Currently, you can encounter the Team Rocket duo Jessie and James in Pokémon GO. The community has noticed, however, that the battles were not counted for all Rocket tasks. We took a look at what happened and show you what some trainers suspect.
Who are Jessie and James? Jessie and James are two Rocket Grunts who played a central role in the original series. They repeatedly caused trouble and made life hard for Ash and his friends.
Niantic has been regularly bringing them back into the game for some time, giving trainers the opportunity to face these familiar faces in Pokémon GO. Currently, due to the Jungle Event, they can be found in the game until October 15, 2021.
How can you battle Jessie and James? Like in the series, the two Rocket Grunts travel in their typical Meowth balloon. They spawn up to 4 times a day, similar to the other Team GO Rocket balloons. Whether you receive a normal Rocket balloon or encounter a Meowth balloon is random.
Fights against Jessie and James are not counted
This is what happened: In recent days, some trainers have taken the opportunity to face Jessie and James. Some had an open task for Team GO Rocket and wanted to complete it directly. However, as the trainers found out, the battles were not counted for their tasks.
This also happened to the reddit user bnahlik, who created the following video:
At the start of the video, you can see his overview of tasks. It shows that he still needs battles against Team GO Rocket for the Zarude task and for the special research “Find Your Voice” with Meloetta. At the end of his video, you can see that the two battles against Jessie and James were only counted for Zarude.
In the comments under his post, but also in other reddit posts, it becomes clear that other players also experienced the same issue. For instance, OdellBeckhamJesus writes: “Jessie and James do not count towards defeating 3 Team GO Rocket Grunts, but they do count towards defeating 5 Team GO Rocket Grunts” (via reddit.com).
The community is surprised by this and suspects there is a bug behind it. However, some trainers already have a theory as to why Jessie and James are not counted in all fights.
These are the trainers’ speculations
Differences in terminology: For some trainers, it’s clear that fights against Jessie and James are not always counted. They see primarily a difference between Team GO Rocket and Team Rocket. In the tasks, it is always referred to as Team GO Rocket Grunts.
For example, DTHayward7 writes on reddit: “Jessie and James are not Team GO Rocket Grunts. They are Team Rocket Grunts. Simply put. No mistake.” (via reddit.com).
Different tasks: For other trainers, it’s clear that this has to do with the tasks. They see a difference between the Zarude task and the “normal” tasks, such as the special research for Meloetta that was activated before the return of Jessie and James.
The special research “Search for Zarude” was introduced at the same time as Jessie and James, on October 1, 2021. Therefore, it may be a specific event task that explicitly counts the fights against Jessie and James.
Stogoe is also convinced of this, writing: “One is a special event task that specifically includes them, while the other is a general task that does not include them because they are usually not there.” (via reddit.com).
Could the speculations be correct?
The trainers’ speculations sound plausible. After all, Jessie and James are from the original Pokémon series and they belonged to Team Rocket as grunts.
It could also be possible that Niantic did not allow the two grunts for older tasks. Normally, Jessie and James are not found in Pokémon GO. Possibly, the counting of their battles is therefore limited to the current special research with Zarude.
However, some trainers remain of the opinion that it must be a bug. aoog writes: “The tasks ask you to do exactly the same thing. If it’s not a function error and this is actually intended, then the description of the task is ‘faulty’ or at least poorly written and needs correction.” (via reddit.com).
Whether it is indeed a bug or whether Niantic has other reasons why fights against Jessie and James do not count for all tasks is not known. Should there be official information about it, you will find out here, on MeinMMO.
If you still have Rocket tasks to complete, you should not expect Jessie and James to count. You can recognize them in advance by their Meowth balloon. All other grunts appear in the usual black Team GO Rocket balloon.
Did you also battle against Jessie and James and it was not counted? And what is your theory as to why this is the case? Let us know in the comments and feel free to discuss with other trainers on MeinMMO.
To get Zarude, you must battle 6 Team GO Rocket Grunts. We looked at a trick on how you can save a lot of time in the special research “Search for Zarude” and will show it to you.
