Community Day January 2019 Guide

• Drastically increased spawns for the Pokemon Totodile

• The release of Shiny Totodile

  • Obtainable from catches and hatches

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

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

• 3-hour Lures

• 1/4 Egg Hatch Distance

  • Only incubations started during CD will have reduced distance

  • Reduced distance remains in effect after the event ends

  • Adventure Sync Hatchathon bonuses still in effect

• The exclusive move Hydro Cannon for all Feraligatr caught or evolved during Community Day

  • Charged TMs will not give you this exclusive move

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

Prepare for Your Day Accordingly

This guide will cover all of the in-game knowledge you’ll need to make the most out of Totodile 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!

There’s no bonuses this event that really allow you to make use of premium items. The items listed are more suggestions and other factors in your play (location, time) should be considered.

0-6 Incense and 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 meta-relevant Pokemon is featured.

1-3 Star Piece

The main players that should be Star Piecing are those planning on hatching lots of eggs. There are no bonuses for Stardust tied specifically to CD, so Star Pieces can be left for other times, or synced up with CD batch hatches. Community Day is a good Star Piece opportunity for many players that don’t otherwise make room for Star Piece grind sessions, but those low on Star Piece are likely better holding off.

Berries and Balls

It’s always a good idea to stock up before CD. The themed research “Catch 3 Totodile” can be easily accomplished to help keep the Pokeballs flowing during the event, so it may not be necessary to stock up beforehand. 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.

Should You Be Incubating?

Regarding blue/purple Incubators:

1/4 Egg Hatch Distance is a somewhat lackluster bonus for the majority of players. Though you’ll hatch eggs faster, this bonus will not allow you to hatch more eggs. If you’re low on Incubators, this is basically an irrelevant bonus (though the current Ultra Box will make you not low on Incubators real quick).

In the same way that we view Incubators and Super Incubators the same in price analysis on the legacy special box list, 1/4 hatch distance doesn’t really improve what you’re hatching. The exception to this, of course, is that we’re currently receiving double candy and Stardust for hatching. Still, CD doesn’t improve this.

If you’re currently batch hatching, keep doing so, and do so throughout Community Day, if you please. If you’re not batch hatching now, there’s 0 reason to start during CD.

Additional incentive to hatch now is increased Stardust and Candy. Reasons to not hatch includes saving incubators for future Pokemon and shiny releases, as well as not wanting to bother with hatch animations during CD.

While the last point is certainly valid during Community Day, you should still keep an egg in your infinite orange incubator at all times. The 1/4 Egg Hatch Distance bonus actually does allow your orange incubator to hatch more eggs, since it has unlimited uses. Though mitigated with this bonus, 7km eggs in your orange incubator should still be avoided. Two more tips to consider;

• Only incubations started during CD will have reduced distance
• Reduced distance remains in effect after the event ends

Avoid incubating as the Community Day hours approach (based on your level of activity) so you’re not left with half-baked eggs. It can be quicker to wait a few hours instead if you’re not playing or walking in the time leading up to Community Day.

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.

There will likely be 0 or 1 new CD boxes this event, as 3 are already available because of the Hatchathon.

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

1. 1/4 Egg Hatch Distance applies only to incubations started during the CD bonus window. Don’t incubate yet if Community Day is about to start!
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Existing spawns can change to Totodile. If you want to catch the most Totodile, 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 weather boosted Machop or shiny checking a Wailmer may be worth it to you.

During Community Day, Research Tasks are changed to “Catch 3 Totodile” 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 Totodile” 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 Totodile” 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

Analysis of Hydro Cannon Feraligatr is pretty straightforward. It’s good. Here are the bullet points.

• #2 Water DPS behind the Legendary Kyogre

• Roughly halfway between Kyogre and Gyarados in DPS, though slightly closer to Kyogre

• Similar TDO to Gyarados

• Also outperforms Venusaur in relevant matchups (Rhydon, Golem)

• Future starters will outclass it if they also get Hydro Cannon

Hydro Cannon Feraligatr sits at a place probably most comparable to Blast Burn Charizard, solidly the 2nd best of its type behind a legendary, with future Community Day starters threatening that position. While Kyogre is incredibly strong and one of the best investments in the game, it is legendary and requires Rare Candy. Supplemental teams of Feraligatr can be powered up on the cheap.

It should also be made very clear that Swampert is by no means guaranteed to receive Hydro Cannon on Community Day, so Feraligatr could last even longer as the highest DPS non-Legendary Water Pokemon.

With the addition of PVP, we’ll now also be looking at upcoming CD Pokemon’s stake on the Player versus Player battlefield. So how does the gator stack up in the various formats?

It’s important to consider stats as well as uniqueness for PVP. Pokemon with high Attack stats can be difficult to make use of in lower leagues because they hit the CP cap quicker.

Master (--)

In the Master division, Feraligatr again competes with the Legendary Kyogre as well as bulkier options like Vaporeon and Swampert. It’s niche as a Dark attacking Water Pokemon is significantly outclassed by Gyarados. The two have slightly different resistances but that’s likely not enough to bridge the gap.

