Community Day February 2019 Guide

• Drastically increased spawns for the Pokemon Swinub

• Release of Shiny Swinub

  • Obtainable from catches and hatches

  • An increased Shiny rate (roughly 1 in 24.5) during Community Day hours

• Themed Field Research “Catch 3 Swinub” for balls, berries, and Stardust

• 3-hour Lures

• 3x Catch Stardust

• Earn additional Sinnoh Stones through PvP and Training

  • During Saturday and Sunday, earn 5 rewards from PvP

  • During the day of your region’s CD, 5 Sinnoh Stones are guaranteed from both PvP and Trainer Battles- 10 total Stones

• Piloswine can now evolve to Mamoswine

  • Requires Sinnoh Stone + 100 Swinub candy

  • Expect Swinub -> Piloswine to become a 25 candy evolution

• The exclusive move Ancient Power for all Mamoswine evolved during Community Day hours

  • Charged TMs and learning a New Move will not give you this exclusive move

  • Must evolve a Piloswine up to an hour after the end of CD in your region

• Plus all bonuses from the concurrent Valentine's Day Event

  • 2x Catch candy

  • 6-hour Lures

Prepare for Your Day Accordingly

This guide will cover all of the in-game knowledge you’ll need to make the most out of Swinub Community Day. Don’t forget to also prepare for the real weather and everything that comes along with that. Keep your real bag “fully upgraded” and, depending on the weather, make sure to bring along a jacket, rain poncho, water, sunscreen, as well as lunch, snacks, water, medical necessities, batteries and battery packs, fully charged devices, other protective gear, and water again, for good measure. Pace yourself and take breaks if needed to not get burnt out. Most importantly, keep it fun!

Where to Play

Swinub spawns will be dramatically increased everywhere during the duration of this event. You aren’t required to play anywhere specifically, but here are some tips for getting the most out of the location you choose.

• Exploring the Community - Use Community Day, and Pokemon Go in general, as an excuse to explore local areas. If you’re blessed with multiple, good locations, make use of them throughout various Community Days.

• Playing with Friends - Community Day should be about the community, both the area and your local PoGo Players. Get together with friends, find your local group using PokeNav, or be the first in your area to create a group. If you see other trainers in your gyms, that means there’s others out there playing! More trainers means more fun, and Lure Modules appear for all players, so you can all share the increased spawns. Returning and new players- ask around and figure out where established players are planning to play!

• Gyms for Raids - While players may be focused on catching during CD, this CD Pokemon is less meta-relevant than usual, meaning many players will be willing to raid during CD.

• Clusters and Lures - If you want to catch the most Swinub, focus on cluster spawns in areas with lots of network traffic such as parking lots and apartment complexes and high stop density areas that can be easily Lured up.

• Nests - Swinub is a nesting Pokemon so visiting an Swinub nest during CD can significantly increase your Swinub spawns. Trainers without a local Swinub nest shouldn’t stress as the whole world is basically an Swinub nest during CD. Additionally, consider local nests with other meta-relevant and shiny possible Pokemon. Nests won’t rotate again before Community Day so any Swinub nests should hold. Check the Silph Road’s Nest Atlas for information on your local nests, and help report and missing holes you see.

• Weather - Pursuing weather-boosted Swinub will grant you higher CP and IV Swinub so it’s advised to hunt in forcasted Clear and Snowy areas. This comes with it decreased catch rates and higher aggressive levels of Pokemon but is offset in Stardust gained and saved from catching weather boosted Pokemon. Pay attention to official weather reports as well as other trainers playing in different level 11 S2 cells (in-game weather boundaries).

Nests that Correspond to the Weather - There’s only so much you can do about your in-game weather. That said, if you know it’s going to be Rainy, picking a nest containing Slowpoke, for example, can still help you make the most out of Community Day by giving you more weather boosted Pokemon to catch.

