Pokémon Sun and Moon’s second global mission is yet another failure

Pokémon Sun and Moon’s second global mission wrapped late on Jan. 9, and it turns out that players again missed the mark. Players did not meet the goal of scanning and capturing one million Pokémon in total, according to the Global Link website.

The online competition required players to use the “Island Scan” feature to locate and then battle Pokémon; afterward, they had to make sure to register their progress with the online Global Sync function. Had they been successful, players would have received 2,017 festival coins, the currency used in the online Festival Plaza that hosts these events. Instead, the consolation prize is a much more paltry 217 festival coins.

On the bright side, the Japanese version of the Global Link site suggests players did a bit better than in the first worldwide event. Whereas in the inaugural global mission, Pokémon trainers only made it 16.4 percent of the way to the finish line, the second global mission saw players scanning and fighting 661,839 Pokémon.

That means they made it about 66.2 percent of the way to the goal. In some sense, that’s actually more disappointing than last time — it seems like a bunch of Pokémon trainers really, really tried to win those festival coins this time around, but they just couldn’t make it happen in time. We’ll see if the third global mission launches with an even lower set goal in due time.