How to get the "A Rocky Road" Special Research Ticket in Pokemon GO

Pokemon GO's next Community Day event is slated to take place on May 21, 2022, from 11 am to 2 pm local time. It comes with its own Special Research Story for interested trainers.

Keeping in line with the Season of Alola, the May Community Day will focus on Alolan Geodude, a Rock/Electric-type Pokemon that stands in stark contrast to its Rock/Ground-type counterpart.

The Special Research Story for this Community Day is known as "A Rocky Road," but players will need to purchase a ticket in order to take advantage of it. Fortunately, this particular ticket is quite cheap and can easily be purchased in-game.

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Purchasing "A Rocky Road's" research ticket in Pokemon GO

Alolan Geodude takes center stage for May 2022's Community Day (Image via Niantic)

The good news for Pokemon GO trainers is that unlike other event tickets, the Special Research ticket for May 2022's Community Day can be purchased in-game.

At the moment, the ticket has an asking price of $0.99, making it considerably affordable for trainers who want to participate and maximize their Alolan Geodude-centered rewards.

The research will also reward a plethora of items alongside the Alolan Geodude encounters and candies that players will receive. This allows them to stock up while they power up and evolve Alolan Geodude into Alolan Graveler and finally Alolan Golem.

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Steps to purchase a Special Research Ticket

1. Open Pokemon GO and tap the Pokeball at the bottom center of the screen.
2. Tap the Shop button. It is the center icon between Pokedex, Battle, Pokemon, and Items.
3. At the top of the shop page, under the Global Events banner, tap the ticket icon for A Rocky Road.
4. This will bring up the purchase page for the ticket. Simply tap "Buy" when the ticket purchase page appears. Pokemon GO players can also select "Gift" if they'd like to send a fellow trainer a ticket to enjoy the Community Day Special Research during the event.
5. After pressing the "Buy" button, players should be able to finish the transaction on their device through Google or Apple Pay. They can also use services such as PayPal to purchase the ticket or enter a credit/debit card if they need to. Once an appropriate payment option has been accepted, players will purchase their Special Research ticket.

In order to participate in the Special Research Story, Pokemon GO trainers will want to make sure to log in on May 21, 2022, between 11 am and 2 pm.

Players should then receive the Special Research Story from Professor Willow. To confirm if this is the case, players can check the bottom-right corner of their main screen.

The binocular icon that normally denotes research should be replaced by Professor Willow's image. After tapping this, the professor will bestow the player with the Special Research Story and its accompanying tasks.