Summer Fun with Shiny Popplio! Pokemon Community Day August 2024!

Hey, Trainers! Welcome to another Community Day Spotlight. This month the event is focusing on our third and final Alolan Starter! Popplio!

Saturday, August 31, 2024 is the date for the event, running 2:00 pm till 5:00 pm local time.

Bonuses are:

2X Catch Candy.

2X chance for Candy XL to be awarded during catches so long as you’re Level 31 or Higher.

3X Catch XP.

Incense and Lure Modules launched during event hours will last for 3 hours.

Photobombs.

Stickers available in all the usual ways will be Popplio-themed.

1 additional Special Trade may be performed. (2:00pm till 10:00pm)

Trades will cost 50% less Stardust. (2:00pm till 10:00pm)

For $1 or your local equivalent, you can take part in a Special Research story(You can gift these passes to friends for the same price.)

4 Star Raids will appear after Community Day ends featuring Brionne – beat these to have Popplio spawn within 300 meters of the Gym for 30 minutes. (Saturday, August 31, 2024, from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. local time)

So, let’s Seel the Deal and take a look at the star of the show!

Spotlight on Popplio

Being a Starter Pokemon, Popplio is just bursting with personality! I remember it being the least favorite overall during the initial phase of Sun and Moon promotional stuff… I’ll admit that even I found it to be less interesting than Rowlet and Litten. Then Litten evolved into Macho Man Randy Savage in a fursuit (It likes the Cream of the Crop!) and Popplio became a beautiful ballerina.

I think Decidueye is still the Fandom’s favorite, though.

The Pokedex tells us that Popplio uses bodily fluids to make strong balloons it blows out of its nose. This is, frankly, kind of gross. Because… y’know. They’re big snot bubbles. What other bodily fluid comes from the nose? Still. It uses these mucus bubbles to great effect as both attacks and as props to gain height and speed in battle by bouncing off them.

Brionne is, unfortunately, just the most underwhelming design since Seel itself. It’s cute, but just not super interesting.

And here we have what you’ve all been waiting for – 100 candies and you have yourself this formidable footless ballerina! The Pokedex tells us that it uses sonic waves that sound like beautiful song to control those same bubbles in battle. All the battlefield is a stage and it devotes just as much time to aesthetics and acoustics as it does to doling out agony to its opponents.

But can it hit a high note in Pokemon GO?

Spotlight on Primarina
With a Max CP of 3618, 232 Attack, Defense of 195, and a Stamina of 190 it’s actually not bad! Good Attack and decent Defense and Stamina. It’s a Water and Fairy Type so It offers Resistance to Bug, Dark, Fighting, Fire, Ice, Water, and especially Dragon type moves to compliment those nice bulky defensive stats. It’s weak to Electric, Grass, and Poison moves.

In terms of Fast Attacks, you have Waterfall and Charm. For Charged Attacks you get Psychic, Hydro Pump, Disarming Voice and Moonblast, the latter 3 of which are STAB . Those that evolve Primarina from Brionne in association with the Community Day event will get the special fast attack move of Hydro Cannon. I’d spend the Candy and Stardust to give it the Community Day Attack and Moonblast for maximum STAB coverage. Or, if you want better coverage against Poison Types, you could do Hydro Cannon and Psychic. (Actually, many Grass Types are also part Poison so this is a pretty solid choice.)

Shiny Popplio is a little hard to notice due to it dropping the subtle darker notes from light blue to a dark blue. The biggest stand-out is that the collar goes from blue to light yellow. Be careful when checking those pods of Popplio!

And that’s all I’ve got for you, Trainers! As always, I wish you the best of luck! Be safe out there, be kind to one another and have a lot of fun!