'Pokémon GO' 3 Billion Pokémon Challenge: Players Clear Bronze Reward Milestone
"Pokémon GO" is introducing "Pokémon GO Travel," their new video series showcasing trainers who travel the world to catch rare Pokémon. Niantic is also encouraging players to do the same, by offering unique rewards for everyone by the time the 3 billionth Pokémon has been captured.
That's a very lofty number to attain, and the seven-day limit just makes it that much harder, as Niantic explained the mechanics of their Global Catch Challenge in their latest post.
"Join us as we discover new places, meet new people, and work together in an attempt to catch 3 billion Pokémon in just 7 days," the company said in their announcement, and the clock is ticking already since the announcement video was put up online.
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Players were quick to rise to the challenge, however. The Bronze Reward milestone of 500 million Pokémon caught was already in the bag on just the first day of the Global Catch event, as Niantic confirmed via Twitter.
Even with that, all the current players of "Pokémon GO" still only have until Nov. 26 to catch three billion Pokémon if they want to unlock the Gold tier rewards, which also unlocks Farfetch'd worldwide for 48 hours.
The sprig-wielding bird has long been exclusive to Japan and South Korea, so for most players, it's the one species missing from their list as Polygon notes. Players in these two countries also have an incentive to unlock the Gold reward, since it also brings Kangaskhan to their region too.
Even with the Bronze reward unlocked, 3 billion captures is still a high bar to clear even if a significant part of the remaining "Pokémon GO" put the work in, according to Forbes. The game has recorded 750 million downloads post-launch. If even ten percent of those accounts are still playing, it would take 40 captures in a week, and that is with the November cold coming down in most parts of the world.
