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New Pokemon Snap Requests: 8 rare shots you shouldn't miss

The long-awaited Pokemon Snap sequel is full of fantastic moments, but you'll need to work to find some of them.

Daniel Van Boom Senior Writer
Daniel Van Boom is an award-winning Senior Writer based in Sydney, Australia. Daniel Van Boom covers cryptocurrency, NFTs, culture and global issues. When not writing, Daniel Van Boom practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, reads as much as he can, and speaks about himself in the third person.
Expertise Cryptocurrency, Culture, International News
Daniel Van Boom
8 min read
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Nintendo/Screenshot by Daniel Van Boom

Pokemon fans rejoice: we finally have a sequel to Pokemon Snap, and it's a great one. Nearly a week old, New Pokemon Snap is some of the best fan service in the franchise's history. It's full of meticulously crafted moments -- for the benefit of those with flash photography -- that will keep you smiling. But some of those moments don't come easy.

Throughout New Pokemon Snap, you'll recieve Requests from Professor Mirror and his research assistants.  Many are self explanatory and easy. Some are much harder. Below you'll find eight examples of these Requests. But first, you should understand the related ratings system.

Getting 4-star photos

Underpinning the gameplay are two systems: Ranking and points. Professor Mirror analyzes each photo you give him, and will give out points based on size, composition, background and a number of other factors. More complex is the star rating system, which is particular to each Pokemon in the game.  

The star rating system is confusing, at least on paper. Each star category relates to a type of photo, not the quality of photo. Quality is denoted by the star colors: Bronze (less than 2,000 points), Silver (2,000 to 3,000), Gold (3,000 to 4,000) and Diamond (4,000 and up). The amount of stars correlates with the rarity of your shot. The more common the Pokemon's behavior, the fewer stars.

What makes this system hard to get your head around is that it's particular to each Pokemon. What may be worth one star for a certain Pokemon -- like catching it sleeping -- could be two or even three for another. Typically, four-star photos require you to get the Pokemon to act in a certain way. Complicating matters, the game can sometimes allot arbitrary rankings: A one-star photo taken a second later could suddenly be worth two or three stars.

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Nintendo/Screenshot by Daniel Van Boom

Take the above collection of Bidoof. The one-star shot is just a close-up of two friendly Bidoof. The two-star is pretty much the same shot, except I took it immediately after throwing an Illumina orb at one. (In other words, I caught it reacting to something.) The three-star photo is a trio of Bidoof swimming together. To get the four-star Bidoof, I had to throw a fruit at a Bidoof hiding in a hut, then capture it as it popped its head out on top.

So, in essence, a guide to shooting four-star photos would require detail on each Pokemon in the game. But that's also where Requests come in. Since you typically need to work to get four-star photos, Requests serve as hints that lead you to discovering unique behavior. 

To illustrate some of these encounters, here are eight you could easily miss. Note that each example requires at least level 3 for the relevant stage.

Flopping By The Water

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Nature is metal. 

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This one can be hard to time, but is totally awesome if you can. You'll need to have the stage at level 3 to snap it.

As you exit the forest area and enter the lakeside, Pidgeot will fly over and land in the center of the path. It'll then fly off and come around on your left, around the same time as Dodrio jumps onto the scene. Your job is to throw a fluffruit at Pidgeot, either when it's in the center of the path or when it's on the hill to your left. That'll cause it to fly off again, to the big tree near Magikarp.

Once you see Pidgeot perched atop the tree, throw a fluffruit at Magikarp. Magikarp will flail in the air, which will catch Pidgeot's attention. The bird Pokemon will then swoop into the distance before circling back to snatch up Magikarp. It's extremely cool.

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Pidgeot, on the hunt.

Nintendo/Screenshot by Daniel Van Boom
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Magikarp: "I'm in trouble." 

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Note how if you time it wrong, the game will confuse the photo with one of Ducklett, as happened to me here. 

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There are a few challenges here. First is hitting Pidgeot with a fluffruit, which isn't too hard, but also isn't so easy that you'll get it each runthrough. The second, much bigger issue is timing when you throw the fluffruit at Magikarp. If you time it wrong, your vision will be obscured by grass. I also had an issue where the camera registered the shot as a photo of Ducklett, which is chilling in the background. Very annoying. 

I found the best time to chuck fruit at Magikarp is when you're around the middle of the Bidoof-built bridge. If you can time it right, you'll get a four-star shot of Magikarp. Capturing Pidgeot will yield a three-star photo. 

Shockingly Well-Done

The first time you cruise through Florio Nature Park with the scanner, you'll be alerted to some charred fruit at the bottom of a tree in the second area. I thought it was Scorbunny for sure, that little rascal. Surprise: It's Emolga.

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Throw a fluffruit on the ground below where Emolga is perched here. 

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It has a target, now wait to see what happens next...

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That fruit was two days away from retirement. 

Nintendo/Screenshot by Daniel Van Boom

To catch the electrical critter in the four-star act, wait until it flies atop the tree branch on top of the charred fruit. Then chuck a fluffruit to lure Emolga to the ground. It'll jump down, examine the fluffruit and then electrify the hell out of it. Charred fruit? More like scorched Earth. 

What's Up With Wurmple?

Flying Pokemon normally trump Bug Pokemon, but not in New Pokemon Snap. One of the best shots you can get in Florio Nature Park is Wurmple spraying poison all over Taillow. If you do it right, you'll get that as part of a Westside Story-esque showdown between three Taillow and Wurmple.

As you roll by the bottom of the lake, around the area where you snapped the shot of Pidgeot snatching Magikarp, three Taillow will fly out of the bushes on the left. To get Wurmple's poison attack, you need to photograph at least one of these Taillow midflight. To get an even better shot, snap all three. That's harder than it sounds, since they're flying fast and you'll need to photograph each individually.

