Not all research tasks in Pokemon GO are created equal, as some are so difficult that players are still working to check them off the list even years later. Pokemon GO fans are sharing the most impossible research tasks in the game, and we’re here to round them up.
10 Most Impossible Research Tasks in Pokemon GO
Pokemon GO fans love a Reddit debate, and this thread about the most impossible research tasks is all too relatable. From maintaining a streak of great throws to catching an elusive Pokemon, these are the research tasks gathering dust on players’ virtual shelves.
10. Make 5 Great Throws in a Row
Honestly, the 5 Pinap Berry reward for this one doesn’t feel like nearly enough. Maintaining a streak of Great Throws without missing even once. Sounds impossible. And it basically is.
9. Find 10 Kecleon
This is a numbers game where you need to spin as many PokeStops as possible to find the ones where Kecleon is hiding.
It becomes nearly impossible if you live in a rural area without many PokeStops, and many players are stuck forever searching for their 10 Kecleon as a result.
8. Evolve a Feebas
Feebas requires the buddy task of walking 20km and a whopping 100 candies to evolve into the more graceful Milotic. This is a time investment, especially if you find Feebas as creepy to look at as I do.
While it’s not the toughest task around once you’ve managed to catch Feebas, the sheer amount of time it takes leaves it on many players’ perpetual task lists.
7. Let’s Go, Meltan! Catch 2 Lileep Task
Like many older research stories in Pokemon GO, this one relies on catching a Pokemon that doesn’t spawn often anymore. And in this case, you’ve got to catch it twice. Talk about a struggle.
Many players note they’ve been stuck trying to catch the 2 Lileep required to move on in this research story for literal years.
6. Catch a Ditto
Ditto spawns are rare, and it’s impossible to know you’ve got one until after you catch it. While players often share intel on which Pokemon Ditto is pretending to be at any given time, this crowdsourced information isn’t a guarantee.
That means that tracking down a Ditto to catch means clicking on every Pokemon you see, catching it, and then waiting to see whether it magically transforms into Ditto. Not an easy task.
5. Make 5 Great Curveball Throws in a Row
What’s harder than making five great throws in a row? Making sure they’re also curveballs.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t throw a solid curveball to save my life, let alone 5 in a row that also meet the great throw requirements. Clearly, I’m not alone, as many players cite this as one of the toughest research tasks.
4. Trade 3 Pokemon with a Friend
It’s great that the Pokemon Company wants us all to make more friends. It’s less great that you can only make trades in Pokemon GO once you’ve reached a certain level of friendship and that they generally require being in person.
Because trading is tough and many of us are the only IRL Pokemon GO players we know, this task sits on many players’ lists in perpetuity.
3. Take a Snapshot of Landorus
Back in 2022, the Season of Legends research story involved taking a snapshot of the Pokemon Landorus.
The only trouble? That Pokemon currently can’t be caught in the game. If you don’t happen to already have one, it’s genuinely impossible to take a snapshot of it at this point in time.
2. The “A to Zygarde” Route Tasks
Routes is one of the most controversial features Niantic has introduced to Pokemon GO, and they have a whole research story to go along with it. The A to Zygarde research tasks require having access to a route near you, something many players complain isn’t a thing in rural and other less populated areas.
To this day, many avid Pokemon GO fans have never once done a route, meaning they’ll never check “Trade a Gift with Mateo at the end of a route” off their list, let alone collect all those Zygarde cells.
1. Basically, Every Party Play Task
Ah, Party Play – the one feature in Pokemon GO that fans dislike more than routes (new avatar update notwithstanding). Once again, Niantic is encouraging us to hang out with our friends and play the game together in real life. The only issue? That’s not an option for many of us.
Like Routes before it, Party Play is a feature that many players have never even thought about using. In fact, even though some of the tasks on this list might be more challenging or time-consuming, this series of research tasks came up the most frequently as one that players doubt they’ll ever complete.