Ultra (+)

Feraligatr still sits behind other options, this time Blastoise and Lapras. Gyarados is not viable here because of its high attack but Blastoise can also Bite. Feraligtr still can stand out with Crunch (and it would beat Blastoise in a 1v1), but they do have similar movepools otherwise. This is ultimately where PvP Feraligatr is most likely to find a home, though that home is shared with Blastoise, who gets the master bedroom.

Great (-)

Here Feraligatr’s high attack pushes it further down the foodchain, now losing out to 6 better Water types. Blastoise again does much of what Feraligatr wants to do, though with a wider percentage gap. There is room for a lot of Pokemon to be viable in Great League, but that also means more competition.

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 gators to target. Croconaw is a current level 1 Raid Boss, for those who want to increase their chances at a high IV gator. Totodile is available in 5km eggs and as a nesting species. There is still no Gen 2 or Gen 3 starter research task rewards.

Each Feraligatr costs 123 Totodile candy which is 31 catches + transfers or 18 catches w/ Pinaps + transfers. With Totodile everywhere, this is super easy for any players needing to fill holes in their Pokedex.

For some players, this is the chance to fill the Feraligatr dex entry, for others completing the gender dex (starters are ⅛ female so look carefully before deleting all). Others may want to evolve and max 1-3 while evolving another two for Ultra and Great PvP. This would take about 1,400 candy total assuming about 200 per each one you power up plus additional Charge Moves for the ones evolved for PvP.

You have until 1 hour after the event ends to IV check, trade, and evolve for the exclusive moveset, and some may find that they’d like to begin trading before the start of the event even. 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.

Totodile will likely have its Base Catch Rate changed to 40% as we have seen with previous CD spawns.

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 Water badge. These calculations also assume maximum radius Great! throws. Your ability to reliably throw into smaller bonus radiuses may also increase throughout the day, increasing your catch rate.

• Totodile levels 1-7 have a 89% chance or higher to be caught with a curved Poke Ball Great! Throw. Poke Ball Pinap anything under 174 CP and consider up to 220 CP.
• Totodile level 12 and below have a 90% chance or higher to be caught with a curved Great Ball Great! Throw. Great Ball Pinap anything under 306 CP and consider up to 388 CP.
• Totodile level 20 and below have a 90% chance or higher to be caught with a curved Ultra Ball Great! Throw. Ultra Ball Pinap anything under 510 CP and consider up to 646 CP. Even a level 35 Totodile has an 82% chance to be caught per throw using a curved Great! Throw Ultra Ball, allowing for proficient throwers to utilize Pinap berries every throw. Consider not quick-catching Totodile above 510 CP or using a Razz Berry while doing so.

Throwing with no bonus will eat though your resources faster making it worthwhile to learn how to consistently throw Great! Throws (+ video link) The following will result in a 90% catch rate with curve balls and no throw bonus:

• Poke Ball Totodile levels 1-4 (93-118 CP and below)
• Great Ball Totodile levels 8 and below (201-255 CP and below)
• Ultra Ball Totodile levels 13 and below (331-420 CP and below)
• Ultra Ball Razz Berry Totodile levels 25 and below (631 CP and below) Great Ball Golden Razz Berries can be used on higher level Totodile to ensure a 90% catch rate per throw.

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

158&cp16,cp50,cp84,cp118,cp152,cp186,cp220,cp255,cp289,cp323,cp355,cp388,cp420,cp452,cp485,cp517,cp549,cp582,cp614,cp646,cp679,cp711,cp743,cp776,cp808,cp840,cp873,cp905,cp937,cp970,cp986,cp1002,cp1018,cp1034,cp1051&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.

This concept is explained and demonstrated in this video tutorial.

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.

For PvP, keep an eye out for Totodiles ready to battle. Look for Totodiles that will be around 2500 or 1500 CP once fully 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.

Hatched/Raid Level 20 Totodile will be just over the limit for Great League (though trading for lower IV could put them below 1500).

Totodile around and below 592-535 CP at level 19 or 20 (2500 dust) may be perfect for Great League after evolution.

Weather boosted Totodile around and below 987-892 CP at level 32+ (6000+ dust) may be perfect for Ultra League after evolution. Your highest CP option is likely your best bet here.* Higher IV may require lower dust investments to reach the cap.

*With multiple IV options, generally prioritize high Def/HP low Att options for best PvP effectiveness.

2019 kicks off Community Day and now with a whole new game mode to consider. Use this guide to help keep track of everything going on- because it's a lot. Make sure to share with new and returning members of your community so that they can make the most of Community Day too.

You can start preparing for Community Day now! Go raid some Croconaw, set a Totodile as your buddy, and start spinning Pokestops! Don’t be discouraged if you’re busy or can’t make the most of it, as last year showed us that Community Day moves will return for those that miss them! This year is sure to be an equally big celebration!

Remember to have fun too. With so much to keep track of, it’s easy to forget things. Set reminders and alarms and notes in your phone so that during Community Day you can keep the focus on fun with friends!