Pokémon Go: How to get Celebi fast!

Celebi is the Mythical Pokémon of Generation 2, first discovered in the Johto Region. Like the Generation 1 Mythical, Mew, encountering Celebi requires you to complete Special Research. In Pokémon Go, that's so far been limited to Pokémon Go Fest Chicago 2018, but it won't be long before Celebi is available to quest for around the world.

Here's what we know so far.

August 20, 2018: Celebi Special Research returns for everyone!

If you weren't at Pokémon Go Fest, your long Celebi wait is over!

How do you finish the A Ripple in Time Special Research and get Celebi fast?

A Ripple in Time consists of eight sections with three tasks each.

This one is easy. If you're Stardust starved and have a Lucky Pokémon, power one up to save half the dust. If you just want it done, power up something with very low requirements, like a CP 10 common Pokément. If you want to get value from your power-ups, stick to Machamp, Kyogre, and Groudon this month.

For the Gym, pick any Gym from any team that's not yours and has more than 2 Pokémon on it. Then battle two Pokémon. Easy peasy.

For the Raid, if you belong to a Raid group or can find one on Facebook, WhatsApp, Discord, etc. in your area, just jump on the next available Raid. Otherwise, look for a Tier 1 or Tier 2 Raid in your area that you can do by yourself.

Current easy Raid options include:

• Wailmer: Weak to Electric and Grass
• Makuhita: Weak to Fairy, Flying, and Psychic
• Medtite: Weak to Fairy, Flying, and Ghost
• Magikarp: Weak to Electric and Grass
• Alolan Exeggutor: Double weak to Ice
• Kirlia: Weak to Poison, Steak, and Ghost
• Roselia: Weak to Fire, Flying, Ice, and Psychic
• Mawile: Weak to Fire and Ground

Reward: 10x Poké Balls, 1x Fast TM, 1x Super Incubator

Here's where it can start getting a little confusing or annoying.

If you already have 3 Friends, you can un-friend and re-friend them to cheat your way past this task. You probably won't lose your Friendship level, but there's always the risk of a bug. Otherwise, if you have a local Facebook, WhatsApp, Discord, etc. group for Pokémon Go, see if you can find three new Friends to add. (Or three Friends you care less about losing status with to remove and re-add.)

What does "Evolve an Evolved Grass-type Pokémon" mean? It means evolving a second evolution into a third evolution. So, here are your options:

• Evolve Ivysaur to Venusaur
• Evolve Gloom to Vileplume or Bellosum
• Evolve Weepinbell to Victreebell
• Evolve Bayleaf to Magnanium
• Evolve Skiploom to Jumpluff
• Evolve Grovyle to Sceptile
• Evolve Lombre to Ludicolo
• Evolve Nuzleaf to Shiftry

Third-stage evolutions typically require 100 Candy. If you don't have enough, go out and catch as many as you can with Pinap Berries, then trade them for additional Candy until you hit the amount you need. Alternatively, you can spend Rare Candy if you have it, but it's better not to. You may need that for more challenging tasks, or elusive Pokémon later.

Catch a Pokémon 3 Days in a Row is simply a stalling tactic. It prevents people, including spoofers, from racing through the quest in a few hours. It doesn't matter which Pokémon you catch, and you can catch the same or different pokémon each day, you simply have to catch 3 Pokémon over the course of 3 days.

Reward: 1500 Star Dust, 1x Sun Stone (SAVE IT YOU'LL NEED IT FOR THE NEXT STAGE!!), 1x Raid Pass

Stage 3: Reach Level 25, Use Sun Stone to Evolve Gloom or Sunkern, Hatch 9 Eggs

If you're already level 25 or over, you'll automatically complete the first part. Otherwise, you'll want to use some Lucky Eggs and do back-to-back Legendary Raids (20K XP each). If you're close to any Great or Ultra Friends, get those with the Lucky Egg as well for 20K XP and 100K XP each. You can find more tricks in our how to get the most XP and level up fast guide.

