Sunday, July 19, 2020

Pokémon Go Community Day, 7/19/2020

This month in Pokémon Go, Community Day can be said to represent "Part 2" of the Community Day from last month, as the featured Pokémon for both this and the previous Community Day had been decided through voting during the edition of the previous month before that. But that's a great thing, since in that way one should already know what one is up against and can prepare for it in advance. Of course, there may still be other unexpected things to keep one on one's toes, but that may be the least that someone has to worry about, including for this one.

The runner-up of the voting from two months ago was Gastly, a very popular Ghost-type Pokémon from the first generation. The special move for its final evolution of Gengar, also declared for its candidacy back in the voting, is the Ghost-type Shadow Punch; as such, this time the move suits a STAB framework, and it is likely for that reason that it became very appealing and especially so for PvP purposes, enough to take second after Beedrill. It also helps that Gengar has a Mega Evolution, and by now it is known that they're coming. The bonus for this edition is quartered Egg hatch distance, which should be quite useful to those seeking to get a few Eggs hatched and going; it displaces the countermeasure of halved Egg distance temporarily, but it's still nice nonetheless.

While there is no explicit statement that this is a "Play at Home" edition, much of the bonuses or even "perks" continue to apply, including the extended use of Incense, photo surprises, and the new Community Day Box. This time, however, the Buddy Assist is absent, instead being replaced with 30 Ultra Balls (and only that) freely available by a distinct new "countermeasure" that ought to be explained separately later. Also, the extra paid Special Research is once again available, this time called "The Great Gastly" (haha), dealing with the spooky nature of the Pokémon and still containing much of the expected bonuses. There was a bit of change, but this was certainly for the better.

I felt like I could use the outdoor exercise today (plus a few home staples were in order), so I spent quite a bit of time walking outside for this one. I hit up a few of the neighborhood PokéStops for their Field Research tasks as well as taking advantage of the opportunity to increase the friendship levels of a few other Trainers. After six hours - give or take - I really managed to catch lots of Gastly with a great amount of Candy. As for any of them being Shiny, I got 14 of them, almost the same number for Weedle last month, and this time for certain, for I didn't transfer any; still, some of them will have to be transferred somehow, and I may have the plan for just that. I evolved the usual assortment, plus a couple of extras that may be useful for battle purposes of different kinds, including PvP as above.

This Community Day also marks something significant: this is the first Community Day with a featured Pokémon whose Shiny form has already been released previously, though not the first candidate; in the previous polls (including for February), there were at least one candidate Pokémon with an already-released Shiny form, and the virtue of Gastly taking second to be featured effectively makes it the first as such. And while the Shiny forms of the Gastly species family are not too drab as they look too similar to their normal counterparts, there is but one exception: the Shiny form of Mega Gengar, which is white instead of purple. Since Mega Evolution is in the works - perhaps accurately as many have surmised - now most everyone has a chance at this neat-looking form when it comes out.

With today having been the day for Gastly and its species family in Community Day, this ends a period of two Community Days with known featured Pokémon species, and at this point the next one is anyone's guess. But known or not, the objective is always the same, which is to work and have fun with the featured Pokémon. I'd say there would be times when things are known and things are unknown - much like the current time for the world - given all that has happened with Community Day, and that seems fine enough. And certainly, one still knows that one has to continue to be on one's toes.

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