Community Day August 2020 Guide

• Drastically increased spawns for the Pokemon Magikarp
  • Obtainable from catches, hatches, research, and raids
  • An increased Shiny rate (roughly 1 in 23) during Community Day hours
• 3-hour Incense
• 3x Catch Dust
• Take a Snapshot during Community Day for a Magikarp Photobomb (likely up to 5 times)
• One-time purchasable Community Day Bundle
  • (Likely) 1,280 PokeCoins
  • 1 Elite Charge TM
  • 30 Ultra Balls
  • 6 Star Piece
  • 1 Incense
• Field Research that awards Magikarp candy to allow for easier evolving
• Special Research story: Making a Splash!
  • $1 or equivalent local currency
  • does not include an in-game medal
• Additional gifts from Buddy Pokemon This bonus will not be active this Community Day
• All Magikarp evolved into Gyarados during Community Day hours learn the exclusive move Aqua Tail
  • TMs and learning a New Move will not give you this exclusive move
  • Must evolve a Magikarp during CD in your region (or up to two hours after)
  • Have a stable internet connection and consider doing a test evolve, as Niantic acknowledges server issues can and do happen during CD, yet refuses to compensate/correct this known issue.

Community Day and Covid-19

Niantic has altered Community Day events to be more suited to the pandemic allowing them to be fully enjoyed while at home. For additional Coronavirus considerations, check out our article on that subject as well.

Those looking for additional Community Day tips can check out February's guide, our last before worldwide lockdowns. Wear a mask and practice social distancing if you do decide to go out and play.

Where applicable, this section will be updated to include new information as our friendly NZ “beta testers” experience CD before anyone else in the world. On Community Days with new, unpredictable features, the only way to know for sure how they’ll function is having others experience it first. Check back here before CD to see if there’s any last-minute tips you need to know!

Playing in NZ? Thanks! We monitor reports on The Silph Road carefully, though you can also submit reports here on GamePress or directly to NoLucksGiven on twitter. Additionally, it is even more recommended you have a stable internet connection and consider doing a test evolve, as Niantic acknowledges server issues can and do happen (especially in your region) during CD, yet refuses to compensate/correct this known issue.

Additional high IV Magikarp can also be obtained prior to Community Day by completing the Field Research task "Catch 10 Pokemon." (CP range 99-117)

Wait till CD starts in your region to claim for increased shiny chance.

2+ Incense

Each Incense lasts 3 hours, meaning 2 will allow you to play the entire event while Incensed, a necessity for those hoping to play while at home.

Turn on vibrate or connect your Pokemon Go+. Incense Pokemon are actually invisible for a few seconds after spawning. Navigating through other menus can help reload the map and make these Pokemon appear quicker.

Stacking Incense will allow you to run additional Incense for 3 hours, past the end of the event. This can be good for finding extra Enigma Week spawns. Even if you only click 1/3 of those incensed spawns, that's as efficient as an normal Incense. Anything after that is bonus!

1-12 Star Pieces

Triple dust makes this the best time to make use of Star Pieces possible. Even if you only make use of 1/3 of the time, a Star Piece during this event is quickly worthwhile. Definitely use one with your daily streak bonus and to clear your research stack. Consult "Breaking the Bank" for more tips on maximizing your Stardust this CD!

Lucky Egg

Because your friends might also be playing during CD, now may be the perfect time to coordinate friendship level ups. 6-hour Community Days are long enough that you don't miss much by cracking an egg, though this also means coordinating level ups might be more difficult to agree on a time for.

Plenty of Pokeballs

Make it a priority to open as many gifts as possible each day to restock on Pokeballs before the event. After the event, keep opening to prepare for the next one!

Increase your storage capacity so you can keep opening. This will allow you to stockpile more balls when you’re not playing as much to prepare for events like this.

With Go Fest just passed, this tip is especially relevant. Keep opening gifts to acquire as many Pokeballs as you can!

The Research “Bank” or “stack” aka queue is a feature that is officially not supported by Niantic. This means proceed with caution. Niantic’s official stance is that they will not in any way compensate for any errors that arise from using this feature. That all said, it can be very helpful on CDs offering bonus Stardust.

