In Pokémon Masters EX, you’ll explore the artificial island of Pasio and team up with famous Trainers to compete in 3-on-3 battles that take place in real time as you work toward becoming the champion of the Pokémon Masters League and take on villainous Trainers. On Pasio, each Trainer pairs up with one trusted Pokémon at a time—this partnership is known as a sync pair, and it’s the foundation of your Pokémon Masters EX teams. Building a diverse roster of sync pairs, developing their skills, and putting them in teams that highlight their strengths are the keys to being successful in your journey on Pasio.
You’ll need to pull out all the stops to help your sync pairs become powerful enough to take on tough foes like those you’ll find in extreme battle events, the Legendary Arena, or the Champion Stadium. We’ll break down the qualities that make each sync pair unique and teach you how to get the most out of each.
Pokémon Masters EX is now available for download on the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android).
Each sync pair has several qualities that never change. They know a unique set of four moves, possess one to three passive skills (think Abilities in the core RPG series), have a single Pokémon type that determines the type of their powerful sync move, and have a single Pokémon type weakness that they’ll take additional damage from. Sync pairs also have several theme skills that provide stat bonuses to the whole team when a sync pair is used alongside a similar sync pair. Theme skills can encompass any number of themes, such as the same Pokémon type or the Trainers being from the same region.
Each sync pair also has a role—strike, support, or tech. Strike sync pairs tend to have higher Attack or Sp. Atk but lower HP. Support sync pairs are the opposite—they usually have higher HP, have lower offensive stats, and learn moves that restore HP or increase their teammates’ stats. Tech sync pairs tend to focus more on affecting the battle indirectly with tricky tactics like inflicting status conditions or changing the weather, terrain, or zone. A sync pair’s role also determines the additional effect its sync move gains once the sync pair is raised to 6★ EX. Strike sync pairs’ sync moves will hit all opponents, tech sync pairs’ will do double damage, and support sync pairs’ will provide their team with double the usual stat increases.
Each sync pair also has a level and six stats: HP, Attack, Defense, Sp. Atk, Sp. Def, and Speed. The stats function similarly to how they do in the main series games. HP represents how much damage a sync pair can take; Attack determines the power of physical moves, which can be guarded against with Defense; Sp. Atk and Sp. Def are like Attack and Defense but for special moves; and Speed affects the rate the move gauge fills. You can increase a sync pair’s level by using level-up manuals or by winning battles while they’re on your team. Each time a sync pair levels up, their stats increase.
In addition to gaining experience, a sync pair can also become more powerful through six more-complex methods: increasing their level cap, increasing their potential and number of ★s, increasing their move level, activating tiles on their sync grid, teaching them a lucky skill, and activating their theme skills.
Increasing Your Sync Pairs’ Level and Level Cap
After a battle, sync pairs will gain Exp. Points that go toward increasing their level. You can also get Exp. Points by using level-up manuals, which can be obtained as rewards from many event battles or from battles in the Level-Up Area of the Training Area. Increasing a sync pair’s level is the easiest way to increase their power—and one of the most impactful ways, too.
You can level up your sync pairs to Lv. 100 as soon as you scout them, but to make them even more powerful, you’ll need to increase their level cap. You’ll need to use certain items each time you do this, and the items you need will vary depending on the role of the sync pair.
Early in the main story, you’ll receive special area info for the Training Area. The items you need to increase the level caps of your sync pairs can be obtained in the Cap-Unlock Area of the Training Area. But be warned—the first battles here are best tackled by using sync pairs that are already Lv. 100, and the toughest battles need sync pairs that are Lv. 135! To unlock Lv. 130 and Lv. 140, you’ll need some additional items that can only be obtained in Cap-Unlock Area 2. Once you’ve obtained the necessary items, you can increase your sync pair’s level cap by tapping the Sync Pairs button in the Pokémon Center and then tapping Unlock Level Cap.
Increasing Sync Pairs’ Potential
Each sync pair has an initial potential denoted by its number of ★s. Each time you increase a sync pair’s potential, the sync pair’s stats will increase. A sync pair’s potential will never increase on its own, but you can increase it with rare power-up items.
You’d need to give a 3★ sync pair twenty 3★ Power-Ups to increase their potential to 4★—and then twenty 4★ Power-Ups to increase their potential from 4★ to 5★. You can also increase the power of a 5★ sync pair by giving them up to twenty 5★ Power-Ups, but they won’t immediately be promoted to 6★ when you do. If the sync pair in question has 6★ EX unlocked, you’ll need to use Champion Spirit to increase their potential to 6★ EX. Sync pairs that are raised to 6★ EX get an alternate outfit and a drastically improved sync move, so it’s a good goal to aim for with your favorite sync pairs.
The most common means of obtaining power-up items is by scouting a sync pair that has already joined your team and already has their move level maxed out, but power-up items are often also available via events. Additionally, you can exchange common power-ups for rarer power-ups in the Exchange Items section of the Shop menu.
