Community Day November 2019 Guide

• Drastically increased spawns for the Pokemon Chimchar

• The release of Shiny Chimchar

  • Obtainable from catches, hatches, research, and raids

  • An increased Shiny rate (roughly 1 in 23) during Community Day hours

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

• 3-hour Lures

• ¼ Hatch distance

• End of Community Day starts Galarian Weezing Raid Hour!

• All Monferno evolved during Community Day hours learn the currently unannounced exclusive move Blast Burn

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

  • Must evolve a Monferno 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.

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, battery packs, fully charged devices, comfortable shoes, other protective gear, and water again, for good measure. Community Day is a full 5 hours, so pace yourself and take breaks to not get burnt out.

Most importantly, keep it fun!

This guide will cover all of the in-game knowledge you’ll need to make the most out of Chimchar Community Day.

Before the Event

• Survey “Updates from New Zealand”

• Decide where to play

• Get your items ready

• Acquire Chimchar and Chimchar Candy

• Set reminder alarms

During the Event

• Check out key reminders for CD mechanics

• Consider the analysis for CD sale box

• Review additional ways to acquire Chimchar (Chimchar Raids, Eggs, and Rocket Battles)

• Research the Exclusive Move analysis

• Set goals accordingly

• Know when to Pinap and which balls to use

After the Event

• Raid Galarian Weezing!

• New Appraisal Tips!

• Find a trading partner

• Evolve your Pokemon

• Start preparing for the next event!

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.

Looks like lots of lag. If you're experiencing latency issues and connection issues, it is strongly advised to do test evolves before evolving your best Monferno!

Galarian Weezing, a Poison/Fairy-type, joins T4 Raids with the release of Pokemon Sword and Shield. At the end of Community Day, a Raid Hour featuring Weezing's new Galarian forme has been reported! It's a duoable raid, weak to Psychic, Steel, and Ground types.

Chimchar 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.

*New Notes*

This Community Day is the second since the radical shakeup to spawn points. Consider visiting prospective play areas in the days leading up to CD to get an idea of the spawn rates. Lure-able areas just got significantly better too. Ask experienced players where the best new places to play are! While you may assume this event’s spawns to be similar to that of October’s Trapinch Community Day, one event is not a pattern. Consider backup options too, using the information in this section.

Time Travel

Since this event is 11AM-2PM based on local time, 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. Start East then make your way West sometime after the first hour. This shouldn’t affect most players but can be a nice bonus to players willing to travel a little more during CD. Remember to stay West as you evolve for the exclusive move.

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

Players should 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 Chimchar, focus on cluster spawns in areas with lots of network traffic such as parking lots and apartment complexes and high Pokestop dense areas that can be easily Lured up.

Weather

Pursuing weather-boosted Chimcharwill grant you higher CP Chimchar so it’s advised to hunt in forecasted Clear areas. This comes with it decreased catch rates 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).

Weather boosted Pokemon have an IV floor of 4/4/4. This means their IV spreads are more likely to be better for PvE, but likely impossible to have ideal IV for PvP.

Note About Nests

From February to July, nesting spawns stopped or are at least extremely dulled during CD hours. Every Community Day is slightly different in regards to spawn rates but it is worth noting that players can likely visit nests and not worry about diluted Chimchar spawns.

During Ralts Community Day, a forced nest shift occurred, causing many nests to be overrun in some regions with Poocheyena, Bulbasaur, or other spawns. This was fixed before the end of CD, but it’s a good reminder that every Community Day is different and presents a new opportunity for new/returning bugs. This guide covers what you can reasonably expect, but having backup plans is always smart!

Chimchar is currently unavailable in research and Rocket Grunt battles. It is a nesting species, a 2km egg hatch, and a 3km Buddy Pokemon.

Any previous Chimchar/Monferno obtained with undesirable IVs should be traded at least for candy and to reroll IVs, preferably with a Best Friend. Using a Lucky Trade is also a good idea for players with limited CD time. Additional Chimchar candy can be earned prior to the event by making Chimchar your Buddy Pokemon, and by making Chimchar a Gym Defender and stuffing it full of berries! If you have limited time to play this CD and are close to the candy needed for another evolution, these tips can put you over the threshold for evolving another Chimchar for the exclusive moveset.

Players who haven't claimed their encounters for Jump-Start 4/6 can also claim the top reward during Community Day for a chance at a high IV Shiny Chimchar.

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 Chimchar start spawning!

• Existing spawns can change to Chimchar. Clicking on Pokemon to catch or even just to shiny check will prevent them from turning into Chimchar. It’s fine though to check for shinies you don’t yet have. If you want to catch the most Chimchar, avoid clicking on spawns as Community Day is about to begin. Catch them for triple dust instead!

• 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. 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.

¼ Hatch Distance

¼ hatch distance as a Community Day bonus works only on eggs that begin incubation during Community Day. If Community Day is about to start, you may actually hatch eggs faster by not Incubating immediately. Wait till 11AM before loading up your Incubators.

Similarly, any eggs that begin incubating before 2PM will retain their reduced distance. If you’re close to a hatch as the event ends, try to get a few more steps in to pop another egg in your orange Incubator.

