Pokémon Go ‘A Paldean Adventure’ quest steps: Which path to choose?

Pokémon Go’s “A Paldean Adventure” is the season-long Special Research for Season 12: Adventure’s Abound.

Focusing on Gen 9 starters Fuecoco, Sprigatito, and Quaxly, it starts with a ‘choose a path’ choice between the three Pokémon before a time-gated step.

While the “A Paldean Adventure” event itself — which offers Collection Challenges, unique Field Research and wild spawns — ends on Sunday, Sept. 10, the similarly named Special Research will run until the end of the season, meaning you have until Dec. 1 to claim. Once you log in and begin, it’ll stick around forever in your Special quest tab, so there is no urgency in finishing every step.

Elsewhere, the event has also given fellow Gen 9 debutant Lechonk its own quest, Lechonk’s Adventure.

“A Paldean Adventure” Special Research quest steps

The headline of the event is Special Research “A Paldean Adventure”, which you have until Dec. 1 to claim.

“A Paldean Adventure” step 1 of 5

• Catch 8 Pokémon (20 Poké Balls)

Rewards: 900 XP, 900 Stardust

At this point, you will choose a path between which starter — Fuecoco, Sprigatito, or Quaxly — you want to adventure with.

Image: Niantic via Polygon

You can read our thoughts on which to pick in the next section, otherwise, the steps that follow are:

“A Paldean Adventure” step 2 of 5

• Catch 3 Pokémon (3 Poké Balls)
• Take a snapshot of a wild Pokémon (300 Stardust)

Rewards: Fuecoco, Sprigatito, or Quaxly encounter, 900 XP

“A Paldean Adventure” step 3 of 5

• Spin 50 PokéStops or Gyms (20 Razz Berries)
• Catch 200 Pokémon (15 Pinap Berries)
• Send 60 Gifts to friends (25 Poké Balls)
• Evolve Fuecoco, Sprigatito, or Quaxly (1,000 XP)
• Earn a heart with your buddy on 7 different days (3,000 XP)

Rewards: ??? encounter, 900 XP

Due to the time-gated nature of the third step, we’ll discover the full rewards of step 3 and the remaining quest steps from Tuesday, Sept. 12.

Choose a path outcomes: Which starter out of Fuecoco, Sprigatito, and Quaxly should you adventure with?

Unlike Pokémon Scarlet and Violet — where starters are much harder to come by, and your choice ideally takes into account which type will give you the greatest advantage over early level gyms — choosing Fuecoco, Sprigatito, or Quaxly in Pokémon Go is, going by the initial quest steps, mostly a case of whichever you prefer.

Though it’s possible later steps will take into account this ‘choose a path’ choice more (such as giving you additional Candy), so far the differences are which Pokémon you will encounter at the end of step 2, and which you need to evolve in step 3.

Image: The Pokémon Company via pokemon.com

The other consideration beyond the above is that whichever you choose in this research step will have a higher-than-average set of stats, with an ‘IV floor’ of 10/10/10 (out of a possible max of 15/15/15). This means you are guaranteed to get a moderately powerful version of that Pokémon, so if you plan to have one as part of your battle party, then opt for that.

That said, you catch more starters easily through Field Research and eggs with similar IV floors as part of the event, not to mention the possibility of getting good stats through wild catches and a dose of luck. In other words — this is by far not your only chance to get a Gen 9 starter with good IVs.

To summerize, the ‘choose a path’ quest won’t offer anything exclusive, so opt for your favourite out of the three. (For us, it’s the grass starter. Always the grass starter.)

“A Paldean Adventure” event Collection Challenges

As well as the above quest, there are also four Collection Challenges to complete:

Spigatito Collection Challenge

Rewards: 1,000 Stardust, Lechonk encounter

Fuecoco Collection Challenge

Rewards: 1,000 Stardust, Lechonk encounter

Quaxly Collection Challenge

Rewards: 1,000 Stardust, Lechonk encounter

Lechonk Collection Challenge

Rewards: 1,000 Stardust, Lechonk encounter

“A Paldean Adventure” field research quests, wild spawns and event bonuses

Alongside the Special Research and Collection Challenges, there are also changes to Field Research and wild spawns for the duration of the event:

“A Paldean Adventure” event wild spawns

• Buizel (shiny boosted during the event)
• Fletchling (shiny boosted during the event)
• Fuecoco
• Hoppip (shiny boosted during the event)
• Houndour (shiny boosted during the event)
• Lechonk
• Sprigatito
• Quaxly

“A Paldean Adventure” Field Research tasks

• Catch 3 Pokémon (Lechonk encounter)
• Catch 9 Pokemon (Fuecoco, Sprigatito, or Quaxly enciounter)
• Hatch an Egg (750 Stardust)

“A Paldean Adventure” event bonuses

Finally, the following event bonuses and rewards are active until the event ends:

• 4x catch XP
• 4x catch Stardust
• Unown P, L, E, D, and A appearing in raids

Once the event concludes on Sunday, Sept. 10 at 10 a.m., a handful more Gen 9 Pokémon will then make their debut as part of the Ultra Unlock: Paldea event. You can see a tease of this in the following trailer: