In this guide, you will find best practices and strategies for completing Field Research Tasks in Pokémon GO. There are a couple of different strategies to follow, depending on your overall goals in the game. In this guide we will cover strategies for the following goals.
- Shiny Hunting
- Stardust Farming
- Mega Energy Farming
- Candy and XL Farming
Field Research Basics
Field Research Tasks have been a main feature in Pokémon GO since March 2018. Over the years, the tasks have evolved and have become an integral part of the general play of the game. Research Tasks offer an opportunity to hunt a specific high IV Pokémon, outside of raiding or nesting functions. It is also an opportunity to hunt for specific in game resources like dust, berries, balls, candy, and mega energy.
While some tasks are event specific, there is a general pool of tasks that does not change, and so specific strategies can be adopted in order to efficiently complete tasks according to your playstyle. For example, there is a “Win 5 Raids” task that will give you an encounter with Aerodactyl and as far as we know, this task is a constant in the game.
Aerodactyl as the reward may be changed in the future, but the task itself exists and will most likely continue to exist. A lot of the task rewards are changed on a monthly basis, so you will want to look out for future guides or consult wherever you find your research task news.
Tasks can offer Pokémon, stardust, or item rewards and you can hold three tasks at once. In most instances, item rewards like berries can be deleted immediately. Items like berries or Poké Balls are very common and are most likely a waste of energy and space.
You are most likely overloaded with these more common items already because you are spinning stops to do Field Research. The one exception to this would be rare items like Rare Candies or Silver Pinaps.
There is also the AR scanning task that can be done, which grants an extra opportunity to receive rewards at stops. Essentially, you can check stops twice, but these tasks do require extra real world time and effort. If you have limited stops in your area though, this may be a good option to boost your reward opportunities. Leave a comment if you would like a guide specifically for this.
Monthly Research Tasks
These are tasks we’ve seen repeatedly available month after month. We expect them to be a main stay of Pokémon GO’s Field Research for the foreseeable future.
| Explorer Tasks |
|---|
| Hatch an Egg |
| Hatch 2 Eggs |
| Spin 3 PokéStops or Gyms |
| Spin 5 PokéStops or Gyms |
| Take a snapshot of a wild Pokémon |
| Take 2 snapshots of wild Steel-type Pokémon |
| Evolve a Pokémon |
| Friendship Tasks |
|---|
| Earn 3 hearts with your buddy |
| Earn a Candy walking with your buddy |
| Earn 2 Candies walking with your buddy |
| Earn 3 Candies walking with your buddy |
| Send 3 Gifts and add a sticker to each |
| Trade a Pokémon |
| Battle Tasks |
|---|
| Defeat 2 Team GO Rocket Grunts |
| Battle in GO Battle League |
| Win a raid |
| Win a three-star raid or higher |
| Win 5 Raids |
| Catching Tasks |
|---|
| Catch 5 Pokémon |
| Catch 7 Pokémon |
| Catch 10 Pokémon |
| Catch 5 different species of Pokémon |
| Catch 5 Pokémon with Weather Boost |
| Use 5 Berries to help catch Pokémon |
| Catch 10 Grass-type Pokémon |
| Catch 10 Water-type Pokémon |
| Catch 10 Fire-type Pokémon |
| Catch 10 Normal-type Pokémon |
| Catch 10 Pokémon with Weather Boost |
| Catch a Dragon-type Pokémon |
| Catch a Ditto |
| Throwing Tasks |
|---|
| Make 5 Nice Throws |
| Make 3 Great Throws |
| Make 3 Great Throws in a row |
| Make 5 Great Curveball Throws in a row |
| Make 5 Curveball Throws in a row |
| Make 3 Excellent Throws in a row |
| Make 2 Nice Curveball Throws in a row |
| Make 3 Nice Throws in a row |
| Make 3 Great Curveball Throws |
| Make 3 Great Curveball Throws in a row |
| Make an Excellent Throw |
| Power Up Tasks |
|---|
| Power up Pokémon 3 times |
| Power up Pokémon 5 times |
| Power up Pokémon 7 times |
| Power up Pokémon 10 times |
| Sponsored Tasks |
|---|
| Send 3 gifts to Friends |
| Catch 8 Pokémon |
General Tips
- Complete easy tasks first and keep a mental tally of harder task locations to try and stack them later to complete multiple hard tasks at once.
- Prioritize getting a new task over catching as the next task may require it.
- Stack same or similar tasks as much as possible to complete them at the same time.
- Save walking-based tasks for the end of your research hunting to complete in the background using Adventure Sync.
- Delete berry and Poké Ball task rewards immediately for a new task. (Unless you are in need of them, rural trainers may prefer to keep hold of these tasks)
- Save Pokémon in reward queue during lulls in spawns to complete tasks.
