Community Day March 2019 Guide

• Drastically increased spawns for the Pokemon Treecko

• The release of Shiny Treecko

  • Obtainable from catches and hatches

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

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

• 3-hour Lures

• 4x Incubator Effectiveness

  • Only eggs that begin incubation after the start of CD will have their distance reduced.

  • This reduced distance will remain even after CD ends.

• An exclusive move for all Sceptile evolved during Community Day hours

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

  • Must evolve a Grovyle during CD in your region (or up to an hour after)

Prepare for Your Day Accordingly

This guide will cover all of the in-game knowledge you’ll need to make the most out of Treecko Community Day. Information follows about how to prepare before the event, analysis and key technical information to consider during the event, as well as strategies for maximizing your acquired resources after the event, all in roughly that order. If you're reading this, you're already doing the best thing to prepare for the upcoming 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!

Treecko’s Community Day was potentially the first of a new era. During last month’s event, an extreme majority of spawns were replaced with the featured Pokemon. This replacement eliminated many biome spawns, and all event and nesting spawns. While it’s unknown if we’ll see those changes again, it’s likely. Treecko CD also takes place during an event that changes the spawn table. We’ll still discuss some tips on where to play below, but some regarding nests may be less relevant depending on how the spawns shake out this weekend.

When determining where to play, some players may also be able to make use of another new feature to increase their spawns by 33%. The time of this event is location-based for the first time ever. By playing near a timezone shift, players in some parts of the world can take advantage by starting an hour earlier or ending an hour later. This shouldn’t affect most players but can be a nice bonus to players willing to travel a little more this CD.

Grovyle Joins Tier 2 Raids

Like Croconaw in January, the 2019 Equinox Event adds Grovyle to Tier 2 Raid battles. Better late than never, this is a promising trend. This can definitely be pushed a little farther with research encounters (seriously, who wants the Kanto starters still?) and is especially necessary for Water starters who are much rarer in the wild.

There is a balance as Niantic does still profit off of this FOMO and does still want to encourage players both to spend Raid Passes and to get out and play on CD if possible. Allowing players that want to prepare the ability to do so is great for the game though so here’s to more of that!

Where to Play

Treecko 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 - Many players will be focused on catching this CD, but playing near gyms may lead to easy raid completion before or after the event, while everyone is already out.

• Clusters and Lures - If you want to catch the most Treecko, 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 - Treecko is a nesting Pokemon so visiting a Treecko nest during CD can significantly increase your Treecko spawns. Trainers without a local Treecko nest shouldn’t stress as the whole world is basically a Treecko 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 Treecko 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 Treecko will grant you higher CP and IV Treecko so it’s advised to hunt in forecasted Clear 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.

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 Treecko. Still, Incense during CD can help to obtain a shiny with increased odds.

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. The themed research “Catch 3 Treecko” 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.

Some Star Pieces?

Community Day is a good Star Piece opportunity for many players that don’t otherwise make room for Star Piece grind sessions. If you fall into that category of player, it might be good to use a few Starpiece this event, but for many players it will not be. Stardust also increases in value if you’re incubating a lot. But…

Should you be Incubating?

You’ll certainly want to keep an egg in your infinite orange incubator throughout the event, but don’t be tempted by the ¼ hatch distance. For many players, this is not a bonus at all.

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.

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. 

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. It's not crazy to start incubating but this event shouldn't be considered as a factor as it wont give you extra candy, dust that it wouldn't outside of the event. 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 things 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.

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

• Existing spawns can change to Treecko. Clicking on Pokemon to catch or even just to shiny check will prevent them from turning into Treecko. It’s fine to check for shinies you don’t yet have, but you might as well just catch the Pokemon at that point too. If you want to catch the most Treecko, 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.

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.

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.

Set Alarms for Items and Evolving

Before the event, consider setting an alarm on your phone for various CD intervals to remind yourself to reapply premium items if you’re using them. There’s a lot to keep track of during Community Day between quick catching, shiny checking, appraising, and talking and catching up with friends! Setting some alerts the night before could potentially earn you thousands of Stardust you’d lose out on if you forgot to break a Star Piece.

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

Since there’s already a set of 4 boxes in the shop, expect 0-1 new CD boxes

Grass-type Pokemon have always been extremely competitive, more so than any other type in Pokemon go. At one point, Exeggutor, Venusaur, and Sceptile all shared top billing, trading off as the top DPS counter in various matchups. With Sceptile receiving its exclusive move, it’s likely that we see a new trifecta of top Grass-types; Sceptile, Roserade, and Breloom. Venusaur and Egg are still close behind though (and still make our Attackers Tier List). Even Tangrowth finds its way onto the list as a passable Grass-type. It’s a crowd, for sure.

Notably, Sceptile is the highest DPS with its unique typing (just Grass). A Pokemon that can dish out Psychic moves may prove troublesome for Roserade and Breloom, meaning Sceptile will certainly have its own niche too. It’s also close enough to Roserade that it’s a perfectly acceptable substitute.

Really, these Grass guys are so close that you could use a unique team of 6 and not miss a beat. If you want to use a team of Sceptile, it’s totally dependable. If you already have 6 maxed Grass Pokemon and don’t want to power up any Sceptile, you are also correct. Venusaur is a step down in DPS, but brings impressive bulk, making it comparable too.

When setting goals, consider your various team needs. Especially for new/returning players, Sceptile with Frenzy Plant is an amazing addition to your battle parties. Breloom and Venusaur are already Legacy and acquiring Grass Knot Roserades will require a lot of Sinnoh Stones or/and Charge TMs (because it has 4 charge moves). Sceptile is guaranteed to learn Frenzy Plant, making this CD a great time to grow your Grass army.

Sceptile and PvP

Sceptile is a very attack oriented Pokemon, serving it extremely well as a raiding Pokemon but not as much in PvP.

Players with access to Meganium will continue to appreciate that more in PvP as a Grass attacker. Sceptile does have access to the incredibly powerful Fury Cutter, giving it some uniqueness (and coverage against other Grass types.)

Looking for Sceptile ready for PvP with no Stardust investment required?

• For the Great League, target Treecko 520-571 CP and lower.
• For the Ultra League, target Treecko 887-953 CP and lower.

Pokemon in these ranges are not guaranteed to be under the CP cap. Check with an IV calculator before evolving.

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. Treecko is available in 2km eggs and as a nesting species.

Each Sceptile costs 123 Treecko 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). Evolving and Powering Up a full team (with average level 20) will cost 2227 candy. This can be accomplished with 195 Pinap catches + transfers or 361 catches + transfers.

You (probably) 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 are 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

Treecko 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 Grass 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.

• Treecko levels 1-7 have an 89% chance or higher to be caught with a curved Poke Ball Great! Throw. Poke Ball Pinap anything under 160 CP and consider up to 205 CP.

• Treecko 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 282 CP and consider up to 361 CP.

• Treecko 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 470 CP and consider up to 610 CP. Even a level 35 Treecko 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 Treecko above 510 CP or using a Razz Berry while doing so.

Throwing with no bonus will eat through 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 curveballs and no throw bonus:

• Poke Ball Treecko levels 1-4 (86-110 CP and below)

• Great Ball Treecko levels 8 and below (185-237 CP and below)

• Ultra Ball Treecko levels 13 and below (305-391 CP and below)

• Ultra Ball Razz Berry Treecko levels 25 and below (587 CP and below) Great Ball Golden Razz Berries can be used on higher level Treecko to ensure a 90% catch rate per throw.

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

252&cp14,cp46,cp78,cp110,cp142,cp173,cp205,cp237,cp269,cp300,cp331,cp361,cp391,cp421,cp451,cp481,cp511,cp541,cp571,cp601,cp631,cp661,cp692,cp722,cp752,cp782,cp812,cp842,cp872,cp902,cp917,cp932,cp947,cp962,cp977&hp12,hp22,hp29,hp34,hp39,hp43,hp47,hp50,hp53,hp57,hp59,hp62,hp65,hp67,hp69,hp72,hp74,hp76,hp78,hp80,hp82,hp84,hp86,hp88,hp90-91,hp93,hp95,hp97-102

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.

When Treecko’s Community Day is over, there are still plenty of opportunities to get good Sceptile with the exclusive move through trading. Evolving extra Sceptile can be a great idea to attempt to trade with friends afterward for high IV rerolls.

A new feature called Lucky Friendship was recently found in the code with the following text;

"{0} and you became Lucky Friends!"

"Your next trade with this friend will be Lucky!"

"Your next trade together will be Lucky! This means both Pokémon traded will become Lucky Pokémon."

It’s fair to assume with this feature that interactions with friends may make the friendship Lucky, with some cooldown. Shiny Pokemon and Pokemon with exclusive movesets are the top candidates for this feature and Community Day brings both of them. Consider evolving a few extra shiny Sceptile that you wouldn’t otherwise for guaranteed Lucky trades!

Setting goals and having an idea of how many Treecko you wish to power up also lets you calculate exactly how much candy to save. If Treecko is not a common spawn in your biome, save some candy to Power Up a Frenzy Plant Sceptile or two!

For others, spending all of your Treecko candy on evolutions provides you with a reason to keep hunting Treecko. It’s not too late to find some high IV Treecko too. Whether it be Treecko in your collection you didn’t notice/have the time to evolve during CD or new ones you catch, December is likely to have another CD weekend where exclusive moves become available again. If you don’t manage to find a good Treecko worthy of your Stardust this weekend, evolve some anyways, attempt some lucky trades (on evolved and unevolved), keep looking, and evolve some in December!

Seeing The Forest Pokemon Through The Trees

With over a year’s worth of Community Days, our first Gen 3 starter Pokemon is featured with its own day. Niantic continues to innovate while making subtle changes to this refashioned event. Remember when TMs worked? NoLucksGiven remembers.

Many changes increase ease of play tremendously, making the game much more fun. While this guide attempts to cover all topics and changes seen in previous CDs, one event is not a pattern. Changes like increased spawn rates and a fixed time based on timezone may not be permanent. They may also create other unforeseen problems leading to further changes.

Niantic does want to keep making Community Day a great experience and seeing record numbers of players does make the game much more exciting. Still, Niantic does also need to cater to players with inflexible schedules and curb FOMO but it does seem like some new features and events are moving toward that direction.

Community Day at its heart is about fun with your Community. For some, that will be maximizing your efforts with tips in this guide and for others that will be adding Sceptile to your Pokedex for the first time. Everyone in between should prioritize fun too to truly make the most out of your Community Day.