September community day chat post

[ephemera]

Ultra Bonus Event continues, and it's September's Community Day, aka Chikorita Day so time for a general chat - how's the world of PoGo been treating you this month? Did you have any luck with the shiny birds? Excited about MewTwo raids and the prospect of Deoxys on the horizon? How's your Celebi research going?

Comments

[ephemera]

Working backwards: Today's been a good Poke-day, despite the weather (it's been raining steadily *all day*, but fortunately the wind's died down, so umbrellas are a viable option.) netting me six shinies, so I now have a set of 3 + 1 bonus female Meganium, as it's one with a visible gender difference, plus a couple of trading. I also did three Mew Two raids, with two caught (one I begged a friend to help with, and then one on my own, as that seemed to have broken the seal - I was 0/5 before that.) The half-hour immediate-post-CD "release" of the new WTF Pokemon was a really nifty moment. There were probably 80 or so of us sheltering from the rain near an about-to-hatch-raid as the CD ended, and the "Hey, look", "What is that?!" etc reactions were just - really nice to have that as a group experience.

Mew Two raids have been - frustrating, to be honest. They've made it *far* tougher to fight, and the base catch rate is low. It's been neat to see the excitement around it, though, and I'm glad it's available to folks who didn't do well in the Ex-raid lottery.

The new stops and gyms update has been a mixed bag for me - I've gained one stop on my way to work, but we seem to have lost Ex-raid eligibility on most of the nearby gyms. (Although that seems to be a confusing thing, and I kind of like the theory that the new label indicates what's Ex-raid eligible *this cycle*, rather than in the absolute.)

The last hurrah of the legendary birds, however, treated me well - I snagged both a shiny Moltres and a shiny Articuno on Thursday night, in their last hours, so I do have the set of three after all! (Moltres day, I had to skip entirely, because I was working, which was super-frustrating)

I traded for a Taurus a couple of weeks back, which completed my Kanto-dex, but have been hitting the Alolan eggs pretty hard anyway: My current haul is four Farfetch'd, two Kangastan, one precious Tauros, and *five* rasnfrasn Mr Mimes (which have been Ratata-level common around here for months) Also three pretty good Tangella, which is a bonus, as they're vanishingly rare in the wild, and even with the current event I didn't have any solid IVs ready for future evolutions.

Celebi research was kind of fun, but I also wish it had been harder, or gone on for longer. OTOH, I did manage to hustle in order to get her whilst I was at Stonehenge, and got a couple of AR photos I'm pretty proud of, and if it had been longer and harder, that wouldn't have worked out.

Current stats are Caught 370, seen 376 with a 151 / 98 / 121 breakdown. (I'm missing regionals, and Latios whose stint in raids lined up with my being to busy) and I'm 90k XP away from hitting level 40. I'm working on gold badges, and gold gyms, and shiny-hunting, but also starting to get antsy for Gen IV. (I went gold on Research tasks this week, and I think Pilot is likely to be next. As I have barely put a dent in Fisherman with the current event scattering Magicarp everywhere, I'm not sure I'll ever make that one!)

[upanddisappear]

so what is up with that ??? poke? i caught one in my apartment, and there are a ton outside in the nearby. i don't want to go out, but should i get more? oop, it's over now. i wonder what the object is. is it to guarantee dittos to people who still need them for the mew quest?

i'm 356/364. 151/93/112. my last type medal is dragon, so i'm thankful for the dratini raids. 187/200. i have 2 gold badge gyms. and 9 silver. and i'm 225,194 into level 36!

[ephemera]

I have no idea what's going on with ??? - the speculation is rife that it's something to do with the new Switch game, but if nothing else, it's created a ton of buzz (just, what for???) It's all kinds of weird that it's not a recognised Pokemon of any kind.

Dragons are so rare outside events, aren't they? I think that was my last type medal to go gold, and there was a brief period early in the game where a park fairly need me was a Dratini nest...

[kirin]

I suspect the ??? is killing two birds with one stone - it's *both* helping anyone who didn't have a Ditto yet have a way to hunt one down for sure (even if you missed the post-CD half hour when they were everywhere, they still seem to spawn occasionally, and will show up preferentially on your radar if you haven't caught one yet) - *and* it's a tease of Let'sGo / Gen8 preview.

Speculation I've seen that makes some sense is it may be Ditto attempting to transform into a brand new Gen8 pokemon (likely the bonus one that will debut with Let'sGo and transfer back to Go) but it's only getting halfway there because the new guy doesn't quite exist yet!

[ephemera]

That speculation makes more sense than many!

[ephemera]

[upanddisappear]

pretty!

[ephemera]

Thank you!

[lurkingcat]

Oh, that's lovely!

[ephemera]

Thank you!

[catness]

Wow, what an amazing picture! I thought it was photoshopped, but then read your comment about being at Stonehenge - impressive!

[ephemera]

I was with an organised group (helping *staff* the organised group) so I had a really tight window to make it work, and you can imagine me walking up to Stonehenge with incense loaded, praying for grass-types to popup so I could complete the final research task - I was more than half way around the designated route before I managed it!