Clamperl Research Day
When I saw the announcement for the Clamperl Community Research event, I thought two things: “Why is Clamperl only being released now?” and “Oh heck, is this going to be like the Feebas event?”
Thankfully, while the answer to the first question is unknown, the answer to the second question is a resounding “NO!”
It seems that Niantic learned a huge amount from the Feebas event because this Clamperl event was a billion times easier.
First off, the research. Far better research. The Make Nice Throws and Make Great Throws tasks returned, but their numbers were reduced to 5 Nice Throws and 3 Great Throws. And with increased Pokemon spawns, this wasn’t nearly so hard. In fact, with so many Wailmers around, it was genuinely quite easy. The Feebas event was slap-bang in the middle of the Johto event, meaning you had to get 10 and 15 Great or Nice Throws on tiny, jumpy Pokemon, but even if Wailmers are in short supply, Pokemon like Psyduck and Krabby are also insanely common.
Seriously, Krabby were everywhere.
Other spawns included Luvdisc, Feebas, Totodile, Squirtle and some evolved Water-types such as Wartotle, Croconaw and Vaporeon.
The rest of the research was also great. There were some insanely simple ones, like, uh, spin two Pokestops. That one was the easiest by a mile since it would automatically be half completed the second you get the research. Other research included catching 3 Pokemon with berries, battling in gyms, using super-effective charged moves in gyms and catching 5 Water-type Pokemon, things that are all pretty easy to do and made easier because there are Water-type Pokemon everywhere. I should mention Krabby again because most of the spawns were Krabby. That’s probably a good thing because there was a research task to catch a Krabby or a Psyduck, and a second research task to catch a Wailmer or a Magikarp. Both tasks were very easy to complete.
Only one of the tasks was vaguely difficult and that was Evolve Two Water-Types. The simplest way to do this would be to evolve Totodiles or Squirtles, which spawn on a regular basis and only need 25 candy. Other candidates include Spheal (again only 25 candy) or Psyduck and Krabby, which, again, were everywhere. I mean, I didn’t have enough candy at the start of the event to evolve any Krabbies and managed to evolve two for the research task.
Amazingly though, there’s also a shiny Clamperl. Something people didn’t realise until the event started and people caught them. I don’t know if the chances were genuinely increased but way more people actually got shiny Clamperls in comparison to shiny Feebas. I did about 30 research tasks (every Pokestop I managed to hit, with three unclaimed for research over the next few days) and managed to get 5 shinies. Brother did about 25 stops (he had phone issues) and got 4 shinies. I’m pretty sure we got lucky, but quick glances at r/PokemonGo and r/TheSilphRoad suggest the chances were 1/25 or better. Because the research tasks were far easier though, the chances of getting a shiny Clamperl felt even higher simply because we could actually do tasks in a timely manner.
With the Feebas event, there were only 4 tasks, all of which were time-gated. You at the very least needed to wait for 10 Pokemon to spawn to catch with Great throws and hatching eggs and earning walking candy were gated by how fast you can walk without going over speed limits (as Pokemon Go stops counting distances over certain speeds). But in the Clamperl event, you could finish most tasks before reaching the next Pokestop. Only the gym-related tasks were a hassle, and even then they were only a pain if someone had mysteriously taken EVERY SINGLE GYM in the local area.
No, seriously, I had some “super-effective charge attack” research and all the gyms down at the harbour were yellow. Not that it mattered though, I just picked up a “Spin 2 Pokestops” research to replace it.
The real amazing thing though? Many of the water-type Pokemon spawning during the event had shiny forms as well. Wailmer, Magikarp, Krabby and Psyduck didn’t actually have higher chances of being shiny but because of the increased quantities but at least there was a chance. Other candidates included Squirtle and Totodile, as well as brief appearances of Feebas. Several people got more shiny Feebas during the Clamperl event than they did during the Feebas event. And my brother can finally shut up about not having one.
The ONLY problem with this event? Clamperl actually has two evolutions, and what one you get is random. Each evolution also costs 50 candies, meaning that you might not get the evolution you want. It’s a 50-50 chance but on a brand new Pokemon that might not be appearing in the wild for a while and so far is exclusive to a 3 hour event, it is a little tedious. If I get fucked over with the 150 candy I have and get 3 Gorebyss, then I’m going to be sad, even more so because there’s literally nothing I can do about it.
Okay, I’ll admit, there is one other problem. Both the Clamperl event and the Latias event were announced with too little time to prepare. They both just appeared and the Latias event was hidden by a Treecko community day announcement. Thankfully, the Latias raids were extended to March 1st, but Latias… I have things to say about that bastard that are better saved for another article…
Editor’s Note: Turns out Clamperl are due to start spawning in the wild, they’re not exclusive to this event. It’s just the increased shiny chances that people may have missed out on.