Pokemon Go players mourn “rewarding” Legendary Research Breakthroughs

Pokemon Go players have come together to mourn the loss of rewarding Breakthrough Research rewards. Many have pointed out the tasks were more valuable, with rare encounters promised at the end.

Pokemon Go players are always grinding Daily Research Tasks for rewards. These tasks can offer berries, Poke Balls, Stardust, or Pokemon encounters, with seven completed days resulting in a Research Breakthrough encounter featuring specific Pokemon for the event or time of year.

Originally, these Research Breakthrough rewards offered players Legendary encounters. In 2018, Legendary Birds Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres were featured at the start of the year, and later Entei, Suicune, and Raikou became available. Legendary rewards continued through 2019 and abruptly were changed out for common species in 2020.

To add insult to injury, December 2022, January 2023, and February 2023 have all offered the same collection of rewards: Bagon, Deino, Delibird, Furfrou, Galarian Mr. Mime, and Goomy. With players repeatedly encountering the same easy-to-find species, many are left mourning the time when Research Breakthroughs were worth the effort.

Pokemon Go players want better Research Breakthrough rewards

In a Reddit post by ChrisGoFrost on the r/pokemongo subreddit, a trainer shared an image of their Research Breakthrough Shiny Latias with perfect stats. The post reads: “I miss when 7-Day Research Breakthoughs felt rewarding”.

Fans in the comments are equally as frustrated, with one offering, “I remember the month I got back-to-back shiny Groudons from breakthroughs… and my most recent one was a 10/11/10 Pinsir.” and another adding, “But how else are they going to  encourage people to buy raid passes as “community bonding”?”

Other Pokemon Go players also point out the frustration of doing the Daily Research Tasks, with one commenting, “I do too. I also miss when you got fairly decent rewards. ‘catch 10 Cacnea’ reward? A Cacnea. Oh, great.”

Unfortunately, after years without a Legendary Research Breakthrough reward, it doesn’t seem likely Niantic is planning on bringing them back.