Welcome to the latest One More Catch weekly newsletter, offering you a guide to the days ahead in Pokémon Go.
It's another non-Tuesday event week, meaning the return of Explore, Catch, Battle after just a fortnight. Thankfully, there's some welcome Pokémon in the Wednesday raid refresh and Spotlight Hour, and a Community Day to look forward to on Sunday to keep us busy.
So here's a snapshot of everything coming to Pokémon Go in the days ahead, the biggest opportunities available, and a roundup of Pokémon news and site updates you may have missed.
Events in Pokémon Go this week (10th to 16th August)
All times are at your local time, unless otherwise stated.
What to know about this week
Here's what jumps out to me in the days ahead:
Choose a Path returns
As a non-event week, Choose a Path - also known as Explore, Catch, Battle - returns on Tuesday with Venom and Vines.
Assuming it works the same as the recent Fossil Fun, Charged Embers and Fairy Trail editions, this presents you with six choices every day, each with a different bonus and a different set of Timed Research to complete. You can change your bonus each day to suit whatever your focus is, with the Timed Research rewards offering encounters with the highlighted Type - this time being Poison- and Grass-type Pokémon.
(You can also get a version of the quest with just three choices for the entire week, if you're unlucky - which I got last time.)
A community-voted Community Day
As voted for by the community back in May, this Sunday is Nickit Community Day. (That's right, Sunday - meaning Scopely Explore's recent push for Saturday-only events has seemingly come to an end.)
As always, expect boosted spawns for the highlighted Pokémon during event hours (2pm to 5pm), with extra spawns appearing at Lure Modules until 9pm, as well as an increased chance of finding a shiny.
The Gen 8 Dark-type Pokémon can evolve into Thievul and learn Icy Wind on the day (or with an Elite TM later), helping it become an interesting PvP / Go Battle League pick. It's otherwise not much to shout about in PvE / raids, and as (what I believe to be) the first two stage evolution without anything noteworthy (such as multiple forms or a high Candy evolution requirement) then it's a pretty straightforward Community Day that's not worth getting excited over. Well, at least the shiny looks neat!
- Some extra Community Day tips:
- Don't forget to have a Mega Evolution active for additional Catch Candy. With the Dark-typing, you have a few options - including Gyarados, Houndoom, Tyranitar, Sableye, Sharpedo and Absol - so simply pick the one you have most levelled up for the biggest gains.
- As well as double Catch Candy bonus (if you can save any rare Pokémon from Field Research or the Go Pass until the event, then do so) there's also 3x Catch Stardust, so chuck on a Star Piece if you're planning to play the event in earnest.
- If you haven't got it already, Pancham's Special Evolution into Pangoro requires catching 32 Dark-type Pokémon with Pancham as your Buddy - so use this afternoon as the opportunity to do so.