Good day, Pokémon trainers! So far, there has been only one Master Ball available in Pokémon GO, which is a ball that has a guaranteed chance at catching Pokémon. That all changes with the new season. As there is now a timed research that you can complete to receive another shiny new Master Ball! (or pay for one if you fail to complete it).
However, unlike other timed research, this one is a timed research, available until November 21, 2023. It must be completed, and claimed, during that time, and it has quite some beefy tasks to complete. As such, it might seem a bit daunting at first. This is why I am here today to hopefully help you create a masterfully crafted game plan to get the Master Ball! So with that being said:
tl;dr and General Tips
- While this article is written with free-to-play players in mind. It can still be applied even if you pay for the game. You will just have a slightly easier time.
- You’re not really completely denied resources if you can’t spend any money on Pokémon GO. As you can get 50 Pokécoins each day if you’re Pokémon comes back after holding onto a gym for 8 hours and 20 minutes.
- A lot of what you might need to finish the research can be bought with these few Pokécoins alone. If smartly invested.
- A lot of the research tasks rely on regularity. Go(heh) about your regular Pokémon GO grind with what the tasks are in mind. And you should be able to safely complete all the tasks before time runs out.
- Remember to have Adventure Sync turned on from the game’s settings.
With that out of the way, let’s start with the detailed tips and tricks for each of the tasks:
Research Task Tips and Tricks
Now let’s go through each task one by one:
Catch 1000 Pokémon
As basic as they come. With 81 days to complete the research, you can get this done just by catching 12 Pokémon a day. Make use of incense and lure modules during events with increased spawns, such as Community Days. And you should have this one done rather easily.
Win 60 Raids
A bit more troublesome. If you’re in an area where people actively participate in raids, then you should be fine. But if not, I would recommend checking the game multiple times a day to see if there are any 1 or 2-star raids you can participate in. As those are easy enough to just win solo. If even that isn’t possible and there are no, or very few raids in your area, then you might have to rely on Remote Raid Passes. And if you’re free-to-play I wouldn’t recommend using your gym-earned Pokécoins on remote raid passes unless you reeeally need to. This is because of the next task:
Hatch 30 Eggs
Now, I would personally like to recommend you prioritize 2 and 5-kilometer eggs for this task. And while that still holds true, you don’t really have much of a say in the matter. As your egg storage is going to be full of eggs obtained from Pokéstops you come across. And there is no way to transfer eggs like there is for Pokémon. So depending on how many kilometers you get in Pokémon GO you might need to invest a few of your gym-earned Pokécoins for some incubators. Also definitely keep an eye out for events that allow for shorter hatch distances!
Additionally, remember to keep Adventure Sync on to make the process a lot quicker.
Catch 100 different species of Pokémon
I’ve done a quick count based on all the news available for this season.
If you stay in a single hemisphere and habitat, counting in the wild spawns, confirmed egg hatches, spotlight hours, research rewards, and daily incense spawns, you get around 50 unique Pokémon. I’m not counting raid Pokémon, and it may be a bit more or less that 50 if certain Pokémon can be found through multiple methods in your habitat. Regardless, I believe you are meant to keep an eye out for events in order to get the other 50-ish Pokémon.
Also worth noting is that it is 100 different species of Pokémon after the research has started. It doesn’t matter, positively or negatively, if you’ve caught any of these Pokémon before or not.
Make 120 Excellent Throws
This one’s more of a matter of skill rather than strategy. Everybody has their own method of accomplishing this. We ourselves have a guide to start you off on getting those excellent throws. I find that throwing the ball to hit the Pokémon when the ring touches the Pokémon’s pupils works well for me. Though of course, you can’t really apply this to every Pokémon.
Just keep in mind that you have this task on hand and try to get as many excellent throws as possible and you should be fine.
Complete 150 Field Research Tasks
You get daily research tasks from Pokéstops (but not gyms). So this task goes well with the Pokémon catching tasks. You can have a solid gameplay loop of catching Pokémon and then collecting Pokéballs from Pokéstops to kill two birds with one stone. Keep in mind that you can remove daily research tasks from the task window. So feel free to remove tasks you don’t really need in favor of the ones that you can complete quickly. Such as “use x amounts of berries to catch Pokémon” or “Make x amounts of Great Throws”.
Explore 50 km
Honestly, this one should be rather easy if you play the game every week. I seem to break the 25-km mark every week just through regular play. Remember to keep Adventure Sync on to make this process quicker.
Spin 300 PokéStops
The same advice for the Field Research Tasks…task applies here as well.
Earn 100,000 XP and Earn 100,000 Stardust
Despite the large numbers, these two are relatively easy. We get 3x Stardust on this month’s Community Day Classic. And 4x XP and Stardust for 5 whole days on an upcoming event. You also get 8,000 XP from completing all of the other research tasks on this list. And 100,000 XP when you become best buddies with another trainer. So all in all, you have a lot of opportunities to finish these two quickly.
Conclusion
So there you have it. While these tasks may seem daunting at first, they can definitely be completed in time with a little bit of diligence. I would like to close off by mentioning that, some of the upcoming events are very exciting in terms of content and will probably make a lot of these tasks easier to achieve. So no need to rush, just start chipping down at the tasks at your own pace and you’ll be done with them in no time.
Goodbye for now, Pokémon trainers. Priom-out!
