December Community Weekend was Nice

…..On December 17th and 18th 2022, we had a final community day event in Pokemon GO. As is tradition, at the end of the year, all the Pokemon from this year’s community days all come back for one final hurrah, before going away again. This years community day Pokemon were a mixed bag, but the weekend made up for it.

Well, day 2 did.

Day 1 had all the Pokemon that no one really wanted. Teddiursa, Hopip, the two Sandshrews and Geodude. Day 2 had the likes of Litwick, Deino and Galarian Zigzagoon. On day 1, I only played a little on my own, but for day 2, we stayed for two and a half hours. Mostly because we were playing with friends, but also because the spawns were much better.

A good amount of spawns

I was a bit worried about spawns at first, because in previous years, there’s been trouble with spawns. However, this year, the spawns were mostly good. There were a few unwanted Teddiursas around, but each Pokemon did appear at similar rates. On day 2, we got plenty of Deinos and Litwicks, more than I expected. Of course Roggenrola and Starly were a bit more common, but the amount of Deinos we got was genuinely great.

The shiny rates were also pretty alright. Of course, it’s all randomness and luck. But everyone in the group I played with, we all got a similar amount of shinies. I was surprised though that I caught two shiny Teddiursas on day 2, despite not being the focus of day 2 at all.

However, we were also supposed to get Bulbasaur, Mudkip and Dratini spawns. But I only saw a handful of Bulbasaur and Mudkip. Dratini, I didn’t see any of them at all. Not a sausage. Which is a shame really, because you can’t have too many Dratinis.

My only real complaint is that the raids were sporadic and not very good.

As well as 2022 Pokemon, we also had a chance at 2021’s Pokemon. However these guys were only in raids and eggs. The eggs were alright, they were 2km eggs (reduced to one kilometer with the event) with all of last year’s Pokemon in them. However, we were also supposed to get all those Pokemon in one star raids. And despite having quite a few gyms where we played, there were only two one star raids both of which had Machop in them. There should have been way more one star raids and far less five star raids that no one wanted to do. Mostly because Cobalion sucks.

It’s a shame really because people were willing to do some of these 1 star raids, but there weren’t enough of them and the Pokemon the raids contained meant it was very difficult to get any of the 2021 Pokemon people wanted. At least we had the timed research though, which gave out a guaranteed 2* or better for every Pokemon in the event.

Apparently the ticketed research was also genuinely good, basically two elite TMs for a Euro, but I didn’t buy a ticket.

Overall though? Day 1 was rather weak, but day 2 was excellent. Would love to do it again.