6 Star Piece

3x Catch Stardust makes this event an incredible opportunity to fill up on Stardust for Powering Up Pokemon and unlocking additional moves. 6 Star Piece will last the full three hours of the event. Even if you only use half of the 30 minutes efficiently, that’s better than a full 30 minute Star Piece outside of this event.  Consider setting an alarm the night before to remind you to break a Star Piece or burn an Incense every 30 minutes.

For additional Stardust gains, make use of banked Research rewards and incubate eggs. While this event provides no benefits towards incubation, if you’re going to use a Star Piece anyways, it can be a good idea to incubate a few eggs too.

0-6 Incense + Lures

Having 6 Incense will let you crack open one every 30 minutes and make it last the entirety of the event. Keep walking! Incense spawns more Pokémon while you’re moving! Even if you’re stuck at work where nothing spawns during the event window, popping some Incense could help you nab a shiny or two. 25 Incense can be purchased in bulk for 1250 in the Shop (50 each) at any time for those looking at an alternative to various Legacy Special Boxes. 25 Incense is enough for 4 Community Days and an extra to spare. Players able to play in a decent area for the duration of the event may decide to save Incense for future Community Days where a more uncommon Pokemon is featured, as many players may already have the candy needed for Swinub. Still, Incense during CD can help to obtain a shiny with increased odds.

Lures are now increased to 6 hours so now's the best time to get them out of your inventory!

1 Lucky Egg

Community Day can be a great time to coordinate Friendship level ups for both players to egg and receive double XP. While this event doesn’t provide any other reasons to crack an egg, it has the highest chances for others to be out playing. Make sure to coordinate with your friends as it is usually easier to plan for level ups in the minutes before Community Day starts, so that the actual event can be spent catching.

Berries and Great/Ultra Balls

It’s always a good idea to stock up before CD. Swinub is a difficult Pokemon to throw at so making sure you have Great and Ultra Balls on hand is important. In addition, you’ll want to be catching everything for triple dust. The themed research “Catch 3 Swinub” can be easily accomplished to help keep the Pokeballs flowing during the event, so it may not be necessary to stock up beforehand in all areas. Players in need of resources should remember to always open 20 daily gifts and to upgrade item bag storage as soon as possible. It is an investment that quickly pays for itself if you’re able to occasionally grind and stock up on items.

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

• Leave spawns till Community Day starts. Catching during triple Stardust is a much better use of resources, even if that means just looking at spawns for 10 or 15 minutes before the start of the event.

• 3-hour Lures only work if started after the start of Community Day. Even more, Lures started before Community Day won’t spawn the featured Pokemon. Wait till the event starts before starting any Lures or Incense. This is no longer believed to be true and this event in particular also features 6-hour lures. It's fine to catch lured Pokemon before the event begins, as they have a quicker despawn timer.

• 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.

• Existing spawns can change to Swinub. If you want to catch the most Swinub, avoid clicking on spawns as Community Day is about to begin. Doing so can cause the spawn to not change, even if you only Shiny check it.

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 a weather boosted Machop or shiny checking a Wailmer may be worth it to you.

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.

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

• 500 Stardust.

• 2 Ultra Balls.

• 5 Great Balls.

• 2 Pinap Berries.

This allows you to not stress about Research during the event and concentrate on catching. It also means that Trainers can rest easy knowing that Community Day itself will help provide them with additional Pinaps, Ultra Balls, and Great Balls! There are a few additional things to keep in mind as far as how this functioned last Community Day;

• Research from each stop can only be completed once each day. If you complete a task at a given stop, you cannot receive the “Catch 3 Swinub” task from that stop.

• Tasks revert to their pre-CD tasks when CD is over but you cannot receive research from Stops where you completed “Catch 3 Swinub” 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

Legacy Community Day Special Boxes have held a variety of supplies and are available shortly before the start of Community Day. A list of previous and current contents can be found on our Legacy Special Box list (as well as cost analysis breakdowns). June Community Day introduced Great and Ultra Boxes, amazing deals for an extremely limited time, disappearing at the end of CD in America. This section will include a more thorough breakdown upon release of the Special Boxes in the Shop.

