With so many strange and lovable creatures walking around, human characters often fade into the background of the Pokemon universe. But the human-featuring supporter cards are finally getting their time to shine in Pokemon TCG Pocket when the Celestial Guardians expansion set arrives on April 30.

There are more than 200 cards in the new set, making this the largest set expansion in Pokemon TCG Pocket since the original Genetic Apex set that launched alongside the game. Celestial Guardians will introduce players to exotic Alolan Pokemon, including starter Pokemon Litten, Rowlet and Popplio and legendaries Solgaleo and Lunala.

Regional variants of classic Pokemon also will be highlighted in this set, including Alolan forms of Meowth, Persian, Vulpix and Ninetales. Full art versions of Alolan Raichu and Alolan Marowak cards will be included in the packs.

The set will be split into Solgaleo and Lunala packs, with themed cards in each sub-set. For the first time ever, though, there will be different versions of the same Pokemon card in each sub-set — there are different variants of Litten, Rowet, Popplio and Oricorio in the Solgaleo and Lunala packs.

As one of the biggest sets in the game, Celestial Guardians will require a lot of time, dedication and luck to complete. It’s time to start saving up those Pack Hourglasses.

Lillie is the first immersive Supporter card

Immersive cards are some of the most sought after variants in Pokemon TCG Pocket. They’re a good example of why trading cards work virtually — there are things they can do that physical cards can’t. With immersive cards, that’s allowing players to inspect them to unlock an animated scene.

Previous Pokemon TCG Pocket immersive cards have largely focused on the most popular pocket monsters from their respective expansions. Genetic Apex included immersive cards for Pikachu, Charizard and Mewtwo, for example, while Spacetime Showdown featured Dialga and Palkia in their own animated cards.

If the Celestial Guardians set followed the same trend, we’d expect to see immersive cards for Solgaleo and Lunala — but that trend is getting bucked for a fan-favorite human character.

Lillie is the player’s companion from Pokemon Sun and Moon, and the friend and protector of the Cosmog named Nebby. She’s also the daughter of the main antagonist — Lusamine — and many Pokemon fans connect with her quest to be a better person than her mother.

Lillie is a natural choice for a Supporter immersive card, and opens up possibilities for new immersive Supporter and Trainer cards in future Pokemon TCG Pocket expansion sets.

What card will shake up the Pokemon TCG Pocket meta?

New Pokemon Ex cards and other important pulls often drastically change the Pokemon TCG Pocket meta. Their special gimmicks, high-damage attacks and Pokemon abilities often change the way the game is played.

This time around, it’s not a Pokemon that has people chattering about the meta shake-up: It’s a Trainer card. The Rare Candy card lets players bypass a Stage 1 evolution, placing a Stage 2 card from your hand onto an active Basic Pokemon.

This effect lets players ramp up their strength absurdly quickly — in certain cases, you can have some of the most powerful Stage 2 Pokemon Ex cards in play by your second turn. Certain Pokemon are themselves turned into powerful energy factories at Stage 2, like Shining Revelry’s Charizard Ex, and the Rare Candy will almost certainly become a mainstay pairing for these cards.

No one will be able to predict how the meta will shake out quite yet. With more than 200 cards being added to the game, including powerful new legendaries and Pokemon Ex cards, it will take some time and theory-crafting to figure out the best new synergies in Pokemon TCG Pocket.

The Pokemon TCG Pocket «Half-Year Celebration» event

Launching in tandem with the Celestial Guardians expansion on April 30 is Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Half-Year Celebration event.

Themed around Rayquaza, the generation three legendary Pokemon featured on the Pokemon Emerald box art, this event will introduce the Promo Pack A Series Volume 7 packs as rewards for beating special solo battles.

Several new cards will be available in these promo packs but the chase card is a new Rayquaza Ex. Every promo pack contains a single card, which encourages players to continually log-in over the course of the event to maximize their pulls. Event Hourglasses let players take on additional event battles. The solo battles — and their promo pack rewards — will be available until May 12.

Special missions will also be available starting April 30, and they’ll reward players with a separate full art variant of Rayquaza Ex alongside «a few other goodies.»

This split between battling and generalized missions adapts a similar structure to older TCG Pocket events, giving casual collectors a chance to pick up some cool card art without engaging in any battles. The special missions will run until May 28.

Amazon is set to launch  27 low-Earth orbit satellites on Monday evening as part of Project Kuiper, which will provide satellite broadband services. The rocket launch is planned for April 28, between 7 and 9 p.m. ET (4 and 6 p.m. PT), barring weather or other factors affecting launch.

The launch mission, KA-01 or Kuiper Atlas 1, will be on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and will take place at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. 

You’ll be able to watch the rocket launch live on the project’s mission page or on YouTube.

The tech and space giant was forced to abandon its original rocket launch date of April 9 after poor weather conditions. «Weather is observed and forecast NO GO for liftoff within the remaining launch window at Cape Canaveral,» United Launch Alliance said at the time. «The stubborn cumulus clouds and persistent winds make liftoff not possible within the available window.»

It’ll be a big step forward for the project, which Amazon announced in 2019 with promises of a $10 billion investment. Now, the company is poised to enter the race to provide satellite internet service, a space currently dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink, which has about 7,000 satellites. Amazon’s plans call for 3,200 satellites to be deployed over 80 launches. The company intends to provide internet service with this technology later this year.

