Pokémon GO Community Days occur once every month in Pokémon GO. This is when a certain Pokémon gets featured and appears more frequently in the wild with a higher shiny odds. In addition, Community Day Classics occur once every season.
How to Prepare for the Next Pokémon GO Community Days
Stock up on Balls
Obviously, you will need Balls to be able to catch the Pokémon featured on the event day. The question is, how many Balls do I need to keep? The answer to this depends on where you want to play the Community Day. If you will be playing at a location with lots of PokéStops, focus on keeping a minimum of 500 Balls (i.e., a total including Poké Ball, Great Ball, and Ultra Ball). If not, you will want to focus on a minimum of 800 Balls.
You can get these Balls ready by spinning PokéStops or Gyms, completing certain Research Tasks, opening Gifts from Pokémon friends, and completing some GO Pass rank tasks. You can also buy these Balls from the Pokémon store, but I would not recommend that.
Find a Great Place to Play
If you really want to enjoy the Community Day, then find a great place to play. A great place to play is generally a location that is accessible to the public. It should have lots of PokéStops and Gyms. It should be suitable for walking. The location should also be appropriate based on the weather conditions on the day of the event.
Join and Check-in to a Community Event hosted by a Community Ambassador
A great place to play should also have a Pokémon GO Community Ambassador event. You can find these on the Niantic Campfire App. When you find one, click on “Join Meetup”. Do not forget to Check-in on the day of the event when you arrive at the event location.
Checking in will reward you with a Free Timed Research. The Timed Research will reward you with the featured Pokémon with a Special Background and also some resources when you complete the associated tasks.
You will also be able to play alongside some Trainers in your local Pokémon GO community. Ensure you form (or join) a Party with 3 other Trainers. You will be able to get some resources and encounters after completing each party task. More importantly, you will get a greatly reduced Egg hatch distance when in a Party during the Community Day.
Know what Bonuses are available
You should have an idea of the bonuses available for each Community Day. This will help you prepare well in advance. The following are common bonuses and how to prepare for them.
- Egg hatch distance. If the Community Day features this bonus, you want to ensure you don’t waste your incubators. Keep your incubators and use them about 2 minutes into the start of the event. Likewise, if you want to hatch a lot of Eggs, you can purchase more incubators and use them on the event day.
- 3x Catch Stardust. Keep your Star Pieces and use them about 2 minutes into the start of the event. This would help you gain additional Stardust for every Pokémon you catch during the event period and while your Star Piece is still in use. You can stack Star Pieces by clicking on the current one to add another and extend the time.
- 3x Catch XP. Keep your Lucky Eggs and use them about 2 minutes into the start of the event. This would help you gain additional XP for every Pokémon you catch during the event period and while your Lucky Egg is in use. You can stack Star Pieces by clicking on the current one to add another and extend the time.
- 2x or 3x Catch Candy. With this bonus, you can either focus on using Pinap Berry when catching the featured Pokémon or use a Max (i.e., mega level 3) Mega-evolved Pokémon that shares a similar type with the featured Pokémon. Doing either or both will help you accumulate lots of Candy, including lots of Candy XLs for the featured Pokémon.
- 3-hour Normal Incense duration. Incense helps in having more spawns. You generally don’t need to use Incense on a Community Day. However, if you feel like it, go for it. What I normally do is, I pop 8 Incenses about 10 minutes towards the end of the event. Those 8 Incense will last 24 hours after the Community Day ends.
- 1-hour Lure Module duration. If you are lucky to find a PokéStop without a Lure after the event starts, make sure you use your Lure Module on that PokéStop. Each Lure will last for one hour. If you missed the event’s 3-hour window, you can still use Regular Lure Modules up to 9:00 p.m. on the event day to get the featured Pokémon to spawn off the Lure Module.
- Special Trade. Plan your special or lucky trade for the event day. Try to communicate with the person you want to trade with before the event. Meet during the event and do your special Trade(s). Added to this bonus is the reduced trade costs. Make use of the reduced trade costs to trade away the Pokémon you don’t need.
- Snapshot encounters. You will be able to take a snapshot of your buddy five 5) times to encounter the featured Pokémon each time. Don’t forget to do this.
Clear your Pokémon Storage
Ensure you clear your Pokémon storage and have at least 500 spaces for the featured Pokémon that you will be catching. Doing this helps you focus on catching without having to spend a lot of time looking for which Pokémon to transfer. Instead, transfer all the Pokémon you do not need before the day of the event.
Want more? Check Top 20 Pokémon GO Community Day Tips
Most importantly, prepare to have fun!
