“Galar Calling” is the season-long Special Research for the “Max Out” season in Pokémon Go.

Focusing on Galar starters Grookey, Scorbunny, and Scobble, it opens with a ‘choose a path’ choice between the three Pokémon.

The “Galar Calling” Special Research will be available until the end of the season, meaning you have until Dec. 3 to claim. Once you log in and begin, it’ll stick around forever in your Special quest tab, so there is no urgency in finishing every step — and with 19 in total, there’s quite a lot to get through.

The quest debuted alongside the “Go All Out” event and the debut of various Galar Pokémon, a new UK regional exclusive, the Daily PokéCoin Bounty ticket, and a new set of Go Battle League rewards.

Available from Sept. 3, which you have until Dec. 1, 2024 to begin the “Galar Calling” research. Once you have it in your Special Research tab, it will not expire — meaning you can take your time in completing the following steps. Thanks to LeekDuck with helping fill in the gaps with the following.

Rewards: 800 XP, 800 Stardust

At this point, you will choose a path between which starter — Grookey, Scorbunny, or Sobble — you want to adventure with.

You can read our thoughts on which to pick in the next section, otherwise, the steps that follow are:

Rewards: Grookey, Scorbunny, or Sobble encounter, 1,000 XP

Rewards: 10 Great Balls, 1,500 XP

Rewards: Wooloo encounter, 2,000 XP

Coming soon! Step 6 (and beyond) is expected on Sept. 10 at 10 a.m. local time.

Whereas the mainline entries often have starters harder to come by in the wild, this isn’t the case with the “Go All Out” event — meaning choosing Grookey, Scorbunny, or Sobble in Pokémon Go is simply a case of whichever you prefer.

The quest choice not only dictates which starter you’ll receive in an encounter at the end of step 2, but which you need to evolve in steps 4 and 5, and who you will receive candy for in steps 4 and 5.

The other consideration beyond the above is that whichever you choose in this research step will have a higher-than-average set of stats, with an “IV floor” of 10/10/10 (out of a possible max of 15/15/15). This means you are guaranteed to get a moderately powerful version of that Pokémon, so if you plan to have one as part of your battle party, then opt for that.

That said, you catch more starters easily through Field Research and eggs with similar IV floors as part of the “Go All Out” event, not to mention the possibility of getting good stats through wild catches and a dose of luck. In other words — this is by far not your only chance to get a Galar starter with good IVs.

To summarize, the “choose a path” quest won’t offer anything exclusive, so opt for your favorite out of the three. (For us, it’s the grass starter. Always the grass starter.)