I'm still confused how this works, I feel like I've seen conflicting reports. I want to wait until the 1st of December to get a research breakthrough, because whoever it is will be better than another Shedninja. I only need one more stamp, but can I EARN one tomorrow and not CLAIM the breakthrough until Saturday and still get the new pokemon?
Follow up question: I have a task ready to claim, but it's an Aerodactyl encounter and I wanted to wait and claim it until I'm at the point in my Meltan research when I need to catch one. If I were to wait until next month to claim it, even though I earned it this month, would that affect which breakthrough pokemon I would get?
I could be wrong but I think as long as you don't claim the box (taking the exp, dust, 3rd item) you'll be fine. If I'm wrong someone please tell me.
Aerodactyl was a specific quest for Let's Go so I wouldn't think it would change. If you wanted to be safe you could just stack it by claiming the research now then fleeing from the encounter. It will remain available to encounter again whenever you want to and won't change based upon research changes.
Correct. You can claim the 7th day stamp, just don't open the box until after 4 pm EST on Dec. 1 (I usually wait until around 415 or someone posts that they got it on Reddit to be safe!). I have done this before and it works. I waited 2 days for Suicune since I did not have one yet.
Any guesses to whom it may be next month? I am holding mine for 3 days as well.
There's been no announcement to my knowledge which is pretty concerning given there's only two days left in the month. They usually announce the new breakthroughs about a week in advance. My #7 is tomorrow, I would love to know if whatever's coming next month will be worth getting a 5th or if I may as well claim Shedinja tomorrow.
Also yes, definitely gonna wait this time if I do let it roll over. Got Moltres'ed once already, not gonna let it happen again.
Think about it this way. Suppose your box is available on the 1st of the month. The switch over happens at 1 PM PST, or for me on the east coast, 4 PM EST. When I opened my box at 3:55 like I did on November 1st, I got a Suicune. If I had waited until 4:30 I would have got a Shedinja. If I had opened it at 4:01, I would have gotten a Moltres because of the bug Niantic didn't fix (wish I had known that, Moltres >> Suicune and Shedinja combined, but there was no way to know until someone did it).
This month, I've reset my Breakthrough to Saturday, and I plan on opening at 4:10, after checking reports that it's working right (or if there's a bug, either avoiding it or taking advantage of it).
But it's clear that the research breakthrough is a function of when you open the research breakthrough box, not when you finished the research.
Not only can you claim the research encounter later, you can claim it now, and then run away, putting it in your queue, and then when you need it for the Meltan quest, catch it from the queue, and you've met the quest requirement.
Doing it that way leaves you all three quest slots free - you don't have to tie one up with the Aerodactyl until you need it (and risk misremembering which one it is if you finish another encounter quest).
Do note, however, that some have reported that running from the quest counts as a seen but not caught in your pokedex. Not sure if that is rectified when you catch it. If this matters to you, plan accordingly.