If there are no pre-existing boxes in the shop, expect 1-3 CD boxes. If there’s already a set of boxes in the shop, expect 0-1 new CD boxes

This event offers a unique chance to stock up on Sinnoh Stones. Players can receive rewards 5 times from PvP and 5 times from training (up from 3 and 1) on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Additionally, during your region’s corresponding Community Day day, players are guaranteed to receive Sinnoh Stones.*

Please note that you must have an open bag space to receive items from battling.

Mamoswine is an absolute monster, as the next section will discuss. Mamoswine sits firmly atop the Sinnoh Stone Tier List. This event can be a great time to collect Sinnoh Stones to fill other holes in the Pokedex too.

The Twin Tusk Pokemon has finally arrived and it doesn’t disappoint. Powder Snow + Avalanche is ideal, solidifying Mamoswine as the best Ice attacker. Anything doubly weak to Ice is in for a hurtin’- namely Dragons. A team of Mamowine will make Rayquaza an extremely easy boss to best. Piloswine was already a decent option in many lineups and Mamo continues in turn.

Flying, Ground, and Dragon-types are all great options to use Mamoswine against. Mamoswine has the highest attack stat of all Ice-type Pokemon present and future, save the Gen 5 Legendary Kyurem. Mamo's superior moveset may keep it on top or at least on par with the Gen 5 Legendary.

Furthering arguments to invest Stardust into Mamoswine, it also has a double Ground STAB moveset in Mud Slap + Bulldoze. This makes Mamo the current best non-Legendary Ground-type attacker with higher DPS but less TDO than Rhyperior. Mamoswine does also need to watch out for Fire attacks (typically making it a worse option) but is otherwise a great Ground attacker.

Mamoswine with Powder Snow + Avalanche + Bulldoze is a likely player in the Master League for PvP, countering top threats.

Mamoswine is a great counter to the following legendary Pokemon;

Upcoming: Dialga*, Giratina

Zapdos, Raikou, Lugia*, Latios*, Latias, Registeel*, Groudon*, Rayquaza, Giratina, Heatran*

*These Pokemon have coverage moves that can make it difficult to attack them with Mamoswine.

Looking at our likely candidate for next Tier 5 Legendary, Dialga, Mamoswine performs fantastically. Fighting types are top pick followed by Ground. In Clear Weather, Ground type's stock rises further. Mamo performs particularly well against Dialga's non-Steel movesets, averaging a faster time to win than Rhyperior.

Edit: Buffs are coming! with only a "chance to trigger stat boosts" this is very unlikely to have a big impact in PvP, though help could randomly win battles otherwise unwinnable. 10% > 0% so Ancient power may very well be worth having access to. Expect many GP articles to come on buffs, balancing, and RNG. 

The exclusive move “Ancient Power” doesn’t add a lot of utility. Rock’s coverage overlaps with Ice and Ground but with STAB the above options are much better. This is not to mention that Mamoswine already has access to the stronger Stone Edge.

In PvP, Rock attacks allow Mamoswine coverage from Flying-Fire types like Ho-Oh and Moltres but these aren’t incredibly relevant in PvP. What is relevant in PvP are Dragons and Steel-types, weak to Ice and Ground respectively. Pokemon like Giratina, Dialga, Melmetal, and also Groudon are common threats seen in Master League.  Being able to hit these types of Pokemon is essential to Mamoswine’s possible role in the PvP meta. Mamoswine won't hold up too well against Steel types but the ability to randomly Bulldoze metal mons is helpful. It’s also worth noting that Stone Edge also provides a higher Damage per Energy than Ancient Power.

For Ultra and Great PvP Leagues, Piloswine may perform better than Mamoswine.

Evolving a Mamoswine during Community Day will guarantee it knows the exclusive move. If you wish to change it later, this will require an additional Charge TM. Because of this, many players may choose to wait until after Community Day has ended to evolve their Piloswines.

