I’ve been hooked on Pocket League Story for a while now and it’s been hogging the space on my phone stopping me from exploring other new games! It takes a fair amount of time to enjoy the game and I realised that there’s a few things that I would’ve liked to know before playing the game. So I’m going to share a few details here. (Spoiler sections are clearly listed below)
It feels like there are two overall ways of playing the game:
- A) You only play the game once until you’re satisfied you’ve beaten everyone or
- B) You play the game every 8 years and 11 months.
If you think you’re gonna go through route A) then you’ll either play until you get bored, or you’ll max out your players and stop when you’ve conquered all the of the leagues and matches (most likely the game time will be over 9 years).
Play style B), may seem like it’s only for getting a high score record, however that’s not the only reason why you might do this. You would play up until 8 years and 11 months because the stats you build up at the end of that time period will continue to exist in the next new game you start. … yes… that’s right… it is possible to beat all the teams with a superstar team which has sufficient cashflow within 9 years.
The above info shouldn’t upset anyone’s game – this statistics carrying over is done in many of Kairopark’s story games. Details of which parts carry over in the 9 year period will be divulged in the next section
If you want to investigate the nooks and crannys of PLS yourself then look away now. Please note that the fast mode which is unlocked after playing 9 years will definitely speed up the game and keep you interested. If however you feel like you can’t be bothered and you want to avoid some pitfalls then keep reading.
Spoilers
Players:
- New hires can be acquired for a variety of reasons: getting particular sponsors, or possibly research tree completion. But the clearest way of acquiring superstar players is by winning the leagues.
- You can get K Ackbar, Grizzly B, Chimpan Z, Kairo bot and Sally Prin (All superstar players)… There’s also a superstar player called “Frazier” who has a large forehead like Frasier haha!
- Some of the special players which are unlocked before 9 years are up can be be available at the start of new games. This doesn’t mean you’ll have them in your team though. You still need to hire them in, but it would be virtually impossible in the first two years because you won’t have the money to acquire them or pay their salary.
Training:
- The trained up stats of all your players (within 9 Years of game time) are carried over into any of your new games.
- Superstar Players have the most potential and can reach 1000 on all their stats (although you probably won’t bother with their Goalkeeping skills)
- Special players like Strikers (e.g. Sanders) can get
Kick ~800-900, 
Speed ~330, 
Tech ~310, 
Body ~710. He’s worth building up because he’s an original team player (i.e. you can always start Y1 games with him). So he can be blindingly amazing in the early game, but eventually he won’t be strong or fast enough to beat the Godly teams. He’s a clear trade off, because his salary is only about 10% of the superstar players, but unfortunately he can’t be on the starting lineup forever. - There are at least 4 lists of practise training exercises. I’ve found that the Kick, Speed and Body are generally easy to accumulate, but it’s the Technical skills which are hard to train high.
- To counteract this imbalance you actually need more
“Field” tokens rather than 
“Muscle” tokens. Then you can use either the Roulette Feint (33 Field and gives Tech +++), or the Zen Meditation (67 Field and gives Tech +++) to impart more Technical skills in your players. - The real trick is that the best overall training booster is the 11 Man Elim ( Speed, Tech, Body and
Keeper all +++) but it costs 95 
light bulb tokens. These light bulb tokens are largely used for getting sponsors. So if you’ve focused on getting money and getting all the sponsors, then you can funnel the excess tokens towards super training your players.
Facilities:
- Almost all of the facility level upgrades you can do within 9 years are carried over into new games. They should all be upgradable to level 5.
- Re Sod, Expand Field and Renovate Stadium must be upgraded each time you start a new game. Re Sod can be upgraded to level 3, Expand Field can be upgraded to level 2 and Renovate Stadium can be upgraded to level 3. Personally I don’t think Re Sod is too worthwhile – it sounds better than it actually is.
- Both Expand Field and Renovate Stadium are necessary. Expand field will enlarge your area so you can build more facilities to acquire more tokens. Renovate Stadium is needed to increase the size of your grounds so you can have more fans when you play at home. More fans = more ticket sales = more money.
- The Hot Spring is the best facility in the end and it can be upgraded to level 5. It brings 0
Heart, 22 Muscle, 14 Light Bulbs and 12 Field per usage. Although it seems expensive to buy, it brings in $3,600 every time it’s used so it helps to increase a trickle of money.
Coaches and formations:
- There are about 20-odd coaches each with their own formation.
- Coaches have a limit of how far their stats go. Their built up stats (within 9 Years) are carried over into new games.
- I’ve found that the classic 4-4-3 formation is generally usable, but personally the 3-6-1 is better (available in one of the coaches in Year 2). With 1 striker in front you can concentrate on letting one player get hatricks – this increases your fans after each match. If the same player is a top striker in a league then your fans increase too.
- If you have awesome players, then two up front would be good to get double hatricks in each match.
- Personally I don’t spend Heart tokens on finding new coaches because formations don’t help until the end when you’re fighting the deity teams.
- 3-6-1 doesn’t work well against the super class teams because your single striker would just get floored by the defenders. Instead, the 3 Line formation seems to work better (i.e. two or three strikers up front).
Sponsors:
- There are at least 36 sponsors. Although sponsors don’t seem to pay much cash initially, they will give more when they’re satisfied. A mass of sponsors with 100% satisfaction will ensure you get a decent amount of money per match. The money they provide should be enough to cover the costs of a full superstar team.
Max stats:
- Fans = 100,000 (this means there’s a limit on how much ticket sales can bring in)
Leagues:
- Winning the matches and leagues is the primary way to bring in money, so you should be scheduled to play someone all the time. (Facilities will only bring in enough cash for you to arrange matches.) Even sponsors will only pay you when you play matches.
- Winning the leagues will also unlock the superstar players.
- There are S, A, B, C and D class leagues. The final challenge is a Cup match against the Prins team.
- To beat the Prins team you need a fully trained superstar team with a good formation. Personally I just play in the S-class league to build up auras which I can then use against the Prins team.
Obviously there are a multitude of strategies for winning the game in an optimum way – the information above should help you on your way to forming an incredible team. Please feel free to post what you get for your high score!
