Next up in my semi-rural player series, Inkay Research Day! This time I was playing in my local area, which means 12 Pokéstops spread across a couple of miles. With a research day based entirely on field research from Pokéstops, that can be an issue.
Now, with 12 Pokéstops I am aware I am a lot luckier than some trainers. I’ve worked hard to create those Pokéstops, analysing S2 cells and making sure things were positioned just right to really optimise points of interests as best as I can. Before we could submit Pokéstops we had 2, at literal opposite ends of the area, so things are a lot better than they were! I call myself semi-rural because of this, so this is my Inkay Research Day review.
I ended the day with 5 shiny Inkay, which is a lot more than I expected. It took me over an hour to get the first one, on research task 33, and then in the final 30 or so tasks I got an additional 4 shinies. Not too shabby!
While my screenshot shows 62 Inkay, I suspect a couple ended up in my research stack, so it is probably around 65 total research tasks that I managed to do.
One of the biggest issues I had in my town, was that of the 12 Pokéstops, 3 didn’t have event tasks. This took my truly ‘local’ checks down to 9. I did end up going back and re-spinning those tasks with an AR scanning task, and 2 gave me another event task, but one stayed a regular field research task. As I travelled to different areas I found this happened in small clusters, I’d get Inkay tasks for a little while, then suddenly 2 or 3 non-event tasks that I just had to delete.
To take part in Inkay Research Day, I knew right away I couldn’t do it on foot. It would have limited me to only the 12 local Pokéstops, and no more. Instead I opted to drive because I could cover more ground, and therefore get more field research tasks. I worked either in clusters, parking up safely and legally to obtain and complete tasks, or else relied on my Pokéball Plus to spin three stops, before I then parked up somewhere else to complete them. It certainly makes for an awkward play technique, and takes a lot of time. Usually for events like GO Fest I travel a couple of towns over to a popular seafront area that has a fairly good density of Pokéstops, but as I got back from a holiday last night at nearly midnight, I was pretty exhausted before Inkay Research Day even started. It was 25 degrees Celsius locally, so I knew the car was my best option. I pretty much have the local areas memorised for Pokéstops, so I could plan my route accordingly.
Instead of travelling several towns over to stay in one place, I journeyed between 5 smaller towns and villages, doing as many Pokéstops as I could. Some of those areas had only 2 or 3 Pokéstops total, others had similar amounts to my own town. None had more than 15. This meant that my Inkay Research Day cost me fuel money as well as the 3 hours, which isn’t ideal in a time of such high fuel prices. Not everyone has the option I had, to drive a personal car, and therefore plenty of rural and semi-rural players are stuck with the incredibly limited options in their local areas.
I’d love to see Niantic address this, because this is an issue that affects both rural players, and those who are disabled. You need high density Pokéstops areas, and the ability to travel on foot easily and quickly. Tasks like ‘Earn a candy walking with your Buddy’ require a minimum 1km walk, not a particularly accessible task, and ‘Battle in a Gym’ requires you to actually be able to access a gym, and more importantly, a gym you haven’t been stuck in forever, that is controlled by a team that isn’t your own.
There is potential for Pokéstops to have a ‘refresh’ option. Maybe every hour field research tasks could be reset, therefore helping those players who have limited stop options. Your 5 local stops suddenly becomes 15 over those 3 hours, a much greater number of checks for your much hunted for shiny. It allows those restricted for stops because they are rural to gain more options, as well as for those who are disabled and may struggle to travel large areas due to their conditions/the densely concentrated areas of Pokéstops may not be in accessible areas.
Shiny rates for Research Days are often reported to be between 1 in 10, and 1 in 20, so being able to triple your chances can make a huge difference when you have limited options.
Rural players want to get out and explore, but when you can’t physically create any more Pokéstops in your area, it can be really frustrating. I am lucky to be able to drive and have access to a car, but many aren’t so fortunate.
