Genesect Special Research

Normally I wouldn’t spend €8.99 on a single thing in Pokemon Go. I’m actually pretty tight and will only spend a tenner or so every couple of months for raids. But considering how all EX-raids are cancelled for the time being and my local community is struggling to get enough players for EX-raids anyway? I probably won’t ever be able to ever GET a Genesect for a long, long time.

So I bought the premium research, A Drive To Investigate.

So A Drive to Investigate does the same thing that most previous Special Research does. You do a bunch of simple tasks, get some small rewards then get to catch a Mythical Pokemon. The research for Mew, Celebi, Meltan and Jirachi were all free, but Regigigas and Genesect require buying a ticket and starting the quest at a certain time.

Regigigas’s quest required catching each of the three Regis. Genesect’s quest requires catching a fuckton of Pokemon of certain types. Normal, fire, water, electric, ice. All based on the different “Drives” that Genesect can hold in the main games, that change the typing of his special move, Technoblast.

There’s one task that gives 1000 stardust, one task that gives an encounter and one that requires you to catch Pokemon for 3 rare candies.

Really, all you do is catch Pokemon.

A LOT of Pokemon

You need 25 of each type. Which normally would be fine! Except for the fact that not everyone can go outside to catch Pokemon. And Incense isn’t guaranteed to spawn you the Pokemon you need in that 1 hour. For a research task that’s been released during a time when people can play outside as they please, this is a little tricky. Especially when it comes to Ice types and Electric Types, which are pretty rare. So are Water types if you don’t live near water.

And then you have the issue of running out of Pokeballs. 25 Pokemon per stage means catching 125 Pokemon total. That’s 125 Pokeballs, assuming that every Pokemon catches on the first try.

My closest Pokestop is a 10 minute walk away, outside a church. And I live pretty close, all things considered. Sure, you can open gifts, but gifts will only give you 9 Pokeballs at most but can also give you no Pokeballs at all. Plus, you are limited to how many gifts you can open per day. Good luck catching those jumpy, extra-aggressive incense Pokemon!

Was it worth it?

From a pure items stand point? Yeah, probably. €8.99 is about 900 coins, but the items you get are worth more than 900 coins. Five premium passes alone is 500 coins and three super incubators are 600 coins.

But from a gameplay standpoint? No. It wasn’t worth it. Sure, these research tasks are never particularly challenging, but considering everything that is going on, the special research asks for both too much and too little. Catching a bunch of Pokemon of a certain type is more frustrating than it should be because of how random spawns are. But at the same time, the other tasks are ludicrously easy. Even “Hatch an Egg” is easy if you have a 2km egg and can shake your hand a bit.

And honestly? I feel bad for buying it. Because clearly these premium-only research tasks are going to be a continuing thing. And me purchasing it says that I am fine with what is a morally grey area when it comes to free to play content.

So, uh, I kinda feel like I wasted €8.99. Especially since, like Deoxys, Genesect will probably be back. With a shiny form too…