Pokemon Go players call out Niantic for reusing Halloween research tasks

Pokemon Go’s Halloween 2022 event is in full swing, but some players have noticed the research tasks are very familiar to the previous years.

The Halloween season is in full swing in Pokemon Go, which has introduced new Pokemon like Mega Banette, new costumes, and themed quests.

Halloween 2022’s Special Research tasks ask players to catch 40 Ghost-type Pokemon, Make nine curveball throws, and make 49 nice throws.

However, some players noticed striking similarities to previous Halloween Special tasks and called out Niantic for simply reusing the same tasks for Halloween 2022.

Pokemon Go players discover reused quests

A post on the Pokemon Go subreddit made a meme out of the reused quest, which showcased that 2022’s Special Research tasks are essentially just retooled tasks from previous Halloween events.

The image showed that the “Catch 40 Ghost-type Pokemon” challenge was exactly the same, as Niantic only tweaked the final two challenges slightly.

The “Catch 9 different species of Ghost-type Pokemon” was replaced by “Make 9 curveball throws.” Similarly, “make 49 great throws” was simply changed to “make 49 nice throws.”

While it makes sense that Niantic would want to keep themed challenges similar, it is a bit of a shame that the Special Research tasks are essentially the exact same as the previous years.

Interestingly, one fan did take the time to point out some neat trivia surrounding the specific number of objectives and items given out for Halloween 2022.

Reddit user KingKongEnShorts said, “…I’ve been wondering how the numbers were chosen, like 1313 and 490. While 13’s link with Halloween might be obvious, because it’s associated with bad luck, 4949 and 490 are not as obvious. My best explanation is that 4+9=13.”

It’s certainly an interesting theory and — if true — could show that Niantic did put a bit of thought into the challenges, despite their reuse.