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.

With 11:00AM Community Days, a wake up alarm doesn’t hurt either!

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

• 500 Stardust.

• 2 Ultra Balls.

• 5 Great Balls.

• 2 Pinap Berries.

• NEW: Chimchar encounter

  • CP range for these encounters is 316-410

• NEW: 1 Golden Razzberry

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 Chimchar” 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 Chimchar” 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). Some Community Days also feature Great and Ultra Boxes, which can be 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.

Expect 0-3 new boxes to be added during CD and removed shortly after.

For those that don’t raid, this sale is a 4% if accounting for Incubators and the Incense, ranking it 88th (without the Incense it’s not a discount at all). Accounting for Raid Passes, this ranking drops to 145

With an additional Lure Module, this is a 12.72% discount, though the rankings actually remain the same.

Ralts and Turtwig Community Day introduced new ways to acquire high IV versions of the featured Pokemon during Community Day!

Updates to this section will appear in “Updates from New Zealand” at the start of the article, as Niantic and New Zealand reports offer us more information.

Raids

Ralts/Turtwig/Trapinch raids appeared as normal Tier 1 Raids during Community day. This means the earliest they can hatch is 12:00, and some will extend past Community Day. Other raids will still spawn normally.

Eggs

Ralts hatched from every egg obtained during Community Day. The only non-Ralts eggs available were 7km gifted eggs (and those obtained prior to CD).

Turtwig certainly wasn’t in every egg. It was likely slightly boosted, like seen with Larvitar and Beldum, but specific rates are unknown.

Chimchar was announced as appearing in 2km eggs, though it seems the rates were unchanged or only slightly boosted. There is limited data on this subject, but they weren’t in every egg.

Rocket Grunt Battles

A few Community Days have been followed by the release of the featured Pokemon available as a Shadow Pokemon from Rocket Grunt battles. With Shadow Chimchar currently unreleased, it’s likely we will see it arrive after Chimchar Community Day.

Turtwig Community Day was the first to have Shadow Turtwig released prior to its featured CD. There has yet to be a Shadow Pokemon launched on its respective CD, though this is certainly possible.

During Turtwig CD, a majority of Rocket Grunt encounters rewarded Shadow Turtwig. While you’ll have to decide if these are worth pursuing for yourself, it can be a fun way to obtain high-IV Chimchar. Optimal counters for Chimchar Rocket Grunt battles are currently unknown (though Water seems like a safe bet).

From TSR user u/Hazyd who tested out Shadow/Purified Turwig for us all:

Shadow+single move - frustration

Shadow+ double move - frustration/stone edge

Purified+single move - frenzy plant

Purified+double move - frenzy plant/earthquake. Found a rocket to confirm this myself

Also purified both shadow forms and received return+normal move

Community Day has also been used as a time for Niantic to test/tease/experiment with new features. Shadow Infernape isn’t totally out of the question for a last-minute addition.

As expected, Infernape is another Fire-type starter Pokemon to receive the exclusive move Blast Burn. This section will be updated to also include analysis for other new additions to Infernape’s movepool.

So how does Blast Burnape stack up against the competition?

Infernape is the poor man’s Blaziken. Where the Gen 3 Starter is comparable to Moltres, Infernape has similar tradeoffs to Charizard. Ultimately, Infernape is closest in performance to Flareon, a common, non-exclusive Pokemon (the past two months aside).

Points addressed in the Blaziken Community Day Meta Analysis remain relevant but are less pronounced. It will be better against Rock-type moves and worse against Grass-type moves than it’s flying counterpart. Unlike the 2 superior options, Infernape and Charizard lack Counter and Sky Attack respectively, so the playing field is much more even there.

Infernape isn’t incredibly exciting. It does sneak into some unique 6 teams while we await the final Gen 5 Pokemon releases, though it’s so close to Flareon that even that may not be desirable for many trainers. This will still make it a relevant contender in Pokedraft.

What does Infernape have going for it? Well, it’s a counter to the current raid boss. Level 30 Infernape can trio Cobalion pretty comfortably. I encourage anyone interested in shortmanning to play Community Day with 2 other friends and look for raids after evolving your Chimchar!

Infernape in PvP

Infernape is currently listed as a 1/5 in all PvP leagues. Blast Burn really doesn’t help that case.

Again, we have to compare Infernape to its Gen 3 cousin.

While Infernape’s lower attack than Blaziken does potentially lend itself more to Great and Ultra League play, it’s lack of the fast move Counter significantly limits it.

Of course, the creation of the Ferocious Cup means that the wizards over at the Silph Arena may be able to come up with something that rewards having a Blast Burn Infernape, so be sure to evolve one if you’re interested in competitive PvP.

In Master League and Rocket Battles, Monferno just doesn’t have the stats to be relevant over other options.

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

For Great League Infernape, look for Chimchar with CP and below. Monferno will have CP in this range.

For Great League Monferno, look for Chimchar with CP and below.

For Ultra League Infernape, look for Chimchar with CP and below. Monferno will have CP in this range.