While it is impossible to prepare for everything, it is worth noting that Ancient Power may still have a niche yet. Recently, lines of code were found in the game such as ATTACK_BOOST_SELF and DEFENSE_DEBUFF_TARGET hinting at future move updates. Ancient Power is a move in the main-series games that can raise Attack and Defense of the user, which would have interesting implications in Pokemon Go.

Because of this, it may be worthwhile to evolve a Mamoswine with the exclusive move.

The move can also provide some type of coverage as a gym defender. If evolving a Shiny to show off in Gyms, Ancient Power could help punish attacking a Moltres.

Setting Goals and Making Trades

Set goals based on previous Community Days as a benchmark. Use this to let you know how aggressively you need to hunt and Pinap, as well as how many high IV options to target. Swinub is available in 2km eggs and as a nesting species.

Each Mamoswine costs 123 Swinub candy which is 18 catches + transfers or 10 catches w/ Pinaps + transfers. Maxing out a Pokemon will cost between 118-304 candy depending on the level (248 for level 20 Pokemon). An additional move on Swinub costs 50 candy as well. Evolving and Powering Up a full team (with average level 20) will cost 2227 candy (+ 300 more to teach them all an additional move). This can be accomplished with 195 Pinap catches + transfers or 361 catches + transfers.

You have until 1 hour after the event ends to IV check, trade, and evolve for the exclusive moveset. Set alarms and keep track of how long different activities take you so you can be better prepared for future CD events.

When picking a trading partner, there are two different options to consider each with their own benefits.

• Play with your partner.

  • carpool

  • catch the same spawns (for even trades) and split the role of IV checking

  • can start trading even before CD ends

• Play 10km (6.21 mi) distance from your trading partner.

• 1 additional candy per trade.

Here’s some additional features to keep in mind about trading:

• Players are limited to 100 trades + 1 special trade per day. This is resets after your phone goes past midnight.

• Swapping a Shiny will count as a Special Trade and can also be done once daily.

• Pick a trade partner you have high friendship with. IV floor increases with friendship tier.

  • Great Friendship: 2/2/2 IV floor

  • Ultra Friendship: 3/3/3 IV floor

  • Best Friendship: 5/5/5 IV floor

• Pokemon caught farther than 10km (6.21 mi) apart award 2 candy when traded.

• Lucky Pokemon have an IV floor of 12/12/12

  • Lucky Pokemon trades are more common when trading older Pokemon.

  • Accounts with less than 10 Lucky Pokemon can guarantee a Lucky trade by trading away a Pokemon from July or August of 2016.

Our easy-to-use catch rate calculator can be found here if you’d like to do your own calculations. Here are the breakdowns for players with a Gold Ground and Ice badges. If you don’t yet have a Gold Ice badge, CD is a great time to work towards completing this medal. Swinub is a difficult Pokemon to throw at so these calculations will be done assuming no throw bonus except for curve. Your ability to reliably throw into smaller bonus radiuses may also increase throughout the day, increasing your catch rate.

• Swinub levels 1-4 have a 93% chance or higher to be caught with a curved Poke Ball. Poke Ball Pinap anything under 73 CP and consider up to 77 CP.

• Swinub level 6 and below have a 92% chance or higher to be caught with a curved Great Ball. Great Ball Pinap anything under 106 CP and consider up to 122 CP.

• Swinub level 8 and below have a 92% chance or higher to be caught with a curved Ultra Ball. Ultra Ball Pinap anything under 139 CP and consider up to 167 CP.

Throwing with no bonus will eat though your resources faster making it worthwhile to learn how to consistently throw Great! Throws (+ video link) If quick catching, remember to check mons you’ve already thrown at to make sure they’re caught.

