I'd say I'm making super progress on the special field researches, but not so much on anything else mainly because all the pokemon I don't have right now are either super rare in my area, so they can pretty much only be gotten from eggs if they even are in them or are the legendary ones that I'll never get unless they add them as field research stamp rewards. Or are ones that I need to walk a shit-ton more for candies to evolve them, but currently can't because I need to walk my magikarp for candies now.

Just realized that there will be much struggling with the third stage 6 special field research....do 10 raid battles.
XP

10 raids? In the specials? Fuck!
I was lucky to get the two raids in my gym that I used for the stage 3 2 raid assignment. AND I'm out of raid passes!

I'm not even sure what stage I'm on but I'm guessing it's...three? What's a stage? When you get all three goals and the guy starts talking again?

After checking in on Howitz, I am apparently on stage 4 out of 8, whatever that means. My regular research needs more fire types, which seem to be the hardest things to get around here. Lots of bugs and water.

I'm guessing that when you complete the eight stage, you get a chance to catch Mew. Just based on the fact that the whole thing started off with basically "there are reports of Mew activity in your area" being stated and that being the recurring theme within the actual dialogue when new special tasks are assigned.

The Mew catch at the end is the only reason I'm bothering to go out of my way to complete the special/story research.

I'm currently stuck on stage 3 because I haven't had a chance yet to battle a regular gym battle at my local gym and I need to do it twice.
Please tell me stage 6 doesn't want that 10 times as well?

The optional research I am now working on is catching 20 Pokemon with weather boosts and catching 3 either mudkip or treeko. I might have to discard the latter because I don't get many of either in my area.

So apparently my field research is on hold until I catch this damn Moltres, which isn't happening today. Not only did I run out of pokeballs so I had to buy more with my coins, but I pooched my shot with my last ultraball (like, tap and it rolls). Alas. Grumble gripe hiss. I don't even especially want the thing.

I did get a shroomish today though, and it's grumpy face amuses me. :)

Yeah, I really feel like if it wasn't for the completionist in me I wouldn't care much about Moltres since you can't, as I've discovered, actually do anything with the legendaries.

I mean, I guarantee that a 1500 CP Moltres wouldn't be THAT hard to knock out. Especially if you just wait for it's motivation (or whatever) to drop down.

So capturing the Moltres in the breakthrough package is required to move on in the research? Even the special?
I'd only continue to capture them because I'm a completionist and I'd use the candy to power up the one I want to keep.

At last, I got my gym battles in and have progressed to stage 4 in the special research. I'm quite relieved to find out that it counts individual Pokemon in the same battle so I completed both required battles in the same go.
I'm a little annoyed that now I have to evolve 20 Pokemon because I just recently evolved a handful. :P
Ah well.
At least I'm no longer obligated to visit gyms--or at least am getting a break from it.

I don't think so. It (catching Moltres) is just the reward for filling the stamps on your field research stamp card. So to reset that, yes, but I doubt if not doing it will stop anything. You just won't get any more of the stamp bonuses.

Ah, gotcha.
Hopefully, they'll release a different legendary/Pokemon soon.

Same snag here. I think I'm on 6 or 7 out of 20 now, just with evolving little cheap guys. I need to get 5 walking candy as well so I'm walking with my fire pokemon because I need to evolve 5 of those as well. Blah.

I was hoping to take care of my gym battle field research but Instinct still runs the gym down the street, so I left another guy there and berried it back up. I need to go sit in the Starbucks in the mall and just spam-spin the gym that's there.

Still need to catch stupid Moltres so I can get stamps again. At least, I hope it will do that. I'm again short on Pokeballs.

Zapdos is going to be added as a field research stamp card reward thingy in May!

I saw! Still have Moltres in my way though. I wonder if these research things are by the month?

I suspect they'll probably rotate them out monthly. Similar to how the raid legendaries rotate.

Well if I get to pick up my car today, I'll run some errands and hopefully collect more balls. I have some golden berries but without ultra balls I don't think Moltres is getting anywhere.

