To Hold or Not to Hold?

In my post yesterday about a possible methodology for Limited Research events in Pokémon Go, I mentioned that Pokémon could be "held" prior to capture (also known by the other name of "stacking Research encounters"). This is something that applies not only to Limited Research but also Field Research in general. For any task that rewards the appearance of a Pokémon, after claiming the reward by tapping the completed Field Research task, a Trainer may "flee" from the Pokémon encounter, but may return to it after doing other things. It's something that has existed since the Research feature was introduced in the game.

What makes this (terribly) useful is that a large number of Pokémon encounters may be held prior to capture. Someone on a binge of Pokémon-related Field Research tasks may hold a few encounters, then complete more tasks, then hold a few more, then complete a few more, and the process repeats. This is what can happen (and essentially happens) for many people during a Limited Research, where all the tasks reward a certain Pokémon. The action of "holding" many encounters could be described as an undocumented feature of sorts. And yet, "terribly" does describe another aspect to it.

The "hold" capacity of Pokémon encounters is not indefinite, however. Only about 100 Pokémon encounters may be held, after which the next encounter that is held "kicks out" an older one, essentially voiding it as a true "flee", even though one is not supposed to be able to let these encounters escape. Further, some of my raid fellows have experienced this first-hand, losing a valuable encounter with a Shiny Pokémon, for example. As well, the reason for its other name is because the encounters indeed do stack, which means they have to be cleared in a certain order; one cannot go back to a specific encounter in the stack until the stack is cleared to that point.

This does lead to the question I pose as the title of this post. The answer perhaps depends on the situation. For everyday play, there should be very little reason to hold encounters, especially if an encounter turns out to be with a Shiny, rare, or high-CP Pokémon. During events with great numbers of Field Research tasks that reward Pokémon, including Limited Research, it may be permissible to hold some Pokémon until they are ready to be captured. And for those who make this a routine, it would be best to keep a list of the stack of held Pokémon, if they happen to be all different. Even so, it has been said that the feature is technically "unsupported", which is why I'm against using it if at all possible, for fear that it may disappear or be reworked one day, resulting in the loss of all held Pokémon.

Though that may be the case later, the feature has displayed persistence in that it is still available for use today. It has its uses, and yet it has its limitations as well. One has to be wise about its use, at least in its current form and for the time being. Whether this feature has a place or not seems to fully depend on the whims of Trainers, Field Research, and the game itself. There's a lot of dynamics in that as well as the question above.

One year ago: Variegated Pokédexes
Two years ago: Pokémon and Sports