Probably the Worst Timed Research Ever

Just before the Johto tour event, Pokemon GO had a “restocking” event where we could save up Pokeballs for the upcoming tour. Called the Poké Ball Prep Rally, it is designed to give you plenty of Pokeballs. The bonuses of this event were that your buddy would bring extra Pokeballs as gifts and some ball-shaped Pokemon were spawning. Oh, and this event also included probably the worst Timed Research I’ve ever seen.

100% NOT WORTH IT!

The timed research for this prep rally were as follows: Spin Pokestops, send gifts and open research tasks. Do those three once, then do the same thing but three, five and then ten times. All you got from this are Pokeballs. But not even that many Pokeballs! You could get more Pokeballs from opening gifts than you could doing this research!

Seriously, if you want to stock up on Pokeballs, the timed research was actually one of the worst ways to do so. Spinning gyms and pokestops normally is just as productive as the timed research tasks. Only the last stage actually gave you more than a handful of Pokeballs. And opening gifts from friends and completing the task of sending gifts get around about the same number of Pokeballs.

If it wasn’t for Buddies giving up to 12 Pokeballs as gifts, this event would have been completely useless.

“But what about rural players, surely this helps?”

Nope, not at all. If you’re in a rural location, the timed research is even more tedious to do. Because if you had limited Pokestops, then you had limited research tasks to even do. The things that do help rural players get Pokeballs are via friends’ gifts and their buddy Pokemon. The timed research does nothing to help.

But even the damn event research from Pokestops were bad as well! The majority of the tasks are “do x throws” or “catch x Pokemon” and get a handful of Pokeballs in return. The most common task in this event was “catch 2 Voltorbs” for 3 Pokeballs. But really, that research only gives you a single Pokeball. If it takes 3 Pokeballs to catch said Voltorbs (even balls can jump and attack) then you’re no better off. Might as well not have even done the task!

Yet more fucking Voltorbs

For a dumb and somewhat obvious reason, there were Voltorbs everywhere. Now, normally, I don’t hate the lazy fake Pokeball design, but damn am I sick and tired of seeing it. I suppose though, at least we can evolve the Hisuian Voltorb, but Hisuian Electrode is… well, it’s just as uninspired as normal Electrode. They didn’t even bother to change Hisuian Electrodes colours! It’s literally just Electrode but wooden, just like Voltorb. What REALLY pisses me off though is that almost all of 2021’s events, we’ve had TONS of Voltorbs! There’s so many Pokemon, why are we focusing so hard on this stupid little ball?

There were other ball-like Pokemon as well, like Wailmer, Hisuian Voltorb, Maril, Solosis, Foongus and Voltorb, with Galarian Stunfisk and Electrode all appearing in the wild. These were spawning alongside your standard Season of Heritage spawns. However, there was literally nothing new here, aside from the Hisuian Electrode. Which doesn’t spawn in the wild.

The only good thing is your buddy bringing useful gifts.

Seriously, this event was trash. There’s nothing else good about the prep rally. And the timed research… it’s all so pointless.