One Pokemon Go player encountered a bug that let them defeat Giovanni without actually finding him, but there’s a bit of a catch.
Pokemon Go has its fair share of bugs, from strange miscolored Pokemon to giving trainers the wrong Pokemon upon evolution.
However, some bugs can unfortunately end up causing some big problems to unsuspecting players.
One example of this came from a player who was able to defeat Team Rocket’s Giovanni without finding him, which nearly cost them valuable in-game rewards.
Pokemon Go bug lets players defeat Giovanni early
Reddit user ‘Htb232‘ reported the bug to ‘TheSilphRoad’ subreddit, which is a subreddit dedicated to helping trainers answer questions about the game.
The trainer posted a screenshot of their Team GO Rocket Field Notes quest for July 2022’s Battle Weekend event, which showed that they completed every task aside from the ‘Find Team GO Rocket Boss’ mission.
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Htb232 beat Giovanni and completed five out of the six tasks for the mission, but was unable to claim the rewards despite Giovanni getting taken down.
Apparently, if Pokemon Go players find a non-decoy Giovanni at a Pokestop before getting to the “Find Team GO Rocket Boss’ mission, the game treats it as if you never found him.
This can result in some annoying problems as it can not only lead to wasted Super Rocket Radars but can also lock players out of their rewards for completing the Team GO Rocket mission.
Additionally, as Reddit user ‘TehWildMan_‘ puts it, “If you used your last radar to softlock yourself here, your only options are to either contact support or wait until the game gives a super radar outside of normal Giovanni special research quests.”
Luckily, the trainer who reported this bug was able to contact Niantic Support who resolved the issue for them, but players should be wary of the issue whenever the next Team Rocket event rolls around.