I don't know, I've managed to get Moltres with a normal pokeball. Ultra ball and a razzberry (normal or golden) is easier though unless you just feel like burning through like 20-30 pokeballs (and have them to spare). XD

I've so far managed 1 or 2 evolutions and 1 out of 5 buddy candies.
I just set my Magikarp as my buddy courtesy of the head's up here that evolving a Magikarp is a special research assignment.
I'd held off because my Charmeleon, my previous buddy was midway to a candy.

Sweet!

I have no Pokeballs to spare! And a great throw with a great ball and a berry didn't work either so I'm skeptical with a normal ball.

I had magicarp up as my buddy, but I figured I'd get some fire pokemon candy. Turns out it's my ponyta that needs only three more candy to so, not my cyndaquill, so when my cyndaquill is done I'll put ponyta up. I'm sitting on over 200 magicarp candy from the recent spree (and remembering to use my pinap berries) so he's at least half way there for later.

Stupid bird sucks! He's not even all that good. Just is red and angry.

I mean, the odds of catching with just a pokeball are extremely slim and takes a lot of tries, but it can happen.
I personally don't feel like the throws being "great" or "excellent" do much to increase the odds of a catch that much. They do give bonus xp if they're successful though which can be nice.

Interesting.
It took at least 5 throws and two berries but I caught my first and so far only Moltres with a Pokeball.
Thankfully, because I'd only had a few left.

Bird is out of my face! I do not have to find a Blade of Glory gif. Great ball, berry, and great throw.

I do find that the better throws made a difference, though not as much as curve balls, though sometimes you can get lucky with a regular pokeball.

More zen today. I actually managed to catch things without them breaking out surprisingly. Got another 55 magikarp candies from catching them everywhere.

I also found out that you apparently can't cheese the gym battle quest. I hopped into one, hit the opposing pokemon a couple of times, and bolted (red light, mom was driving). No credit for that. I tossed it and now I have to catch 3 swablus. Of course they don't seem to be around much. Diglett though. Diglett everywhere.

Hmm, I can't remember when exactly it counted my gym battles for the special quests but I don't think it was after I defeated the opponent.
I know I didn't defeat the boss but only because I ran out of time, fucking timer. Why? Just why?

Realize now that my fire catch rate is crummy with only a bronze so that might have been part of my Moltres issues.

Drive across town today. Depopulated the place of magikarp, poliwag, and snagged a fair few piranha things and hoppips. I know have a politoed, a jumpluff, and over 300 carp candies. I actually had to toss some balls and such as my bag getting full. We were going slow enough in traffic for me to catch a gym I haven't spun yet, but first my bag was full, then I gained a level, then an egg hatched and we were past it by the time I could get to my screen again. Blah.

Don't have gym access -.-

Fire catch rate? I had no idea that was a thing.
I can't find anything on Google that explains that.

Your catch rate goes up with each medal you earn by type, or that's what the game says.

Bronze is +1
Silver is +2
Gold is +3

Not sure how much it actually means though.

Alright, I understand now.
So I too have a Bronze fire catch rate.

Im from spain, so we have got pretty nice weather here.
I usually hang with some friends and go during the night when temperatures low for a walk and get some pokegyms.
That is what i love the most

I just recently reached level 20 and unlocked ultra balls.
It's not been as easy as I'd assumed to preserve them for Mew.

After my spin-spree yesterday I've got 21 of them, so they add up. It's rare that I need to use one though. I usually just use a berry if something is being stubborn.

I have another pokemon that's been hanging in the local gym for I think 3 days now. Getting low today though and my berries are only about half-effective from here. Not too inclined to leave the house today though. I managed to get a second pokemon in a gym on a drive-by but he got booted after 15 minutes. Got 1 coin.

I've never had a Pokemon defending a gym, I've only ever had the one battle for the special research and I did not manage to defeat the boss. I would have though if not for the damn timer. Why? Why the timer?

PoGo hasn't been loading for me the last couple days. But, I FINALLY saw and caught a Chansey last week!

Decided to take a longer route walking the dogs, with the other walkable park in my area and was quite pleasantly surprised by how many Pokestops I was able to hit other than the park. There were 4! Though I missed one, the one at the park itself, because it turned out it was out of my way.

Also I finally caught a Chikorita last week. I ran into one months ago and had to run from it because I had like one perhaps three Pokeballs which was/were unsuccessful and another hadn't popped up since until now!

Still working on evolving that 20 Pokemon. :P