Pokémon Go is having a Ponyta Community Day event on Saturday, Sept. 14, from 2-5 p.m.in your local time.
As expected with a Community Day event, both Ponyta and Galarian Ponyta 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 listed out below.
How do I catch a shiny Ponyta in Pokémon Go?
As per old research by the now-defunct website The Silph Road (via Wayback Machine), Shiny rates on Community Days are about 1 in 24, 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 Ponyta to check for shiny ones, running from any that aren’t shiny. Notably, any Ponyta 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 move does Ponyta’s evolution learn?
If you evolve Ponyta or Galarian Ponyta into Rapidash or Galarian Rapidash from 2 p.m. until 10 p.m. in your local time, it will learn the charged move Wild Charge.
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 Wild Charge. If you don’t want to wait, you can use an Elite TM to get the move.
How does Rapidash do in the meta?
For PvE content, you won’t really need to use either Rapidash or Galarian Rapidash. Kantonian Rapidash is outclassed by many fire-types, including Reshiram, Chandelure, Blaziken, Blacephalon, and even Flareon just to name a few. Galarian Rapidash is a decent fairy-type attacker with Fairy Wind and Play Rough, if you missed out on the Tapu Legendaries. It’s also outclassed by quite a few Pokémon (Gardevoir, Sylveon, Primarina, Florges) but still works if you need it to.
For PvP, it’s the other way around. Galarian Rapidash won’t see any use, but Kantonian Rapidash is actually a half-decent contender for Ultra League when set up with Incinerate, Wild Charge, and Flame Charge.
How do I make the most of Ponyta Community Day?
The following bonuses will be active during Ponyta Community Day:
- Tripled Stardust for catching Pokémon
- 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
- Ponyta special photobombs when taking snapshots
- One additional special trade
- Stardust cost halved for trading
That said, you should definitely pop a Star Piece and an Incense and try to nab some Ponyta.
Ponyta and its Galarian form have different typing, meaning that you will need to Mega Evolve different Pokémon to get bonus candy. It doesn’t really matter which Ponyta you choose to focus on, as they both share the candy type for evolving and powering up. For regular Kantonian Ponyta (fire-type), you can Mega Evolve Charizard, Houndoom, Blaziken, or Groudon (via Primal Reversion). For Galarian Ponyta (psychic-type), you can Mega Evolve Alakazam, Slowbro, Gardevoir, Medicham, Latias, Latios, or Rayquaza.
In addition to all this, Niantic is still running special four-star raids from 5-10 p.m., where if you clear the Ponyta raid, Ponyta 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 Ponyta you wanted, you can try raiding for another chance.
