How to get more hourglass in Pokemon TCG Pocket game

Looking to open more packs and snag rare cards faster in Pokémon TCG Pocket? Discover the secrets to stacking up Hourglasses-the game’s essential resource that lets you bypass cooldowns and dive into more booster packs and wonder picks. From completing solo battles and daily missions to mastering event challenges like the Rayquaza drop, this guide reveals all the best ways to maximize your Hourglass haul and accelerate your card collection journey.

There are quite a few ways to get your hands on Pack Hourglasses and Wonder Hourglasses, so you’ll want to make sure to play every aspect of the game to earn them. It’s possible that future features and limited-time events may also give out hourglasses, but these are what’s available at launch.

Below, we list all the methods we know of to get Pack and Wonder Hourglasses in Pokémon TCG Pocket and explain how to use hourglasses.

How to use hourglasses in Pokémon TCG Pocket

To use hourglasses in Pokémon TCG Pocket, simply select the booster pack you want to open and tap the “open pack” or “open 10 packs” button. This will prompt you to spend your Pack Hourglasses, which reduce the usual 12-hour cooldown between free pack openings by one hour each, allowing you to open packs more frequently if you have enough hourglasses available. Wonder Hourglasses work similarly by reducing the cooldown for wonder picks. Using hourglasses efficiently lets you accelerate your card collection without waiting for the standard timers.

To use your Pack Hourglasses, select the pack you want to open and just select the “open a pack” or “open 10 packs” button (depending on how many hourglasses you have and want to spend). This will prompt you to spend your hourglasses to open the pack, provided you have any in reserve.

For Wonder Hourglasses, you’ll need to do the same, only for wonder picks. Select a pack you want to wonder pick from, and follow the prompts to refill the required amount of wonder stamina. The game will automatically set the right amount of Wonder Hourglasses to use to start your pick.

Do your daily missions

Completing your daily missions in Pokémon TCG Pocket is a simple and effective way to earn Pack Hourglasses regularly. Each day, you have five missions to choose from, such as logging in, opening booster packs using pack stamina, performing a wonder pick, or participating in a battle. While individual missions do not grant rewards, completing any three missions in a day will reward you with four Pack Hourglasses, which help speed up pack openings. The missions reset daily at 6:00 AM UTC, so make sure to complete them within the day to maximize your Hourglass gains. Consistently doing these daily missions is a reliable method to accumulate Hourglasses over time, supporting your card collection and deck building efforts.

You’ll get a four Pack Hourglasses from your daily missions. The missions themselves aren’t too difficult and you only have to complete three of the five presented missions to get your daily dose of hourglasses. To complete these, you’ll need to do three of the following:

Log in
Open 1 booster pack
Open 2 booster packs
Wonder Pick 1 time
Participate in 1 battle

Complete additional missions

To get more Hourglasses in Pokémon TCG Pocket, completing additional missions is a highly effective strategy. The game offers various Secret Missions tied to different booster sets, such as Genetic Apex and Mythical Island, which involve collecting specific full-art cards or completing themed collections. Successfully finishing these missions rewards you with Pack Hourglasses, Wonder Hourglasses, Shop Tickets, and unique emblems. For example, collecting all 150 Kanto Pokémon or gathering full artwork variants of Gym Leader cards grants substantial Hourglass rewards. These missions encourage thorough exploration and collection, providing a steady source of Hourglasses to speed up pack openings and enhance gameplay.

