What is the Elite Collector Medal in Pokemon Go?

Many players in Pokémon Go will earn medals as they play the game. These medals are awarded to the player when they reach certain milestone content, such as capturing 50 of a specific Pokémon type, defeating Team Rocket grunts, or walking a certain distance. There’s a new medal coming to Pokémon Go called the Elite Collector Medal, and it goes hand-in-hand with the new Collections Challenges coming to the mobile game in 2021. The first one is the Unova Collection Challenge, and it’s live right now, for a limited time.

How the Elite Collector Medal will work is players will complete these mini-collection challenges. Each of the challenges occurs during a specific event, such as the Unova Collection Challenge releasing alongside the Unova Celebration 2021 event. All of the Pokémon featured in the Collection Challenge will have increased spawns in the event, making it pretty easy for everyone to capture them.

The way developer Niantic on the Pokémon Go blog phrase the Elite Collector Medal is that you’re adding to it by completing the Unova Collection Challenge. So the Elite Collector Medal likely has a small list compromised of all the collection challenges you’ve completed and when you finished them. It’ll be a way for you to show off and compare how quick you were to clear it before other players in the game, not giving you an in-game benefit but bragging rights.

We don’t know if you’ll be able to add to your Elite Collector Medal if you miss out on these challenges. These are time-limited events, so players who can’t jump into the mobile game will likely miss out on this opportunity unless there’s a specific makeup event giving everyone access to it again. There will be more collection challenges released in the future, with the next one being the Sinnoh Collection Challenge on January 12, 2021.