The new Pokémon TCG Pocket app has many unique features, including Wonder Picks, which allow players to benefit from other players' rare card pulls. Wonder Picks provide players with an additional opportunity to attempt to get the cards on their wishlist, with slightly better odds than just opening booster packs.

Though Wonder Picks are not a guaranteed thing, much like booster packs themselves, they're worth taking the time to look through. Additionally, since you're provided with an in-game currency exclusively for Wonder Picks, there is no reason not to utilize this feature, especially since there is no trading in Pokémon TCG Pocket yet.

What Are Wonder Picks?

A Unique Way To Get That Special Card

When you open the Pokémon TCG Pocket app, you'll see several options on your main dashboard. In addition to the large booster packs showcased in the center of the screen, you'll also see tabs for the in-game shop and Wonder Pick. If you open up Wonder Pick, you'll see different groupings of cards under player names, each with a little countdown next to them. These are Wonder Picks.

Each one is a collection of Pokémon cards pulled by players that you now have the option to pull a single card from, with the benefit of knowing all the potential options first. Each Wonder Pick has a specific deadline that you can see at the top of the screen, at which time they will refresh, and new ones will appear. However, they're not gone forever, as there is a way to bring back an expired Wonder Pick you may have missed.

How To Use The Wonder Pick Feature

Select A Batch Of Cards & Test Your Luck

The process for using the Wonder Pick feature is rather straightforward. Once you find a batch of cards that appeals to you, you simply click it, confirm your selection, and the five cards in that set will be shuffled and laid out again, face down. At this point, you have one chance to select a card that you will get to keep. Unfortunately, the shuffles are completely random, so there is no way to attempt to cheat the system with Wonder Picks.

After doing 20 or so Wonder Picks myself, I confirmed this by finding that the most desirable card of the bunch appeared in every position, sometimes even in the same position it started in. You may even find that the card you want is in the same position for several different Wonder Picks in a row. There's no way to know, so you just have to pick one and hope luck is on your side.

You may occasionally see special Wonder Picks in the form of Chansey Picks, Rare Picks, or Bonus Picks. These are non-player Wonder Picks that offer unique rewards that range from a full set of rare Pokémon cards to shop tickets and Hourglasses.

Once you have selected a card, it will be added to your collection and the Wonder Pick you just participated in will be marked closed. From there, you can participate in another if you would like, but keep in mind that when fully refilled, you only have five Wonder Stamina. This means once you've spent all five, you will have to wait until they've recovered before you can do more Wonder Picks.

How To Recover Wonder Pick Stamina

Purchase Wonder Hourglasses & Complete Challenges

Although you don't technically need to do anything to recover your Wonder Stamina, because it will do so automatically, it does take 12 hours to refill one. This means to refill all five Wonder Stamina icons, you will have to wait nearly two and a half days. Since most of you are probably like me in that the idea of waiting that long sounds agonizing, you'll be glad to know that there is a way to recover Wonder Stamina immediately using Wonder Hourglasses.

Wonder Hourglasses restore a single hour of recovery time for Wonder Stamina, so to restore one full Wonder Stamina icon, you would need 12 Wonder Hourglasses. This sounds like a lot, but I was able to build up over 100 of these within the first 24 hours of playing Pokémon TCG Pocket, so it's not as bad as it sounds. You have a few methods of collecting them, with the first being the simplest: you buy them from the in-game shop.

The Pokémon TCG Pocket shop contains a section dedicated to hourglasses where you can trade two Shop Tickets for a singular Wonder Hourglass or trade 12 Shop Tickets for six Wonder Hourglasses. Both of these have a 10-use cap each, after which you will have to wait until the shop refreshes before you can use them again. It's not been confirmed what that length of time is yet, but there's speculation that it may be a monthly refresh.

Changing your device time will not affect the recovery time of Pack or Wonder Stamina. Pokémon TCG Pocket is likely to even give you an error if you attempt to do so, preventing you from accessing the game until it is resolved.

The other method of obtaining Wonder Hourglasses includes completing missions. Currently, the for Pokémon TCG Pocket features several missions that reward a handful of Wonder Hourglasses and there will likely be more as new missions are made available throughout the game, so be sure to check the rewards for all the available missions regularly.

How To Get The Best Cards & Pull Rates

Prioritize Wonder Picks With Rare Cards

If you're hoping to make the most of your Wonder Pick, you'll want to try to prioritize the best cards from each pack, as depicted in Pokemon TCG Pocket's Crown Rare cards.

Even if you don't get what you were hoping for, you always have the option to send thanks to the player whose Wonder Pick you participated in. This doesn't cost you anything and gifts them a small reward, so there's no reason not to do it. You can also redeem your thanks rewards by selecting the present icon on your Pokémon TCG Pocket dashboard.

Unfortunately, the more rare the cards are, the more expensive the Wonder Pick will be, but in some ways, that can help indicate which Wonder Picks are probably worth your time. Anything that costs a single Wonder Stamina probably only consists of common cards you'll likely pull out of Booster Packs yourself.

that you can also earn Rewind Watches through missions or leveling up, which allows you to restore an expired Wonder Pick. So, if nothing readily available looks appealing, you can also sift through the expired options if you have a couple of Rewind Watches available. However, as Rewind Watches are rarer to come by than even Wonder Hourglasses, I'd recommend saving this until there's a card you just can't live without.

If you have friends in Pokémon TCG Pocket, their Wonder Picks will be prioritized at the top of your Wonder Pick page and vice versa. On the same note, if you would prefer to opt out of Wonder Picks altogether, meaning your cards don't appear as options for others, you can do this in settings, but since you gain rewards, I don't see a reason for doing so.

Lastly, many Pokémon card collectors, myself included, enjoy collecting cards in other languages. While it's not immediately obvious, there is a way to do this in Pokémon TCG Pocket through Wonder Picks. To do so, all you need to do is select the three lines at the bottom right of the app, then go into your settings by selecting "Other" and then "Settings". From here, you should be able to scroll down and find the language option to change to your desired language.

Note that this will change the language for the whole app, but it's pretty easy to navigate because of the layout and icons. Give the app some time to fully refresh, and then you should be able to open up Wonder Picks and see cards from other languages. After switching back to your native language, your cards will remain in the language they were when you collected them, allowing you to add foreign cards to your Pokémon TCG Pocket collection.

Video Credit: YouTube/Spragels Pocket