Trainer Guide

Welcome, Trainer! We are delighted that you have found your way to us. On our platform, masterball, we want to bring you closer to the world of Pokémon—especially the TCG (Trading Card Game)—and its community. At the heart of the platform is the digital recording of your collected Pokémon cards, so you always know what's in your collection and all the important information, such as the value of your cards or the number and categories of your cards.

But this place offers much more than that: become part of a growing community, make friends with other trainers, achieve accomplishments and collect their rewards, create and personalize your own trainer profile, collect Pokémon for your Pokédex, find events in your area, build digital decks, and more.

Since that's quite a lot, here's a collection of useful knowledge about being a trainer on masterball — for both newcomers and veterans of the platform. If you have any additions, let us know on Discord!

As described in the introduction, masterball is a unique collection of features for Pokémon fans of all kinds!

1. First, you create an account and are officially registered as a trainer with us. During the process, and at any time afterwards, you can personalize your trainer profile: avatar, display name, title—and most importantly, your starter Pokémon! Only your starter Pokémon can be changed later.

2. Once you've done that, you can start entering your existing cards with us. Simply select the language, series, and corresponding set. You will then find a list of all cards from that set.

3. Found cards you own? Great! By clicking on the checkboxes below the artwork, you can select which variant of a card you own, e.g., “Normal,” “Holo,” or “Reverse Holo.” Each click on the box increases the number by one; a right-click reduces it by one.

After you have entered your first cards, you will find an overview of your collected cards on your profile. This is the core function of masterball. Additional functions are also described further down on this page.

Since we are an open platform that focuses on the community, other trainers will see your cards and progress when they view your profile. This is where the personalization of your trainer profile comes into play. You can also add any user as a friend and continue collecting together, completing your collection together rather than on your own!

Many of your activities are stored and recorded across the platform. You can see what achievements you and other trainers have accomplished at any time in the “Activities” tab. And we actively reward many of these achievements! More on this in the next section.

Gamification is a concept that gives everyday activities a playful approach and makes them rewarding by completing the activity itself. Example: To reward trainers for collecting and entering cards on masterball, we give trainers XP (experience) for all activities. This XP is collected and shown in your level. At the beginning, you have 0 XP and thus start at level 1.

XP allows you to compete with your friends and the community—but of course, you don't have to! In the Trainers League, all trainers are listed according to their XP. Can you make it into the top 4?

In addition, we have added various systems and reward elements. On the “Achievements” page, you will find an overview of all the achievements you can currently earn on the platform. They have different levels of difficulty and give you a variety of rewards for your profile. For example, collecting 100 Grass-type Pokémon cards will unlock the title “Bug Catcher” and the “Rainbow Badge” medal. All trainers who have achieved this achievement have access to this reward! You'll also receive additional XP in one go. In the next section, you'll find out more about the different reward systems.

As you can see, masterball has no shortage of rewards that you can use to customize your trainer profile to match your personality! If we come up with more ideas to expand our repertoire of rewards, we'll be sure to keep you updated on Discord or via our newsletter!

The XP of a card is calculated using a combination of many static factors relating to the card. Since the value of a card can fluctuate greatly, we do not base the XP on the current and average market price, but on the variant, rarity of the card, and the name or keywords such as “ex” or “V.”

The calculation system is structured in such a way that the rarity level determines the base XP value. The variant is then added to the base value. The resulting value is then multiplied by keywords and extended rarity levels. Finally, the value is rounded up to the nearest whole number. This ensures a fair distribution of XP across all possible cards, even if exceptions prove the rule.

Note: We reserve the right to omit some details regarding the calculation of XP values (e.g., a complete list of all rarities) to protect against replication. The amount of XP and the multipliers may change during development as we gather experience with the system and strive to create a rewarding and fair system.

Basically, your level is just an indicator of your activity. However, we also use the experience of trainers to use the Trainers League as a ranking list of all trainers. Who has collected the most, who is the most active within the platform and the community, and who has been around for a long time? All of this can be seen in the experience collected. Some achievements also depend on reaching a certain level.

Beyond that, however, the level is just a number that should motivate you to stay active in your hobby.

As described in the last section, motivation is an important factor—for every hobby and every activity. For us, every active user of our platform is a real asset to what we have achieved and will continue to achieve. With a profound, comprehensive gamification approach, we want to reward trainers for spending their time on our platform and showing commitment. That's why we prioritize a low barrier to entry, rewarding and interesting mechanics, lots of options to personalize your trainer profile, and a series of challenges that motivate you to expand your personalization options.

All of this is optional, fun extras alongside the actual core function: digitizing your collection.