Scour Areas
The Scour Areas is 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.
Starting a Mission
The Scour Areas can first be accessed once the basic tutorial is complete.
On the main page, there are two selectable tabs. "Start a new Mission" takes you to a place to organize the mission, while "Upgrades" takes you to the upgrade information (see below) below the tabs. Below the tabs, all current scour missions are viewable, and Pokémon can be retrieved.
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, or already on a mission can do a scour mission. No Pokémon has more potential at missions than the other, but they all have varied preferences for areas.
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. Generally, longer missions mean better items.
After everything is sorted out, pressing "Send" will start the Mission.
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, to Credits, to Boxes and Gold Poké), and the status of the Pokémon. Three options can be selected:
- End Mission: Brings the Pokémon back to the Party/Fields.
- Send on a Different Mission: Allows you to change 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 your Pokémon is tired when you next retrieve it from a Scour mission. Tiredness can result in your Pokemon losing happiness, and eventually running away. However, tiredness does decrease over time, so you 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 upgrades for Scour Missions can be obtained.
Scour Boosts and Scour Boost Primes are permanent items that increase the chance of finding rarer items on missions, though what "rarer" means is somewhat vague at this point. Five total can be used; two Scour Boosts and three Scour Boost Primes. Scour Boosts are buyable for 200 Gold Poké apiece, while Scour Boost Primes can be earned through "special means". Said means are unknown as of yet.
Scour Slots and Scour Slots primes are permanent items that add another scour mission to be performed alongside the starting one. This allows more missions to go on at once. Again, five total can be used (six slots); two Scour Slots and three Scour Slot Primes. Scour Slots are buyable for 200 Gold Poké apiece, while Scour Slot Primes can be obtained through "special means", which are also still unknown.
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.
