Next Field Research Breakthrough reward.
What's on tap for December? Let the idle speculation begin.
My vote is Groudon, following the trends of main legendaries (birds), one bookend (BS Snorlax), main legendaries (beasts), one bookend (Shedinja).
(Or it's possible that the announcement is out and I missed it - I get stuff late, and am not religiously attentive to the news feeds.)
Answers
Smeargle.
Book it.
Done.
(1: I expect Groudon and Rayquaza, maybe even Kyogre, to have a Raid release because we'll spend quite a bit of money on Raid Passes to catch any of them. Putting them in Research Rewards removes that monetization option.)
(2: What good is a Speculation thread without some extreme speculation that we can all laugh at in the future?)
Rhyperior needs a Sinnoh Stone and those aren't exactly common at the moment. Anyone needing anything more on the ground front than a lone Rhyperior would probably welcome a Groudon, though the one target most demanding of ground types (Jolteon solo) will likely get rotated out once the Let's Go event ends.
Groudon with Solarbeam has more niches than Groudon with Earthquake, though a lot has come out since then that sort of dunk on it. I've still found utility in my EQ Groudon against A-Raichu since Wild Charge plows through things that don't actively resist it.
As far as legendaries go there are others that are better deserving of Rare Candy. As far as ground types go Groudon is the best of the best.
That is true about solar beam, but solar beam groudon isnt that good against things that are water type, like kyogre because of its weakness to water, the type of its only fast move, and 2 of its charge moves, it does to great vs thunder, but as do most grass types and that applied for more than just kyogre. Against rock types i can see how it would edge out a head of grass types because of the resistance, but most rock types are double weak to either grass/water or fighting not ground. I agree it does well agaisnt wild charge raichu (not that i'd know from experience, dont have a groudon myself, only what ive seen friends do), I have lost a few times trying to solo wild charge sets, and after seeing how my rhydon did, i'd imagine groudon does phenomenally, albeit limited .
Groudon is the best ground attacker, but that isnt as much as it sounds, given all ground types are generally bad. Much like double psychic mewtwo, it took those legendary tier stats to make bad charge moves workable. I know people who go both ways on groudon, some dont see the RC cost as worth it given the limited use, and others who maxed out more than a few
I will just remind everyone that they did the birds for special research, then a couple months later did their raid days. So it would make sense that soon we will have raid days for the dogs and groudon and co. for special research, with raid days for groudon and co. a few months down the line after that.
"... I'd guess we wouldn't see another round of legendary raid days until next summer ...."
Disagree. Raid days were so successful that they are practically bending over backwards to find ways to continue them. Explaining them as a reward for research leaves them in an awkward position with trying to have more. How did they explain the Gengar raid day?
I think they will try to figure out how to include that event in the regular rotation of things, because people love it and it sells a lot of raid passes. Sure, many people say they will just do their five, but once they have a group, the temptation to hit one more is pretty strong. I think the thing they will work on is thwarting the people who change their time zones to get another 5 passes for free.
December looks intriguing. We have the December community days (not day) the very first weekend, the legendary raid boss doesn't change over until the 18th, and we can expect some sort of events around Xmas and New Year's. What will they do in between? I'm thinking another raid day, either the weekend of the 8th or the 15th.
And of course, there's the December field research breakthrough. We'll see if they stay true to form and go with Groudon, diverge a little and do Ho-Oh and/or Lugia and/or Mewtwo, or diverge a lot and go with a non-legendary again. There's a thread for speculation about that, I think. Wait, of course there is. It's this one.
The key point to remember is that for the most part, all of this is a new model. They borrowed a few things from Ingress, but the ingress special events and such are very different from the Pokemon go events. They are figuring it out as they go along - sometimes it shows (a lot). But they do want the game to be successful, so they will try to do more of things the players like, and fix the things the players don't like.
Rumor has it Gengar day was supposed to be October 27th during the Halloween event but due to APAC having their rescheduled Beldum day it was shifted to the week after. Which makes much more sense thematically as well as the announcement reading "This weekend on Nov. 3rd..." when the upcoming weekend was that of October 27th, meaning they had the original announcement ready to go and pushed it with the updated date but not updated phrasing.
I won't deny that raid days are immensely profitable to them, but my point was that they were bonuses to a summer themed around research. I guess what I should have said instead was we won't see more raid days unless they can bunch them as a part of an on-going event; The birds were part of Summer 2018's ongoing theme and Gengar was [likely planned to be] part of Halloween 2018. Datamining has found reference to a Winter 2018 event that will probably see a raid day for a snowy boss. If I was a guessing man I'd say it would be non-legendary as the only ice-type legendaries available are Articuno and Regice; the former already had a raid day and the latter is lame, meaning they wouldn't rake in as much cash as the previous raid days.
Maybe we'll see the Johto beasts in the spring? Who knows.
Echoing aeronaut, I don't think it would be a slap in the face at all. Of course if someone gave an arm and a leg in a trade for one they would probably not be pleased about it. But I think it would be a net gain as any newer players who haven't traded for one would be extremely happy and most older players who had one already wouldn't care much.
Moltres? Best fire type, and with Sky Attack, really close to being best flying type. Raikou? Top Electric attacker until G4, still very strong, just not as popular because requires RC.
I think putting everything into research breakthroughs is important for rural players who don't have the availability or access to do the high tier raids. My nephew plays, and he's mainly a collector - doesn't like raiding much. He doesn't have Lugia yet, and I'm happy to trade him one once we are good enough friends, but not all rural players or collectors are in that position.
I'd put my money on Regirock, Regice or Registeel as they more closely mirror the trios like the birds and beasts. I think Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza seem more like the type who'd appear in Raids, since they're a closer caliber to Mewtwo and Giratina in my opinion. Unless they already did the Regis and I just missed them.
