Pokémon TCG Scraper

This Node.js script scrapes Pokémon card data from the website pocket.limitlesstcg.com, collecting detailed information about each card including its stats, rarity, attacks, abilities, and more.

Data Source

The data for Pokémon cards was obtained from the Pocket Limitless TCG website. This data was used for the creation of the dataset in JSON.

Features

• Scrapes card data from multiple sets (A1, P-A, A1a, A2, A2a, A2b)
• Extracts key information such as:
  • Name, ID, HP, Type, Card Type, Evolution Type
  • Image, Attacks, Abilities, Weakness, Retreat Cost
  • Rarity, Pack, Artist, Alternate Versions
  • Crafting Costs and Pull Probabilities
• Saves results to a JSON file (cards.json by default)
• Skips already downloaded cards for efficiency
• Includes error handling and retry limits

Setup

Requirements

• Node.js (v18 or later recommended)
• axios, cheerio for HTTP requests and HTML parsing

Installation

npm run install

Usage

You can run the scraper via CLI:

npm run start

By default, it scrapes cards with IDs from 1 to 300 for each set.

Arguments:

• startId: Starting numeric ID of cards to scrape
• endId: Ending numeric ID
• outputFile: Optional path to output JSON file

Data Format

Each card in the JSON output includes fields like:

{
  "id": "123",
  "name": "Pikachu",
  "hp": "60",
  "type": "Electric",
  "card_type": "Pokémon",
  "evolution_type": "Basic",
  "image": "https://...",
  "attacks": [ ... ],
  "ability": { ... },
  "weakness": "Fighting",
  "retreat": "1",
  "rarity": "◊◊",
  "fullart": "No",
  "ex": "No",
  "setCode": "A1",
  "set_details": "Set Title",
  "pack": "Pikachu pack",
  "alternate_versions": [ ... ],
  "artist": "John Doe",
  "probability": { "4 card": "90.000%" },
  "crafting_cost": 70
}

Notes

• Full art cards are marked based on rarity (☆, ☆☆, ☆☆☆, or "Crown Rare")
• Rarity affects both probability of pulling and crafting cost
• Some default fallback values are used for unknown fields

Legal Disclaimer and Copyright Notice

This project is non-commercial and for educational purposes only. All rights to Pokémon and any related intellectual property, including but not limited to trademarks, copyrights, and patents, are owned by their respective holders. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the owners of Pokémon or any related entities. No infringement of intellectual property rights is intended.