- Generally, avoid tasks that require catching specific type Pokémon, unless you have a guaranteed source for that specific type.
- Always stack power up tasks to save stardust.
- Avoid power up tasks unless you are hunting for that task’s specific reward (mega energy, shiny or 100% IV Pokémon). Powering up Pokémon is expensive and is a net loss, so make sure it’s worth it to you.
- Power up Pokémon you plan on powering up to be most efficient, either for PvP or PvE.
- Power up level 1 Pokémon to save dust. Its only 200 dust per power up for the first couple of levels.
Shiny Hunting
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Pokémon encounters and Event Tasks
Research Tasks make shiny hunting a little more fun and a little easier when a specific Pokémon you are looking for is a possible reward. The key idea is to focus on those tasks that reward specific Pokémon you are looking for that can be shiny. It’s a pretty simple concept, but the tasks can be harder to complete either by skill (throwing tasks) or by requiring more time to complete. For example, hatching an egg can be a time-consuming task depending on the eggs you have available, your incubator situation, and if you already have one incubating or not.
If limited on time, throw away tasks that do not have the desired reward to spin as many stops as possible looking for the desired task and reward. The compulsion to keep all tasks is prevalent in many people but resist this frame of thinking. You can always go back to a task before they reset at midnight.
If shiny hunting is your main play-style, then make sure to pay attention to event-based research tasks. These tasks will often be more prevalent and easier to stack. Event based tasks also often have increased shiny chances. Make sure to look up event specific guides to keep track of new tasks for new shiny chances!
Stardust Farming
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Pokémon encounters and Catching or Throwing Tasks
As a rule, we suggest prioritising Stardust as much as possible as it is the most limited resource in the game. It can also help to remember that Pokémon rewards are also stardust rewards, as you are guaranteed at least 100 Stardust for catching the Pokémon and more for specific Pokémon or evolutions.
Tasks that offer stardust as a reward are limited to the catching and throwing task list, with two exceptions being sending 3 Gifts to Friends and Spinning 3 PokéStops. This makes stardust hunting fairly easy, as you can continually progress these tasks as long as you have decent Pokémon spawns. It also makes it easy to stack similar tasks and complete multiple at one time.
One strategy that is utilized by some is to save Pokémon evolutions in the reward queue and wait for stardust event for maximum dust per Pokémon. This strategy is very good, but it can be hard to keep track of how many are in the queue and this takes away time from the event if there are specific spawns you want to catch.
This strategy also limits your ability to use the reward queue to supplement spawns for catching and throwing task completion. It is recommended to do preparations relatively close to events to prevent overloading your reward queue and to limit inference of your regular game play.
You can also use this same strategy and hunt tasks that reward Pokémon that give extra stardust when you catch them. For a full list of the Pokémon that give extra stardust, refer to our guide. Save these Pokémon in your reward queue and catch them during bonus stardust events that grant 2x or 3x Stardust for maximum stardust gains. Don’t forget to put on that star piece as well.
Mega Energy Farming
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Power Up and Catch 10 Pokémon Tasks
An amazing addition to task rewards is the introduction of the rotating mega energy reward for powering up a Pokémon 10 times. One of the most frustrating aspects of mega evolutions, is the need to raid. Some players don’t have the funds to raid remotely, and it can be hard to find a party to take down mega raids these days using your free daily in person raid pass. There is also
These particular tasks seem to be fairly common at the time of this guides creation, which makes it easy to stack them and earn 75 mega energy for the Pokémon of the month with powering up a Pokémon 10 times. This will cost you about 2000 dust if using the level 1 Pokémon strategy.
If you need mega energy for the 3 starters (Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur), Beedrill, or Pidgeot, then you can also stack the catch 10 “type” Pokémon or the Power Up 5 Pokémon and get those. However, it may take a lot of time to find 10 of particular type of Pokémon, so it is up to you if you need to prioritize this Mega Energy or not.
Candy and XL Farming
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Pokemon Encounters and Rare Candy Tasks
Another limiting resource is Pokémon candy. You can use research tasks to catch specific Pokémon for any candy you may need and a chance to obtain XL Candy. You can also stack Pokémon in your reward queue and wait for double candy events to boost your candy gathering capabilities. There are also events that grant extra XL candy for transfers or trading, which can be utilized to your advantage.
This is especially useful for rare spawn Pokémon or research and raid locked Pokémon. The key is to know what tasks offer which Pokémon, which you will need to look at updated research task reward guides.
There is also the opportunity to gain rare candy from a reward, which is nice for those that aren’t able to raid as much. Rare candy is a pretty common reward for raiding, and is probably not much of an incentive for those players able to raid a lot. Luckily, the task for gaining the rare candy are fairly easy.
