Quartz 5

16-pocket-pals

10 min read

Pocket Pals

A server-backed, turn-based companion battler with 78 species, evolutions, gear, trainers, captures, and PvP.

Status: LIVE — Pocket Pals is enabled, including PvP challenges, wild encounters, trainer ranks, evolutions, equipment, and persistent teams.

At a glance

  • Open with /pals or /petbattle.
  • 78 collectible base species and 146 evolution forms.
  • 261 server-authored moves, four equipped move slots, and persistent move replacement choices.
  • 68 three-stage families: evolve at 28 and 60. The ten earlier wild families evolve once at 40.
  • Five starters: Mossbite, Brookfin, Pebblit, Voltuff, and Lavapup.
  • Five-Pal teams, with slot 1 as the lead.
  • Three equipment sockets: Charm, Guard, and Relic.
  • 15 trainer ranks, ending at level 80.
  • Persistent HP and MP. A fainted Pal has a 3-minute revival cooldown.
  • PvP challenges work against nearby players, with both sides locking actions.
  • 15-second turn clock, 30-second invite window, and 3 missed PvP turns forfeits.
  • 5 starting Capture Seals; more come from trainer wins.
  • No dedicated NPC. Wild encounters, trainers, collection, and PvP are all in the addon.
  • Innkeepers fully restore all Pals that are not still on a faint cooldown.

How to use

  1. Install the PocketPals addon and open it with /pals or /petbattle.
  2. Claim one starter. The choice is permanent collection data, not a temporary pet.
  3. Open Collection and arrange up to five unique Pals. Slot 1 is your lead.
  4. Use Wild Pal or /pals wild to start an encounter in your current zone.
  5. Choose a move, item, swap, or capture each turn. The server rolls all outcomes.
  6. Weaken a wild Pal and use a Capture Seal. A full team means the capture cannot join until you make room.
  7. Use Trainer or /pals trainer to climb the 15-rank ladder. Each rank unlocks the next.
  8. Use Challenge or /pals challenge with a nearby player selected to send a PvP offer.
  9. Heal with carried potions or visit an innkeeper. Fainted Pals must wait out their own 3-minute timer.
  10. Open /pals collection to equip Charms, Guards, and Relics, manage moves, and evolve eligible Pals.
  11. Use /pals sync after a reload or if the state looks stale. /pals resetui only resets the window position and scale.

Starters

StarterTypeFirst evolutionFinal evolution
LavapupFireMagmahoundEmberfang
BrookfinWaterTorrentailReefwarden
MossbiteNatureBriarhowlGroveguard
PebblitEarthMonolithonCragcharger
VoltuffStormThundermawStormseer

You may capture other starter species in the wild, including the ones you did not choose. The initial choice only decides your first owned Pal.

Teams and swapping

  • Up to five unique owned Pals on a team.
  • Slot 1 is the lead. Moving a conscious Pal into slot 1 lets the team continue immediately.
  • Voluntary swap: uses your action for the round; the opponent still attacks.
  • Forced swap: when the active Pal faints, you must replace it before any other action. The replacement does not give the opponent a second attack.
  • Bench state persists: HP, MP, statuses, shields, delayed moves, and equipment stay attached to the outgoing Pal.
  • Captures fill the first empty team slot but never displace a full team.

Wild encounters and captures

  • Wild levels come from the zone’s documented 3.3.5 band, not from your active Pal’s level. Unknown/custom zones use the legacy active-Pal ±1 fallback.
  • 74 mapped zones have their own battlefield and common wild family. Unmapped zones use the global pool.
  • Evolution-only forms never appear in the wild. You must evolve them.
  • Capture chance: base 20%, up to +65% for missing health, minus 5% per wild level. Status and level affect the roll.
  • Capture Seals are consumed by the attempt. You start with 5; trainer wins grant more.
  • Wild cooldown: 5 seconds between encounter requests.
  • A capture ends the battle. A failed capture does not.