The following string can help you quickly check for any perfect IV Swinub;

220&cp10,cp32,cp55,cp77,cp99,cp122,cp144,cp167,cp189,cp211,cp232,cp254,cp275,cp296,cp317,cp338,cp359,cp381,cp402,cp423,cp444,cp465,cp486,cp508,cp529,cp550,cp571,cp592,cp614,cp635,cp645,cp656,cp666,cp677,cp688&hp14,hp25,hp32,hp38,hp44,hp48,hp53,hp57,hp60,hp64,hp67,hp70,hp73,hp75,hp78,hp81,hp83,hp86,hp88,hp90,hp93,hp95,hp97,hp99,hp101,hp103,hp105,hp107,hp109,hp111-115

Pokemon with these CP are not guaranteed to be 100% IV but this could help you narrow that search.

For mass IV checking, the simplest tip is to sort by CP (or #, which also sorts by CP) and look at one species at a time. From there, scroll through, highest to lowest, looking at Pokemon levels. You can quickly check a Pokemon’s level by how much Star Dust it would cost to power up. This cost is halved for Lucky Pokemon. For example:

35 - 8000

34/33 - 7000

32/31 - 6000

30/29 - 5000

28/27 - 4500

26/25 - 4000

These values can be used to determine high-level Pokemon at a quick glance.

As you’re scrolling, IV check Pokemon until you find something with a lower Stardust cost. You can filter out, rename, or transfer any Pokemon with a high level and a low CP found this way. These Pokemon will have lower IVs. That means they may make for battle ready attackers but will have lower battle potential when powered up. Such options can be great for saving Stardust.

For example, let’s start by scrolling through a species and checking all of our level 30, 5k dust Pokemon. Now, as soon as we scroll to a Pokemon requiring 4500 dust, we know any 5k dust Pokemon will have lower IV. We can skip those and only check 4500 dust options. When we see our first Pokemon that requires 4k dust to power up, we know that any 5k or 4500 dust Pokemon will be lower IV and can skip those again.

It is also worthwhile to develop a naming system that you can easily recognize. Use a symbol, letter, or word to designate Pokemon for trading. Abbreviate key appraisal phrases in a way you can remember so you know which to IV check and don’t appraise the same Pokemon multiple times. After using an IV calculator for key Pokemon, remember to rename (so you can decide what to evolve), transfer, or just evolve the Pokemon.

PvP Ready

For PvP, keep an eye out for Swinubs ready to battle. Look for Swinubs that will be around 2500 or 1500 CP once evolved if you’re looking to use them in Ultra and Great League PvP. Make sure to double check any potential evolutions with IV and CP calculators before evolving, as these are simply estimates to what Pokemon you should be looking at.

Swinub is an interesting case in PvP. Piloswine does not hit the CP cap in Ultra League. Swinub below 553 CP can evolve into Mamoswine ready for the Ultra League (guaranteed at 471).

For the Great League, Piloswine can be used if evolved from a Swinub below 472 CP (guaranteed at 412). Swinub below 330 CP can evolve into Mamoswine ready for the Great League (guaranteed at 284).

With multiple IV options, generally, prioritize high Def/HP low Att options for best PvP effectiveness. Simplified, it’s more important to get as close to the CP cap as possible than stress on IVs.

Swinub Community Day breaks the established convention of alternating Starter and 10km Egg Pokemon. This precedent broken, almost anything is a possibility for future Community Days. This also marks the first exclusive move feature of a Pokemon requiring an item to evolve. With this, the possibilities of potentially featured Pokemon seem endless. Next up is very likely to be Treeko through anything could follow.

While CD FOMO still persists, some comfort can be found in exclusive moves becoming learnable once again in the December flashback Community Day weekend. Those that struggle to find good Feraligatr will have the year to keep looking. Ancient Power may not be worth evolving for now, and if that changes, there will be a chance to correct that at the end of the year.

It’s unknown when we would see stat buffs in Pokemon Go and to what effect. You’ll have plenty of Sinnoh Stones to spare, so an Ancient Power Mamo or two can’t hurt. The other option is, of course, to wait and evolve your Ancient Power Mamo in December should Ancient Power become relevant. For now, we can enjoy the new Ice age as Mamoswine takes over our Raid Parties and our hearts.