When you run from a research encounter (or an error occurs or your collection is full), the encounter is stored above your existing research tasks. This gives the appearance of having 4 research tasks.

Fleeing from additional tasks (simply claim your reward then run away from the encounter) will allow you to store multiple encounters this way. This is what is commonly referred to as the “bank” “stack” or “queue”. The research will appear here from oldest to newest, meaning if you accidentally run from an encounter, you will have to clear through your entire bank to find it again. Rewards will appear in the order that you complete the task, with only one visible at a time. They’re not gone. Even though you can only see one at a time, the other research is “underneath” the top encounter in your stack. Catch that Pokemon and the next will be visible. While you can store breakthrough encounters and Special research encounters, these follow different rules and do not appear in the same bank.

What’s the Catch?

There is a limit of 100 banked Pokemon. When exceeding this limit, Pokemon will be deleted from the bank. This is the part Niantic now claims no responsibility for. Bank carefully. If you’re going to make use of this feature, consider downloading a counting widget to track your capacity. Recent reports have the oldest banked Pokemon being deleted (though it's always possible this can change). It’s a good idea to know the first Pokemon you have banked and check to see if that changes after acquiring more rewards. If so, you’re at capacity and should catch a few before completing more research.

Using the bank can be a very rewarding element to quickly completing research tasks. After becoming familiar with throwing at task rewards, banking them will allow you to quickly encounter Pokemon that are easy to throw at. The Research Task List can give you a full list of currently available task rewards.

Even if you currently have 0 banked research encounter rewards, start saving today!

Star Piece Like a Beast

You’ll want to make room in your Pokemon Storage if you haven’t already. Delete room for Weedle so you can IV check them after. Clear 100 slots for your banked encounters (which may also have good IV) and clean even more space for wild encounters. You’ll want as much room as possible going into CD and you’ll want to make sure you spend as little time switching menus as possible so that you can catch anything that pops up. Even common spawns during this even grant as much dust as you’d normally receive for a Stage 1 Pokemon on a Star Piece.

1st and 7th Day Streak Catch bonuses are added onto dust value based on evolution stage.

*It is unconfirmed that streak bonuses, increased due to COVID lockdowns, are additionally increased for triple dust events.

Because this bonus can be quite large and you'll likely be using a Star Piece to make it even larger, it can be beneficial to avoid catching Pokemon after midnight on the day of Community Day.

You can view your current streak progress at the bottom of the Today view.

Here are a few other things to keep in mind right before Community Day starts for making the most of the granted bonuses.

• If coordinating Lucky Egg friendships, encourage your friends to egg and advance friendships before the event starts. This allows you to focus on catching once Magikarpstart spawning!
• Before you catch anything before CD starts, consult Breaking the Bank's tips on maximizing your Stardust.
• In similar vein, you may not want to catch Shadow Pokemon from Rocket Battles. Those used to battling a Grunt right at midnight may easily forget this one. It's possible to still complete your battle but run instead of catching the Pokemon.
• Existing spawns can change to Magikarp. Clicking on Pokemon to catch or even just to shiny check will prevent them from turning into Magikarp. It’s fine though to check for shinies you don’t yet have. If you want to catch the most Magikarp, avoid clicking on spawns as Community Day is about to begin.
• You can only complete research from each stop once daily.  If you complete a task at a given stop, you cannot receive the “Catch 3” task from that stop during Community Day. Occasionally, receiving the task from a stop will lock it into its non-CD task.
  • Tasks revert to their pre-CD tasks when CD is over but you cannot receive research from Stops where you completed “Catch 3” or the original research.
  • Because of this, you may decide to skip over stops during CD that you know give desirable research (from Discord, Facebook, etc.) or complete them before CD starts.
  • Many players may do the opposite, choosing not to complete Research in areas they know they will be during CD for easy rewards.
  • Check to see if you have completed the Research Task of a given Pokestop by the indicator in the top right corner of a Pokestop

Now, with those in mind, there is still room for choice. If you’ll be playing all Community Day then you might not care about one spawn point here and there, and catching weather boosted Machop or shiny checking a Wailmer may be worth it to you. Likewise, you may not find it necessary to fill your inventory with Community Day eggs.

