I managed to get them somehow, but also barely. I luckily got a Staryu from the Daily Adventure Incense, and a few Grubbins from what I believed to be a nest.
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But what to seems new policy is that it’s not enough to run around and catch. Now you need special work, as searching for a nest, raids, investigations, etc.
My main and alt completed those collections in New York, mostly through the shadow encounters after grunt battles. I must have beaten 3 dozen grunts for that.
They made it too difficult to complete. You had to be in the right place to find those Pokemon. That’s not fun.
Yeah, but it seemed like the grunts were everywhere
Yes, but they didn’t have the right Pokemon.
I did have to walk almost 20 km, spinning every grunt-occupied pokestop I found, in a pokestop-saturated city. So you have a good point there.
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I read somewhere that that collection was indeed supposed to be completed from pokemon caught battling grunts… The thing is, I almost always battle the same ones, there’s hardly any variety in what pops up. Admitedly, I mostly fight the balloon ones, those on pokestops just annoy me really, but the game should still try to vary the encounters. Especially if there’s a collection depending on it…
I didn’t complete it, as I couldn’t find the last little bird at all. In the last few hours I found staryu in the wild (random spawn), which sometimes happens to me of late. I think grubbin must have been that way too, but I’m unsure.
I think their intent was people catching them from grunts and not accidentally in the wild, but as the grunts don’t vary that much it becomes incredibly frustrating to complete.
On the bright side… At least it wasn’t an “evolve x pokemon” collection. I hate those! 
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I failed to complete as well.
Got Staryu from a Rocket battle day 1 and only saw 1 other in roughly 40-50 odd Rocket battles.
Never got Grubbin from a Rocket battle, incense, daily nonsense or in the wild.
Another poorly released f*** up of an event if you ask me.
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No matter what special case tweaks they might try, the game will not be fair to everybody, because it tries to connect to the real world, and the real world is not fair. And players will continue to find unfixed bugs in the game until it is no longer being played. I want to complete the collection challenges without altering my style of play, yet so does somebody else who doesn’t have the same playing priorities.
Our experience of the game will always be uneven, because our ways and circumstances will never be identical. A raider will have a different experience than a spawn chaser, than a field task finisher, than a pvp fan, than a dynamax devotee… Make all the collection mons be found in every one of those to an equal degree, and at all places and hours… Good bleepin’ luck with that.
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And another water themed event begins without goldeen in the wild spawns (at the very least). I see different fish pokemon spawning in the wild (even outside special events), so why does this one get shunned into the deep sea all the time?! 
I always check possible spawns/rewards in water related events, just to see if it’s the one for this specific pokemon, but it never is…
What will I get first in my pokedex? Mewtwo or goldeen? I wonder! 
It is honestly surprising how rare a few Kanto Pokémon are, despite the rest of the region having spawned literally everywhere for over a year since the Rediscover Kanto event.
I found a wild Shellder today (probably due to the event) and that has also got me thinking when the last time was I saw that thing. Must have been years ago. I honestly forgot Shellder even existed.
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I’ve seen both, the Shellder and the Goldeen about four days ago. Both in the wild, on this Island at the side of Manhattan called Roosevelt Island.
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Level 80 and max battle suck
In my opinion
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I saw shellder today, too, and before that there was a somewhat recent event (by that mean it was this year) in which it also appeared and I managed the register. Other than that, nothing… But goldeen haunts me because, being a fish, there’s been plenty of opportunities for it to appear in events.
I don’t live near the beach either, so no chance of trying to see if it spawns there… I think it must have been forgotten completely, it’s so absurd.
Team Rocket has them all.
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Another poorly implemented task.
These are supposed to be found battling Rocket stops.
12 Random Rockets this afternoon and not one of them was the 3 remaining. What hope do players have in areas that have a minimal amount of Pokestops if the Rocket drops are going to be so uncommon.
If I don’t get them randomly between now and the weekend I use our map to hunt them down.
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For example, would it be so bad if the three appear in group an you choose with which you want to fight?
I was lucky, found them all three on the first, and on top Giovanni appeared at the first try.