Pokemon GO Misunderstood Mischief And The 16 Steps To Hoopa [UPDATE]
Hoopa is in the game Pokemon GO now – but you might not yet be able to catch this impossibly rare Pokemon. There'll be a monstrous set of tasks you'll need to perform in the game in order to get to the end of the road, where we MIGHT see a Hoopa offered as a guaranteed encounter. To catch Hoopa, we'll just have to walk down this road of Pokemon GO Special Research tasks and see where it leads us.
The Special Research for the Season of Mischief, starting with Misundersood Mischief (1/16). This is different from what we've seen in the past, as new parts of this research won't automatically appear just because old parts have been completed. A teardown from Pokeminers shows "Quest Under Investigation", a new resource that'll act as a placeholder between research parts.
We DO know that we're headed toward Hoopa. Resource text for Quest Special Dialogue included bits like "Needless to say, I'm still not sure why Hoopa's here. Tracking it down has been difficult, but with your help, I'm sure we'll crack the case in no time!"
Another bit of text from the professor suggests this special research might not lead directly to Hoopa, but right to his doorstep. "I'll report back here once I have more information on Hoopa. Thanks in advance for your help, %PLAYERNAME%!" It'll likely lead to a special event that'll only be activated once players move through the special research. This event will include a set of "Surprise bonuses" if the teardown is to be believed.
UPDATE: Event Season Research "Complete" bonus text reads: "Complete the Misunderstood Mischief Special Research story to access a special end-of-season event." Special "Mischief Hour" events have been found, too!
Our guess is that Hoopa will eventually appear as a Raid Boss. That'll be a bit of a bummer for those players that can't leave their homes, unless they're able to team up with some Raid-happy individuals across the planet!
UPDATE 2: The first Misunderstood Mischief Special Research task requires that you make 10 Nice Throws, Use an Incense, and take 3 snapshots of wild Psychic-type Pokemon. For that you'll get 1 incense, 10 Pokeballs, some Bananas (I don't care that they're called Nanab berries, I call them Bananas). For the full task you'll get 1000 XP, 500x dust, and an encounter with Gothita!UPDATE 3: Both SPAWN_V0720_POKEMON _HOOPA_UNBOUND and _HOOPA_CONFINED codes are in the game. Hoopa Confined is the cute little baby you see most often, Hoopa Unbound is the monster that destroys the entire universe. Just because these assets are in the game code does not mean they'll be able to spawn in the wild, but you never know!