Battles and statuses

  • Turn clock: every online Wild, Trainer, and PvP decision has 15 seconds. Timeout uses the first affordable damaging move, then a status move, then Flail; a required replacement picks the first conscious reserve.
  • Major ailments: Burn, Poison, Paralysis, Sleep, and Freeze. They are mutually exclusive.
  • Volatile effects: shields, wards, stat changes, stuns, delayed moves, and move-specific mechanics.
  • MP: starts at 40 and grows by 4 per level. Move costs rise by 1 MP per two completed levels.
  • Basic attack: Flail costs no MP, has 16 power, and has 9% recoil.
  • Battle end: starting normal combat, dying, logging out, or teleporting ends the battle. PvE interruption persists HP/MP without a win or loss; PvP interruption is a forfeit.
  • Reload recovery: /reload during a battle asks the server for the authoritative state. The 15-second clock does not reset.

HP, MP, potions, and revival

  • HP and MP persist between battles for every team member.
  • Fainting starts an individual 180-second revival timer. It persists through logout and restart.
  • Potions must be carried in your bags. Banked, equipped, mailed, or traded items are not eligible.
  • Exact item amounts: each potion restores a fixed amount, capped by missing HP/MP. The picker shows base, actual restore, and waste before use.
  • No automatic tier substitution. You choose the exact item.
  • A full resource consumes nothing.
  • Innkeepers fully restore every Pal that is not still cooling down and report how many are blocked.
  • A blocked potion or innkeeper visit does not consume the item and does not reset the timer.

Moves and evolution

  • Starters begin with two level-1 moves.
  • Learn the third move at level 6 and the fourth at level 12.
  • Replacement choices arrive at levels 22, 34, 50, and 68.
  • A captured wild Pal keeps the newest four moves it was eligible to use. Older eligible moves are recorded, not dumped into a stale replacement backlog.
  • Pending move choices survive logout and must be resolved before another battle.
  • Three-stage families: base → intermediate at 28 → final at 60. Each step grants a signature move.
  • Ten older wild families: single evolution at 40.
  • Evolution changes combat form but keeps the base species as the collection key. It does not lose XP, gear, active status, or your move loadout.
  • You may evolve only the immediate next stage. Evolution-only forms are never wild captures.

Equipment

  • Three sockets: Charm, Guard, and Relic.
  • Socketing consumes the exact carried world item. Replacing an imprint does not refund the old item.
  • Equipment effects are server-applied and persist on that Pal.
  • Gear is per Pal, not per team.
  • Gear must be in your bags when socketed.
  • The addon shows valid items and their effects. The server revalidates the item and socket.

Trainer ladder

  • 15 ranks, from the first trainer at Pal level 3 to the final trainer at Pal level 80.
  • Rank is persistent per character.
  • You cannot start a rank above your current unlock.
  • Winning the current rank advances you and grants Capture Seals.
  • Trainer fights use fixed trainer Pals, not wild level bands.
  • The ladder is the main source of extra seals after your starting five.

PvP

  • Select a nearby player within 30 yards and use /pals challenge.
  • The target has 30 seconds to accept.
  • Both players lock an action without seeing the opponent’s choice.
  • Turns are server-resolved on both locks or on the 15-second deadline.
  • 3 cumulative missed turns forfeits the match.
  • Starting normal combat, dying, logging out, or teleporting is a forfeit.
  • PvP is enabled live. PvP battles do not use the world PvP flags or battleground queues.
  • Invites and active battles are in memory. A worldserver restart drops them; collection and progression persist.

Commands & UI

Command / UIWhat it does
/palsToggle the Pocket Pals window
/petbattleAlias for /pals
/pals wildRequest a wild encounter
/pals trainerOpen/request the trainer ladder
/pals challengeChallenge the selected nearby player
/pals collectionOpen collection, team, moves, gear, and evolution
/pals profileOpen trainer card and settings
/pals starterShow starter selection when eligible
/pals syncRefresh authoritative state
/pals resetuiReset only window position and scale
/pals helpShow command help
Collection tabTeam, moves, potions, gear, evolution
Wild Pal buttonStart a wild encounter
Trainer buttonStart the next trainer rank
Challenge buttonSend a PvP offer
Capture buttonSpend a seal during a wild battle
Swap buttonsChange the active Pal

NPC references

NPCEntryRole
No dedicated Pocket Pals NPC—All systems are addon-driven
Any innkeepervariesFully restores all Pals that are not on cooldown
No Pal trainer NPC—The 15-rank ladder is inside the addon
No wild encounter NPC—/pals wild or the Wild Pal button

Ask a city guard for the nearest innkeeper if you need a full restore. Innkeepers do not sell Pal gear, seals, or moves.

