The Day
Squirtle Community Day falls on Sunday July 8th, 2018, and the times for the different regions are as follows:
- Europe, Middle East, Africa, India: 10am to 1pm UK (BST), 11am to 2pm CET
- North America, South America and Greenland: 11am to 2pm PDT, 2pm to 5pm EDT
- Asia Pacific: 12pm to 3pm JST
During this time, there will be many bonuses to enjoy, as well as massively increased spawns for Squirtle! If this is your first Community Day, just know that shiny Squirtle will be available, and in high quantities!
Evolving a Wartortle to Blastoise during these 3 hours (not before and not after) will get you the charge move Hydro Cannon. Contrary to previously released info on Twitter from Pokemon Go, Hydro Cannon is only a 2-bar charge move with a base power of 90. The big benefit of this move is that it is extremely fast, but we do not expect Blastoise to become highly meta with it by any means. We do, however, have high hopes for the future water starters.
For now, it’s dangerous, take these with you:
Squirtle IV and CP Text String
For the Trainers that are out on the 100% Squirtle Hunt, we shall also provide you with a text string for you to paste in your Pokémon search bar, these numbers do not guarantee a 100% IV Squirtle, but if you do have one, it will have to be one of these IVs:
7&cp11,cp35,cp60,cp84,cp109,cp133,cp157,cp182,cp206,cp231,cp254,cp277,cp300,cp323,cp346,cp369,cp392,cp415,cp439,cp462,cp485,cp508,cp531,cp554,cp577,cp600,cp623,cp646,cp670,cp693,cp704,cp716,cp727,cp739,cp750
The Search for the Sunglasses
Updated at the end of the Asia Community Day to reflect new information.
This Community Day sports something a little different than normal, featuring the research tasks that can be collected from Pokestops during the three hour event period. The special thing about this round’s research, is that it will always yield a Squirtle rocking shades, and occasionally one that is shiny too! Sadly, it is not the Squirtle Squad staple, but we will have to make do. This Squirtle can also be evolved to Blastoise, which will keep both the shades, as well as the shiny quality if it has both.
This research appears to be a variant on the “Catch X Community Day Pokémon” quests we are used to, although it is 5 Squirtle versus the usual 3 for other Community Days, as well as there being no reports of item rewards. Our best recommendation is to stack 3 of the quests together and claim them all at once, so that you only have to catch 5 total, and not 15.
We have a few suggestions for you to get you ready to hunt for this research:
- Visit a place with a high number of stops for a little bit or all of the event, so that you can pick up more research and have more chances at that special shiny shaded Squirtle.
- Do not complete research before the event as if you complete the research in the morning, the stop will not yield you a Squirtle research later in the day.
- Clear your bag space, so that you do not have to waste your time trying to get the stops to yield you some research. If your bag is full, spinning a pokestop won’t give you your research!!
- Clear out your research slots before the event. These field tasks will not be available all day, so make sure you can get as many as you can during the 3-hours that they will be given out from pokestops!!
The Secret is in the Shell
If you thought spotting a shiny Bulbasaur back in March was bad, well, you’re going to be in for a little bit of a shock. Shiny Squirtle is insanely hard to tell apart from its normal counterpart, sporting just a lighter blue skin color. The real indicator of a shiny is something you cannot see easily from the front of the encounter screen, but something you may find interesting after you hopefully get a shiny or two (or 13. Some people have all the luck.)
Below we can see normal Squirtle alongside a shiny one, using their sprites from Ultra Sun and Moon.
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| Normal | Shiny |
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You can tell it is shiny, but you may have to look very closely at your encounter screen when you click on a Squirtle, just to make sure.
However, after you catch your shiny, turn it around on the Pokedex screen, and its brilliant shell will be revealed.
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| Normal | Shiny |
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For your viewing pleasure, here is the rest of the shiny family, with the assets from Pokemon Go (thanks Chrales).
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The Best of the Bonuses
For many, the cherry on top for the Community Day events are the bonuses that go along with the 3-hour event. Sometimes it is triple xp, or stardust for catching mons, but this time around, it is 1/4 egg hatching distance as well as the normal 3-hours lures.
Here are some tips for you to get the best out of these bonuses:
- Do not start the lures before the event starts. Many people are over eager, and they will drop at lure one or two minutes before the event even starts. Not only is this a waste of a lure, as it will run out a half hour into the event, but rumor has it that it will not pick up the right spawn data and therefore spawn significantly less Squirtle. This is especially a problem during events, where the lures will pick up the event spawns instead (cough Pikachu cough).
- You can lure block. If you are in a common area, and you know someone may mess up the lures, but you have the time and resources to do some pre event grinding, you can block the lures by dropping lures a little after the :30 mark before the event. If the event starts at 11am, and you drop the lures at 10:31am, no one will be able to drop lures at 10:59. A lot of work, sometimes not necessary, but it is an option.
- Do not incubate the night before. Oh boy were we livid on Ampharos Community Day when the night before the event, Niantic made an announcement that only eggs incubated during the three hours would benefit from the 1/4 distance. Do NOT prep your eggs the night before, as many did last time, and make sure the event has definitely started before throwing all those eggs in to hatch!
Watch For the Weather
As always, keep an eye on what the weather will be in your area! Our hearts reach out to those in Japan who have weather so bad that the events are actually being postponed. Stay safe out there!!
Whether rain or shine, plan accordingly, bring whatever is needed to suit the weather, including but not limited to: Sunscreen, umbrellas, ample water, and the proper clothing to get you through the event!! Always better to over-plan than to under-plan (the author learned her lesson in January… so cold… so… so cold…).
Share your Tips
Have any tips or secrets you want to share? Hop into our Discord server or the comment section and share your tips! Also take plenty of pictures and be sure to submit them to us in Discord, we love seeing the pictures from all around the world! Happy hunting everyone!
