Scour Areas
The Scour Areas are one of the places on PokéFarm a farmer can visit. It allows a farmer to send their Pokémon on Scour Missions. It can be accessed from the Nearby Places tab on the Farm page or through a link on the NavBar.
Starting a Mission
The Scour Areas can first be accessed once the basic tutorial is completed and the fashion suitcase has been bought from the Shop.
On the main page, there are two buttons. Below them the current scour missions are seen and Pokémon can be retrieved. "Start a new Mission" is possible when a scour slot is open. Without any upgrades a user has one scour slot. "Upgrades" takes the user to the upgrade information.
When clicking on "Start a new Mission," a user is taken to their Fields. The first step for them is to select a Pokémon. Any Pokémon that isn't still an Egg, at the DayCare, training at the Dojo, or already on a mission can do a scour mission. No Pokémon has more potential at missions than another, but they all have varied preferences for locations.
The next step is to choose a location and duration. There are six locations: Ocean, Volcano, Desert, Forest, Tundra, and City. All have the same items to find, but different Pokémon will have different preferences for each area. There are four durations: one, two, four, or eight hours. This determines how long a Pokémon will be gone in server-time.
After everything is sorted out, pressing "Send" will start the Mission. A scouring Pokémon will still appear in the Party/Fields and can be interacted with, but cannot be traded, nor be given items or have items taken from them.
During and After a Mission
On the Scour Areas' main page, all currently active missions are viewable.
While a mission is in progress, the page will display the Pokémon on the mission, the location of the mission, and the amount of time left before the Pokémon returns. In addition, there may also be an arrow next to the Pokémon. If it is green and pointing upwards, the Pokémon likes the location. If it is red and pointing downwards, the Pokémon dislikes the location. Whether the area is liked or not can affect performance; generally, a Pokémon's performance improves in the Scour area it likes, and worsens in the area it dislikes.
After a mission is done, a button to retrieve the Pokémon appears. A status screen pops up, showing any items the Pokémon found on its mission (varying from regular items, to Accessories, Credits, Boxes and Gold Poké), and the status of the Pokémon. Three options can be selected:
- End Mission: The Pokémon stops scouring and rests itself.
- Send on a Different Mission: Allows one to change the location/duration before setting off again.
- Send on the Same Mission: Repeats the finished mission.
Too many consecutive missions can result in a Pokémon becoming tired; a message will pop up if ones Pokémon is tired when they next retrieve it from a Scour mission. Tiredness can result in ones Pokémon losing Happiness, and eventually running away. However, tiredness does decrease over time, so one can reduce a Pokémon's tiredness by leaving it in a Field/not retrieving it from its finished mission for a while (1-2 days should be sufficient).
Upgrades
Numerous Account Upgrades for Scour Missions can be obtained.
Scour Boosts is a permanent item that increases the chance of finding rarer items on missions. Two total can be used. Scour Boosts are buyable for 200 Gold Poké apiece.
Scour Slots is a permanent item that adds another scour mission to be performed alongside the starting one. This allows more missions to go on at once. Again, two total can be used (three slots). Scour Slots are buyable for 200 Gold Poké apiece.
The Blue Gigaremo is a permanent item that allows a user to immediately recall all Pokémon scouring in the same Area. However, this also lowers the base Happiness of the Pokémon. It's a one-time purchase of 500 Gold Poké.