Tips

  • Claim your starter immediately. It is free and permanent.
  • Build a team of five early. A single Pal has no reserve when it faints.
  • Put your strongest Pal in slot 1. The lead enters first.
  • Do not ignore the 3-minute faint timer. Swapping in another Pal lets the team continue, but the fainted one still waits.
  • Carry several potion stacks. Each Pal keeps its own HP and MP, so one potion type may not fit every level.
  • Use the potion picker’s waste display. A full Pal consumes nothing, but a nearly full Pal wastes most of a big potion.
  • Capture at low health. Missing health is the largest capture bonus; level difference is a penalty.
  • Save seals for species you actually want. Trainer ranks are the renewable source.
  • Resolve move choices before queueing. Pending choices block another battle.
  • Check evolution level. Most families wait until 28 and 60; the ten older families evolve at 40.
  • Evolve before socketing expensive gear? Gear stays with the Pal through evolution, so either order works.
  • Gear is consumed on socket. Do not socket a keepsake you might want on another Pal.
  • Use /pals sync after /reload. The server can rebuild an active battle, but the addon needs the current state.
  • Do not teleport during PvP. It is a forfeit.
  • Trainer rank 15 is a level-80 fight. Do not expect to finish the ladder at 70.
  • PvP is not battleground PvP. It is a separate challenge system; normal PvP flags do not matter.

Limits and configuration

  • Base species: 78.
  • Evolution forms: 146.
  • Moves: 261.
  • Three-stage families: 68; evolve at 28 and 60.
  • Single-stage evolution families: 10; evolve at 40.
  • Team size: 5.
  • Move slots: 4.
  • Gear sockets: 3 — Charm, Guard, Relic.
  • Level cap: 80.
  • Starting seals: 5.
  • Wild cooldown: 5 seconds.
  • Turn clock: 15 seconds.
  • PvP invite: 30 seconds.
  • PvP missed turns: 3.
  • PvP challenge range: 30 yards.
  • Faint revival: 180 seconds.
  • Capture base: 20%.
  • Missing-health bonus: up to 65%.
  • Level penalty: 5% per level.
  • Mapped battlefields: 74.
  • Trainer ranks: 15.
  • Dedicated NPC: none.
  • PvP: enabled.
  • Practice mode: addon-local and non-persistent.

Admin note

Live config: PocketPals.Enable=1, PocketPals.PvP.Enable=1, PocketPals.StartingCaptureSeals=5, PocketPals.MaxLevel=80, PocketPals.BaseMana=40, PocketPals.ManaPerLevel=4, PocketPals.FlailPower=16, PocketPals.FlailRecoilPercent=9, PocketPals.WildCooldownMs=5000, PocketPals.InviteTimeoutSeconds=30, PocketPals.TurnTimeoutSeconds=15, PocketPals.MaxMissedPvPTurns=3, PocketPals.ChallengeDistance=30.0, PocketPals.CaptureBaseChance=20, PocketPals.CaptureMissingHealthBonus=65, PocketPals.CaptureLevelPenalty=5, and PocketPals.Debug=0. The server owns collection, levels, combat, captures, trainer unlocks, PvP offers, deadlines, and results; the addon is a renderer and must match the PBAT1 protocol and client version. Persistent data lives in the characters database; disabling the module interrupts active PvE/PvP battles without a competitive result and clears the in-memory battle indexes. Reloading config does not retroactively change an active battle. Do not edit client move or species definitions to alter outcomes; the C++ module is authoritative. A worldserver restart drops invites and active battles, but collection and progression remain. If a Pal is stuck, verify its persisted ReviveAvailableAt before clearing anything; do not reset a legitimate 180-second cooldown as a first response.

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