Use this time before the event starts to prep; spin stops, transfer Pokemon, open gifts (and level up friendships), Raid, check-in, and obtain/give out Meltan boxes.

Rewards for special research "Making a Splash!" are currently unknown though it can be expected you'll receive an encounter each of Magikarp, Gyarados, Magikarp candy, as well as Stardust and some unexciting premium items (no Star Pieces, Incubators, or Raid Passes). This has mostly been an over-costed bad buy in the past, but it's only a buck, so many players will purchase it anyway. Also note that "Making a Splash!" will not award an in-game badge like previous special research has.

During Community Day, Field Research Tasks are changed to “Catch 3 Magikarp” with the following rewards;

• 500 Stardust
• 2 Ultra Balls
• 5 Great Balls
• 2 Pinap Berries
• 1 Golden Razzberry
• Magikarp encounter (CP range 99-117)

Note that this may not be the case this CD, as Niantic has announced that field research this event will be changed to help players earn additional Candy. It's unknown if this will replace the above tasks completely.

The featured May Community Day Bundle will be a one-time purchase, likely costing 1280 PokeCoins and containing 1 Elite Charge TM, 30 Ultra Balls, 6 Star Piece, and 1 Incense.

Community Day Bundle boxes are limit 1 per account per month and alternate between Fast and Charge TMs. Elite TMs are priceless items and can save a ton of dust powering up a new Pokemon when an exclusive move is released. Move exclusive moves are Charge moves, so boxes featuring Elite Charge TMs are a great buy. The value lies fully in how you value an Elite Charge TM but these are generally considered a good buy.

Taking a snapshot of one of your Pokemon will trigger a special Photobomb during this event. This occurs during the first picture in any photo shoot. The featured Pokemon will photobomb up to 5 times during the event! This is only 5 extra spawns in the grand scheme of things, but can be helpful for those that are low. Spawns follow similar rules to Incensed spawns (one on the map at a time and quick catching is funky). It's also an easy way to progress the Photobomb bagde.

Shiny Seedot did not appear shiny in the Photobomb and on the world map. This is a change to previous Shiny Photobomb encounters. Make sure you click it after taking a pic!

Community Day Raids and Eggs and Rocket Grunts

Recent CDs have not included the featured Pokemon in additional forms of content like Raids and Rocket Battles but past CDs have. Once the event has started in NZ, we’ll update this space. Check back later!

Magikarp Community Day was announced immediately following two different Rocket Takeover events. Not knowing to prepare Shadow Magikarps for Community Day before these events is... extremely frustrating. It feels borderline deliberate. "Did you forget to TM every Shadow Pokemon you own? Don't make that mistake again! Happy Community Day!"

Shadow Pokemon can only learn exclusive moves if evolved after TMed during an event, or buy use of an Elite TM. If your Shadow Magikarp are currently stuck with Frustration, you'll want to TM them during a Rocket Takeover at some point later this year and evolve them during December's Community Day recap.

Gyarados is already a potent threat in PvP, scoring a 4/5 in the Ultra League and a 3.5/5 in the Master League. As a non-Legendary option Gyarados also performs quite well in the Premiere Cups as well! Aqua Tail is Gyarados's cheapest move energy-wise, making it a great addition. Aqua Tail also sports higher neetral DPE than Crunch so it's just a really great move for Gyarados, who is used to relying on Dragon Breath for most of its damage. Hydro Pump does have higher DPE but at over twice the energy. Because one shield can negate so much damage, it would likely still be preferable to double Aqua Tail your opponent. That said, the fact that you probably shouldn't  run Hydro Pump means it could prove to be a nice suprise!

In the Great League especially Aqua Tail improve's Gyarados's performance incredibly. Since Gyarados is quite attack weighted, a cheaper move allows it to apply a lot more pressure before dying. In actuality, Gyarados will still have 0 open GL play, but Aqua Tail could allow it to function in future Silph Cups.

