How to Catch Mew in Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go players can now catch Mew in Pokemon Go, but it won’t be a walk in the park.

Pokemon Go recently added a new “Research” feature that lets players complete various in-game tasks for rewards. There’s two type of Research: normal Field Research that can be found by spinning PokeStops and “Special Research” given to players by Professor Willow himself.

The first Special Research quest is the Search for Mew. Players can start the Search for Mew quest immediately, even if you’re a lapsed player that hasn’t picked up the game in months. There’s also no time restrictions – as soon as players complete one chapter of the quest, they can immediately move on to the next one.

We’ve got a full breakdown of all eight parts of the Search for Mew quest, plus the rewards and some notes on how to complete them. Here’s what you need to do to capture Mew in Pokemon Go:

Part 1

Tasks: 

• Spin 5 PokeStops
• Catch 10 Pokemon
• Transfer 5 Pokemon

Rewards: 

• 10 Great Balls
• 1 Egg Incubator
• 3 Lure Modules

Each part of the “Search for Mew” is basically a tutorial for how to play Pokemon Go. That means that a lot of the early missions will seem frustrating for players, but they’ll get a little more challenging beginning with Part 2. 

There’s not a lot of “advice” that we can really give on the opening chapter of the quest other than to try to pick up some Field Research quests that you can do while completing these very basic tasks. You can complete multiple objectives at the same time, so be efficient and get some of those non-Special Research tasks banged out while you complete the opening chapter. 

Part 2

Tasks: 

• Earn 2 Candies while walking with your Buddy
• Make 10 “Great” Throws
• Hatch 3 Eggs 

Rewards: 

• 20 Great Balls
• 2000 Stardust
• 3 Incense

The easiest way to complete this part of the quest is to set your Buddy as Magikarp (it will come in handy later) and to take advantage of the current Eggstravaganza event, as the game is only distributing 2 KM eggs right now. Magikarp earns Candy for every 1 KM you walk, so players should be able to bang out those Candies without much of an issue. 

If you end up starting this quest late, you may want to use a Super Incubator to speed up your hatching. Super Incubators decrease the distance needed to hatch an egg by 33% – so a 2 KM egg would hatch after walking 1.33 KM. Hypothetically, you could finish two of these three tasks by walking a total of 2.66 KM…which really isn’t that much walking. 

 

Part 3

Tasks: 

• Reach Level 15
• Battle in a Gym 2 Times
• Battle in 2 Raids

Rewards: 

• 1 Fast TM
• 1 Charged TM
• 2 Star Pieces

This part of the quest is pretty self-explanatory. If you live in an area that doesn’t have a very active player base, you can still complete this part by finding two Level 1 or Level 2 Raids to battle in. If you go this route, try to find a Magikarp raid, as those Magikarp candies will come in handy later. Most veteran players should be able to finish this part of the quest very quickly. 

Part 4

Tasks: 

• Earn a Silver Kanto Badge
• Evolve 20 Pokemon
• Earn 5 Candies from walking with a Buddy

Rewards: 

• 20 Great Balls
• 4000 Stardust
• 3 Lure Modules

Most players should be able to complete this part pretty quickly. If you’ve played the game for any significant length of time, you already have a Silver Kanto badge. You should also still be collecting those Magikarp Candies (this will still come in handy later), and have plenty of Pokemon in your collection that you can evolve quickly. For extra XP, use a Lucky Egg before you start mass evolving your Pokemon for this part of the quest. Also – DO NOT EVOLVE MAGIKARP. You’ll need those Candies in a little bit. 

Part 5

Tasks: 

• Catch Ditto
• Make 20 Great Throws
• Catch 10 Ghost-Type Pokemon

Rewards: 

• 1 Lucky Egg
• 15 Revives
• 1 Premium Raid Pass

This is the first part of the “Search for Mew” quest that could take a little bit of time to complete. Ghost-Type Pokemon aren’t all that uncommon, but you may need to play Pokemon Go at night if you want to complete this task in a hurry. 

The Ditto task is a little trickier to complete. Ditto hides as one of several species of common Pokemon, so you may need to grind a little in order to find it. To help players out, Pokemon Go developers had Ditto hide as several additional species to increase a player’s odds of finding one. Ditto now hides as Rattata, Pidgey, Zubat, Gastly, Hoothoot, Sentret, Yanma, Taillow, Whimsur, Gulpin, and Zigzagoon.

Part 6

Tasks: 

• Reach Level 25
• Battle in 10 Raids
• Evolve a Magikarp

Rewards: 

• 6000 Stardust
• 5 Rare Candy
• 3 Incense

Unless you have 400 Magikarp Candy sitting around, this will be the most time consuming part of the “Search for Mew” quest. The quickest way to get more Magikarp Candies is to add Magikarp as a Buddy….which you should have done way back in Part 2 of this quest. 

We’ve heard reports that Magikarp spawns have increased in some areas, so you might have some luck finding more Magikarp near bodies of water. You can also grab some Magikarp candies by battling it in raids or by feeding Magikarp/Gyarados berries in gyms. 

Part 7

Tasks: 

• Catch 50 Pokemon using a Berry
• Make 1 Excellent Curve Throw
• Earn a Gold Kanto Medal

Rewards: 

• 8000 Stardust
• 5 Ultra Balls
• A Mew Encounter

This is technically the last part of the official “Search for Mew” quest and it’s not all that tough. You might need to practice your curve ball throws a bit, but a good curve ball should be excellent anyways if you time it right. 

You’ll need to catch 100 “Gen 1” Kanto Pokemon in order to earn your Gold Kanto Medal. Most Pokemon Go players who have been playing for a while should already have that, but getting the gold medal now might be tricky due to the variety of Pokemon that are now available in the game. 

Part 8

Tasks: 

• Catch Mew

Rewards: 

• 20 Mew Candies
• 1 Super Incubator
• 10000 Stardust

Pokemon Go will say that you need to activate AR mode in order to catch Mew, but you can simply switch it off once you enter the screen. Mew will be invisible, but you can still see its outline on your catch screen. Mew might break out of a few Poke Balls, but don’t be alarmed. Players are guaranteed to catch Mew and will even get the First Catch bonus once its caught….even though it’s programmed to break out of a few Poke Balls. 

You’ll note that Mew is non-transferable and will permanently take space up in your collection. So once you catch Mew, there’s no way you can lose it. 

Good luck on completing the “Search for Mew” task!