Use the Sun Stone you got as a reward in Stage 2 to evolve a Gloom (after catching one or evolving one from an Oddish) or Sunkern (which should be super-easy to find during the current Jhoto event). If you used your Sun Stone already, you can get another from Field Research. Just keep spinning Poke Stop until you find the "Catch 3 Sunkern's for a Sun Stone" task and then get catching. (You can also get them randomly from Gifts or Stops, but there's no way of knowing how long that could take.)

Hatching 9 Eggs simply means spinning Poké Stops or opening Gifts until you fill up your Egg Storage, putting them all in Super Incubators, and walking until the 9th one hatches. If get 2KM eggs, that won't take long. 7KM and 10KM, obviously, will take longer. So will using standard Incubators or only walking one at a time. You'll need to decide if time is more valuable to you than Poké Coins for the Incubators.

Reward: Pokémon Encounter, King's Rock (DON'T USE IT, SAVE IT FOR SUBSEQUENT TASKS), Raid Pass.

Stage 4: Walk 10 KM with Eevee as your Buddy to earn Candy, Evolve Eevee into Espeon During the Day, Send 20 Gifts to Friends

Switch your Buddy to Eevee (if you don't have a good Espeon yet or a Shiny one, make sure you pick appropriately) and get walking as soon as this task becomes available to you. (If you walked that Eevee previously, it won't count towards this goal — new walking distance only.) Usually, you need 10KM and 2 (two) Candy, so make sure you get both.

Once you're done, make sure it's daytime in the game and hit evolve to get Espeon.

Sending 20 Gifts sounds easy but could be time-consuming. First, you can only hold 10 Gifts at a time. That means you need to spin enough Poké Stops and Gyms to your first 10 Gifts (any time — you can do this in advance), then give them away, then spin again to get another 10 Gifts, then give those away. Because you can only give each Friend one Gift a day, and because they will have had to have opened your previous Gift before you can send them a new one, you'll need at least 20 Friends you haven't send Gifts to already, or you'll need to yell at them to open their existing Gifts so you can send them more. (If you don't have 20 Friends, you'll need to get them or spend as many days as needed with your existing Friends to get to 20 Gifts.)

Reward: Pokémon Encounter, 2500 Stardust, 1x Steel Coat (DON'T USE IT, SAVE IT FOR SUBSEQUENT TASKS)

Stage 5: Walk 10 KM with Eevee as your Buddy to earn Candy, Evolve Eevee into Umbreon at Night, Trade a Pokémon

Switch your Buddy to Eevee (if you don't have a good Espeon yet or a Shiny one, make sure you pick appropriately) and get walking as soon as this task becomes available to you. (If you walked that Eevee previously, it won't count towards this goal — new walking distance only.) Usually, you need 10KM and 2 (two) Candy, so make sure you get both.

Once you're done, make sure it's nighttime in the game and hit evolve to get Umbreon.

Making a Trade is easy. (So glad they didn't make this "Get a Lucky Pokémon from a Trade — it would take so much longer.)

Reward: 1x Star Piece, 15x Pineap, 1x Upgrade (DON'T USE IT, SAVE IT FOR SUBSEQUENT TASKS)

Stage 6: Visit a PokéStop 7 Days in a Row, use 25 Pinap Berries While Catching Pokémon, Use Items to Evolve Pokémon 2 Times

Waiting 3 days wasn't enough for you? How about 7 days? Sigh. That's what it'll take to spin 7 PokéStops in 7 Days to complete this task. And, to make things worse, if you miss a day, you'll have to start over. Double sigh.

25 Pokémon with Pinap Berries is just a grind. Get through it. Use Ultra Balls if you have them so you don't waste your time with escapes and flees.

