Pokemon Go Makes Big Changes to Community Day for April

Pokemon Go is introducing a new Pokemon with what’s sure to be a controversial change to its monthly Community Day format. Earlier today, Niantic announced that it would have its April Community Day on April 23rd. The Community Day will introduce the popular Pokemon Stufful and its evolved form Bewear to the game for the very first time. However, the Community Day announcement came with an extra twist – the Community Day will run from 2 PM to 5 PM, marking the very first time that the game has shifted to a 3-hour Community Day format in quite some time. 

In a blog post explaining the change, Niantic noted that only 5% of trainers participated in Community Day events for more than three hours. Additionally, they also stated that Pokemon Go community members actually responded positive to a previous Community Day event that only last three hours. “One of the biggest pieces of positive feedback that we received after January’s three-hour Community Day Classic was that players and community leaders noticed how much more of the community was out and about during the event,” a blog post about the event stated. “So, for Stufful Community Day, we’re returning to three-hour format. Our hope is that doing so will create even more opportunities for Trainers to play together and connect outside as they’re exploring.”

To offset the shorter time, Pokemon Go plans to stack up the bonuses, with a 3x Catch XP bonus, a 2x Catch candy bonus, a reduction of Stardust needed to make trades during the event, and the ability to make an extra “Special Trade” during the event. Additionally, if enough Pokemon are caught by trainers from a single Lure, the 3x XP bonus will increase to a 4x XP bonus near the lured PokeStop.

Bewear will also learn the exclusive move Drain Punch (which automatically increases its defense when used), while Stufful will appear in its Shiny form more frequently during the event. 

The April Community Day featuring Stufful will take place on April 23rd.