I mentioned a while ago – almost 5 years now! – that I play Pokémon Go as a way to motivate myself to get outside and walk. (In winter, that’s get into the garage and use the treadmill now that it can integrate with Google Fit.) Part of the basic functionality is research goals – timed, field, and special research. The field research comes from spinning stops when they’re nearby, whereas the special and timed ones are generated by the system. The timed ones vary from single day events to months-long challenges, like the GO Battle League challenges and this Master Ball challenge.
If you’re looking at the screenshot, you’ll notice some of those numbers (goals) are quite high… catch 1000 Pokémon! Complete 150 Field Research tasks! The reward is what makes it worth it… in addition to a bunch of stardust and experience points, there’s a Master Ball. And 80 days to complete all of it. (My timing was lucky, it started the day I went to a heavily Pokémon-ed area.)
There are three types of balls normally used in the game: Poké Ball, Great Ball, Ultra Ball. Increasingly powerful and increasingly rare, these balls are accrued by spinning stops and gyms and by opening gifts (received by… spinning stops and gyms) with your Poké Friends. The type of ball you want to use will depend on the level of the Pokémon you’re trying to catch and its difficulty (beyond the level – some are just harder to catch). As a general rule, I use a Poké Ball for anything under 400 CP, a Great Ball up to 800 CP, and an Ultra Ball above that. (For additional context, my highest CP Pokémon is currently 4248.)
Some Pokémon are just harder to catch… they’re elusive, appearing only occasionally, and likely to flee after one successful throw unless they actually stay contained. A successful throw means you hit the Pokémon with the ball and see it captured… it doesn’t always stay caught though. There are all sorts of calculations going on behind the scenes, with better throws (towards a diminishing circle) and curveballs adding bonuses that will help the Pokémon stay caught.
And then there’s the Master Ball… it has a 100% catch rate. When you get one, you save it for a hard to catch Pokémon.
Will I succeed at completing all of these goals? I have my doubts on completing 60 raids and the 120 Excellent Throws (that’s hitting a tiny circle on the Pokémon) in that time, but I’m certainly going to try.