Every month, Pokémon Go celebrates a specific Pokémon through an aptly-themed day-long event known as a Community Day, where said Pokémon spawns at increased rates, it can appear more often in its Shiny form, and its final evolution gains an event-exclusive move. The Pokémon featured in these Community Days are usually those that are either rare or popular, though various outliers have broken the trend over the past few years.
Throughout 2022, Niantic used these monthly events to spotlight Pokémon like Galarian Zigzagoon, Litwick, and even debuted Stufful into the game in a Community Day first. But this year also included a handful of Community Days centered around Pokémon that were rather unexpected, such as Hoppip and Starly, likely signifying that more unorthodox Pokémon will be chosen in future iterations of the event.
Niantic recently revealed that the 2023 Community Day schedule will begin with a focus on Chespin, the Grass-type starter Pokémon that trainers in the Kalos region can choose as their first partner. Its Shiny form will finally become available for players to encounter and, upon evolving Chespin all the way into Chesnaught, it will learn the exclusive move Frenzy Plant. It’s expected that the other two Kalos starters, Fennekin and Froakie, will be the focus of other Community Days in 2023, then all reappearing in December.
While we cannot predict what the rest of 2023’s Pokémon Go Community Days will feature, we’ve compiled a list of some of the Pokémon we’d like to see receive the Community Day treatment over the next 12 months.
Axew
This year, Niantic prepared multiple Community Day celebrations centered around Pokémon that were first discovered in the Unova region, including Deino and Litwick, which surprised many fans of the series. Therefore, some of the most popular faces that players caught in Pokémon Black and White have been added to their Pokémon Go boxes, complete with special moves.
Yet one particular evolutionary line from the Unova region that was made increasingly popular thanks to the anime has yet to receive the Community Day treatment: Axew. This small Dragon-type Pokémon was the partner of Iris, who traveled around Unova with Ash and Cilan, then took up the mantle of Pokémon League Champion after training to be a dragon master.
While Axew and its evolutions, Fraxure and Haxorus, might not be the most powerful Dragon-type Pokémon from the region, they are certainly potent forces that are equally as elusive as many other Pokémon of the same type in the mobile game. Axew can spawn very rarely and can be Shiny, though it’s more likely to hatch from 10-kilometer eggs.
Axew was one of the many Pokémon that was featured during this year’s Pokémon Go Fest, but various issues related to the event, its pricing, and its rewards pushed players away from participating. Therefore, a Community Day featuring the Tusk Pokémon would be a great way to celebrate its popularity—likely with decent Special Research ticket sales.
Goomy
In terms of Community Days, the Kalos region hasn’t been a major focus of Niantic. Prior to the announcement of January’s Community Day featuring Chespin, the only Pokémon from the Kalos region to receive a spotlight was Fletchling in 2021.
Yet despite the region only having debuted a handful of new creatures to the series, many of them have remained some of the most popular—and powerful—Pokémon to have ever existed. One of these is the region’s Pseudo-Legendaries—Goomy, Sliggoo, and Goodra—who, while they appear to be harmless and friendly at first glance, are some of the most destructive Dragon-type Pokémon in the lore.
While these Pokémon have been a part of Pokémon Go for a decent amount of time, their low spawn rates make them rather elusive. Thus, many players have not had the opportunity to add them to their teams. As Sliggoo requires a Rainy Lore Module to evolve, it is likely that Niantic would remove this requirement for the duration of the Community Day, while also giving Goodra access to a powerful move like Draco Meteor.
Scyther
Of the Pokémon that were first discovered in the Hisui region, Kleavor—an alternate evolution of Scyther—is one of the few that has not yet made its way into Pokémon Go. To evolve Scyther into Kleavor, players needed to use Black Augurite, which may be added into Pokémon Go to achieve this evolution—or a different evolution method will be added.
Niantic recently held a Community Day featuring Teddiursa, where it debuted its new final evolution Ursaluna into the mobile title. Not only would this be an interesting way to introduce Kleavor into the game, but players would also be able to obtain Scyther’s other evolved form, Scizor, which has remained a popular Pokémon for over 20 years though requires the use of a Metal Coat to evolve into.
The only other time that a Community Day has featured two distinct evolutions for the same Pokémon was with Ralts, though both Gardevoir and Gallade learned the exclusive move Synchronoise upon evolving. Since both Scizor and Kleavor possess unique typings, they would likely learn different exclusive moves, though it is unclear if Niantic would be willing to go to these lengths for these Pokémon.
Sneasel and Hisuian Sneasel
This year, Niantic introduced Community Days featuring a Pokémon and its regional variant, debuting the special change with Kantonian Sandshrew and Alolan Sandshrew in March. Since then, however, this double feature has not yet returned, even though Alolan Geodude was featured as the Community Day focus a few months later.
The most efficient way to bring back this idea would be through another popular Pokémon with a regional variant: Sneasel. In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Sneasel received a Hisuian form and a new evolution, Sneasler, both of which have been present within Pokémon Go for a decent amount of time but have been exclusive to seven-kilometer eggs. Therefore, many players may not have been aware that this pair of fierce creatures was even available in the mobile game.
A Community Day featuring Johtonian Sneasel and Hisuian Sneasel would allow players to indulge in the popularity of Sneasel and Weavile (and Sneasler is also there), while also likely selling numerous tickets as players hope to add powerful versions of these Pokémon to their teams.
For Weavile, it could possibly gain Night Slash or Metal Claw as an exclusive move. Meanwhile, Sneasler would likely learn its signature move Dire Claw, though without the abundance of secondary effects that it has in the main series titles.
Wimpod
Starting with Magikarp, specific evolutionary lines have required the use of 400 Pokémon-specific Candies to fully evolve. This has kept players from easily obtaining Pokémon like Altaria and Bewear, though thankfully Niantic has featured plenty of these Pokémon in Community Days to better farm these Candies with the event bonuses.
Wimpod is a recently-introduced Pokémon into the mobile game that also requires 400 Candies to evolve into the menacing Golisopod, but its rarity and innate tendency to flee from players after a failed catch attempt have made it nearly impossible for players to begin stockpiling Wimpod Candies. Therefore, a designated Community Day could solve this issue while providing players with one of the strongest Bug-type Pokémon in the game.
Upon evolving Wimpod into Golisopod during Community Day, it would only make sense for Golisopod to finally learn its signature move, First Impression, which would likely be a Charged Attack. Niantic may even opt to acknowledge Team Skull’s boss Guzma, whose ace is a Golisopod, during this event like it did earlier this year.
