Ferroseed Research Breakthrough reward signifies change in Pokemon Go

Ferroseed will be the Pokemon Go Research Breakthrough reward for March, which all but confirms the change in direction Niantic have taken.

The Thorn Seed Pokemon will be available for the entirety of March before, presumably, a new Research Breakthrough reward is announced for April. It also comes with a bonus 5,000 Stardust.

Trainers seem to be somewhat disappointed by Ferroseed being the breakthrough reward as it offers nothing to the Pokemon Go meta and has been available since November 2019. The previous reward, Woobat, was at least a new addition to the game at the time.

Ferrothorn worth having?

Ferroseed evolves into Ferrothorn with 50 Candies but unfortunately the Thorn Pod Pokemon is little more than a Pokedex filler. It offers little to no battling benefit in Pokemon Go.

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Its defense stats are reasonable but its poor attack and average movesets mean you won’t be using it competitively anytime soon.

Legends a thing of the past

Players who are frequent Pokemon Go players will know that quality of Research Breakthrough rewards have been declining in recent months. The introduction of Ferroseed seems to confirm this.

The first time Niantic deviated away from legendary Pokemon was with Flower Crown Eevee. Even at the time trainers were far from impressed with the switch up to a non-legend.

This hasn’t been lost on one trainer, sdeslandesnz, who shared a passionate post on Reddit. “GUYS DONT BE FOOLED INTO FIELD RESEARCH FOR FERROSEED. I JUST FOUND OUT IT DOESN’T HAVE A FLOWER CROWN, SO DONT WASTE YOUR TIME,” clearly mocking the significance, or lack thereof, of a flower crown.

So, it looks like Niantic are going to be using random Pokemon for Research Breakthrough rewards going forward, with some form of bonus. Lapras with two powerful ice-type moves featured in January and this was followed by the aforementioned Woobat.

Niantic experimenting?

It could be the Pokemon Go developers are currently experimenting and are unsure on the right course of action for the rewards. What does seem likely though, is that legendary Pokemon are a thing of the past.

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This is understandable as they were becoming too common and frankly too easy to earn. After all, earning seven research stamps is far from challenging.

Nevertheless, the current rewards are frustrating players, so something does need to change. We’ve shared our own thoughts on how Niantic can fix the developing Pokemon Go Research Breakthrough reward issue.

It may be in the current scope of the game that seven stamps just don’t fit in with any rewards.