Increasing Sync Pairs’ Move Level
One of the most impactful ways to increase your sync pair’s performance is to increase their move level—the number that ranges from 1/5 to a maximum of 5/5 in the Potential & Move Level section of the Sync Pair menu. Each time your sync pair’s move level increases, their attacks and sync move will deal more damage. You’ll need to increase your sync pairs’ move level to 3/5 to get the most out of their sync grids, which will be explored below.
The most common means of increasing a sync pair’s move level is by scouting that same sync pair again after they have already joined your team. You’ll probably find it’s easy to increase the move level of common 3★ sync pairs, while rarer 5★ sync pairs can be very difficult to power up unless you scout them repeatedly while they’re featured in a sync pair scout. Sync pairs that join your team during the story can’t be scouted via the sync pair scout, but you’ll sometimes be able to increase the move level of such sync pairs during events.
The other means of increasing a sync pair’s move level is by using extremely rare move candy items. There’s a different item for each role and initial potential. If your Red & Charizard sync pair has a move level of 2/5, giving them a 5★ Strike Move Candy will increase their move level to 3/5. Note that it’s the sync pair’s initial potential that determines what move candy you need to use to increase their move level—a Skyla & Swanna that started at 3★, for example, would still require 3★ Support Move Candy even if you’ve increased their potential to 5★.
You’ll sometimes earn lower-level move candy during events, but when it comes to 5★ Move Candy, you’ll need to collect corresponding coins. Once you have 20 of the same kind of coin—such as 20 strike move candy coins—you can exchange those 20 coins for a 5★ Move Candy of the same kind (strike, support, or tech) via the General section of the Exchange Items menu.
Powering Up Sync Pairs’ Sync Grids
The most involved and impactful method of increasing a sync pair’s power is through their sync grid. Most sync pairs have expansive sync grids that allow them to improve their stats and learn extra passive skills by activating sync grid tiles using sync orbs. Unlocking tiles requires energy, which each sync pair can spend up to 60 of, providing they have enough sync orbs. You can get sync orbs from the Sync Orb Area of the Training Area, as well as from most events. The Sync Orb Area is one of the few areas that doesn’t require any stamina, so make sure to do all 10 of your replays every day. Before you can spend sync orbs, you’ll need to convert them into sync orbs that are specific to the sync pair you’re enhancing.
Each sync pair’s sync grid is different, but on each sync grid, you’ll find powerful bonuses like stat increases, move power increases, “MP Refresh” effects (which sometimes allow you to use moves with limited uses more times in battle), and passive effects that trigger on certain battle conditions. The most powerful tiles are typically locked until the sync pair’s move level is increased to 2/5 or 3/5.
A fully developed sync grid vastly increases the power of a sync pair. Collecting all the necessary sync orbs is a big investment, but it’s a great way to ensure your favorite sync pairs can take on the toughest foes!
Teaching Sync Pairs Lucky Skills
You can sometimes earn special items called lucky scrolls and lucky cookies from certain events as well as by winning battles in the Battle Villa and Legendary Gauntlet. These items are the key to teaching your sync pairs lucky skills, which are essentially additional passive skills with a variety of effects. Each sync pair can have only one lucky skill.
To teach a sync pair a lucky skill, you’ll need to give your sync pair lucky scrolls to unlock their lucky skill slot (sync pairs with higher initial potential will need more lucky scrolls than those that start with lower initial potential). Once a sync pair’s lucky skill slot is unlocked, you can give them a lucky cookie, from which they’ll receive a random lucky skill based on the type of cookie you gave them. If you’d prefer a different lucky skill, you can give the sync pair another lucky cookie and then pick which of the two lucky skills you’d like to keep.
There are six types of lucky cookies, each tied to different kinds of lucky skills. Crunchy Lucky Cookies will teach your sync pairs lucky skills mostly related to attacking. Creamy Lucky Cookies will help against stat-lowering effects. Crispy Lucky Cookies counter status conditions and certain other conditions. Chewy Lucky Cookies teach lucky skills that protect sync pairs against attacks of a certain type. Most lucky cookies also have a rarity, with 3★ lucky cookies having a greater chance of rewarding a higher-level skill.
Two new types of lucky cookies were introduced alongside the Legendary Gauntlet: Deluxe Lucky Cookies and Guaranteed Lucky Cookies. Deluxe Lucky Cookies can grant some of the strongest lucky skills available as well as some new lucky skills, such as ones that raise the user’s stats when they enter battle. Guaranteed Lucky Cookies are unique in that they can only grant one potential lucky skill, so you’ll be guaranteed to get the skill mentioned in the description.
