Gameplay

Pocket Frogs is a time-based frog management game. It encompasses the breeding, collection, and trading of 41,216 unique frogs.

Overview
Pocket Frogs is a simulation game where players have fun while amassing their frog collection through breeding, collecting, and gifting frogs. Included in the gameplay are several different ways to earn coins, potions, and stamps, as well as ways to earn experience points by which players level up and unlock more frog patterns.

New players start the game with a nursery habitat, two frogs (a Green Folium Anura and a Cocos Bruna Anura), 1000 coins, and one additional habitat. After taming these frogs, the player can engage a frog in activities such as breeding, playing games, and hopping around The Pond.

New frogs can also be purchased from the FrogMart with coins, gifted by friends, found in presents or in some of the mini-games. Each frog has six statistics, which are found on the frog's info sheet: Rarity Level, Maturity, Happiness, Speed, Stamina, and Value.

Breeding and Frog Maturity
Breeding can be achieved by mating two tamed, adult frogs via the "breed menu" available on the frog's info sheet. Frogs must be in the same habitat in order to breed. Breeding can also take place in the pond if the frog has been tamed and reached full maturity. The player hops their frog around the pond by touching lily pads. When they find another frog they hop on to the same lily pad to breed with it. Usually a player will have to pursue the frog multiple times before being able to breed with it. The player must have adequate room in their Nursery to accommodate the egg for either method. As with all habitats, the Nursery can only house up to 8 eggs/frogs.

After breeding the egg appears in the Nursery where it will mature and hatch. Unless the VIP Package is purchased from the Pro Shop, players can only house eggs in the Nursery. The species of the frog is not readily apparent while still in the egg stage. The player can, however, find hints about the breed, and the exact species by using the statistics available on the frog's info page: level, speed, and stamina. If so inclined, the player can determine the exact species by cross-referencing all available stats for the egg, as each particular species has a fixed, but non-unique maximum value, speed, and stamina.

Another way to determine what frog you have before it hatches is through the Froggydex. This is especially useful when cross-breeding for a specific frog as long as the player has not already collected the frog. After an egg has been produced, go to the Froggydex and search for the breed, pattern, and color of the frog that is being bred. If a player is successful in producing the specific frog wanted, then they know that the egg in the nursery or one of the eggs in the nursery is the wanted frog.

Frogs that are not in the Froggydex have an asterisk (*) after their name. This asterisk is present anytime the frog’s name is shown, such as in the mailbox or the pond. After the frog is collected, either by breeding or obtaining it through the mailbox, the asterisk disappears.

Frog maturation can be accelerated with the use of potions.

Once the egg has hatched, the player can wait until the frog matures into an adult, or, if the player wishes, they can take the frog into the Pond to feed and accelerate growth. The length of time this takes is noted on the frog's info sheet. The player can also accelerate frog maturation through the use of potions. Note that the larger the fly the frog consumes while in the pond, the greater impact it will have on reducing maturation time.

Details and images of the different breeds are available, as are additional details on Breeding and Breeding Strategies.

Taming Frogs
To tame a frog, the player clicks on the "Pond" option on the frog's info menu. Once in the pond, the player must have the frog consume the number of flies noted at the top of the screen or use potions. Frogs of higher levels will require more flies to be eaten to tame. Once the frog is tamed, a pop-up box will appear to inform the player that the frog is tamed and how many experience points (XP) were earned. After the frog is tamed and fully mature, additional options become available to the frog, including breeding, gifting, and mini-games. Before a frog is tamed it is very hyperactive, constantly hopping all over its habitat, but after it is tamed it is calmer and doesn't hop as quickly.

The Pond
The basis for all gameplay in the Pond involves the player tapping on lily pads adjacent to their frog, which causes the frog to hop from one lily pad to another.

A frog in the Pond can eat dragonflies, breed with wild frogs, and find presents. Eating dragonflies can tame a frog, cause it to mature faster, and increases happiness.

Mini-Games
There are 3 mini-games to play that can win the player new frogs, scenery, coins, potions or stamps. They include racing, the puzzle game, and the search game.

Racing Frogs
Players can choose to enter their tamed, fully mature frogs in races. The player's frog will compete against NPC (non-player character) frogs of the same level. Each frog's speed and stamina statistics help to determine whether the frog will win. The happiness of the player's frog will also contribute to the frog's performance in the race. The only interaction the player has with their frog during the race is if the player decides to use a potion to increase their frog's happiness during the race. Otherwise, Frog Racing is purely a spectator sport.

If the player's frog comes in first (1st) place, they have the option of choosing one of the competitor frogs as their prize or accepting a coin reward. The player must have an open mailbox slot in order to accept a frog as a prize. Coin prizes are available for first, second, and third place. Fourth and fifth place offer no prizes.

Puzzle Game
Players try to jump all frogs in a 6x6 grid to face consistent directions in the Puzzle game. Your frog gains happiness in proportion to the amount of the puzzle completed, with winning increasing the happiness of your frog to 100% and giving you a present such as another frog, a scenery item, coins, potions or stamps.

Search Game
Players try to uncover all squares which match a given pattern before they run out of turns in the Search game. The correct uncovered squares contain an image of the frog. Uncovering all squares for the same frog gives the player the option to take that frog as a prize or sell it for coins. Each puzzle contains 2 frogs and a yellow present. Additional turns can be purchased with potions.

Weekly Sets
Weekly Sets reward players with stamps and potions for collecting a defined set of frogs. A new set is released every week at 11:00am, U.S. Pacific time. Unlike when completing Awards, completing a Weekly Set does not require all frogs to be in the same habitat. The frogs remain in their habitats when the Weekly Set is completed. Unlike Awards which redeem automatically, the user must click the 'Redeem Set' button to collect the reward.

Awards
There are 73 different Awards that can be redeemed for experience points. Each award has a different requirement for collecting combinations of frog colors and patterns or number of frogs. Most awards require the frogs to be collected in the same habitat. Awards are automatically redeemed when the requirement is met, and the frogs remain in the habitat.

Frog Requests
Versions of the game before 3.0.3 supported a feature called requests. It was another way to earn stamps, potions, and additional coins. An in-game notification appeared when a new request was available and this request could be reviewed at any time via the menu. Requests could be declined or filled when the mature frog requested was available in a habitat. The requested frog was then removed from the habitat. If a request was declined by the player, a new request was usually sent within 15 minutes.

It is possible requests will be restored in future updates to the game but the developers have not indicated any specific plans to do so.

Connecting to other Players
Each Pocket Frogs user has a unique ID code (4-6 numbers and letters) called a "Friend Code" (FC). Gift givers can use other player's FCs to gift frogs to them. FCs are added to the "Neighbors" list to send them frogs and to visit their habitats to see their frogs and decorations.

There are Pocket Frogs groups on Discord, Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. Users there offer available frogs, sets, and decorations, and place requests asking for frogs to level up, finish awards and weekly sets, or complete a pattern.

The game does not require an internet connection to play or complete the game. (The Android version of the game does require a data connection to play the game.)

The game also features "In-App Purchases," accessed through the Pro Shop menu, where in-game items such as potions and stamps can be bought to speed up gameplay; however, no purchase is necessary to play, enjoy or finish the game.