G’day PoGO lovers! Community days have been a consistent and exciting part of the game for a long time. Community days were originally introduced to Pokémon GO in January 2018, beginning with arguably the most popular Pokémon in the entire franchise: Pikachu (with the exclusive move Surf).
With the December 2023 Community Day fast approaching, let’s take a look at how community days operate in practice, review some notable trends and tweaks to the standard formula, and the full exclusive community day move list.
Community days can be hugely popular and exciting, with the potential to turn Pokémon from mediocre to top meta threats overnight. Each month has featured (at least) one new move introduced to a Pokémon movepool, obtained by evolving the featured mon during the community day window. Community days also feature a range of bonuses, such as additional stardust, catch XP or reduced hatch distance, and typically involve additional special trades during the allocated timeslot.
The standard model is ‘one move for final evolution’, but there are a few trends and tweaks that have emerged over time:
- All 3 starter Pokémon from each release of the game will be included in a community at some point. All Grass starters receive the exclusive move Frenzy Plant, all Fire starters receive the exclusive move Blast Burn, and all Water starters receive the exclusive move Hydro Cannon;
- December community days are usually a bumper affair, featuring all Pokémon from the current and prior year and their exclusive moves;
- Same Pokémon, different community days, different moves – Charizard first receiving Blast Burn in May 2018, then Dragon Breath in October 2020; and the Eevolutions line – all evolutions receiving first Last Resort (in August 2018) and then individual moves (in August 2021);
- Featured Pokémon receiving both fast and charged exclusive moves upon evolution – eg: Roselia with Bullet Seed and Weather Ball Fire, and Walrein with Powder Snow and Icicle Spear;
- Both the 2nd and 3rd evolution line receiving community day moves – eg: Charjabug and Vikavolt both receiving Volt Switch;
- New Pokémon introduced to the game as community day Pokémon – eg: Stufful and Bewear;
- Tier 4 raids – when community days were reduced from 6 hours down to 3, Tier 4 raids were introduced as a way for players to continue catching the featured spawns after defeating the raid boss;
- Additional non-evolution moves being added to movepools on community days – eg: Samurott (Razor Shell), Greninja (Water Shuriken).
As a PvP enthusiast, I get super excited about the potential power that community day moves have for Pokémon in trainer battles. Community day moves are typically either an upgrade or at least a sidegrade for the featured mons. Walrein was a classic also ran in PvP until its community day introduced both Powder Snow and Icicle Spear into its movepool. Overnight, Walrein became a top meta pick in the Great and Ultra Leagues (although less so today due to meta shifts and move nerfs). Swampert (with Hydro Cannon), Charizard (with Blast Burn), Venusaur (with Frenzy Plant) and Metagross (with Meteor Mash) are all top meta staples, but only with their exclusive moves.
Here are a selection of the highest priority community day moves from a PvP perspective, based on the impact to the mon’s utility and the overall meta relevance of each. These Pokémon are excellent in PvP today, but really need their community day moves to be viable. For a full in-depth breakdown for December 2023 Community Day PvP, check out my article here.
The below details all current exclusive community day fast / charged moves available for each evolution line. We are working on a new database section which will help you navigate these going forward!
December 2023 will have a number of ideal candidates for you to focus on for PvP. I’ll be taking a look at the priority picks and which ones to pass on for the upcoming event. As always, you can find me on Twitter or Instagram for more PvP spot analysis.
See ya later,
JTizzle
