How to Get Free Pack Hourglasses in Pokémon TCG Pocket

Pokémon TCG Pocket gives you two free booster packs a day, and then it makes you wait. Pack Hourglasses are how you bend that rule: each one knocks an hour off the timer, and twelve of them open a pack immediately. The good news is the game hands them out through half a dozen permanent systems — you just have to know where they all hide.

Daily missions: the slow, reliable drip

Every day you get five simple missions — log in, open one pack, open two packs, use Wonder Pick once, play a battle. Complete any three of them and you earn four free Pack Hourglasses. It sounds small, but it is the most dependable income in the game: twenty-eight hourglasses a week, more than two extra packs, for doing things you were going to do anyway.

New player missions: the big early payout

If your account is new, this is your jackpot. The Beginner Missions (open packs, collect cards, reach early player levels, try a solo battle, use Wonder Pick) pay 24 hourglasses per task, 120 across the set, plus milestone bonuses for clearing them. An Advanced Mission set follows — deck edits, registering friends, applying sleeves and flair, winning solo battles, linking your Nintendo Account — with milestone rewards that include another 120 hourglasses and a pile of Shinedust. Across the whole new-player track you are looking at well over 200 free hourglasses, so work through it before grinding anything else.

Solo battles pay out with every expansion

Each new expansion adds Step-Up Battles: themed CPU decks sorted into Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert tiers. The first time you beat each tier you earn 12 Pack Hourglasses, for 48 per expansion — and Step-Up Battles are permanent, so there is no deadline pressure. Random Battles work the same way for another 48, though their rewards refresh as new expansions land. Between the two ladders, simply playing the single-player content funds a lot of packs.

The shop quietly restocks every month

Solo battles and event missions also earn you Shop Tickets, and the in-game shop sells hourglasses for them: single hourglasses at 2 tickets each (stock of ten) and bundles of six at 12 tickets (stock of ten). Maxing out both lines nets you 72 hourglasses, and the stock resets monthly, making this a renewable source that rewards players who clear their solo content.

Levelling up, events and your mailbox

Every player level you gain pays out 12 Pack Hourglasses, and XP comes from everything — opening packs, battling, trading, sharing cards and Wonder Pick — so your collection habit funds itself a little further with every level. On top of that, celebration login campaigns regularly drop large hourglass bundles just for showing up, promotional codes sometimes include them, and the developers send gifts straight to the in-game mailbox. Check the mailbox before assuming you have missed a giveaway.

Spending them well

Hourglasses never expire, so there is no use-it-or-lose-it pressure. The smart play is to bank them for the expansion you actually want to chase rather than shaving hours off timers out of impatience — twelve saved hourglasses is a pack of your choosing, on day one of a new set. Patience, in this game, literally converts into better cards.