A trainer in Pokémon GO recently experienced an unpleasant surprise in the game. Part of his progress towards the “Masterwork Research: Apex” was reset. We at MeinMMO have looked into what happened and show you the community’s reactions.
What kind of task is it about? A large Johto Tour took place in Pokémon GO a few weeks ago. This initially provided ticket holders with a special research task around the mysterious Pokémon Celebi.
Those who solved this task could unlock another special research named “Masterwork Research: Apex”. This includes a total of four task boards, where you can encounter the two Apex versions of Ho-Oh and Lugia.
Unlike many other quests, the research tasks are somewhat more extensive and complicated, which means they also need to be worked on over the long term. However, one reddit user recently encountered an unpleasant surprise with one of these tasks. We show you what happened.
All tasks and rewards for the special research “Masterwork Research: Apex” have been summarized here.
Game resets progress on special research
As trainer therealidckw reports in his reddit post, he is currently working on the special research “Masterwork Research: Apex” and has already reached the second board. One of the tasks on this page requires you to earn a heart with your buddy for 30 consecutive days.
This means that you must play with your buddy, take pictures with him, battle him, or go on adventures together. According to therealidckw, he did all that, but the game suddenly reset his progress from 9 to 0. And this, despite there being daily interactions.
Other trainers affected
Looking at the comments quickly reveals that therealidckw is not an isolated case. Other trainers are also reporting similar experiences (via reddit.com):
- fiyahflash: “I lost 7 days, but without evidence to present to Niantic, I had to dismiss it as ‘I must have forgotten a day.'”
- why_gaj: “This has happened to me three times already with this mission.”
- gladvillain: “Yes, it happened to me too. I think my restart was after about 6 or 7 days. Terrible concept.”
- YupKick: “Mine was reset at 16 days. Great game.”
- ScooperDuper89: “I’m at 17 days now and nervous. I’ll take a screenshot as soon as possible.”
- kingofthedesert: “There are other threads on this topic that receive the same responses: ‘You don’t remember forgetting to play,’ but the same happened to me recently, and I know I absolutely did not forget.”
Trainers’ speculations about the reasons for the reset
But what causes the progress to simply reset? This question has been posed by some trainers after this post. On one hand, they want to help those affected; on the other hand, some are afraid of encountering this problem themselves.
Moreover, there are initial ideas in the community about what might cause the progress to be reset. Several comments can be found under the post (via reddit.com):
- scrapnmama: “I’m curious what triggered it. Did you all evolve a buddy Pokémon? Are you playing with the same phone type? Did you earn your heart at a specific time of day (time zones are surely a factor)? I have 16 hearts and empathize with all of you, but I also try to avoid what happened to you if possible.”
- ChikaraNZ: “I remember in the past some people had the same problem. I believe it was speculated that the counter is set to 24 hours since the last heart, not necessarily the game’s reset times. So if you received a heart today at 6 PM but the next one is not until tomorrow at 7 PM, the counter would reset to zero days. To be safe, best to earn one heart in the morning and another in the evening every day.”
- itsconnorbro: “Maybe you did it yesterday at 9 AM and today at 10 AM? Perhaps that mechanism uses a 24-hour window and not the date.”
- mornaq: “It will inevitably reset randomly; it happened to me a few days ago too. No idea how they managed to break it and never fix it, but it happens all the time.”
A trainer disproves one of the theories
The theory about time intervals has been personally tested by trainer T-Money1738, who interacted with his buddy at two different times. He found that it worked, and no reset occurred.
He writes in the comments (via reddit.com): “I just earned a heart with my buddy at 12:13 PM. My last one was at 7 AM the day before. So I’m pretty sure it resets at midnight, just like you get a new research task at midnight.”
Thus, a precise cause is currently not to be found. What exactly causes the reset remains speculation for now. However, trainers can only hope that Niantic finds the error quickly and that this problem does not occur in the future.
What trainers demand
The trainers are annoyed by this bug and do not want to let it slide. For this reason, some of them already have a clear idea of how Niantic could solve the problem. The first players suggest a change to the task (via reddit.com):
- Haroic: “I mean, they could just do a total of 30 days, just not consecutive.”
- StevensDs-: “Or they could just make a ‘number X’ of hearts. If they want people to invest time and maybe money, then make it 500 hearts or so.”
- Kailaylia: “Niantic should recognize this is a bug and just change it to 30 days, not necessarily in a row.”
Whether Niantic will address these suggestions and adjust the task accordingly remains to be seen for now. If there is new information on this, you will learn about it from us on MeinMMO.
Are you also affected by such a bug in Pokémon GO? What do you think could be the reason the game resets progress despite regular interaction? Let us know in the comments and exchange views with other trainers here on MeinMMO.
In the coming days, a lot will happen in Pokémon GO. We have looked at which new monsters, raid bosses, and events await you this week.
