This Master Ball Research is Hard

In Pokemon GO, for the new season, there is a timed research that lasts for 80 days. If you complete this timed research, then you will be rewarded with a Master Ball. But Niantic will make you work hard for it. So how hard IS this research?

I’d say it’s pretty damn hard.

There’s a lot you need to do for this research. The first task is to catch 1000 Pokemon. Which does sound pretty difficult, but with the Paldea x4 stardust event, I’m nearly half way there. Because I want that stardust. There’s going to be multiple community days between now and the end of the season, and those are always great for catching Pokemon. But at the same time, I’m constantly running out of Pokeballs, and spinning Pokestops just can’t keep up. Then again I don’t have THAT many Pokestops nearby. The closest is just down the road, and I no longer have a home-based Pokestop in my new apartment. This also makes the Spin 300 Pokestops task a bit harder.

Weirdly, two of the tasks were quite easy. I’ve already managed 120 Excellent throws, although a lot of that was done during the Charmander Classic Community Day, with a pretty easy-to-catch Pokemon. There’s also a Girafarig Spotlight hour which also helps. I also somehow managed to get 100 different species of Pokemon, and that was before the Paldea event. The Earn 100k XP and 100k Stardust tasks were also stupidly easy, again thanks to the Ultra Unlocks. But those are temporary. Still, one Best Friend will fill up the experience one and stardust is everywhere these days.

The hardest tasks though are hatching eggs and doing raids. You need to hatch 30 eggs to complete the task, which is a real pain in the ass when all you have are 7km or 10km eggs. I recently got some incubators from some showcases so I kinda have a leg up, but after those run out, it’s back to my single orange incubator, and I can’t guarantee that I’ll get the easier 2km and 5km eggs. But at least hatching eggs is doable if you hatch an egg every other day. Just need to be active.

Doing raids in particular is quite hard. You need to do 60 raids in 80 days, which leaves very little wriggle room. But you’re also held at the mercy of RNG, since you need there to be actual raids to do. If you are on your own and can only see level 5 raids, there’s not much you can do. And the tier 1 and 3 raids also ought to be desirable – at the time of writing, Unown are in level 1 raids, which are nice and easy to do. But in future events? There might be nothing.

The thing is, if this was a special research instead of a timed research, I’d say it’s perfectly fine. A long-term goal to work up to. But it being timed just sucks the fun out of the challenge. There’s not much room for error here. And for something as powerful as a Master Ball as well. What’s weird though is that the original research for a Master Ball was much easier.

On the plus side, or maybe the bad side, there will be a special research to get a Master Ball later. But it will require money to actually buy. Which is fucking stupid. I think Niantic are banking on people giving up on the timed research and buying the special research.

This timed research IS doable. But it needs proper commitment. And it’s easy to fall behind with this research. Still, I’m going to give it my best, even though I probably won’t even use this second Master Ball.