Pokemon Go players call for changes to “garbage” Research Breakthrough rewards

Ezequiel Leis
Parasect and Furfrou in a Pokemon Go Research background

Pokemon Go players have had enough of poor Research Breakthrough rewards and are asking Niantic to make some changes to its encounters.

The Rising Heroes season of Pokemon Go revealed everything that’s coming to the mobile game throughout May 2023 with Raid bosses, events, and more. Among the Pokemon debuts and new shinies making their way to the AR game, it was also confirmed that the Research Breakthrough rewards will stay the same until the season ends on June 1.

This sparked many negative reactions from players that are tired of seeing Parasect and Furfrou as rewards for challenges that take a full week to complete.

Pokemon Go Raids changed the focus of the Research Breakthrough rewards in 2020 after Raids were introduced. Previously, players could get Legendary Pokemon by completing Field Research tasks in seven days. Now, the situation is much worse, as some cases only present Pokemon that can easily be caught in the wild.

Pokemon Go players demand changes to Research Breakthrough rewards

In a recent Reddit post, user Anri_Of_Anglia shared a meme highlighting Parasect and Furfrou as Research Breakthrough rewards and asking: “Pls remove from the reward pool.”

Many other trainers joined the Redditor to express their displeasure with the current Research Breakthrough rewards. “So sick of the garbage rewards,” one commented, while another stated Furfrou and Parasect are “two of the most useless Pokemon.”

While there are surely some Furfrou and Parasect fans playing Pokemon Go, the aspect that’s infuriating a lot of players is that both Pokemon can appear in the wild. They aren’t exactly a rare find at all.

Additionally, Parasect is one of the few Gen 1 Pokemon that hasn’t got its shiny form in the mobile game yet.

While it’s unlikely that Legendaries will be back as Research Breakthrough rewards in the future, players still urge Niantic to provide more incentives for players to complete these tasks. Some Reddit users even said they stopped doing them altogether, even when Remote Raid Passes can be part of the rewards.

The next season of Pokemon Go is more than a month away, so players will have to wait and see what the next Research Breakthrough rewards look like.


For more Pokemon content, make sure to check the An Instinctive Hero event, the next chance to catch Regidrago in Elite Raids, and how to get mythical Pokemon Shaymin in Pokemon Go.

Image Credits: Niantic / The Pokemon Company

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About The Author

Ezequiel is a Writer at CharlieIntel. With a great knowledge on gaming, movies and TV, he's focused on Pokemon and Games stories in general. With a journalism degree, Ezequiel has worked on La Cosa and Infobae, two of the most prestigious outlets in Argentina. He joined CharlieIntel in 2023. You can reach Ezequiel at [email protected], or via his Twitter @ExoLeis.