How To Get A Mew In Pokemon Go

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Mar 31, 2018, 11:14am EDT |

How To Find And Catch Mew In 'Pokémon GO'

I'm here to help you understand video games.

This article is more than 3 years old.

Pokémon GO just got what might be its biggest update since launch. There are quests in the game now: "Research" assignments that ask the player to catchPokémon, spinPokéstops or complete other tasks for in-game rewards. Some these, called "Field Research," are standard ongoing tasks that the player gets fromPokéstops. The other ones, however, are called "Special Research," and these are a more like the game's first story missions. It's through these Special Research assignments that we can find and catch the MythicPokémon Mew: read on to find out how.

Unlocking Special Research is simple: you do it just by tapping on the little binocular icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen, where Weather used to be. If you go over to the Special Research tab, you'll get a little cutscene where the handsome Professor Willow tells you a little bit about his new project and gives you some tasks to complete. Do those, and you'll get some rewards along with new tasks: that's how this will go until the end. And thanks to the dataminers at Silph Road, we already know what all the objectives are going to be:

Tier 1: Spin 5Pokéstops, Catch 10Pokémon, Transfer 5Pokémon
Tier 2: Farm 2 candies walking with your Buddy, Make 10 great throws, Hatch 3 Eggs
Tier 3: Reach Level 15, Battle in a Gym 2 times, Battle in 2 Raids
Tier 4: Earn a Silver Kanto Medal, Evolve 20Pokémon, Earn 5 Candies walking with your Buddy
Tier 5: Catch Ditto, Make 20 Great throws, Catch 10 GhostPokémon
Tier 6: Reach Level 25, Battle in 10 Raids, Evolve a Magikarp
Tier 7: Catch 50Pokémon using a Berry, Make one excellent curve throw, Earn a Gold Kanto Medal
Tier 8: Catch Mew

Some of these objectives are tougher than others, clearly: it might take a while to catch a Ditto, and evolving a Magikarp will take a long time if you, like me, recently spent all your Candies training up a Gyarados. Others most high-level players will have completed a long time ago, like reaching level markers or earning Medals. All in all, it's a surprisingly good mix of increasingly difficult rewards. I can make excellent curves in my sleep by this point, not to brag or anything.

People who have been playing the game for a while will notice something very interesting about this list, however: specifically that we know exactly what the goals are, and what the eventual rewards will be. Which is huge forPokémon GO: nearly every high-level reward in the game had relied on random action to some degree, and that's made for an incredibly frustrating endgame, particularly when it comes to LegendaryPokémon and EX Raids. Special Research is something that the game has badly needed for a long time: clearly prescribed goals with a guaranteed reward -- and that's great.

Special Research only debuted yesterday, and so nobody's caught Mew yet. But rest assured that somebody's going to do it soon, whether it's a spoofer or just a dedicated player. After that, we'll see what happens with the next MythicPokémon. Update: Seems like some people have caught Mew.

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