Then, if you dutifully saved your Evolution Items from previous rewards, use them on 2 Pokémon to get two evolutions and be on your way. (If not, find the Field Research tasks to earn them by catching Sunkern.)

• Sun Stone: Evolves Gloom into Bellossum and Sunkern into Sunflora.
• King's Rock: Evolves Poliwhirl into Politoed and Slowpoke into Slowking
• Metal Coat: Evolves Onix into Steelix and Scyther into Scizor
• Dragon Scale: Evolves Seadra into Kingdra
• Up Grade: Evolves Porygon into Porygon 2

How to get and use Evolution Items in Pokémon Go

Stage 7: Catch 40 Grass-type or Psychic-type Pokémon, Make and Excellent Curve Ball Throw, Get a Gold Johto Badge

There's a large assortment of Pokémon you can catch to make your way to 40 Grass- or Psychic types. Even excluding the ones not currently available (Legendaries not currently in Raids and Celebi itself), be on the look out for:

1. Bulbasaur
2. Ivysaur
3. Venusaur
4. Alolan Raichu
5. Oddish
6. Gloom
7. Vileplume
8. Paras
9. Parasect
10. Abra
11. Kadabra
12. Alakazam
13. Bellsprout
14. Weepinbell
15. Victreebel
16. Slowpoke
17. Slowbro
18. Drowzee
19. Hypno
20. Exeggcute
21. Exeggutor
22. Alolan Exeggutor
23. Tangela
24. Starmie
25. Mr. Mime
26. Jynx
27. Mewtwo (Ex-Raid only)
28. Mew (Mew quest only)
29. Chikorita
30. Bayleef
31. Meganium
32. Natu
33. Xatu
34. Bellossom
35. Hoppip
36. Skiploom
37. Jumpluff
38. Sunkern
39. Sunflora
40. Espeon
41. Slowking
42. Unown
43. Wobbuffet
44. Girafarig
45. Smoochum
46. Treecko
47. Grovyle
48. Sceptile
49. Lotad
50. Lombre
51. Ludicolo
52. Seedot
53. Nuzleaf
54. Shiftry
55. Ralts
56. Kirlia
57. Gardevoir
58. Shroomish
59. Breloom
60. Meditite
61. Medicham
62. Roselia
63. Spoink
64. Grumpig
65. Cacnea
66. Cacturne
67. Lunatone
68. Solrock
69. Baltoy
70. Claydol
71. Lileep
72. Cradily
73. Tropius
74. Chimecho
75. Wynaut
76. Beldum
77. Metang
78. Metagross

To make an excellent curveball throw, look for a Pokémon with a really large target area, like any Legendary Raid Boss, or a wild encounter with the likes of Wailer. Use regular Poké Balls, so you'll get repeated chances if they break out, and then just take your time.

If you know the trick for setting target size, or you want to learn it, it can help make sure you get Excellent and not just Great throws:

Once you get the hang of hitting Great or even Excelllent throws, you can up your odds by setting the circle size so it's ready when you want to throw.

1. Touch and hold the Poké Ball until the target circle shrinks down to Excellent size.
2. Wait until the Pokémon starts to attack.
3. Spin the Poké Ball so you can curve it.
4. As the Pokémon gets to about 3/4 through its attack, throw the curve ball as close to dead center as you can.

The target circle will remain the same size you set, so if you hit it correctly, you'll score the Excellent throw and associated bonus.

To get your Johto medal, you need to catch 70 different Gen 2 Pokémon originally discovered in the Johto region.

