LOS ANGELES, March 27 — Research Tasks, the Pokémon Go way of referring to the beginnings of a more structured story-led experience, are being added to the location-based game in this week’s update.

As one of two types of Research Tasks being made available to players of Pokémon Go, Special Research comes from the game’s kindly and handsome tutor, Professor Willow, and will take players “on a journey to make important discoveries.”

The game’s fictional alternative to real-world landmarks and social locations, Pokéstops, will act as a hub for receiving the more standard Field Research tasks.

These are objective-based missions to discover and catch certain Pokémon, or engage in battles, Niantic Labs’ official Pokémon Go sub-site explains.

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Incentivising participation is the promise of “great rewards,” which range from useful virtual items to additional Pokémon encounters.

Players receive a Pokémon Stamp for each day that they complete at least one Field Research task. Seven Stamps result in a Research Breakthrough, Niantic says, dangling the carrot of a possible encounter with a Legendary Pokémon, a rare and powerful creature within the Pokémon bestiary.

Data-mining Pokémon Go fans had noticed Niantic was laying the groundwork for a quest-based system in a rolling update released early February 2018.

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Until now, players have set about tracing and obtaining fictional Pokémon creatures from real-world locations as and when they find them.

The Pokémon meta-narrative is getting a little more sophisticated with the addition of Research Tasks, a development which follows the studio’s first Editorial hire in late January. — AFP-Relaxnews