There’s a brand new Pokemon game out this week, and it plays surprisingly different to most other Pokemon games out there. Pokemon Masters is the newest mobile title from the creators of Pokemon Go, and it’s a strategy battler, with the big twist that players get to bring both the Pokemon and their trainers into battle. These Sync Pairs, as they’re called, change up the gameplay a lot, even down to the series staple of catching Pokemon! So can you catch Pokemon in Pokemon Masters? Let’s have a look.
So, can you catch Pokemon in Pokemon Masters?
Pretty much the entire point of the Pokemon franchise, or at least the single gameplay drive, is the goal of catching as many Pokemon as possible. “Gotta catch ’em all” as the slogan goes. Even unique titles such as Pokemon Go has catching the little monsters as a base, but what about Pokemon Masters? It may come as a shock, but you cannot catch Pokemon in this game, nor can you change the Pokemon you start with.
Why can’t you catch Pokemon in Pokemon Masters?
Now that the shock’s out of the way, why is it not possible to catch Pokemon or get a team of Pokemon together in Masters? It comes down to Sync Pairs. Pokemon Masters is built around the idea of taking these Sync Pairs of a specific trainer and Pokemon into battle, so you’ll never find another Pokemon in the wild. You can evolve certain Pokemon, and even use Mega Evolutions, but you have to have the specific Sync Pair to do it.
If you want to change Pokemon, you’ll have to change the trainer to and swap the entire Sync Pair partnership. It’s an interesting system, that Pokemon players are still undoubtedly getting used to, but as Pokemon Masters and the game’s strategy system is built around these pairs, don’t expect that to change. If you want to catch Pokemon, you’ll have to wait for Pokemon Sword and Shield or go back to Pokemon Go!
