Closing in on the Master Ball Timed Research

On September 1st 2023, a new timed research appeared in Pokemon GO. This timed research consisted of a list of tasks, designed to be done over the course of the season. And the reward for it all? A Master Ball. The ball that can catch anything. The timed research is very important because it’s a way to get a second Master Ball in Pokemon GO, after some special research earlier in the year. And yes, you can have 2 Master Balls. Either way, Niantic are making us work very hard to get this Master Ball.

I’ve already written about this research in the past, mostly to complain about one single thing. One of the tasks that needs completing is to win 60 raids. With only 80 days to complete the research, doing 60 raids is actually quite a big ask of players. If you only want to use free passes, that does mean doing a free raid pretty much every day, with a small buffer. But that’s assuming there are even raids to do. Where I live, I can see about 7 gyms. But most of the time, those gyms have raids that can’t be solo’d. Or the raids themselves are just terrible. No one wants to do a raid for Gulpin, but I saw plenty of those. I even did a couple, because no other suitable raids turned up.

Raid Hours help, but they only help if you have enough players willing to do raid hour. In my local group, no one wanted to do the Legendary Dogs, but we did manage quite a group for Guzzlord raid hour. Unfortunately, everyone got a shiny Guzzlord except for me. But I did manage to add 5 more raids to my total raid count, bringing me on to the home stretch, ever closer to those 60 total raids.

And, of course, this sucks for rural players, who may not have access to many gyms. While I live in the town centre, my brother lives slightly further out of town, with only one gym nearby. And that gym half the time has a raid that isn’t solo-able. With no nearby players at all, all my brother can do is watch as the timer ticks down.

However, this wouldn’t be a problem for people if remote raid passes weren’t so expensive. Heck, Niantic is missing out on a lot of money because I know plenty of people would complete the 60 raids no problem if they could just use remote raid passes.

As for me though, I am insanely close to finishing the research. Most likely, by the time this article comes out, I should have finished it. But it’s not been smooth sailing. I have been doing a raid pretty much every day, and I have done some awful raids.  Can’t deny it, I’ve done Shadow Meowth and Gulpin raids, despite them being absolutely awful Pokemon to raid for. But when you need to do a raid every 1.5 days, you can’t always be picky.

On the other hand though, I’ve basically given up on completing A Paldean Adventure, the special research tied to this season. While walking 80km is a long task, you will eventually get it done. What’s more annoying is the task to do 150 research tasks. This is an exact copy and paste of the 150 research tasks that you have to do for the Master Ball research. But A Paldean Adventure doesn’t even give you any good rewards. For as hard as the Master Ball timed research is, at least you are getting the 100% most powerful item in Pokemon GO. In A Paldean Adventure, the best reward is 2 Rocket Radars. Which accounts to about 4 days of doing Team Rocket fights.

Still, despite reaching the 60 raids myself, I don’t think it’s a fair challenge. Doing 60 raids is partially based on luck and the hope that you even get raids, let alone raids you can do. It’s a silly task and I definitely wouldn’t have it as a timed research task. That’s just unfair on so many players…