More competition could improve satellite internet

The literal space race, which includes Starlink, Amazon and other companies such as Viasat, Hughesnet, Eutelsat and China’s SpaceSail, could mean more internet service availability in far-flung and rural areas with limited broadband options. Though Starlink is the leader in space, some of these other companies are continuing to launch satellites and working to deploy high-speed internet in more markets, such as Brazil. With more players in the market, that could mean faster and cheaper internet in more areas, although whether that actually bears out for consumers remains to be seen.

Mahdi Eslamimehr, executive vice president at Quandary Peak Research and adjunct professor at the Department of Computer Science at USC, said Amazon is well-positioned to compete with Starlink. «Amazon has made extensive launch agreements with major providers such as ULA, Arianespace, Blue Origin, and even SpaceX itself, positioning Kuiper as a major challenger due to its expansive infrastructure and significant resources.»

He said, «While Starlink currently enjoys clear market leadership, it faces increasing competition from well-capitalized and strategically agile competitors, specifically from China,  suggesting the market will become considerably more competitive in the near future.»

So far, Eslamimehr said, Amazon’s satellite efforts have been promising and successful, at least in the prototype stages. The company has also been testing Amazon Web Services in space. «These developments collectively underscore Amazon’s robust entry into the satellite internet market and reflect positive early momentum in its overall space strategy.»

Beyond how it fares against Starlink and other companies, the Amazon satellite launches are significant in other ways. Eslamimehr said, «Project Kuiper isn’t just about competition; it’s positioned as a critical step toward closing the global digital divide, promising to deliver high-speed internet to underserved communities worldwide.»

Correction, April 4: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of the USC professor and Quandary Peak Research executive vice president. His name is Mahdi Eslamimehr.

«Hola, ajedrez» means «Hello, chess» in Spanish. You’ve always been able to learn Spanish on Duolingo. And you’ll be able to learn and practice chess on the language learning app soon. Duolingo announced on April 22 that beta testers can practice the centuries-old board game in Duolingo now, and others will be able to learn the game on the app in a few months. 

Chess will be the first new Duolingo course since the app began offering math and music lessons in 2023. And Duolingo hopes that to bring the classic board game to more people of all experience levels. 

Duolingo chess lessons aim to be friendly to beginners

I spoke with a Duolingo rep about the upcoming lessons. He said the company wants to continue expanding what people can learn through the app, and chess was an early contender.

Chess is «one of those things that … any age group can learn … but then also something that takes the 10,000-hour theory to really master,» Edwin Bodge, a senior product manager with Duolingo, said. «We thought it would fit with the Duolingo medium really well.»

When I asked why people would use Duolingo over other chess learning sites and tools, Bodge said a lot of other chess content is geared toward advanced users, not newcomers. «We really saw a great opportunity to try and cater to more of a beginner, medium (player) and try and increase access to the game,» he said.

The chess lessons are slightly different from others you might find on Duolingo, like Spanish and math, but the progression system is similar. And from what Duolingo showed me, the lessons really do start at square one, or A1 on a chessboard.

Chess lessons feel similar to other Duolingo lessons

When you start, Duolingo asks how much you already know about chess, like in other lessons on the app. Duolingo will then adjust the lessons according to your response. If you say you’re brand-new to chess and have no knowledge of the game, early lessons will focus on how each piece moves before moving on to capturing other pieces and checking the king. Other lessons are similar to mini-puzzles where you might be asked to capture different pieces using a single piece, like your knight or rook, in four moves or fewer.

You can access hints for each lesson, but if you get something wrong, your opponent will react to show you you’ve left a piece open for capture, like in a real match. And if you keep getting something incorrect, Duolingo will show you what to do. «If you get it wrong multiple times, eventually we’ll show you an arrow that shows you exactly where to move,» Sammi Siegel, a software engineer with Duolingo, said.

If you are subscribed to Duolingo Max and make a mistake in a language lesson, the app can explain the mistake — and what the right solution is — with a feature called Explain My Answer. However, that feature won’t be available with the chess lessons for now. It’s not always easy to explain why something is right or wrong in chess because there are so many millions of different moves.

«We want to get better at fuller explanations,» Siegel said. «There is some mix of AI and model training that we’re hoping to use to better explain why a certain move is wrong.» Because there are so many moves in chess, it’s possible to make moves that could be correct but aren’t the best options. In such instances, Duolingo will show a banner that lets you know that a move isn’t wrong but isn’t necessarily the best move. 

Duolingo also said each section represents a range on the Elo rating system, the method by which a chess player’s skills are calculated. As you progress, your lessons will be tougher and more challenging. This is similar to the CEFR language proficiency levels attached to the different language sections in the app.

You’ll also have the opportunity to have «mini-matches» or full-on games against Duolingo’s chess coach, Oscar. These matches will scale in difficulty to challenge you as well, so you aren’t facing a grandmaster-level chess player after your first week of playing the game. But that doesn’t mean you can slack off and play sloppily. If you make a mistake, like leaving your queen open to capture, Oscar will take advantage and leave you scrambling to recover.

While playing against Oscar is good practice, you won’t be able to face off against other players when these chess lessons launch. But Duolingo said matches against other people are something they are looking into, so you might be able to play against a friend over the app in the future. «One of the big reasons why we’re doing this is we think we can get a whole generation of people interested in chess,» Bodge said.

Duolingo’s new chess lessons are now available in the beta version now and will start rolling out on iOS in English in May. Duolingo said it is working to bring these lessons to Android devices and more languages in the coming months.

For more on Duolingo, check out how well the free version prepared me for a trip to Italy and our review of the language learning app. You can also check out our best language learning apps.