If you aren’t sure which lucky skills to aim for, Critical Strike 2 (from Crunchy Lucky Cookies and Deluxe Lucky Cookies) can be good for offense-oriented sync pairs, and Vigilance (from Creamy Lucky Cookies and Deluxe Lucky Cookies) can be good for more defense-oriented sync pairs.
Activating Sync Pairs’ Theme Skills
Each sync pair typically has several theme skills based on their type, region of origin, and unique characteristics. Theme skills activate when a sync pair is teamed up with other sync pairs that have the same theme. Since the theme skills of multiple sync pairs on the same team can be activated simultaneously, you can maximize your team’s effectiveness by including several sync pairs with the same theme. For example, Misty & Starmie’s themes are Water, Kanto, Gym Leader, and Passionate Spirit, so if you formed a team that also included fellow Water-type sync pairs Sygna Suit Blue & Blastoise and Archie & Kyogre, all three of them would activate their Water theme skills, increasing each other’s stats.
Each sync pair’s theme skills start at Lv. 1 and can be increased to Lv. 4 by spending skill spheres, making them more powerful in the process. So Misty & Starmie’s Water Support theme skill, which increases all allied sync pairs’ maximum HP by 30 at Lv. 1, will instead increase all allied sync pairs’ maximum HP by 60 once you raise the theme skill to Lv. 4. Skill spheres can be earned from most events, as well as from the Theme Skill Area in the Training Area.
Evolving Pokémon in Pokémon Masters EX
Certain sync pairs can gain a small power boost through Evolution! Evolved Pokémon don’t receive the large stat boost in Pokémon Masters EX that they do in most other Pokémon games, but if a Pokémon can evolve, you’ll need to fully evolve it to maximize the power of its sync move.
The first sync pairs with Pokémon you can evolve are likely to be those with first partner Pokémon—sync pairs such as Barry & Piplup and Rosa & Snivy, for example. Each of these sync pairs will need to be at least Lv. 30 to evolve the first time, at which point you’ll obtain area info related to their Evolution. You’ll also need Evolution materials, which you can earn in the Evolution Material Area of the Training Area. This is another area that doesn’t require any stamina, so make sure to use it each day until you’ve evolved all your sync pairs’ Pokémon.
Once you have the necessary items, you’ll need to complete a special sync pair story battle unique to that sync pair. But be ready for a tough fight if you run off to battle the moment your sync pair reaches the minimum level required—the opponents in these bouts are no pushovers! If you win the battle, however, your sync pair’s Pokémon will evolve.
If you’re looking to power up a Pokémon you hatched and pair it with the main character, it’s important to note that many of the normal methods either won’t work or work differently. You can’t scout Eggs, Pokémon you hatch don’t have a sync grid, and since Eggs hatch at only 1★, you’ll have to do some extra work up front to bring their stats up to the same level as the sync pairs you scout.
Pokémon you hatch also have something called “affinity”—an exclusive means of improving their stats that works similarly to potential. There are only three 20-point affinity levels, which can be increased by giving the Pokémon you hatch treats like Berry Tarts. Also, exclusive to Pokémon you hatch are 1★ and 2★ Power-Up items; you’ll need 20 of each to raise a hatched Pokémon up to 3★ so it can use the same power-up items as other sync pairs.
In order to increase the move level of Pokémon you hatch, you’ll need to give it Egg Move Candy. While Pokémon you hatch don’t have a sync grid, they’re able to learn a lucky skill just like any other sync pair. Some of these Pokémon can learn interesting moves that are tough to find on scouted sync pairs, such as moves that change the weather. Make sure to look at the Pokémon you’re hatching—you might be hatching the beginnings of a great strategy and not even realize it!
There’s a lot to learn about sync pairs and battling on Pasio, but you’ll quickly get the hang of making your sync pairs stronger and stronger. In addition to improving the strength of your roster, there are a few other things to keep in mind as you start out.
Don’t forget to log in each day to get log-in bonuses and complete daily missions, which will net you some easy items and gems. You can also complete a limited number of Sync Orb Area battles each day, so don’t forget about them. You can never have enough sync orbs!
Each sync pair has a sync pair story that gives you some background about your new allies. They’re a lot of fun, and you’ll get some easy rewards for completing them, too. These stories are also involved in evolving your sync pairs’ Pokémon.
Finally, it’s a good stretch goal to work toward earning gear from co-op battles to increase your team’s stats in battle. EX Plaza co-op battles will sometimes reward both 1★ and 2★ gear of each type, which you can power up with additional copies of the same gear and specific items, like thread and cloth. 3★ gear is only available during special events, and it increases your team’s stats even more. A full set of Lv. 15 3★ gear will grant bonuses of 70 HP, 60 Attack, 20 Defense, 60 Sp. Atk, 20 Sp. Def, and 20 Speed to sync pairs that match the gear’s type. Those additional stat bonuses can be just enough for you to withstand a powerful attack or defeat an opposing sync pair before they can use their sync move.
Enjoy your journey on Pasio!
