Rick and Morty were working in the garage as usual, when a Mysterious Rick appears from a portal and challenges them to a Morty Fight. Following him through a portal, Rick ends up in the Citadel of Ricks, where his portal gun is confiscated. In order to get it back and return home, Rick must collect various Mortys, obtain the badges of the gym leaders, and defeat the council's six head Ricks.
Pocket Mortys features examples of the following tropes:
- All in a Row: Mortys follow their trainer in their battle order.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Upon beating the game, Rick's sprite is permanently changed to include a sash and a cape, the latter of which Rick swiped off the Mysterious Rick after beating him.
- Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: Averted. Despite the show being aimed at teens and adults, this game is rated E.
- Big Ball of Violence: Appears in the multiplayer version to show when another player is engaged in combat.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: You can buy coupons for Blips and Chitz machines which give random items and Mortys. Understandably this can make it much easier.
- Can't Drop the Hero: You can't put your original Morty in the Morty Daycare.
- May count as
Fridge Brilliance, considering how much our Rick seems to care about his Morty in the show, despite usually claiming otherwise. - However this was undone in a later update.
- May count as
- Cap: Morty levels cap at 100, and the player can only carry 10 of each item.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: Received one called "Pocket Like You Stole It", which began in July 2017.
- Continuity Nod: The background music at the start of the game is a Chiptune version of "Do You Feel It?", the background song playing when Rick reaches his Despair Event Horizon at the end of "Auto Erotic Assimilation".
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Having all your Mortys dazed caused Birdperson to fly in and transport you back to the Citadel of Ricks, where your Mortys are healed. You can then head back through the portal to a new random world. If you're trying to grind without increasing the difficulty of the encounters, this is the only way to get back to the Citadel without beating the Rick of the universe you're in.
- Deconstructive Parody: Of the Mon genre. All the Mortys cry out in pain when struck, complain about being forced to fight, and are treated like property by not just Rick but all sorts of aliens.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Parodied. The elements are literally rock, paper and scissors. They work exactly how you'd expect.
- Guide Dang It!: Pocket Mortys features a crafting system that involves combining various objects you find throughout the game to create useful items. The game, however, does not tell you what the recipes for each item are, causing many players to look up them up online rather than resort to trial and error.
- This was also dismissed, and the game now gives you all recipes by default. This also causes the original interface being unnecessary and removed.
- Hub Level: The Citadel of Ricks contains all the quest-givers, main bosses, the healing center, Morty Daycare, and any other conveniences. Near the bottom is a portal which transports you to random worlds to earn badges.
- Item Crafting: You can combine various junk items into useable items or other inventions.
- Lighter and Softer: While the humor is still dark, it is considerably toned down compared to the show, and there is practically no adult content other than a "hell" or "damn" here and there. However, the App Store still rates the game 17+.
- Shout-Out: At the Citadel of Ricks, if you talk to Hopeful Rick, he will say, "I want to be the very best like no one ever was".
- The description for Girl Morty reads, "This Morty is the twin sister of the Morty with a baseball cap. She can often be seen standing in the background, making references to other shows."
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Literally, as the three Morty types are Rock, Paper, and Scissors, which interact exactly how you'd expect.
- Uniqueness Value: Parodied with the Shiny version of Mortys, which are all the basic model of a Morty going through a kaleidoscopic color shift, making them all similar to each other and the non-shiny version of the Morty.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The premise of capturing a large variety of Mons, fighting gym leaders to obtain badges, and defeating an elite group, is identical to the Pokémon games.
