home ground. Give it a Weakness Policy, Focus Energy and Screech. Once you have established the basics of the opponent at minus 6 and us at plus 4, Rage Fist is also fully stacked, and with type advantage one punch for 60,000 to 100,000 is no dream.

Holiday accumulation

I will cover two kinds of holiday events here: weekend and solar-term.

• Weekend events: card flip. Both the green flip tickets and red envelopes can be saved. Red envelopes are the main way to buy TMs. Once you have saved around 130 flip tickets you can try flipping for a Tier 1 legendary you like, and Groudon and Kyogre are at least available, by finishing the event's daily tasks each time, which takes about two months.
• Solar-term events: flower picking. Petals can also be saved, but the event exchange tickets cannot. It is a matter of luck, and you can get TMs and non-shiny dark Tier 1 legendaries.
• Other events: usually minigames paired with fireworks. Fireworks and the like cannot be saved; card boxes and puzzles can. A card box gives a shiny main-stay SSR, a full set with fragments, the Pokémon itself, a skin and its evolution stone.

Getting and catching Pokémon

Stellar dungeon

At low level, bring Grapploct to tag along in random teams, helping weaken the opponent and boost your own side. Once your level is up you can bring Gholdengo: it is not affected by the opponent's stat-reset or Tera energy drain moves, so Salt Cure stays on and keeps cutting both defenses every turn, which is very useful. Shiny Pokémon can appear while catching here, so look carefully, and this is also the main destination for your Master Balls.

Stellar Shards are an important upgrade resource too, so make sure you clear every rotation, ideally with a fixed team.

Wild catching

There are several ways to raise shiny odds: one is chain catching, two is Bug Lure perfume, three is Shiny Perfume. I will focus on chain catching.

The chain-catching feature only unlocks once you have caught 60% of the Pokémon in the Pokédex. Held items, TMs and shiny entries do not count, only regular Pokémon, roughly 600-700 of them. Its main purpose is to raise shiny odds while catching your target. For example, with chain catching active, after catching Gastly 31 times in a row, every Gastly you meet afterwards gets 14 shiny rolls. You must not lose a battle, which means fleeing or a full wipe, though killing the target is fine. On top of that, drinking Bug Lure perfume multiplies the target's appearance rate by 10, and drinking Golden Perfume multiplies the shiny rate by another 10, which is 14 x 10 x 10 = 1,400 times the original odds. If you still cannot get a shiny target that way, then wild shinies really are precious.