Pokémon TCG Pocket announces new expansion, Space-Time Smackdown, releasing mid-next week — Trade feature launches one day prior to the new set

Following up on their initial announcement a week ago, Pokémon TCG Pocket have now provided additional details on the game's next expansion, Space-Time Smackdown, as well as the upcoming Trade feature, both of which will launch in the game mid-next week.

The announcement trailer states that the new expansion will be available on Wednesday January 29th, and the new Trade feature will go live one day prior on Tuesday January 28th. However the official press release states that both will be happening one day later, with the expansion going live on Thursday January 30th, and the Trade Feature launching on Wednesday January 29th. Most likely, this means each launch is happening at 6:00am (UTC) each day, the usual daily update time for Pokémon TCG Pocket, which would be late the day before in US timezones. The game's previous Mythical Island expansion also released at this time.

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Space-Time Smackdown
Similar to how the original Genetic Apex expansion focused on characters and Pokémon from Generation I and Kanto, this latest expansion will focus on Generation IV, featuring Pokémon and characters from the Sinnoh region. Specific cards seen in the trailer include:

• Dialga ex
• Palkia ex
• Turtwig
• Chimchar
• Piplup
• Pachirisu ex
• Leafeon
• Honchkrow
• Cynthia
• Gible
• Cresselia

The press release also mentions a card for perennial fan fave Lucario, while the Cynthia card seen in the trailer also explicitly mentions cards for Garchomp and Togekiss.

Cards in this set will be divided into two digital booster packs, featuring the legendary Pokémon of Space and Time Palkia and Dialga. In addition to the over 140 new cards introduced in this set, the Space-Time Smackdown update will also add additional binders and display board covers to the app, with imagery connected to these legendary Pokémon, as well as the Mythical Pokémon Darkrai.

New Trade Feature
As announced last week, a New trade feature will be added to the game next week, finally bringing the Trading to the Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket. This latest press release confirms all of the restrictions announced last week, including that:

• Players will only be able to Trade with friends.
• Cards can only be Traded in a 1-for-1 fashion for cards of the same rarity.
• Only cards of , , , , and rarity will be eligible to be Traded.
• When the feature is launched, only select cards from the Genetic Apex and Mythical Island booster packs will be able to Traded.
  • Promo cards, and cards from the new Space-Time Smackdown booster packs will not be eligible for Trades at launch, however the selection of eligible cards for Trading will be expanded over time.

Based on example screenshots provided with the press release, players can exxpect to have some amount of regenerating free Trades using Trade Stamina, similar to how Wonder Picks work, with this regeneration able to be hastened using the new Trade Hourglass items. Along with Trade Stamina, players will also require Trade Tokens to execute a Trade. The example screenshots show a sequence where 120 Trade Tokens are required for players to trade rarity cards. It's not clear if this amount is based on the card rarity, or how this might scale between card rarities. We do note that rarity cards can be purchased in-game for 150 Pack Points, so there is at least not a 1-1 corrospondence between the prices there.

Card Previews (click for full size images)

Binder & Display Board Previews (click for full size images)