Determine how many Monferno you want to evolve this Community Day and plan accordingly as far as resources and acquiring high IV Chimchar goes. Set goals and pay attention to how much candy you earn. Keeping track can help you determine play patterns for future CDs.

As mentioned previously, especially if your CD availability is low, swap Chimchar with local players leading up to CD and make use of the Lucky friend feature if you're desperate and don’t want to wait till December to evolve them.

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.

Each evolution costs 123 Chimchar candy which is 31 catches + transfers or 18 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 382 Pinap catches + transfers or 557 catches + transfers. Adjust your goals to make the most out of your Chimchar candy. However, you only have to evolve them today, not power them up. You can continue to earn Chimchar candy after the event to Power Up evolved Infernape!

As noted in “Looking Forward” evolving extra Shiny Chimchar with the exclusive move may make great future trades with Lucky Friends.

Making Trades

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 now three different options to consider each with their own benefits.

Play Community Day with your trading 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.

• Very possible this CD if you meet someone at an EX Raid, though Chimchar aren’t super useful.

Trade with a Lucky Friend!

Obviously, this will can a combination of one of the previous two options. Coordinating with a Lucky Friend during CD can allow you to swap a day 1 shiny Chimchar to reroll IVs. Coordinating with multiple Lucky friends can allow you to reroll a few for IVs, though you can only do one special trade each day.

Here are some additional features to keep in mind about trading:

• Players are limited to 100 trades + 1 special trade per day. This is reset 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.
  Good Friendship - 1/1/1 IV floor
  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. Read more about Lucky Pokemon here

Chimchar 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.

• Chimchar levels 1-7 have an 89% chance or higher to be caught with a curved Poke Ball Great! Throw. 

• Chimchar level 12 and below have a 90% chance or higher to be caught with a curved Great Ball Great! Throw.

• Chimchar level 20 and below have a 90% chance or higher to be caught with a curved Ultra Ball Great! Throw. Even a level 35 Chimchar 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. 

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 Chimchar levels 1-4

• Great Ball Chimchar levels 8 and below

• Ultra Ball Chimchar levels 13 and below 

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

Searching “4*” will display all perfect Pokemon. Searching “4*&Chimchar”, ”4*&328”, or “4*&+Chimchar” will display all perfect Chimchar. 4* and sorting by recent should also suffice. More tips on using the new appraisal system to its fullest can be found in the below section New Appraisal Tips.

Knowing how dust cost relates to Pokemon level can also help in quickly determining a Pokemon's level and IV. Here are the associated dust costs for the following levels;

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.

Many Pokemon IVs can now be quickly viewed using the new visual IV system. It should be feasible to scan all Chimchar within the 1-hour timeframe to scan for optimal IVs. But what should you look for while IV scanning?

For PvE (and Master League PvP), you’ll want to sort by CP, search “3*” and save any with 15 Attack IV. Rename them in a way you can easily recognize without having to check again. Consult your set goals and Chimchar candy. If you need more with high IVs, consider repeating this process and looking for 14 Attack IV or searching “2*”. If you have more than your set goals, trim from the worst you’ve selected.

For PvP, optimal IV sets will almost all be 1* options. 2* will contain some ideal IVs as well though 1* will be better on average as that allows for 0 attack IV combinations. Scanning the search range "1*,2*" for low attack and high defense and stamina will allow you to look for ideal PvP IVs. Remember to look below the previously specified IV caps from the section “Look for PvP-ready CPs”. Consult with a CP calculator to verify the Pokemon will evolve under the cap. Some trainers may also chose to skip IV checking during this step or/and evolve shiny Pokemon. Evolve extra below CP caps for future trade fodder.

Then trade any Pokemon you haven’t marked as favorites. Leave yourself time to evolve at the end of this process. Searching “Traded” or sorting by new can allow you to easily view your new Pokemon. Compare these to your previously selected best options. Consider evolving any Lucky Pokemon for a huge dust discount. After evolving to satisfy your goals, evolve extra Chimchar with high CP, below PvP caps, or shiny for future trade fodder. Remember to save some candy if you wish to Power Up some Infernape!

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

Lucky Friendship is a total game-changer for exclusive movesets. Interacting with Best Friends can now create Lucky Friendships! This will make your next trade a guaranteed Lucky! One of the best uses for these trades will be shiny Pokemon, rare Pokemon, and Pokemon with exclusive legacy movesets. CD brings all three! For this reason, evolving extra shiny Chimchar gives you the perfect Lucky Trade fodder. Encourage your Best Friends to do the same.

Using up all your Chimchar candy on evolutions gives you an additional incentive to catch future Chimchar, which will then allow you to power them up and unlock additional moves. Chimchar in Raids and Rocket Grunt Battles will provide future Chimchar candy income to take advantage of. In addition, these options could provide high IV Chimchar to make use of.

It’s not too late to find some high IV Chimchar too. Whether it be Chimchar 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 Chimchar worthy of your Stardust this weekend, evolve some anyways, attempt some lucky trades (on evolved and unevolved), keep looking, and evolve some in December! Note: This event is not confirmed for December, it's just what happened in 2018.