Niantic’s recent announcement about the introduction of the new Research Feature (quests) in Pokémon GO (See our news coverage here) certainly made a huge impression on the Pokémon GO community! In light of this incredible announcement, we have created a few guides to help you better prepare and to know better what to expect from this new feature. In this guide, we will focus on the Special Research activity/challenge.
At the moment we are writing this guide, we are still left with very little information, but enough to help you prepare for the Special Research tasks coming on March 30th!
How does it work?
Special Research tasks are story-driven activities that may be requested by Professor Willow himself, and they will unfold as the Trainer completes more objectives. Special Research is available after Level 5. Completing Special Research tasks advances the story and gets you closer to a Mythical Encounter. You can only encounter Mew once via the Special Research system.
“Professor Willow will present the Special Research himself with story-driven activities that will take Trainers further into the world of Pokémon GO than ever before”
Unlike Field Research tasks, it doesn’t seem that Special Research tasks can be removed, which makes sense considering that the reward, in the end, is much bigger than the rewards that one can obtain from Field Research tasks.
However, and some players might disagree with that, but yes, there will be preconditions to some specific quests. This means that some of the quests will only be unlocked after you reach a particular level/medal in the game.
By completing various research requests given from Professor Willow, research progresses and the story progresses. As the story progresses, the difficulty level of requests will also rise.
According to the official Japanese Pokémon GO website, you can complete the Mythical Discovery quest only once per account and the quest chain becomes available once you hit Level 5. We can’t confirm 100%, but we suspect that after you complete the quest, you will be able to encounter Mew in the wild outside of the Special Research system.
What do I have to do to complete Special Research tasks?
Special Research are story-driven activities that may be requested by Professor Willow himself. Players will need to be at least level 5 to enter the Mythical Encounter quest. Below are listed the 16 possible Field Research tasks (some remain unfortunately unclear) and it seems that the same type of quests appears in the Special research section:
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As it is the case with Field Research tasks, a handful of quests will be impossible to complete for some trainers, such as leveling up. However, unlike Field Research tasks, there is currently no indication that Special Research tasks can be deleted/removed/flushed, but we are suspecting that these tasks will be removable or at least adapted accordingly.
As per the picture above, your progress is clearly highlighted so you can easily know how much you have left in order to complete a task.
What are the rewards?
The rewards can be found on the right of the screen (see the image above). Completion of Special Research tasks will reward you with Experience; and completing all special tasks in the chain will reward you with a Mythical Encounter.
Considering that Mew is the only confirmed mythical at the moment, we can safely assume that trainers will encounter Mew upon completion of all required quests.
MAJOR UPDATE: It has apparently been confirmed by the Pokémon GO Company in Japan that players can go through the search for Mew only once! Does that mean that Mew will be a guaranteed catch similarly to Shiny Lugia? Time will tell.
How will you be able to obtain it? Through a catch sequence or will it simply be rewarded to you directly in your inventory? These questions remain to be answered.
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