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Photographing all three Taillow separately is a challenge.

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Fatality, Wurmple wins. 

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You'll pass a tree with sleeping Hoothoot inside, and then the showdown will be on your left. Wurmple versus Taillow. If you took shots of two flying Taillow, it'll be two Taillow and one Wurmple. Shoot all three flying Taillow and you'll get three on three. In either case, chuck an Illumina orb at Wurmple and it'll jump around and attack the aggressing Taillow with a poison attack. 

Best Frenemies

Wurmple and Taillow aren't the only Pokemon with beef in the Nature Park. Once you've got Level 3 of Florio Nature Park by Night unlocked, you can see a clash between two significantly more gnarly battlers: Heracross and Pinsir.

To get the goods, you'll have to start in the area with the glowing crystal bloom. If you've got this far, you know that you can scan the mound of dirt and Pinsir's horns/pincers will poke out. To get Pinsir fighting Heracross, you need to throw an Illumina orb at its horns, not fluffruit. If you flow fluffruit, you will get no dance of death.

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Throw an Illumina orb, not a fluffruit, at Pinsir. 

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Scan three or four times and Heracross will fall on his back, not ashamed of itself in the slightest. 

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And then they FIGHT. 

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Throw the Illumina orb at Pinsir and it'll jump out of its mound of dirt. Now scan a few times. After three or four scans, Heracross will fall out of a tree. It'll land on its back and look embarrassed, while Pinsir walks over to give it a look. Then, as you make your way by the Hoothoot tree, you'll see Pinsir and Heracross square off. It's totally rad, and will net you four-star shots of both Pokemon.

Staredown for Venusaur

Now we move to Founja Jungle. One of the trickiest requests you're given is to get Venasaur in a staring contest with Arbok. This one will probably take a few tries, as you'll need to lure Arbok near Venusaur with fluffruit and sometimes the big snake doesn't cooperate. 

At near the beginning of the stage (at level three) you'll see an Arbok obnoxiously blocking the path. Chuck a fluffruit at it and it'll have a little scream before slithering to the next area. Here's where it gets hard.

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You'll bump into Arbok here. Throw fluffruit at it and it'll slither into the next area.

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Now you'll need to lead Arbok from this area to the left, where Venusaur is sleeping.

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Once Arbok is close enough, use your scanner to wakeup Venusaur.

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Arbok will now be chilling in a relatively large area. You'll need to throw fluffruit toward the left of the area in the direction of the sleeping Venusaur. You'll want to chuck several of them, closer and closer to the snoozing giant. As Arbok nears Venusaur, use your scanner to wake it up.

With Arbok in its face, Venusaur will quickly freak out and scamper off. But you'll have a few seconds to snap their staredown, which'll complete the request from Mirror and get you a three-star Venusaur photo. 

What's Your Favorite Pollen? 

This request is much easier to accomplish, but one that's hard to figure out on your own. The aim is to snap a shot of Beautifly feeding on pollen from the flower growing out of Venusaur. 

To do that, you'll need to go to the same sleeping Venusaur which you previously harrassed via Arbok staredown. Don't wake it up this time. Instead, keep throwing Illumina orbs at it. Eventually, a nearby Beautifly will notice that there's a giant, luminescent Venusaur. It'll float over to feed on Venusaur's pollen. Photographing it in the act completes the request and gets a four-star photo of Beautifly. 

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Throw Illumina orbs at Venusaur until Beautifly comes poking around. 

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If this was a real mature documentary it would probably look disgusting. 

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Why So Still? 

You'll need to return at night to complete this one. Professor Mirror is confused as to why Swampert is being so antisocial. It's sitting by itself in the swamp, not moving an inch. To tick off this request, you need to make him stand up. Fluffruits and Illumina orbs don't do the trick.

Instead, you'll need to enlist the help of Leafeon. There's a part of the stage, near the very first crystal bloom, where Leafeon will sit down. It's near the route split, where you can choose to either go the normal path or travel through the other side of the swamp. When Leafeon sits down here, throw a fluffruit at it. It'll then scamper into the alternate swamp path, which you should take.

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Hit Leafeon with fluffruit to make it scamper through to the swamp.

Nintendo/Screenshot by Daniel Van Boom
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Here's the Swampert you need to rouse. 

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Play music to make Ariados drop, which'll scare Leafeon into the swamp, which will freak out Swampert. 

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Once again, it'll take a seat. To your right will be the solo Swampert. Now, play some music. It'll cause nearby Ariados to drop by, which will scare Leafeon. The terrified Pokemon will then run into the swamp, which will rouse Swampert from his isolation. 

Near The Water's Edge

You ever see a surfing Pikachu? Well, you're about to. Once you get Blushing Beach to level three, you'll be given a vague request about Pikachu following fluffruit. This is a devious one, but it has a fun payoff.

To snap this four-star Pikachu shot, get to the last area of Blushing Beach. A Blastoise will be sleeping to your left, and you'll see Pikachu wondering about. There are two sand islands to the right, both of which are littered by what looks like ocean debris. Well, some of that ocean debris is actually the Stunfisk Pokemon.

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You need to lead Pikachu to this Stunfisk.

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Pikachu can't resist fluffruit nor opportunities to catch waves, apparently.

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There it is. 

Nintendo/Screenshot by Daniel Van Boom

You need to throw fluffruit in a way that leads Pikachu to the Stunfisk on the middle island. Once Pikachu gets close enough, it'll recognize an opportunity to catch some waves by jumping ontop of Stunfisk and using it as a surfboard.

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