Pokémon Go players can buy a “Fuzzy Fighter” paid Special Research ticket for $8 as part of the “Final Strike: Go Battle Week” event. The ticket was only originally available for purchase from March 5-10, but it’s available again until May 27, making many wonder: Is this “Fuzzy Fighter” Special Research worth buying?
You can get one Kubfu for free from the “Might and Mastery” research, though if you want a second one, you’ll need to buy this research.
Below, we explain our thoughts behind the value of the “Fuzzy Fighter” Special Research and list out all the steps for the research.
Update (May 21): We’ve confirmed more information about Dynamax Kubfu and have updated this guide to reflect that.
Is the ‘Fuzzy Fighter’ Special Research ticket worth it?
The short answer is: If you really want a second Kubfu, then yes, but note that the Kubfu you get is only Dynamax and it will be powercrept eventually by Gigtanamax Urshifu.
Let’s break it down, using prices from the Pokémon Go webstore (as usual) to be as thrifty as possible.
The pass costs $8 and there’s no $8 coin bundle. Math-ing it out, $8 is roughly 1,100 coins, based on the $10 coin bundle. This pass gives the following rewards:
10 Pinap Berries4 Golden Razz Berries4 Silver Pinap Berries20 Poké Balls20 Great Balls20 Ultra Balls1 Incense1 Star Piece5 Hyper Potions5 Revives2 Premium Battle Passes5 Rare Candies
Buying the pass from the webstore also gives you an additional three Rare Candies and three Max Revives. You can only buy a few things from the above list from the in-game shop, and those items total up to 440 PokéCoins. That said, of course, you can’t buy things like Ultra Balls, Rare Candy, and the special berries, so while they don’t have an exact PokéCoin value, so you’ll need to use your own discretion to value those items based on your own needs.
As part of the pass, you’ll also get encounters with Stufful, Teddiursa, Tyrogue, Cubchoo, Pancham, and of course, a second Dynamax Kubfu.
If you just want a second Kubfu for your collection, that’s a good enough reason to grab this pass. However, if you’re big into Max Battles, then it’s a little more complicated than that — and in fact might not be worth it after all.
When this research was first available in March, we didn’t know if the “Might and Mastery” research would follow the path that Kubfu does in the mainline Pokémon games. The Isle of Armor DLC for Pokémon Sword and Shield revolves its story around Kubfu. You get one, you train it into an Urshifu — and then you give it a special soup that allows it to Gigantamax. However, now that the research can be fully completed, we know that your Dynamax Kubfu is going to stay Dynamax. No soup for him!
If you like Max Battles a lot, you will prefer a Gigantamax Urshifu, not one that Dynamaxes. Dynamax Urshifu will very likely be heavily outclassed in stats by Gigantamax Machamp and you may not want to sink all that hard-to-get candy and Stardust into a critter that will be outclassed by another version of itself down the line. As of writing this, Dynamax Urshifu has its uses (depending on which form you pick), but any hardcore Max Battler will likely have the Pokémon that outclass it (Gengar and Inteleon) already.
Gigantamax Urshifu will be worth investing into, whenever it does appear, but for now that second Dynamax Kubfu doesn’t have too much use.
‘Fuzzy Fighter’ Special Research steps and rewards
Below, we list the full steps and rewards for the “Fuzzy Fighter” Special Research.
‘Fuzzy Fighter’ step 1 of 5
Catch 30 Pokémon (2 Golden Razz Berries)Collect 500 Max Particles (Stufful encounter)Spin 10 PokéStops or gyms (20 Poké Balls)
Rewards: 1 Incense, 10 Pinap Berries, 1,000 Stardust
‘Fuzzy Fighter’ step 2 of 5
Explore 5 km (20 Great Balls)Spin 20 PokéStops or gyms (Teddiursa encounter)Power up fighting-type Pokémon 10 times (2 Silver Pinap Berries)
Rewards: 1 Premium Battle Pass, 5 Revives, 1,000 XP
‘Fuzzy Fighter’ step 3 of 5
Use 10 berries to help catch Pokémon (20 Ultra Balls)Win 3 raids (Tyrogue encounter)Power up water-type Pokémon 10 times (10 Kubfu Candy)
Rewards: 1 Star Piece, 5 Hyper Potions, 1,000 Stardust
‘Fuzzy Fighter’ step 4 of 5
Catch 15 different species of Pokémon (2 Golden Razz Berries)Defeat 5 Team Go Rocket members (Cubchoo encounter)Power up dark-type Pokémon 10 times (10 Kubfu Candy)
Rewards: 1 Premium Battle Pass, 5 Rare Candies, 1,000 XP
‘Fuzzy Fighter’ step 5 of 5
Earn 5 candies exploring with your buddy (2 Silver Pinap Berries)Make 2 excellent throws (Pancham encounter)Level up a Max Move (10 Kubfu Candy)
Rewards: Dynamax Kubfu encounter, 3 Kubfu Candy XL, 1,000 Stardust
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