Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket contains a secret, full art Mew card and continues the long-running tradition of only letting players grab the mythical pocket monster by completing some interesting quests.
The Mew card, which is part of the Genetic Apex set but comes unnumbered due to its status as an alternate art card (despite there not actually being a regular version), can only be obtained after players complete the Kanto Pokédex.
This means players must acquire the first 150 Pokémon from the original Red and Blue generation, meaning everything from Bulbasaur to Pikachu to Dragonite to Mewtwo. Once players have collected one of each of these Pokémon the 3 Star Mew card will unlock.
The only condition is the cards must also be from Genetic Apex, meaning, for example, that collecting the promotional Butterfree card from the special Lapras ex event won’t count towards the 150 total despite it being among the first 150 Pokémon. Any version of the Pokémon from Genetic Apex will work, however, whether it’s an ex or alternative art or regular or whatever else.
While simple, collecting so many cards may still take some time. One player recently worked out it could take almost two years of daily play to collect every card in the set, though thankfully hitting the 150 necessary for Mew will require considerably less time.
Mew holds a special place in the set as one of just four 3 Star cards, meaning it’s one of the special immersive cards with fully animated artwork. It joins Charizard, Pikachu, and Mewtwo in this category, the three Pokémon which feature on the booster pack covers of Genetic Apex.
Pokémon TCG Pocket arrived in October as a streamlined, digital version of the beloved trading card game. It has players opening packs, collecting cards, building decks, and battling others; a simple formula that’s already proved popular given it made $12 million in four days.
Players may otherwise want to keep an eye out from cards from the two decks currently dominating the Pokémon TCG Pocket meta, headlined by usual suspects Charizard ex and Mewtwo ex. Those who love a conspiracy theory can also discover what some players think is the best way to obtain such cards.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.