Community Day June 2020 Guide

• Drastically increased spawns for the Pokemon Weedle
• The release of Shiny Weedle
  • Obtainable from catches, hatches, research, and raids
  • An increased Shiny rate (roughly 1 in 23) during Community Day hours
• 3-hour Incense
• 3x Catch Stardust (does not stack with solstice-themed event)
• Take a Snapshot during Community Day for a Weedle Photobomb (up to 5 times)
• One-time purchasable Community Day Bundle
  • Likely 1,280 PokeCoins
  • 1 Elite Charged TM
  • 30 Ultra Balls
  • 3 Star Piece
  • 3 Incense
• Additional gifts from Buddy Pokemon
  • Most be Great Buddy or higher
  • Contains helpful items, such as Pokeballs
• All Kakuna evolved during Community Day hours learn the exclusive move Drill Run (Beedrill Only)
  • Fast TMs and learning a New Move will not give you this exclusive move
  • Must evolve a Kakuna 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.
• July will feature Gastly and the exclusive move Shadow Punch (for Gengar).

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.

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.

12? Star Pieces

3x dust is a crazy-good bonus that you'll definitely want to make full use of... but 6 hours is a lot of time to be on your phone. Don't be afraid to take a break or two, and use the Breaking the Bank section to maximize the Star Pieces you do use!

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.

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 catch of the day or 7th streak catch of the day is additional bonuses added to the dust value based on evolution stage.

If you will catch around 63 Pokemon before Community Day, it is more beneficial to not bother having your 1st catch of the day occur during CD. This counts after midnight the night before too. Most players shouldn’t aim to capitalize on this bonus- but if you really only play during CD, this is fine to do. Put simply, just play the game and don’t worry about this niche min-maxing. Tripple dust bonuses for daily streaks due to Covid lockdowns make this worthwhile for a much wider variety of players.

However, players with their 7-day streak on Sunday will benefit from waiting if they wouldn’t otherwise earn 31,500 Stardust in the meantime. Accounting for weather boosted and evolved spawns this number is probably closer to 270 spawns. Basically, if you’re planning on playing the morning before CD, you can do so as normal or you can not play and basically receive the same amount of Stardust or more!  For many players hitting thier 7th daily streak, it's advantageous to not catch anything before Community Day starts.

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 Weedle start spawning!
• Before you catch anything before CD starts, consult Breaking the Bank's tips on maximizing your Stardust.
• Existing spawns can change to Weedle. Clicking on Pokemon to catch or even just to shiny check will prevent them from turning into Weedle. It’s fine though to check for shinies you don’t yet have. If you want to catch the most Weedle, 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.

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

• 500 Stardust
• 2 Ultra Balls
• 5 Great Balls
• 2 Pinap Berries
• 1 Golden Razzberry
• Weedle encounter (CP range 172-195)

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, 3 Star Piece, and 3 Incense.

The two things to note about this box are firstly that it replaces Super Incubators with Star Piece compared to April’s box. This means that this box is technically a worse total deal.

However, this box will contain a Charge TM. There are diminishing returns on this item, as they will because less valuable as players acquire more over time. Still, many of the points from April's breakdown hold true, making an ECTM a priceless 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. Weedle will photobomb up to 5 times during the event! This is only 5 extra Weedle 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

It’s a coinflip whether or not this CD will feature these elements, though April and May did not. Once the event has started in NZ, we’ll update this space. Check back later!

Even Shadow Beedrill doesn't have the stats to compete in Raid content. And with a max CP of 1846 with the Best Buddy boost, Beedrill's usage will lie solely in the Great League.

So how does the Poison Bee look in the Great League? Beedrill was flush with strong STAB options. However, it had no way to touch the ever-prevalent Steel-types! Enter Drill Run!

Bedrill now wins against Azumarill and Registeel. Anyone that's played Great League might stop reading there to grab their net and catch some Weedle! That's a pretty impressive duo to be able to break up. It also beats other Great League favorites, using it's Poison Jabs to tear through Fairy and Grass-types alike. It's Poison-typing also gives it a key resistance to Counter users like Toxicroak and Deoxys-Defense.

Common trash that you've ignored 100s of times is about to be a recognizable face in the Great League. While there are still plenty of common threats that answer the Bee, like Flying, Ground, and  Psychic-types, it's place as a meta-breaker will make it occasionally show up in open play and Silph Cups.

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 Weedle will stay below the CP thresholds. Looking for Weedle with CP around or below these thresholds can be great for trainers interested in PvP with limited resources;

For Great League Beedrill, look for Weedle with CP 300-364 and below. Kakuna will have CP 276-347 in this range.

Beedrill is the first in a new era of vote-in Community Day Pokemon (February was also a vote but only one Pokemon was selected of those four). It's also a return to form of sorts, as many original Pokemon featured in Community Day could Mega-Evolve. While Mega-Evolution likely isn't coming to Go any time soon, the prospect of its future arrival can give hope to those that don't care for PvP but still long for a reason to catch some Weedle this weekend. Never mind. Mega Pokemon are coming to Pokemon Go in 2020! Get hype!

For many players, their excitement began and ended with triple dust. That is quite the bonus and certainly worth playing for, even if said dust doesn't go towards any bug type Pokemon.

Community Day and PvP's relationship going forward is going to be an interesting one, and what looks to be several months of PvP oriented Community Days to come may seem bleak for non-battlers. PvP battlers are themselves a community, and we're always excepting new comers! I myself am relatively new to PvP, and I'm having a blast!

Who knows what the future holds for Community Day, but fingers crossed for no repeated Pokemon winning a CD vote! Ultimately one repeated Pokemon is going to win a Community Day vote, despite Squirtle failing this vote. Who will break through? Charmander? Bulbasaur? Or could something like Tyranitar receive some new moves to return to its former glory?