Maybe Community Day Shouldn’t Be All About One Pokemon

Another month, another disappointing Community Day. This week, Niantic announced Community Day Classic, a bonus community day that features the one and only #001, Bulbasaur. As much as I love my little onion boy, who exactly is this for? Bulbasaur and its shiny variant have been featured countless times over the years, and I can't imagine there’s anyone still looking for one. Heck, Bulbasaur showed up in four different events in 2021, including the New Year's event last week. Unless you started playing Pokemon Go today, you almost certainly have enough shiny Bulbasaur by now.

Community Day Classic is an extra event that doesn’t replace January’s regularly scheduled Community Day featuring Spheal, who just got its shiny form last month. I don’t mind having an extra Community Day, and I think splitting them up for two different groups – one for casual and new players and one for more active players – is the seed of a good idea. The problem is that Community Days are terrible.

Related: Pokemon Go's Latest Research Reward Feels Like An Insult

When Community Days first started, they were a fun way to recapture the feeling of those first summer months when Pokemon Go was new and everyone was playing it together. Over the years the event has stagnated to the point where they’re nothing more than a monthly shiny farm. Finding shiny versions of common Pokemon isn’t exciting anymore, in part because Community Days made them so common. Even if Community Day Classic was featuring a newer Pokemon than Bulbasaur I still wouldn’t be excited about it. Community Day is boring, so why would I want two of them?

One thing Go could do to help bring some excitement to Community Day is to stop making it all about one Pokemon. December’s Community Day tried this, but it only featured the Pokemon from the previous 11 Community Days, with only one new shiny. Had it featured a different collection of Pokemon with new shinies, I probably wouldn’t even be writing this right now. In fact, if Community Day featured 10 Pokemon with at least one brand new Pokemon, two new shinies, and the rest being Pokemon that haven’t been featured heavily in other events, then I would be happy repeating the exact same Community Day several times a year. That way players can focus on catching different Pokemon and hunting specific shinies during each event instead of grinding a single Pokemon for four hours and then being done with it forever.

Here’s an even better idea: make Community Day’s about Legendaries. Raids and the very occasional research assignment are the only way to catch Legendary and Mythical Pokemon right now, but I don’t see why the monthly Community Day couldn’t give us the opportunity to farm shinies and candy for Legendaries too. The special research assignment could have a little story about appearances of the Legendary. Completing challenges could reward Event Balls and Golden Razz Berries, and each completed step could give us a chance to catch the Legendary just like a Raid. Unlike Bulbasaur, repeating the same Legendary would actually be beneficial to players, since getting candy for raid-exclusive Pokemon is so difficult.

Those are just my first two ideas, but I’d be happy with Community Days that focus on Mega Energy, Charged TMs, Rare Candy – anything other than farming a single, common Pokemon. Community Days could use a serious overhaul and the last thing we need right now is twice as many of them.

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