Pokémon Go Poliwag Community Day guide

Pokémon Go is hosting it Poliwag Community Day event on July 30 from 2-5 p.m. in your local time.

As expected with a Community Day event, Poliwag will spawn in huge numbers with a high chance for it to appear shiny. There are also several other bonuses and perks, which we’ve list out below.

How do I catch a shiny Poliwag?

As per old research by the now-defunct website The Silph Road (via Wayback Machine), Shiny rates on Community Days are about 1 in 25, which means that if you keep playing throughout the three-hour window, you should find quite a few shiny Pokémon.

Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Niantic

If you’re short on time or Poké Balls, you can pop an Incense, then quickly tap each Poliwag to check for shiny ones, running from any that aren’t shiny. Notably, any Poliwag you’ve already tapped will face where your player is standing, so that should help identify which ones you may have already checked.

What Community Day moves do Poliwag’s evolutions learn?

The Poliwag family has two final evolutions: Poliwrath and Politoed. If you evolve them from 2 p.m. until 10 p.m. in your local time, they will learn special moves. Evolving Poliwhirl into Poliwrath (which just uses 100 Poliwag Candy) will give it the fast attack Counter. Evolving Poliwhirl into Politoed (which costs 100 Poliwag Candy and a King’s Rock) will give it the charged attack Ice Beam.

If you miss out on evolving it during this period, you will likely be able to evolve it during a Community Day weekend event in December to get Counter or Ice Beam. If you don’t want to wait, you can use an Elite TM to get the move.

How does the Poliwag family do in the meta?

Poliwrath is predicted to be a PvP monster when set up with Counter, Scald, and Ice Punch, since this gives it great coverage and a fast charge bar. This is all great, since none of the Poli-family are really used in PvE content.

While this isn’t the meta we usually talk about, it should be noted that Poliwrath is an absolute monster against Giovanni and the Team Go Rocket leaders, as mentioned by Reddit user Kupo43 on The Silph Road subreddit. With Counter, Power Up Punch, and Dynamic Punch, you should be able to burn through shields quickly and defeat any Rocket member who doesn’t have a type that resists fighting-type. For more coverage, you can give it other moves like Mud Shot or Ice Punch, but Counter and Power Up Punch are a known wombo-combo.

How do I make the most of Poliwag Community Day?

The following bonuses will be active during Poliwag Community Day:

• ¹⁄₄ hatch distance for eggs placed into Incubators during the event
• Doubled candy for catching Pokémon
• Doubled chance for level 31+ trainers to get XL candy from catching Pokémon
• Incense lasts three hours
• Lure Modules lasts three hours
• Poliwag special photobombs when taking snapshots
• One additional special trade
• Stardust cost halved for trading

That said, you should definitely put your eggs in Incubators and pop an Incense and try to nab some powerful Poliwag.

If you can Mega Evolve Blastoise, Slowbro, Gyarados, or Swampert, you’ll score additional Poliwag Candy per catch.

In addition to all this, Niantic is still running special four-star raids from 5-10 p.m., where if you clear the Poliwhirl raid, Poliwag will spawn in a 300-meter radius around the gym for 30 minutes. These raids cannot be done remotely. If the usual 2-5 p.m. spawn increase doesn’t get you the Poliwag you wanted, you can try raiding for another chance.