Glossary
Official energy types, card types, evolution stages, rarity tiers, and the gacha/game vocabulary you need to read this site.
Energy types (official names)
Card types
Evolution stages
Rarity tiers
Gacha & game terms
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What this Pokémon TCG Pocket glossary covers
This Pokémon TCG Pocket glossary gathers the terms you actually run into while playing into one place, instead of leaving you to piece definitions together from scattered guides. Every entry is written to be usable on its own, but where a term connects to something deeper on this site, the entry links straight to it: a rarity tier links to pack odds, Pack Point links to the cost calculator.
Terms here fall into four groups: system terms the game defines itself, rarity tiers, items, and slang the community coined on its own. Mixing those last two together is where a lot of confusion starts, so this glossary keeps them clearly separated.
The 11 rarity tiers
Every card in the game falls into one of 11 rarity tiers, shown either with diamond symbols or star symbols depending on how rare the card is.
- Common, 1 diamond
- Uncommon, 2 diamonds
- Rare, 3 diamonds
- Double Rare, 4 diamonds
- Art Rare, 1 star
- Super Rare, 2 stars
- Special Art Rare, 2 stars
- Immersive Rare, 3 stars
- Ultra Rare, shown as a Crown symbol
- Shiny, 1 shiny symbol
- Shiny Super Rare, 2 shiny symbols
Immersive Rare and Ultra Rare (Crown) cards cannot be traded with other players at all, which sets them apart from every diamond and star tier below them.
Core system terms
Wonder Pick: a shared pick where you are shown 5 cards and everyone drawing from that same pool has an equal 1 in 5, or 20 percent, chance at each of the 5 slots. There is no hidden weighting between the 5 slots.
Energy Zone: generates energy for your deck automatically every turn based on the types you assigned when building, which is also why Energy cards are not placed in the deck itself.
Pack Point: earned every time you open a pack, 5 points per pack, tracked separately for each individual pack rather than shared across your account. Points can be redeemed for a specific card once you have enough saved.
Items and community terms
Shinedust is the currency you get from breaking down cards you already own, and it can be spent to trade for cards you are missing: 1200 for a 3-diamond card, 5000 for a 4-diamond card, 4000 for a 1-star Art Rare, and 25000 for a 2-star Super or Special Art Rare, with Shiny cards at 10000 and Shiny Super Rare at 30000. Immersive Rare and Crown Rare cards cannot be traded, so Shinedust does not apply to them at all.
A few terms are not official game vocabulary, they were coined by the community and are worth knowing anyway. A god pack refers to hitting the rare pack type where every slot comes back Art Rare or better. A pull is community shorthand for a single card result from opening a pack. An archetype is a deck built around one recurring strategy or shared Pokémon type, a term players use even though the game itself never labels decks this way.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Super Rare and Special Art Rare?
Both sit at the same 2-star rarity tier, so they carry the same Pack Point value and the same Shinedust trade cost. The difference between them is presentation, not power or rarity weight.
What does god pack mean?
It is a community term, not an official one, for landing the rare pack type where every one of the 5 slots comes back as Art Rare, Super Rare, Immersive, or Ultra Rare instead of the usual mostly-Common spread.
Why can't I trade my Immersive Rare or Crown Rare cards?
Those two tiers are excluded from trading entirely, by design. Every other diamond and star tier can be traded using Shinedust, but Immersive Rare and Ultra Rare (Crown) can only be obtained by pulling them or redeeming them with Pack Points.