Pokémon Quest (Japanese: ポケモンクエスト Pokémon Quest) is a free-to-start spin-off Pokémon game for the Nintendo Switch and for iOS, iPadOS, and Android. It was released on the Nintendo eShop in North America on May 29, 2018, in Japan, Europe, and Hong Kong on May 30, 2018, and in South Korea on June 18, 2018. The mobile version of the game was released on June 27, 2018 on both iOS and Android devices.
An expanded version was released in Mainland China in collaboration with NetEase on May 13, 2021 for iOS, iPadOS, and Android devices.
Set off for adventure in the Pokémon™ Quest game. Venture out with your Pokémon buddies on expeditions across Tumblecube Island in search of loot in this free-to-start action-adventure for the Nintendo Switch™ system. Modify your Pokémon buddies with discovered Power Stones to make your ultimate expedition team.
With a cube-shaped art style, Pokémon™ Quest is unlike any Pokémon game you've seen before. The simple gameplay makes it easy to hop into expeditions and start exploring Tumblecube Island with the help of your Pokémon buddies. Afterwards, head back to your base camp where you can use the loot you found during your adventure to befriend more Pokémon. Attract various Kanto Region Pokémon to your base camp by cooking up dishes made with collected ingredients! You can even decorate your base camp with fun items that provide helpful bonuses that make your expeditions more beneficial.
The game opens with the player heading out to Tumblecube Island, a recently discovered island which possesses traces of a civilization that no longer exists, to see if they can find any precious loot. The player brings with them a MoBee IV drone manufactured by Silph Co. to help them find said precious loot. At first, the MoBee IV acts strange, so the player reboots it, at which point it reveals that it has no data about Tumblecube Island. It suggests to befriend a Pokémon familiar with Tumblecube Island's landscape.
The player is then able to befriend, and therefore obtain, one of five Pokémon: Pikachu, Eevee, Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle. The goal of the game alongside finding precious loot then encompasses befriending more Pokémon on the island and training them through expeditions so that areas populated by strong wild Pokémon can be explored as thoroughly as possible. As each area is cleared, the player discovers a statue. Although the purpose of the statues remains a mystery, they appear to hold some symbolic importance for Tumblecube Island.
Once the player finds the last statue, the Reverent Statue, MoBee IV malfunctions once more and drops to the ground lifelessly. Suddenly a path opens to another island and an unknown voice exclaims that it has been freed. Venturing into the Chamber of Legends, the player discovers Mewtwo who reveals that it has been controlling MoBee to trick the player to free it from its longstanding bonds. Mewtwo then battles the player but is ultimately defeated. Once defeated, Mewtwo realizes that it has not fully recovered and leaves without further resistance as it owes the player for having liberated it.
After the credits, Mewtwo reveals that there are more secrets on this island. MoBee begins to function again and it alerts the player that high levels of energy has been detected on the island, with the source of the energy seeming to have just flown away. A new island, Happenstance Island, rises from the ocean. It is a mysterious place where the terrain changes every time it is visited.
The game is set on Tumblecube Island, home to Pokémon made out of cubes known as Pokéxel. The goal is to explore the island with the original 151 Pokémon from Gen I unlike from Pokémon Adventure (Chinese: 宝可梦大探险) with 24 extra Pokémon from the Johto, and the Hoenn regions, by clear stages by defeating wild Pokémon and boss Pokémon to collect precious loot such as Power Stones, ingredients for cooking, and other treasures.
The player uses a team of three Pokémon to explore the land. Although they move autonomously, players can direct when moves are used. Additionally, the player can press the Scatter button to command their Pokémon to scatter, causing them to run away in certain directions for a brief period. This is useful to avoid enemy attacks. If auto mode is active, the Pokémon will move and attack autonomously. (However, auto mode will never scatter.) When a Pokémon faints, as long as there is at least one active Pokémon that is not fainted, the Pokémon will automatically revive after 25 seconds with half the maximum HP. The Pokémon can continue to revive in this manner, however, the Pokémon will recover with less HP each time. When all three Pokémon are fainted simultaneously, the expedition ends. The player can choose to use 10 PM Tickets to keep the items that were obtained during the expedition, if not they lose all the cooking ingedients and Power Stones collected during that expedition and they get less EXP "experience points" then normal. The player is able to change the formation of the team using the Edit Team tab but not during an expedition.
Unlike the core series games, Pokémon only have an HP and Attack stat, and can know one or two moves. They also have one of two battle styles - close-range or long-range attacking. When a move is used during an expedition, there is a wait time before the move can be used again.
Training is a feature that can be accessed from the Edit Team tab. There are two modes in Training.
The player is able to increase a Pokémon's experience by training it against other supporting Pokémon. The Pokémon to be trained is placed in the top slot, while up to four supporting Pokémon can be placed in the bottom slots. Using supporting Pokémon of the same evolution family provides much more experience than usual. Pokémon of the same type also give a small boost to the experience compared to other Pokémon of different types. Evolved Pokémon, Pokémon of higher level, Pokémon with more unlocked sockets in the Power Charm, and rarer Pokémon such as Legendary Pokémon tend to give higher amount of experience.
Once the training is completed, the supporting Pokémon leave the player's Base Camp.
In a similar way to levelling up, the player can use up to four supporting Pokémon to change a Pokémon's move. The chance of move learning is not always guaranteed, and using more supporting Pokémon increases the chance of success. Supporting Pokémon of the same evolution family, type, higher level, or evolved Pokémon, Pokémon with more sockets in the Power Charm and rarer Pokémon such as Legendary Pokémon, increase the chance of move learning. Once the move learning is completed, the supporting Pokémon leave the player's Base Camp.
The new move learned is randomly chosen from a pool of moves the Pokémon can normally learn. The rate of success decreases with further attempts at move learning.
The player has a base camp that can be customized and decorated with things bought from the Poké Mart or earned from progressing in the main game. Here, players can cook various recipes using ingredients obtained from expeditions to attract and befriend island Pokémon.
The Poké Mart is a shop that sells decorations, box expansions, and downloadable content. Decorations and box expansions are purchased with PM Tickets. PM Tickets can be acquired as rewards for completing quests or purchasing premium content. The Poké Mart also offers 50 PM Tickets to the player every 22 hours as part of a Member Service, of which the player is instantly a part of. Each item of DLC comes with 100 PM Tickets.
All purchases will grant a one-time bonus of 100 PM tickets each.
As the player progresses through the game, they can complete quests and be rewarded with PM Tickets and items.
These quests are unlocked as the player progressed through the story.
These quests can be completed at any time while playing. Many of these have more than one tier of rewards as the player gets more of that type of task completed.
An expanded version of Pokémon Quest known as Pokémon Adventure (Chinese: 宝可梦大探险) was released exclusively in China in collaboration between NetEase, The Pokémon Company and GAME FREAK[4] on May 13, 2021.
