Pokemon Go Community Day (May 2019): Start Time, Shiny Torchic, Event Move, And More

Pokemon Go‘s Detective Pikachu event may be winding down, but the game’s next Community Day is just around the corner. Niantic is bringing the monthly event back this Sunday, May 19, giving players around the world another chance to catch a rare Pokemon and even come away with a special event-exclusive move.

Pokemon Go Community Days typically only run for three hours, but the specifics of each event–such as what time it begins and what bonuses you’ll be able to earn–tend to vary month by month. To help you get ready for the event, we’ve rounded up all of the most important details about May 2019’s Community Day below.

What Is The Featured Pokemon?

No Caption Provided

Niantic designates one “featured” Pokemon ahead of every Community Day. During the event, this Pokemon will spawn much more frequently in the wild than it normally does, and you’ll even have a chance of coming across its Shiny variant. Moreover, if you’re able to evolve the featured Pokemon into its final form by the end of the Community Day, it’ll automatically know a special, event-exclusive move that it wouldn’t otherwise be able to learn in Pokemon Go.

For May’s Community Day, the featured Pokemon is Torchic, the Fire-type starter from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. Throughout the event, Torchic will be much easier to find in the wild than usual, and you’ll have your first opportunity to catch a Shiny Torchic. On top of that, if you’re able to evolve Torchic all the way into Blaziken up to an hour after the Community Day ends, it’ll learn the powerful Fire attack Blast Burn. This applies to any Torchic you evolve, even those you’ve captured prior to the event.

What Time Does It Start?

For most of the time the event has been around, Niantic held each Community Day during a specific window of time, which varied depending upon your region; North America’s event, for instance, would always run from 11 AM – 2 PM PT, while Europe’s Community Day would take place from 10 AM – 1 PM UTC.

Beginning this past March, however, Niantic changed the schedule for Community Days. Now, rather than holding the event during a different window of time in each region, it will take place everywhere from 3-6 PM local time. This should make it much easier to remember when the Community Day is happening in your area, as you no longer need to convert the event hours to your time zone.

What Other Bonuses Are There?

On top of increased Pokemon spawns, Niantic offers a couple of other bonuses as an extra incentive to participate in its Community Days. This month, you’ll earn triple the normal amount of Stardust for capturing Pokemon during the event hours. Additionally, any Lure Modules you use will last three hours, rather than their usual 30 minutes.