Pokémon GO Has a Medal That Takes 12 Years to Complete

While Pokémon GO players are known for their commitment to the game, one of the game’s more difficult to obtain medals requires almost a decade to complete.

Pointed by user throwupandaway on Reddit, the Pokémon GO medal “Ultra Hero” requires trainers to defeat the Boss of Team GO Rocket a total of 50 times. Given how often the game hands out rewards to players for simply walking around their neighborhood, at first glance that doesn’t seem too bad. That is, until you realize that the opportunity to battle against Giovanni only comes around once every three months. Once you’ve beaten him on that occasion, then you’ll have to wait another quarter for him to crop up again.

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A quick check on calculator does confirm that you’d need to play Pokémon GO for a solid 12 years, never missing Giovanni’s arrival once, to actually gain the “Ultra Hero” medal. To be fair, medals don’t actually have a mechanical purpose, they just serve to track player’s progress.

Now having said, let’s not forget that Pokémon GO is actually just shy of a decade old itself. Granted, the addition of Team GO Rocket was much more recent than 2016 when the game first launched, but many committed players have likely already put in a good amount of time into completing the requirements for “Ultra Hero.” Several users have noted that before the COVID-19 pandemic, Giovanni rocked up monthly rather than every three months, making the medal much more accessible. Since then, several major changes have updated Pokémon GO‘s systems and it seems that “Ultra Hero” was seemingly forgotten, lost to a time unburdened by lockdowns.

If you’re looking for more, check out our comparison of Pokémon and Dragon Quest Monsters, which we don’t believe is the alternative we need for the game.