Gyarados is an amazing lead and safe swap in the Ultra League (as showcased in the videos below). Its ability to pressure so many common meta Pokemon like Swampert, Registeel, Giratina, and Cresselia makes it a huge threat. While Hydro Pump is useful in some matchups, ditching it for Aqua tail also gives Gyarados easier wins against Escavalier and Obstagoon (which can resist Crunch). Aqua Tail is certainly a better choice on a leading Gyarados, though Hydro Pump is still good at catching unsuspecting Pokemon when shields are down.

In the Ultra League Premiere Cup, the meta looks a little less friendly to Gyarados, but Aqua Tail seems like a safe bet if you want to run it there.

The Master League doesn't leave much room for Gyarados, but it's use as a non-Dragon Dragon Breather carves a small niche. Groudon has a tough time hitting the flying fish, but almost everything else laughs at it.

The Master League Premiere Cup really allows Gyarados to shine. With all those pesky Legendaries out of the way, Gyarados is a top choice. Aqua Tail opens up some fantastic potential for Gyarados too, allowing it to beat Metagross in all even-shield scenarios, as well as easily dispatching common staples like Garchomp, Mamoswine, Snorlax, and more.

Gyarados is also Flying-type, making it eligible for the upcoming event featuring the Flying Cup.  We don't know what that means just yet, and Gyarados does lose to frontrunners Zapdos and Aerodactyl, but it could have some use yet.

PvP Ready CPs

Finding Pokemon that can be evolved to be near the CP-cap in PvP leagues can save a lot of Stardust. Before evolving, consult a CP/IV calculator to confirm your Magikarp will stay below the CP thresholds. Looking for Magikarp with CP around or below these thresholds can be great for trainers interested in PvP with limited resources;

For Great League Gyarados, look for Magikarp with CP 79-117 and below.

For Ultra League Gyarados, look for Magikarp with CP 129-201 and below.

Gyarados in the UL video features!

Hydro Pump is mathmatically better than Aqua Tail in Raid/Gym content. However, those looking to really maximize their Gyarados may wish to teach them both Charge Moves so no energy is lost, as Hydro Pump is an expensive Charge Move. This could be additionally beneficial on Shadow Gyarados which has less bulk (though to be clear, S-Gyara also prefers Hydro Pump).

Gyarados has been a great Water-type attacker since learning Waterfall some time ago. It's unique defensive typing gives it a nice niche against Groudon's Earthquake and Solar Beam, setting it apart from other Water-types.

But the application of Gyarados that everyone is excited for is its Mega Evolution!

Mega Gyarados is a Water/Dark-type, ditching the part-Flying.

Mega Gyarados will be the best Water-type attacker in the game, until Niantic implements Primal Kyogre or Shadow Kyogre. It's DPS is slightly worse than Mega Swampert, but with almost 50% more TDO.

As a Dark-type, Mega Gyarados face much more competition. Mega Mewtwo, Gengar, Bannette, Tyranitar, Heracross, Houndoom, Pinsir, and also Shadow Mewtwo could outclass Gyarados, held back by it's lackluster moveset. Despite this, depending on the implementation, Gyarados could be a great Mega Evolution, considering it would have additional functions as a Water-type attacker too.

A Magikarp is considered a big Magikarp for the Fisher badge if it is > 13.13 kg. While there's no way to tell if a Magikarp will be big or not before catching it, you can trade Magikarp with a friend to help eachother complete the badge. Weight will not change throughout a trade so make sure you and your trading partner are swapping big Magikarp, and maybe you'll get a lucky or two in the process.

As a side note, Fisher badge apparel must still be purchased in the style shop after unlocking it.

Gyarados marks the first Community Day since Pikachu to feature a Pokemon with only one evolution (and even Pikachu has Pichu). This makes Gyarados CD quite unique! It being featured is obviously a nod to its upcoming Mega Evolution as many other Pokemon that can Mega Evolve have been featured in Community Days past.

Magikarp was also the first Shiny Pokemon released into Pokemon Go, meaning this is a shiny many players already have, despite it being a sweet one. While it will be nice to grind Stardust and collect shiny fish, this event is also a reminder that anything is a possible CD candidate, and to be sure to only evolve Pokemon you're sure to use!