Freemium elements, aside, I’m a pretty big fan of the recent Pokemon Shuffle Mobile (Free) title to hit iOS. While I played it a bit on the Nintendo 3DS, I always thought it would work better on mobile (with others agreeing as well) and my convictions turned out to be correct when I finally installed it on my iPhone. While it has great production values and all the Pokemon allies most fans have grown to love, it’s still a match-3 freemium game. Despite the good and bad associated with that, it does mean that as a freemium game there are always a few things to keep in mind, as well as tips that can be followed in order to maximize your enjoyment with the game. We thought we’d compile a few of those in a starter guide for folks looking to get a leg up on the game.

Never Forget to Optimize

This is probably Pokemon Shuffle 101 but it bears repeating. Each Pokemon you battle has certain strengths and weaknesses against other Pokemon. Thus, it’s in your best interest to make sure that you take in a strong team that is strong against your enemy. The easiest way to do this is to hit the Optimize button before you engage in battle. If you have multiple Pokemon that are strong, you can hit Optimize several times over to switch out teammates. Of course, you can always manually set your Pokemon as well, but I find the auto-optimize works well enough.

Replay Those Battles You Don’t Catch

I don’t know if this is simply due to my fortunate with the RNG or whatnot but I find that replaying     battles where I wasn’t able to catch that Pokemon on the first try will yield a much greater chance of catching them on subsequent battles. Even if my raw chance percentage is still low, it seems like I still manage to capture those Pokemon at a much higher percentage rate than I’m shown. In any case, whether that’s some actual trickery with the game or not, I say feel free to grind those battles because not only will earn some important experience (see the next tip), but you just might get that elusive new ally.

Nothing Wrong with Grinding

One thing to always keep in mind when you’re battling is that even if you don’t win, your Pokemon get some experience. Also, leveling up is important in this game, as even one level can significantly increase the strength of your Pokemon. As you get towards Match 50 or so, you’ll find that you either need to grind significantly or spend some serious coin with power-ups. I’d prefer to save the currently for a rainy day and just grind whenever I get some free rounds.

Use Great Balls to Shore Up Your Weaknesses… or to Catch a Pokemon you Like

Obviously, in a game such as Pokemon Shuffle, you’re going to have an innate desire to ‘catch them all.’ While that’s obviously a noble pursuit, the sooner you realize that’s not going to happen without a lot of IAP, the better. The reason I state it’s going to take a lot of IAP, is because you’re probably going to need to purchase the premium currency to cash into the normal currency that you use to purchase power-ups and great balls. Well that’s certainly your right if you have the cash for it, I’d rather advocate an approach that focuses more on shoring up your defenses. You will eventually get to tough Pokemon or Trainer Battles where you don’t have a proper team combo that is strong against your opponent. Once you reach those battles, the game will actually recommend that you catch certain Pokemon that you’ve already encountered to help build a strong team. Those are the Pokemon that I’d advocate using Great Balls for as catching those Pokemon offer the greatest chance to advance in the game.

Other than the above, I will say that it’s pretty cool to catch a Pokemon that you encounter that you simply like (whether that’s because of nostalgia from playing an actual Pokemon game or whatnot). If there’s one out there that you really want to be able to use on your team, I say indulge in order to get some extra enjoyment out of the game.

Remember that EX Stages Work on Time, Not Moves

When you battle Pokemon in the separate difficult mode, those battles are done with a time limit vice a move limit. It sounds obvious but when you’re engaging in those you need to sort of rethink your strategy of playing. It’s inefficient to wait until the set pieces are done moving because you can start making switches and matches even then. The best way to pass this stages are to keep scanning the board at all times and continue to make as many matches as possible even when you see chains in motion. Also, I go into further detail of it in the next tip but I’d seriously not recommend spending jewels for extra time because that’s far more of a harder thing to quantify in terms of being able to beat a Pokemon than a set number of moves.

Learn a Favorite Evolved Pokemon

The majority of the evolved Pokemon you earn are neutral damage dealers, meaning you can use them in nearly every battle. In addition to that, each one in its respective evolved form does some cool things, such as column or row sweeping, adjacent sweeping to more exotic moves such as circular dispatching of tiles (my favorite). I’d recommend picking one or two out that you really enjoy within your play style and leveling those up for standard battles.

Don’t Ever Cash In Jewels For Extra Moves

If you don’t manage to take down the opposing Pokemon by the end of your allocated moves, the game will offer you a few more in exchange for jewels (or in the case of EX Mode Pokemon, extra time). It may be tempting to take it, but I’d recommend never biting when that opportunity arises. There’s a few reasons for this, in my opinion. First, jewels are far more useful being cashed out for gobs of currency that can be used for great balls and normal power-ups before a battle (hell, you can buy extra moves/time before a battle for 1/4th of a jewel cash-out). Second, if you’re not able to beat your battle within the normal amount of moves, that’s probably a sign that you should be grinding a bit (and if you really need that leg-up get the pre-battle upgrades instead).

Take Advantage of the Weekend Meowth

Every weekend Meowth shows up in the special missions and players are allowed to battle him twice: once on Saturday and once on Sunday. What’s so special about Meowth? Well instead of playing to beat him, you’re playing to match coins. Every set of coins you match yield some sought after currency that you can use for whatever. The better your match making skills are in that battle, the higher theliklihood you’ll see some coins falling, and the greater the opportunity to match said coins and earn some currency. You’re not going to earn a ton of coins, but honestly every little bit helps in this game.

Don’t Waste Too Many Hearts on the Rare Pokemons

The game throws Daily Pokemon at you that offer players a unique opportunity capture rare teammates. In addition, players will on occasion encounter legendary pokemon that, if captured, offer some serious firepower for a prospective team. However, these rare allies typically take a VERY strong team as well as an appropriate amount of fire power in order to even have a chance of succeeding. They also typically take two hearts to battle, which is the equivalent of 40 minutes of wait time.

My recommendation? Try each one at least once to see where you stand as far as strength. If it looks like it’s way too difficult, don’t bother trying out again unless you’re willing to grind a lot or spend a lot on the power-ups necessary to win.

Remember the Standard Freemium Moves

This last tip is just a general reminder to remember that this is a freemium game and there are a few things you should always remember to maximize your earnings. For example, don’t forget to log in every day and obtain your coin bonus. Similarly, keep an eye out on your stamina and always make sure you play some matches at the time you earn max stamina or before (every second you have a full stamina bar is a wasted second that could be going to replenish a heart).

Also keep in mind that at certain times you will earn extra hearts when you defeat team battle. When you earn those hearts, they are added on to your normal stamina hearts so it’s cool that you don’t lose anything even if you have a full stamina meter (or close to it). However, keep in mind that you won’t earn any more hearts even if your meter wasn’t full when you earned the extra hearts, so it’s probably in your best interest to keep playing until you get to a point where the timer starts again. The same isn’t true for hearts you buy —those are always last to be used and it’s possible to earn a full stamina bar even if you have bought hearts in tow.

Got any more tips for Pokemon Shuffle? Feel free to leave them in our forum thread on the game.