In addition to daily tasks, you’ll have beginner missions to complete that reward you with a whopping 120 Pack Hourglasses, enough to open 10 packs at once. The missions are as follows:

Wonder Pick 1 time (24 Pack Hourglasses)
Reach player level 3 (24 Pack Hourglasses)
Open 4 booster packs (24 Pack Hourglasses)
Participate in 1 solo battle (24 Pack Hourglasses)
Collect 50 cards (24 Pack Hourglasses)
Complete 1 beginner mission (24 Wonder Hourglasses)
Complete 3 beginner missions (24 Wonder Hourglasses)
Complete 5 beginner missions (24 Wonder Hourglasses)

After your clear out the beginner missions, you’ll get some advanced missions, which also reward you with an additional 120 Pack Hourglasses. Unlike the beginner missions, you won’t get rewards for completing the individual missions, but rather a lump sum of hourglasses from completing nine of them:

Edit a deck
Register 1 friend
Apply card sleeves to a deck
Apply a playmat to a deck
Obtain flair 1 time
Send 1 thanks
Send 5 thanks
Win 3 solo battles
Register 3 friends
Obtain flair 2 times
Reach player level 6
Link your Nintendo account
Complete 3 advanced missions (250 Shinedust)
Complete 6 advanced missions (500 Shinedust)
Complete 9 advanced missions (120 Pack Hourglasses)

Note that there are 12 missions to complete, meaning you don’t have to do all of them to get that big reward.

These missions comprise of things you’ll do as you play the game naturally, so you don’t have to go really far out of your way to clear them.

Clear the battle guide and solo card battles

To earn more Pack Hourglasses in Pokémon TCG Pocket, a highly effective method is to clear the battle guide and participate in solo card battles. Completing the tutorial battles rewards you with a small number of Pack Hourglasses, which are essential for reducing the cooldown to open booster packs. Solo battles offer increasing Hourglass rewards as you progress through difficulty levels, with beginner battles granting 2 Hourglasses each and expert battles offering up to 7 per match. Additionally, winning solo battles provides Shop Tickets that can be exchanged for more Hourglasses, allowing for continuous farming of this valuable resource. Building a strong deck with your starter cards and utilizing the auto-battle feature in solo mode can make this process efficient and even allow for AFK farming of Hourglasses.

You’ll get a tiny handful of Pack Hourglasses if you complete the tutorial for battles and then the solo card battles that come after. Each of the seven tutorials will give you two Pack Hourglasses for a total of 12.

There are seven solo battles per difficulty and each difficulty rewards different numbers of Pack Hourglasses (the higher the difficulty, the more you get). The only exception is for the expert difficulty, where there are only six battles. The rewards are as follows:

Step-up Battle Beginner battles: 2 Pack Hourglasses each
Step-up Battle Intermediate: 3 Pack Hourglasses each
Step-up Battle Advanced: 5 Pack Hourglasses each
Step-up Battle Expert: 7 Pack Hourglasses each

That said, you won’t be able to clear these all right away. While we were able to clean out the beginner level battles pretty quickly with early cards, the later sets require more strategy and more cohesive decks (rather than just slapping together whatever you got from your first few packs).

Buy them with shop tickets

You can buy Pack Hourglasses in Pokémon TCG Pocket using Shop Tickets, which are a key in-game currency earned by completing missions, battles, and other activities. Each Pack Hourglass costs two Shop Tickets, and they reduce the cooldown time for opening card packs, allowing you to access more cards faster. While Shop Tickets accumulate slowly, focusing on daily tasks and battles can help you gather enough to purchase Hourglasses and speed up your pack openings.

You can buy each type of hourglass from the shop for two shop tickets each. You can get shop tickets from other players giving you thanks, thumb-up-ing your collection, and completing solo battles. Each solo battle also has specific challenges that will give you additional shop tickets, so make sure to pay attention to what you need to do before you jump into battle.

Level up by battling and collecting

In Pokémon TCG Pocket, leveling up is closely tied to battling and collecting cards. By engaging in Solo Battle Mode with a well-built META deck, players earn Pack Hourglasses as rewards, which are essential for opening more card packs and expanding their collection. Each victory in Solo battles grants Hourglasses and Shop Tickets, enabling players to accelerate their pack openings and acquire stronger Pokémon. This system encourages continuous play and strategic deck building to climb the ranks and unlock more valuable rewards, making battling and collecting a key part of progression in the game.

