Holo types and foil patterns
One of the joys of Pokémon collecting is the sheer variety of foil patterns. Different eras, sub-sets and mechanics have introduced their own distinct shimmer styles. PokéGacha simulates more than a dozen of them, so every foil card you pull has its era-correct pattern.
The major foil patterns
In roughly chronological order of when they were introduced to the TCG.
- Regular Holo — The classic holographic pattern from the original Pokémon TCG — foil applied to the artwork while the border stays untouched. Shimmers diagonally across the illustration as the card tilts.
- Reverse Holo — Introduced in 2002 with Legendary Collection. Everything except the artwork gets the holo treatment: border, energy symbols and text background shimmer while the art stays matte. Any card in a set can have one, even commons.
- Cosmos Holo — A starfield pattern of tiny dots and irregular sparkles resembling a galaxy. Used on Amazing Rare cards in Sword & Shield and various modern reverse holos.
- Rainbow Holo — Full-card rainbow foil on Rainbow Rare secret rares. Art, name, HP, attacks and background all shimmer across the spectrum. The chase look of the Sword & Shield era.
- Rainbow Alt — A variant of the rainbow pattern with different distribution and colour blending. Subtler than full Rainbow Holo.
- Secret Rare — Gold- or silver-bordered holographic treatment for cards numbered above a set total. Usually metallic gold rather than rainbow, giving these cards their treasure appearance.
- Amazing Rare — Watercolour-style art with a stippled cosmos-holo background bleeding out from the Pokémon. Unique to the Amazing Rare mechanic.
- Radiant Holo — Etched, embossed silver foil covering the entire card — physically different in texture from regular foil. Used for Radiant Pokémon from Astral Radiance onward.
- Shiny Rare — Star-pattern foil on shiny-palette Pokémon. Standard layout, but the artwork uses the shiny colours with a star-sparkle overlay.
- Shiny V / Shiny VMAX — Shiny variants of V and VMAX Pokémon — alternative palette, gold-edged foil. From sets such as Shining Fates.
- V Regular / V Full Art / VMAX / VSTAR — Each V-mechanic Pokémon has a regular printing and an Ultra Rare full-art version with edge-to-edge artwork and its own foil pattern.
- Trainer Full Art / Trainer Gallery — Full-art human trainers — Marnie, Cynthia, N, Lillie. The Trainer Gallery sub-set pairs them with Pokémon companions in a special illustrated style.
- Pokéball Holo — Repeating Pokéball symbols across the reverse holo treatment, used as an alternate reverse style in select modern sets.
- Masterball Holo — The same idea with Masterballs. Rarer and more prized — collectors hunt these specifically.
- Mirror Holo — A frosted-glass effect with a refractive shimmer, used in early modern reverse holos.
How holos appear in PokéGacha
Each set has its own list of supported holo variants — Sword & Shield sets, for example, support Reverse Holo, Cosmos Reverse and the set-specific Pokéball and Masterball patterns. Pull rates are weighted per variant: Reverse Holos drop relatively often, Masterball patterns are much rarer. Every pack guarantees exactly one foil slot, but the rare-or-better slot can also roll a holo variant, so a lucky pack can contain two foil cards.