How to use Pokémon Tool cards in Pokémon TCG Pocket

Pokémon Tool cards are a kind of trainer card added in Pokémon TCG Pocket as part of the Space-Time Smackdown update.

As of time of writing, there are three Tool cards in total: Giant Cape, Rocky Helmet, and Lum Berry. They aren’t super rare, powerful Pokémon, but you’ll definitely want to learn how to use them.

Certain Tool cards have synergy with current cards. For example, combining the Rocky Helmet with Druddigon’s Rough Skin ability can stall your enemy and chip away at the health of their active Pokémon. 

This guide will explain what Pokémon Tool cards are and how they work in Pokémon TCG Pocket.

How to use Tool Cards in Pokémon TCG Pocket

Pokémon Tool cards are specific kind of trainer card that you attach to a Pokémon. You can attach the Tool card to either a benched or active Pokémon. Each Tool card has a different effect and will typically provide some sort of bonus or buff to your Pokémon. Once you attach a Tool card to a Pokémon, you can’t detach it or swap it out for another one. (This is the general rule, but there are cards in the tabletop version of the game that allow you to swap it around.)

Here are the effects of all three Pokémon Tool cards in TCG Pocket:

• Giant Cape: “The Pokémon this card is attached to gets +20 HP.”
• Rocky Helmet: “If the Pokémon this card is attached to is in the active spot and is damaged by an attack from your opponent’s Pokémon, do 20 damage to the attacking Pokémon.”
• Lum Berry: “At the end of each turn, if the Pokémon this card is attached to is affected by any special conditions, it recovers from all of them, and discard this card.”

You can use as many Pokémon Tool cards as you want per turn, but you can only use one Tool card per Pokémon. So if you attach a Rocky Helmet on a certain Pokémon, you can’t stack another card, like another Rocky Helmet or a Lum Berry on top of it. Once your Pokémon loses HP and is sent to the discard pile, so too will the Tool card.

What cards get Pokémon Tool bonuses?

Some Pokémon either deal or receive more damage if they have a Pokémon Tool card attached. Others have attacks that directly target Tool cards. Here’s a list of those cards:

• Pachirisu ex deals 40 more damage with its attack, Sparking Gadget, if it has a Pokémon Tool attached.
• Rotom deals an additional 30 damage with the attack Assault Laser if it’s used against a Pokémon with a Tool card attached to it.
• Skarmory does an additional 30 damage with its Metal Arms attack if it has a Pokémon Tool attached.
• Starly has an attack called Pluck that discards all Pokémon Tools from your opponent’s active Pokémon.

And for a more detailed list of all new cards in the Space-Time Smackdown expansion, check out Polygon’s complete list of all new Space-Time Smackdown cards.