You’ll get a handful of hourglasses every time you level up, which isn’t super different from the methods above, since you have to battle and open packs to get XP. That being said, if you noticed that some hourglasses showed up in your inventory and you don’t know where they came from, it’s probably from leveling.

Collect cards from Themed Collections

Themed Collections in Pokémon TCG Pocket are special missions that reward you for collecting specific groups of Pokémon cards, often centered around a theme such as Pokémon species, regions, or expansions. To access these, go to the Missions menu and select the Themed Collections tab. Most collections allow any variation of the required Pokémon card to count, but some require specific card art. Completing these collections grants valuable rewards including Hourglasses, which are essential for opening more card packs and accelerating your progress in the game. Additionally, some Themed Collections are hidden and appear only after completing certain sets, offering even more rewards and incentives to expand your collection strategically.

Collecting certain cards will complete sets that will sometimes reward hourglasses. You can see these by opening your missions menu and selecting the “themed collections” button in the bottom right corner. Some of the missions are listed, but a few of them are hidden and won’t show up until you complete them. For reference, Serebii.net has a useful list of all the Themed Collections (even the hidden ones).

For a few bucks: Get them from premium missions

If you’re willing to invest a little money, purchasing the Premium Pass grants access to Premium Missions that reward Pack Hourglasses along with Premium Tickets and Wonder Hourglasses. These missions, although limited in number and offering modest Hourglass rewards (around 11 per mission), provide a steady trickle of Hourglasses that can help accelerate your pack openings. You can also exchange Premium Tickets for additional Pack Hourglasses up to a certain limit. A no-cost two-week trial of the Premium Pass is available, allowing free-to-play players to complete these missions and boost their Hourglass count without immediate payment. However, the rewards are relatively small compared to other methods, so consider this option as a supplementary source rather than a primary farming method.

If you wanted to pay for the $9.99 Premium monthly subscription, you can get up to 11 Pack Hourglasses and eight Wonder Hourglasses from completing the premium missions. The missions appear to reset monthly (with the next month being December, since the game just came out on Oct. 30 and giving you 48 hours to complete a month-long mission set seems cruel).

Want to discover secret ways to boost your Hourglasses fast in Pokémon TCG Pocket

To boost your Hourglasses fast in Pokémon TCG Pocket, focus on completing Solo Battles using a META or starter deck, as these consistently reward Pack Hourglasses and Shop Tickets that can be exchanged for more Hourglasses. Daily missions and achievement rewards also grant Hourglasses regularly, so make sure to complete your daily free pack openings and Wonder Picks to maximize gains. Additionally, leveling up your profile grants a substantial number of Hourglasses early on, accelerating your ability to open more packs. Using these combined strategies lets you bypass cooldowns and rapidly expand your card collection without spending real money.

What are the most effective ways to farm Hourglasses without microtransactions

The most effective ways to farm Hourglasses in Pokémon TCG Pocket without spending money are:

Solo Battles with a META Deck: Build a strong META deck using your starter cards and repeatedly play Solo Battle Mode. Each beginner solo match rewards 2 Hourglasses, and higher-level Expert Solo Battles grant up to 7 Hourglasses per win. The mode also offers Shop Tickets, which can be exchanged for additional Hourglasses, enabling efficient AFK farming thanks to the auto-battle feature.
Complete Missions and Daily Tasks: Regularly finishing quick missions and daily tasks grants Hourglasses as rewards. These are designed to be achievable and accumulate over time, providing a steady income of Hourglasses.
Level Up Your Profile: Leveling up grants Hourglasses, especially early in the game, helping you open more packs faster without microtransactions.
Participate in Events: Special events often provide bonus Hourglasses or event-specific rewards that can boost your Hourglass count significantly.

By combining these strategies-focusing on Solo Battles, completing missions, leveling up, and engaging in events-you can steadily farm Hourglasses efficiently without any microtransactions.