Pokemon Go trainers furious with June Research Breakthrough reward

Trapinch is the Pokemon Go June Research Breakthrough reward encounter but this hasn’t gone done well with a lot of trainers.

The Ant Pit Pokemon is available now and will be until July 1, 1pm PDT. It will replace Shinx which was a choice that was generally welcomed by players of the mobile game.

However, Trapinch hasn’t been received as well. The ground-type from the Hoenn region is an interesting choice from Niantic considering it recently headlined a Pokemon Go Community Day.

Not close to the previous Legendary Pokemon

This is just one reason why fans aren’t too excited about it returning, though. Research Breakthrough reward encounters have been on a downward spiral ever since Niantic opted to stop featuring Legendary Pokemon back in the later stages of 2019.

While that decision was certainly understandable, even now trainers are still getting used to the change. The Pokemon Go developers have been unable to find the middle ground between ‘trash’ Pokemon and the legends, that in fairness, were too easy to get.

Now though, trainers are complaining the current rewards are too common. “I doubt that even 5% of players actually need/want one of them. I certainly don’t,” Francl27 shared on Reddit.

Bulbapedia

Flygon is a popular enough Pokemon but it has little use in the Pokemon Go meta…

Trapinch not strong in Pokemon Go

Trapinch of course evolves into Flygon through Vibrava. Unfortunately it doesn’t possess the stats to be competitive in any areas of Pokemon Go.

• Read More: How to best manage Field Research and rewards in Pokemon Go

Its lack of defense means it’s an average at best option across GO Battle League. However, in PvE it does provide more use.

It is useful against electric-type Pokemon due its double resistance and better attacks stats. This, paired with the moveset of Mud Shot and Earth Power/Earthquake will provide the best results.

Niantic can’t quite get it right

The last five Research Breakthrough encounters have featured Lapras (with Ice Shard and Ice Beam), Woobat, Ferroseed, Alolan Exeggutor and the aforementioned Shinx. Of these only Shinx has kept trainers satisfied.

Now these did come with bonus Candies or Stardust but this didn’t really feel like a just reward for completing seven days of Field Research tasks. This sentiment is echoed by Redditor devulicious who said: “It’s ridiculous to complete tasks for a whole month to get 4 [Trapinch].”

Bonus Candy has yet to be confirmed for Trapinch but the PokeMiners seem to have confirmed there will be 7 bonus Candy. This is interesting because Pokemon with this bonus came with 13 Bonus Candy – we’ll have to wait for confirmation on this one. Update: there will be 10 Trapinch Candy in total.

It will be interesting to see how Niantic respond to the latest criticism and whether improved Research Breakthrough encounters follow.