Trainers, listen up! You’ve participated in Kanto, Johto and Hoenn Throwback Challenges, and soon you will participate in the Sinnoh Throwback Challenge as well. In their original announcement, Niantic shared that Trainers will be required to all 4 region themed special research quest lines to unlock the final Throwback Challenge Champion 2020 Special Research.
Today, we’re getting more information on what happens if you missed out on 1 of the previous Throwback Challenges and how you can catch up by purchasing a Special Research ticket.
Before diving into catch-up mechanism and research tickets, here’s what you can expect from the Throwback Challenge 2020 Special Research.
Throwback Challenge 2020 Special Research
If you earn the Throwback Challenge Champion 2020 Special Research or purchase a ticket for the Throwback Challenge Celebration 2020 Special Research, you’ll receive the following.
- Encounters with Galarian Meowth and Galarian Stunfisk! This will be their first appearance in Pokémon GO.
- Research tasks that lead to encounters with Pokémon originally discovered in the Unova region, such as Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott, Blitzle, Audino, Darumaka, Gothita, and Genesect.
- A chance to earn exciting rewards, including Professor Willow’s glasses as an exclusive avatar item!
Unlocking the Throwback Challenge 2020 Special Research
If you completed all Timed Research quest lines (Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh), you will unlock the final Special Research automatically and gain access to called Throwback Challenge Champion 2020 Special Research.
If you missed out on any of the four Timed Research lines, you will need to purchase a ticket and gain access to Throwback Challenge Celebration 2020 Special Research.
If you earned Challenge Champion, you can still buy the Challenge Celebration ticket and this has an interesting interplay, as you will have access to both quest lines, Challenge Champion and Challenge Celebration (special version).
Your special version of Challenge Celebration will have the following changes applied:
- Each time you would’ve earned a reward encounter with a Pokémon, you instead will earn 10 Candies for that specific Pokémon
- You’ll earn Stardust instead of Professor Willow’s glasses
In layman terms:
- If you did all Timed Research challenges, you will have the quest line automatically. You can then chose to spend US $7.99 to get another quest line that will give you some Candy and Stardust
- If you did not do all Timed Research challenges, you will need to buy a ticket to unlock the Special Research
Ticket information
To purchase the Throwback Challenge Celebration 2020 Special Research, you must open Pokémon GO during the event from Wednesday, June 3, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. to Monday, June 8, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. in your local time zone. After you’ve received the Special Research, you can complete it at any time.
The ticket is US$7.99 plus taxes or fees (or the equivalent in your local currency) and can be purchased in the shop. The ticket cannot be purchased with PokéCoins.
Tickets can be purchased from when they go live until Monday, June 8, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. in your local time zone. Stay tuned for when tickets are available to purchase!
The ticket for this Special Research is nonrefundable.
Timed Research Challenges