1. Chikorita: Grass - 801
2. Bayleef: Grass - 1296
3. Meganium: Grass - 2227
4. Cyndaquil: Fire - 831
5. Quilava: Fire - 1484
6. Typhlosion: Fire - 2686
7. Totodile: Water - 1011
8. Croconaw: Water - 1598
9. Feraligatr: Water - 2721
10. Sentret: Normal - 519
11. Furret: Normal - 1667
12. Hoothoot: Normal / Flying - 640
13. Noctowl: Normal / Flying - 2040
14. Ledyba: Bug / Flying - 663
15. Ledian: Bug / Flying - 1275
16. Spinarak: Bug / Poison - 685
17. Ariados: Bug / Poison - 1636
18. Crobat: Poison / Flying - 2466
19. Chinchou: Water / Electric - 1067
20. Lanturn: Water / Electric - 2077
21. Pichu: Electric - 376
22. Cleffa: Normal - 620
23. Igglybuff: Normal / Fairy - 512
24. Togepi: Fairy - 540
25. Togetic: Fairy / Flying - 1543
26. Natu: Psychic / Flying - 925
27. Xatu: Psychic / Flying - 1975
28. Mareep: Electric - 887
29. Flaaffy: Electric - 1402
30. Ampharos: Electric - 2695
31. Bellossom: Grass - 2108
32. Marill: Water / Fairy - 420
33. Azumarill: Water / Fairy - 1503
34. Sudowoodo: Rock - 2065
35. Politoed: Water - 2371
36. Hoppip: Grass / Flying - 508
37. Skiploom: Grass / Flying - 882
38. Jumpluff: Grass / Flying - 1553
39. Aipom: Normal - 1188
40. Sunkern: Grass - 316
41. Sunflora: Grass - 2048
42. Yanma: Bug / Flying - 1326
43. Wooper: Water / Ground - 596
44. Quagsire: Water / Ground - 1929
45. Espeon: Psychic - 3000
46. Umbreon: Dark - 2052
47. Murkrow: Dark / Flying - 1392
48. Slowking: Water / Psychic - 2482
49. Misdreavus: Ghost - 1781
50. Unown: Psychic - 1022
51. Wobbuffet: Psychic - 1024
52. Girafarig: Normal / Psychic - 1863
53. Pineco: Bug - 1045
54. Forretress: Bug Steel - 2263
55. Dunsparce: Normal - 1615
56. Gligar: Ground / Flying - 1758
57. Steelix: Steel / Ground - 2439
58. Snubbull: Fairy - 1124
59. Granbull: Fairy - 2440
60. Qwilfish: Water / Poison - 1910
61. Scizor: Bug / Steel - 2801
62. Shuckle: Bug / Rock - 300
63. Heracross: Bug / Fighting - 2938
64. Sneasel: Dark / Ice - 1868
65. Teddiursa: Normal - 1184
66. Ursaring: Normal - 2760
67. Slugma: Fire - 750
68. Magcargo: Fire / Rock - 1543
69. Swinub: Ice / Ground - 663
70. Piloswine: Ice / Ground - 2284
71. Corsola: Water / Rock - 1214
72. Remoraid: Water - 749
73. Octillery: Water - 2124
74. Delibird: Ice / Flying - 937
75. Mantine: Water / Flying - 2032
76. Skarmory: Steel / Flying - 2032
77. Houndour: Dark / Fire - 1110
78. Houndoom: Dark / Fire - 2529
79. Kingdra: Water / Dragon - 2424
80. Phanpy: Ground - 1175
81. Donphan: Ground - 3022
82. Porygon2: Normal - 2546
83. Stantler: Normal - 1988
84. Tyrogue: Fighting - 404
85. Hitmontop: Fighting - 1905
86. Smoochum: Ice / Psychic - 1230
87. Elekid: Electric - 1073
88. Magby: Fire - 1178
89. Miltank: Normal - 2312
90. Blissey: Normal - 3219
91. Raikou: Electric - 3349 (Field Research Award until August 31)
92. Entei: Fire - 3412 (Field Research Award from September 1-30)
93. Suicune: Water - 2823 (Not currently available)
94. Larvitar: Rock / Ground - 904
95. Pupitar: Rock / Ground - 1608
96. Tyranitar: Rock / Dark - 3670
97. Lugia: Psychic / Flying - 3598
98. Ho-Oh: Fire / Flying - 4650 (In raids until August 27)

What happens if you already got Celebi at Pokémon Go Fest Chicago 2018 back in July?

