Boost Your Catch Rate: Pokémon Go Ponyta and Galarian Ponyta Community Day Strategy
Ponyta Community Day: How to Catch Shiny Ponyta and More
Get ready for a fiery Community Day event in Pokémon Go! On Saturday, September 14, from 2-5 p.m. in your local time, Niantic is hosting a special Ponyta Community Day. During this event, both Ponyta and Galarian Ponyta will spawn in massive numbers, giving you plenty of opportunities to catch ’em all. And, with a high chance of shiny appearances, you might just snag a rare and coveted shiny Ponyta!
How to Catch Shiny Ponyta
According to old research by The Silph Road, the shiny rate on Community Days is approximately 1 in 24. This means that if you keep playing throughout the three-hour window, you should find quite a few shiny Pokémon.
To increase your chances of catching shiny Ponyta, try the following:
- 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’ll 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 to 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.
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Niantic
