Pokémon Go continues to add some structure beyond “capture everything,” with Niantic announcing that the AR game will soon add more interesting ways to play the game and earn rewards.
While many of these additions have been known for a while now thanks to data mining, the inclusion of a quest-like structure and storytelling is still an exciting prospect. Pokémon Go does, after all, have characters—remember Professor Willow? Plus, many monsters are only cool because they have an interesting tale—but so far, Pokémon Go has failed to really tap into that part of the series, instead only offering them as avatars to collect. But soon, that’s changing. Here’s Niantic describing how it’ll work:
“Trainers will begin receiving research tasks later this week, adding new activities and challenges that can be completed for in-game rewards. Some of these rewards will lead Trainers to access unique storylines that include discovering the mystery behind the Mythical Pokémon Mew.
Pokémon GO’s new research feature will provide Trainers with unique activities called Field Research and Special Research. Field Research tasks can be collected by spinning nearby PokéStops, and they include a wide range of Pokémon-related activities. Special Research tasks are story-driven activities that may be requested by Professor Willow himself, and they will unfold as the Trainer completes more objectives.”
Field Research can be done multiple times per day, and some tasks will offer increasing complexity. According to Niantic, collecting seven stamps may be the key to encountering legendary monsters—I’m guessing this will be how you get Mew. As someone who doesn’t have the time to raid, I for one am stoked. This might get me back into the game. I just hope that the writing taps into some of the weirder and darker parts of Pokémon lore, like the main games do!
Here’s what it’ll look like in action:
