Community Day February 2018 Guide

Know Where You're Going to be Playing

Community is a huge part of this game. Make the most of your day- including having fun with people you enjoy!

While still in it's early stages, you can try to find your local Discord group here. Community Day is the perfect opportunity to organize a get-together with your local raiders and players. If you don't have a local group, it can be you that starts one!

Show Up Early BUT...

Because Stardust for catches is tripled, it's inadvisable to catch anything until start time (it's unclear if existing spawns can change to Dratini) Showing up early is still great to familiarize yourself with the location, park, and use the restroom before the event. If you’re going somewhere without a restroom, plan accordingly.

Prepare for Your Day Accordingly

Water, winter jacket, rain poncho, as well as snacks/lunch, water, medical necessities, battery packs, and fully charged devices.

A Small Note on Location/Weather

If you have the ability to choose it: Windy weather = Boosted Dratini. This will increase your stardust/level on those catches but decrease your overall catch rate/Pinap-rate as higher leveled Pokemon are harder to catch. Personally, I'm not going to stress about Windy as my local groups have already picked a spot and both Windy and non-Windy weather conditions have positives and negatives.

If the previous event is any indication, biome is likely irrelevant. Pikachu were everywhere and Dratini rates are expected to be similar in every location (similar to how Luvdisc was able to spawn everywhere recently). Dratini should be plentiful regardless of where you chose to play.

6/7 Incense + Lures

If you want to make a serious dent in your Dragon Medal, having Incense running will increase your rates. Having 7 Incense ready to use insures no downtime as soon as the event starts. Dratini CAN spawn through Incense and Lures if this event works like last time. (though Incense started before the event may not spawn Dratini.) Lures started before the posted start times will only last 30 minutes. Lures started any point after that will last the full 3 hours. Keep walking! Incense spawns more Pokémon while you’re moving!

Pinaps, Razz, and Ultraballs

It may be wise to fill your inventory with as many of these as possible.

Pokeballs for Go+ Users

Catching everything will likely be impossible. The GO+ may give you some free catches you wouldn't otherwise have time for.

6/7 Star Pieces

If you want to maximize your grinding, this event is going to be quite insane. Having Star Pieces constantly running can net you a lot of Stardust. It's not too late to stockpile some coins to purchase some Star Pieces for the event!

Nanab Too?

Because you'll be running star pieces, saving these bad berries to dump too will grant you 10 bonus dust and will let you save your good berries. You get a lot more dust from catching so remote feeding during the event window likely isn't worth it (especially with the current increased chance to crash). Your bag space is likely spent better on any of the previous items though. If you use 7 Star Pieces, dumping your Nanabs on the rollover Pieces at the beginning and end of the event could be useful.

Because of the above, it's good to make sure to be in a few gyms beforehand so you can remote berry to easily but wait till after the event proper to take advantage of that.

Lastly, Lured and Incensed Pokemon DO attack and dodge more, so Nanabing them may allow you to nab a few more while wasting less balls/time.

A Note on Eggs

There are NO special eggs and there are NO egg related bonuses. This is simply to maximize your gains while Star Pieces are already running.

Players that constantly run 9 incubators should continue to do so. Players that will only run a few should follow this advice: (please if anyone can dig up the thread that originally suggested this I'd love to give them credit)

Start saving 2ks now. This is because, if using the free incubator, 2ks have the best dust/km ratio. That means if you're not using any blue incubators, your preference should be 2ks, then 5ks, then 10ks. If you have 10ks and can super incubate, do so, and consider prioritizing 5ks as the event ends (unless you're using 7 Star Pieces with the rollover strategy). Also, you can force quit to skip multiple hatch animations.

Players all over the world caught 80-200 Pikachu alone last event! This time, because of bonus stardust, you'll likely want to catch 'em all. Pokemon Storage availability is also super important prep to make sure you're not wasting time during the event figuring out which Pokemon to delete. The more bag space you can leave yourself, the better, based on how much you'll play. Don't be afraid to over-delete, especially on evolve fodder. Lures and incense will fill your bag quick! Shameless plug: Stay tuned for a future video in which we discuss which Pokemon you can safely transfer (and power up, etc.)

u/nadia_diaz did a lot of the groundwork already, especially geared at players with limited resources.

Bronze/Silver Badge

Gold Badge ~ Original Post

Bronze 10-287 Pinap (90% catch rate), then consider Razz as it increases

Silver 10-334 Pinap (90% catch rate), then consider Razz as it increases

Gold 10-381 Pinap (90% catch rate), then consider Razz as it increases

Begin to use Razz and GRB at your own discretion and spawn rates. You'll likely have a lot more catching at your ready so increasing your odds and Stardust is a good strategy.It's worth noting that CP isn't what affect catch rate- only Pokemon level, so slightly higher CP Pokemon continue to be safe bets as they're unlikely 100% IV.

Remember that your badge may change during the event so all of these are useful. Also remember that every evolve counts towards the badge, including Dratini -> Dragonair. Many players shouldn't take advantage of that but it's worth knowing. Factor into that the ability to transfer Dratini to get you that little bit closer. Pinap berry-ing every Swablu and Horsea too, because every bit helps.

There are a lot of priorities to consider with Draco Meteor, Dragon Badges, possible Shinies, and more- the most dedicated players will be focused on one thing, gaining as much stardust as possible- and that means catching EVERYTHING possible. Any efforts to maximize your time should be strongly considered. This thread details an exploit WITH VIDEO that is repeatable, practicable, and unlikely to get patched out before Community Day. If you're comfortable using something that may be considered a bug or an exploit, start practicing this now. Maximizing your time could likely be a combination of this, Go+ing and Shiny checking (not confirmed)- but this process is extremely fast and worth practicing and also a great method to Shiny check in and of itself. At the very least, practice the technique to familiarize yourself with it. If done incorrectly it can crash or force you to restart your game so come prepared.

Warning: This trick does not work on incensed Pokemon (though the exploit functions normally on lures) as detailed here. Incensed Pokemon are easily identifiable by the pink cloud ring around them. Either catch these Pokemon normally or via Go+. Manual catches are recommended for anything weather boosted or evolved as those will award even more Stardust so they're worth it (in addition to Dratini)! One last tip while using the animation skip technique; don't immediately click the same Pokemon you just attempted to catch. Instead, move onto the next Pokemon in that cluster. This prevents you from seeing Error 25. If the Pokemon did flee or get caught, it will simply not be there, otherwise, you can attempt again.

The last Community Day was almost a solo competition in catching Pikachu in both Medals and Shinies with the double XP portion encouraging teamwork and community. During this event, many players will probably find themselves wanting to raid before or after the event window, with Stardust being the focus. One opportunity for people to work together is in IV checking Dratini. We may be working with limited time in terms of Draco Meteor (more on that below) so knowing which Dratini are junk and which are Wonder/Amazing quickly can save you time appraising in case you need to evolve during the event. Shout out any stellar catches and encourage teamwork. There's no sense in everyone appraising the exact same Dratinis.

The following string can be used to look for perfect IV Dratini

147&cp12,cp38,cp64,cp90,cp116,cp142,cp168,cp194,cp219,cp245,cp270,cp295,cp319,cp344,cp368,cp393,cp418,cp442,cp467,cp491,cp516,cp540,cp565,cp590,cp614,cp639,cp663,cp688,cp713,cp737,cp749,cp762,cp774,cp786,cp799

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

Dragonite that are evolved or caught during the event window will be given the exclusive move Draco Meteor. This likely means that anything caught and evolved during the event will have get the move, in addition to Dratini caught beforehand and evolved during.

So is Draco Meteor any good?

bioweapon breaks it down here!

Draco Meteor may not be better but it will be legacy and it will be good. A rework favoring Charge moves could happen... and we all know how much Niantic likes charge moves. One huge question I have for the community; Did you only have the 3-hour window to create Surfing Pikachu via TM last Community Day? I don't remember. If so, this is a decision that will have to be made quickly. You'll probably want to evolve any shiny (not confirmed) Dratini into Meteor but otherwise, you'll need to weigh that decision.

If you evolve a Dragonite NOT during the event, you have a 1/3 chance to get Outrage, 1/3 to get Hurricane, and 1/3 to get Hyper Beam. DURING the event you're 100% to get Draco Meteor. Though likely worse than Outrage fractionally, it will save you Charged TMs if you just need a good Dragon move. If you know that in the future you will want your Pokemon to have Outrage, WAITING to evolve gives you a 1/3 shot to not have to spend a TM, followed by a series of 50/50 chances. Evolving now and then switching to Outrage later, on average, will cost one additional TM to acquire.

We don't know yet whether or not Shiny Dratini will spawn during the event. What we do know is that Shiny Pikachu spawned somewhere around the rate of 1 IN 22.7 during the last Community Day.

For those not aware, last Community Day (and Christmas), while exclusive movesets were granted to Pikachu, players realized that you could TM Pikachu for a guaranteed change to that move. Niantic has stated that this will NOT be the case this Community Day.

"Remember Trainers, Fast TMs and Charged TMs will not grant exclusive moves during #PokemonGOCommunityDay. To learn an exclusive move, you must catch or evolve the featured Pokémon during Community Day hours."

"Note: Fast TMs and Charged TMs will not grant exclusive moves during Community Day. To learn the exclusive move, you must catch or evolve the featured Pokémon during Community Day hours."

What sticks out to me is the word "remember," though this is NEW information. This leaves me with some questions and it may be true that pre-existing Dragonites CAN be TM'd during the event. We will get this answer as soon as the first group of trainers has Community Day go live, so pay attention to the Road when the event goes live.

Checking In

I almost forgot! Another reason to arrive early or stick around let is to check in with the Silph Road's handshake/badge feature. Local Discords will likely be doing check-ins (and raids) before and after so people don't have to break from catching. You can set up your Trainer Card ahead of time here.

Rehosted from Reddit to GamePress.gg with author's permission.

Let me know if there are unanswered questions or you've got an idea that I didn't really discuss. This may all be information YOU know but not every trainer follows the Road as closely as you. Spread the word and have fun!

~NoLucksGiven