Chespin Commuinity Day

The new year has been pretty good so far in Pokemon GO. We had a nice new year’s event, and, at the time of writing, an event with fairies and dragons coming up. We’re also starting the year with a more familiar face, a starter Pokemon. After a long delay, we seem to be back on course when it comes to Community Days.

And January’s Community Day is for Chespin, the spiky nut Pokemon, and the grass starter for the Kalos region.

It’s been a while since we last saw a community day starter, and Chespin is nice and refreshing. The exclusive move for Chespin’s evolution Chesnaught is our old friend Frenzy Plant. But Chesnaught has a few more tricks up its sleeve, due to its pretty cool typing, being both a grass type and a fighting type. This makes it pretty good for PvP. That being said, grass and fighting makes Chesnaught doubly weak to flying. And flying is a pretty common type in the GBL.

When it comes to PvE stuff, such as raids and Team Rocket grunts, Chespin is about average, the same level as most other starter Pokemon with Frenzy Plant. Unfortunately, it’s not as good as Venusaur or Sceptile, because they both have mega evolutions. But Chesnaught is still pretty solid and, because of the double catch candy from its Community Day, it’s easier to evolve more than just a few.

As for shiny Pokemon, Chespin is actually has a pretty neat one. It turns into an almost fall-like colour scheme, as if the leaves are dying and fading away before winter. It’s not as obvious as the likes of Snivy or Chikorita, almost a maple leaf colour instead. The evolved forms are also similarly coloured with the same sort of maple leaf look. It’s not really supposed to be related to maple, Chespin is the spiky nut Pokemon, but that’s how I think the shiny form looks.

Locally, we actually had quite a turnout. We were a group of 7-8 people and we all wandered around together, did a Reshiram raid or two and actually had a good time. The 1/4 egg hatching times were great and I managed to get through a few unwanted eggs. I also accidentally got a 100% Yamask by trading a high CP Chespin to my little account – the little account got a great Chespin, ready to evolve, while I had just picked the Yamask at random. I also found a 100% Swinub on my little account that I didn’t know I had.

At the end though, we got a bit of a surprise. It turns out that, after the Community Day proper ended, strange things could be seen on some Pokestops. After about five years, we finally got Kecleon, a generation 3 Pokemon who camouflages itself. On some Pokestops, invisible Kecleon could be seen, hiding in plain sight, with its red stripe being the only bit visible. After tapping on the Kecleon a few times, Kecleon falls off and can be caught via a normal encounter, somewhat similarly to how Smeargle works. It’s actually quite sweet, when you think about it. Kecleon is a cute Pokemon, but it’s been a long time coming.

With the release of Kecleon, people can now finally finish the Hoenn Pokedex. And, if you were lucky, you could catch some Chespin too.

Overall, it was quite an unusual Community Day. But it was fun, a nice return to form.