Limited Research Methodology

Anyone who's familiar with high-level academics know that any research involves certain methodologies, which in general involve the "process" for it. So too would the Limited Research event format in Pokémon Go, which should accordingly be done with a process. This post is kind of late - the last Limited Research event was in March (though I covered it in April), and it hasn't been seen since - but as with other things, it's better late than never. It remains something that should be discussed, similar in vein to the Community Day "workflow".

In the first Limited Research event, which happened and was mentioned in January, there weren't much about it, but the basics were established: over a certain time period, Field Research tasks of all PokéStops are replaced with tasks from a set list (like Community Day, but the objectives are more varied - not just one), and all of them reward the same Pokémon (at that time Feebas). Thus, a good way to complete these tasks is to gather up three of the same task, do as they say, then move to another set of three, and so on and so forth. Noting down just which ones have which tasks helps a lot in this regard, and this allows for some short-term planning. A group of Trainers would especially assist, as would a system for reporting Research tasks. Beyond that, it's a matter of catching the featured Pokémon.

In the second iteration from February and mentioned in March for Clamperl, the set list of tasks expanded, but in some sense noting down tasks and completing them in batches would still help. It would also help to keep some resources available for others: one task was notably "battle in a Gym", which can't be done if all the Gyms in an area are wiped and/or claimed by a single team. After that, the challenge became the actual capturing of the featured Pokémon. If one has ample storage space, then it wouldn't be a problem. If one doesn't, one might have to use the "hold" function of Research tasks. I didn't do this during this particular iteration, so I ended up transferring quite a few of the weaker ones that could have been conceivably traded, though most would have been transferred regardless had they dropped in stats or weren't lucky, so the losses were offset a little bit. Still, this appears to be a good practice.

That was exactly what I did in the third (and to date, last) iteration as above with Lotad. I used the "hold" function to keep less capable Lotad in check while immediately capturing those that are more capable. The result was that it allowed me to draw several Lotad in case someone asked to trade, and only the ones I needed; a side effect was that I obtained four Lucky Lotad from different people. Because of the extended duration, noting down tasks wasn't too much of an issue; most could be done as they are encountered. However, regardless of the duration, this would still be a good practice nonetheless and would assist the efficiency of others, especially if the event coincided with a tournament as above. With that, it would seem like there would be sufficient methodology for the next time the event returned.

The only problem is that Limited Research hasn't returned; neither April nor May had one, and there is no indication that one may appear this month. It seems the event format is suspended, which is somewhat of a shame. But over the three iterations of this event, the "methodology" or process had developed somewhat, enough to be summarized and slightly systematized as above. All that remains is to see if the methodology can be implemented when Limited Research returns, if ever. One thing's for sure: no matter if it's real or virtual research, methodology is still a key thing.

One year ago: The Spirit of Giving
Two years ago: A Faraway Tournament and a Charitable Spirit