Pokemon Go July Community Day – Starly Stands Out!

Hey, Trainers! Welcome to July’s Community Day! Hope you’re managing to remain at a reasonable temperature out there. Stay hydrated!

So, this month we have the Route 1 bird from Sinnoh – Starly! Makes sense. The past year has seen a lot of Sinnoh love from Nintendo and Game Freak, after all. (Is anyone else surprised that EX Raids haven’t made a return with Arceus as the star?) So, let’s check out all the pertinent details!

Date and time: Sunday the 17th of July, 11:00am till 2:00pm.

Bonuses are:

3X Catch XP!

If you and a group are able to catch enough Pokemon from a single Lure Module, this increases to 4X! (Drop a Lucky Egg and that goes up to 8X. What.)

Incense and Lures launched during event times will last 3 hours.

2X Catch Candy and chance to gain Candy XL from Starly specifically.

Photobombs!

Stickers! Starly themed Stickers will be available by spinning Stops, Gyms and snagging Gifts from your friends. Also, you’ll be able to purchase them in the shop.

1⁄2 Stardust cost on Trades.

3 Special Trades possible between 11:00am and 7:00pm local time (Up from 2, currently.)

For $1 or your local equivalent, you can take part in a Special Research Quest – Field Notes: Starly (You can gift these tickets to a friend as well.)

Staravia will be in 4 Star Raids – defeating them will cause Starly to spawn in a 300m radius around the Gym where the Raid was won for 30 minutes. (These will be available ONLY via in-person passes. No remote raiding.)

Starly, the Star of the show, will be spawning like you’re in the middle of a migration route.

You may, obviously, manage to collect some Shiny ones!

Evolve Starly or Staravia all the way to Staraptor and it will know the Fast Attack Gust.

Let’s snag some binoculars and practice our ornithology, Trainers!

Spotlight on Starly

Starly is the chunky birb that we all met in our early adventures in Sinnoh. It shares routes with Shinx and Bidoof, so, it’s lucky any of them survive to adulthood. The Pokedex tells us they’re weak individually so form large flocks…. though, if the flocks get too big they’ll squabble and bicker amongst themselves. Considering their cry is noted as being ‘annoying’ (The Pokedex’s words, not mine.) this is probably awful to listen to. As you would expect, they chase Bug Pokemon to snack on.

Sidebar: Middle evolutions are known to be awkward looking…. but Staravia is possibly the poster child for this phenomenon.

Poor thing. Looks like it doesn’t know what to do with its feet.

And then we have Staraptor. The Flying Type most of us used well into the late game in our Sinnoh playthrough. This absolute unit earns its place on all those teams by being badass looking and strong. The Pokedex tells us that this Pokemon fusses over the state of that impressive do… but not to the point where it won’t attack much stronger, larger foes. It has left the flock behind at this point, its nature too aggressive to allow it to live peacefully with others. This bird of prey truly is a raptor – it has wing and leg muscles that allow it to grab prey and carry it away to snack on at its leisure. Absolute savage.

But… can it savage your foes in Pokemon GO?

With a Max CP of 3194, Attack of 234, Defense of 140 and Stamina of 198? Look. It’s an Early Route Bird. It’s the Pidgeot or Swellow of its generation. Having said that, it easily outclasses Base Form Pidgeot (CP 2407, Att 166, Def 154, Sta 195) Talonflame (CP 2493, Att 176, Def 155, Sta 186) and squeaks past Unfezant ( CP 3091, Att 226, Def 146, Sta 190) The only one of these early adventure avians to smash Staraptor soundly is Mega Pidgeot (CP 4160, Att 280, Def 175, Sta 195) and that’s hardly a fair comparison. In short, the reason you’re using this Monster is because you, like so many of us, love it. And that is absolutely fine! Mine is a mainstay on my team for taking on high level Grass, Fighting and Bug Type Raids.

As a Normal/Flying Type, it has 3 weaknesses in Ice, Rock and Electric. It has a special resistance to Ghost and Ground Type Attacks, with regular resistances to Fighting, Grass and Bug Type moves.

Fast Attacks are Quick Attack and Wing Attack, both STAB. Charged Attacks are Heat Wave (I will admit I have no earthly idea how it knows this one.) Close Combat and Brave Bird. The latter of which is, of course STAB. The Community Day Attack, Gust, will inevitably replace Wing Attack as the better option for STAB damage.

The Shiny is just a more reddish shade of brown than the usual and as such is going to be a bit tougher to spot. Be observant when hunting and you should be fine!

And that’s all I got for you this month, Trainers. Thanks so much for taking the time to check out this Spotlight! As always, I wish you the absolute best of luck!