Hey trainers, this is a brief summary of how Feebas Research Day went down in Europe and how it actually felt to participate. I won’t lie, the event felt pretty lackluster, especially with the odd choice of research quests and quest requirements, it felt pretty randomly patched together. But alas, let’s leave the emotional part for the end and let’s focus on the facts for now.
Here’s what you can expect:
- There are four different Feebas research quests:
- Feebas Research: Earn 1 Buddy Candy
- Feebas Research: Hatch 1 Egg
- Feebas Research: Make 10 Great Throws
- Feebas Research: Make 15 Nice Throws
- Shiny Feebas encounters are not determined by the PokeStop that gave you a particular quest, they are completely random
- Shiny Feebas encounters are not tied to a particular quest. All quests can give a shiny encounter
- The chance to encounter a shiny Feebas feels quite low, not sure what percentage exactly, but it’s much closer to Raid day odds than it is to Community day odds
- It is possible to encounter a shiny Feebas from Feebas Research tasks after the event has ended
- The quests seem uniformly distributed, there was roughly the same amount of every quest in the area we played in
- PokeStops will not give Feebas Research outside the event time window
- You can and you should stack your Feebas encounters and just go through the quests as fast as possible
- Our local spawns were more or less the same spawns we get every day
We want to additionally emphasize one thing: Shiny Feebas encounters are not tied to a particular quest. We tested this in my local community and I’ve posted a poll on Go Hub’s Twitter asking for information from other players.
The poll results speak for themselves (the poll is opened for 24 hours, so you need to click the tweet to see the results, but each quest was chosen by ~25% voters):
Trainers, which research task gave you a shiny Feebas? (If you got one)
— Pokémon GO Hub (@PokemonGOHubNet) January 19, 2019
Thoughts about the event
Well, I’m not really sure what to say. I feel like the event wasn’t great and that sentiment is shared by the group that I was playing with and by a growing number of players who shared their story on Reddit and Twitter.
There are two main gripes with the event:
- Poor quest selection that feels completely disconnected from Feebas. The quests don’t have a theme, they don’t feel “researchy” in any way and it’s like someone picked a random set of tasks that feature different game loops. The only quest that feels “Feebas-like” is Earn 1 Buddy Candy.
- Quest requirements are too high. Make 10 Great and Make 15 Nice throw quest requirements are too high for this type of event, as it accidentally forces players to remain in the same area. Players will not leave the are before they clear out the majority of PokeStops in that area, and long running quests prevent city exploration and walking which fuels two other Feebas quests. One can argue that you can pick up the throwing quests and start walking, but that defeats the purpose of systematically clearing an area.
In addition to these two problems, it felt like you should be playing alone to get the maximum from this type of event. Quests are very different which can result in group members pursuing their favorite quest type, as some players want to walk and others want to finish their throwing quests. On one hand this feels liberating, but on the hand the event does not feel like it’s designed to bring communities together.
Tips for the event
Regardless of how you approach the event, here are some general tips that you should keep in mind:
- Using a 1KM buddy is a must. This is simply the best way to complete “Earn 1 Buddy Candy” quests.
- You should use primarily normal Pokeballs as Pokemon can break out and give you a chance for another Nice / Great throw.
- Don’t expect a high number of shiny Feebas.
- Don’t bother catching Feebas during the event. Stack it and continue completing Research quests.
- Don’t complete research tasks before the event starts. You won’t be able to get new Field research from completed PokeStops.
- Hatch an Egg quest is the slowest quest you can complete. Prioritize other quests over it.
Good luck Trainer!