If you already caught your Celebi at Pokémon Go Fest Chicago 2018 back in July, you don't get another one. Sorry. What you do get is a shot a more candy:

A re-roll might have been nicer for those with relatively low stat Celebi but Candy is still Candy.

So, um, who's Celebi?

Celebi is the Mythical Pokémon from Generation 2, like Mew — the subject of the previous Special Research Quest — was the Mythical Pokémon of Generation 1.

Here's what the official Pokémon site has to say:

And, from Bulbapedia):

How did you catch Mew at Pokémon Go Fest Chicago 2018?

Celebi was originally made available to players who attended Pokémon Go Fest Chicago 2018. These were the tasks they had to complete to encounter Celebi and get additional Celebi Candy and rewards:

1. Spin 3 PokeStops or Gyms: 500 XP.
2. Earn 1 Candy Walking your Buddy: 500 XP.
3. Catch 15 Pokemon: 500 XP.

Bonus: 1000 Stardust, 50 Poké Balls, 3 Incense.

Best place to do this was right at the entrances and around the team lounges.

1. Catch 10 Fire-type Pokémon: Torkoal.
2. Catch 10 Water-type Pokémon: Ludiculo.
3. Catch 10 Grass-type Pokémon: Shiftry.
4. Catch 10 Steel-type Pokémon: Metagross.
5. Catch 10 Rock-type Pokémon. Aggron.
6. Catch 10 Ice-type Pokémon. Walrein.

Bonus: 2000 Stardust, 20 Ultra Balls, 3 Super Incubators.

The "Walk Through the Park" aspect of Go Fest was ideally suited to completing these quests, since each environment had several of the necessary types, along with some dual-types that were particularly efficient.

1. Catch 7 Unown: 1500 XP.
2. Spin 3 Pokestops or Gyms: 1500 XP.
3. Hatch 3 eggs. 1500 XP.

Bonus: 3000 Stardust, 10 Golden Razz Berries.

The entrance and team lounge areas are the best places to find Unown and spin stops.

Same deal as Mew, but there's no invisibility to deal with. So, you are in AR mode, and you do have to hit it three times, but you can see Celebi the whole time.

1. Catch 5 Plusle: 2000 XP
2. Catch 5 Minun: 2000 XP

Bonus: 4000 Stardust, 10 Pinap Berries, 20 Celebi Candies.

Depending on when you needed to complete this part, it could be super easy or super frustrating. The most reliable place to get tons of Plusle and at least a few Minun at a time was the Benjamin Franklin statue near South Entrance.

Make sure you crack and Egg and drop a Star Piece before doing this one.

1. 2018 XP.
2. 2018 XP.
3. 2018 XP

Bonus: 5000 Stardust, 3 Premium Raid Passes, 3 Lucky Eggs.

What's the best moveset for Celebi?

Celebi is a Psychic- Grass-type Pokémon that has tons of potential... but lacks the moveset pool to really make a dent. Confusion, which gets STAB (same type attack bonus) is better than charge beam as a fast move. Dazzling Gleam, a Fairy-type move, out scores both Psychic and the plodding cannon that is Hyper Beam, even with Psychic's STAB.

Celebi's current lack of any Grass-type Fast or Charge moves means it offers nothing as a Grass attacker at the moment. That could change any time Pokémon Go wants it to, though.

Best Moveset: Confusion + Dazzling Gleam

Can you quest for Celebi more than once?

Not so far. Like Mew, once you finish your quest, you get your Celebi, and that's it. Which is frustrating when its stats are... less than stellar.

Any Celebi or Mythical Discovery Field Research questions?

If you have any questions about completing the Mythical Special Research quest or catching Celebi in Pokémon Go, drop them in the comments below!