Niantic has announced the Pokemon GO March 2023 Community Day, revealing that the upcoming event will technically feature two pocket monsters, with two different versions of Slowpoke available. The studio detailed the upcoming Community Day shortly after sharing first information about Pokemon GO Season 10, including its official name and first event.
The developer already revealed the dates of all Pokemon GO Community Days planned for spring 2023 back in early February. That said, nothing else has been disclosed about the in-game happenings up until this newly surfaced announcement of the March 18 event.
It's now been confirmed that the March 2023 Community Day will focus on drowsy Pokemon Slowpoke, meaning it will technically feature two pocket monsters, the original Generation 1 creature and its Galarian form that debuted in Pokemon Sword and Shield back in late 2019. In keeping with the Community Day tradition, the upcoming event will dramatically up the encounter rates for shiny variants of both Slowpoke and Galarian Slowpoke. Evolving these Pokemon during the event or up to five hours afterward will result in a (Galarian) Slowbro with the Surf move, which will also be inherited by the creature's final evolution, Slowking.
While Surf has a bit of a meme status in the community due to the iconic surfing Pikachu—which recently featured in a fairly underwhelming Pokemon Scarlet and Violet 7-Star Tera Raid—that's not to take away from the fact it is an extremely viable move in Niantic's mobile game. Builds like Surf Lanturn and Surf Greninja saw plenty of Great League use ever since Pokemon GO Battle League launched in 2020, so tankier familiars such as Slowbro and Galarian Slowking might also prove to be viable in competitive play.
As for other details concerning the upcoming event, the March 2023 Community Day will debut another Special Research story, whose tickets will be priced at $1 a piece. Players will also earn triple XP and double Candy for catching creatures during the dedicated three-hour window ending 5pm, local time, on March 18. Other bonuses include extended Incense and Lure Module durations and a chance at having Slowpoke photobomb any Pokemon GO snapshot taken during the event.
Between the continued influx of new content and the recent announcement of yet another Pokemon GO peripheral, Niantic's hit mobile game appears to be alive and well even as it's pushing seven nowadays. The studio will also be doubling down on its in-game happenings come next month, when it's planning to host both a regular CD and a Community Day Classic, scheduled for April 15 and April 29, respectively.
Pokemon GO is available now on Android and iOS devices.
Source: Pokemon GO
