‘Pokemon Go’: Abra Community Day returns and a Buddy Up event set for April

Community Day is returning to "Pokemon Go" albeit in a different form. Niantic calls it the "Play at Home Edition" and it feature Abra, which was originally scheduled for March.

The new format is meant to be played while socially distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. Abra Community Day will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 25. That's a total of six hours of play.

During that time, players can expect the normal Community Day spawns. Abra will likely flood the area. Players will have a chance for a shiny one, which looks like a faded version of the normal one. The lone exception of the evolutionary line is a full-grown Alakazam, which has a pinkish color in places. Those who evolve to that final stage will have the Psi Pokemon learn the exclusive Community Day move Counter.

That fight-type fast move may seem counterintuitive for a psychic Pokemon, but Counter gives the pocket monster an edge in Great League fights fights involving steel types, ice types and dark types. For the best PvP Abra, look for individual values of 0 attack, 15 defense and 14 stamina or something close to that.

To help trainers out, incense will last three hours. That will let players cover the whole event with just two items. Even better than the incense is the bonus, which is a generous triple catch stardust. Remember to break open a star piece during the event. That should give a big boost for players who have burned through the resource during the first season of Go Battle League. In addition, Buddy Pokemon at a Great Buddy level or higher will bring players helpful items such as Poke Balls.

For those who want to spend money, Niantic is offering an optional Special Research story for $1. It's called Investigating Illusions and will give players 13,000 stardust, a Poffin, a Rocket Radar and more. That seems like a great value. If they're running low on items, players can pick up an April Community Day bundled that has an Elite Charged TM, 30 Ultra Balls, 3 incubators and three incense. It will cost 1,280 PokeCoin but could be worth it for the elite Charged TM. That new item gives pocket monsters access to all their charged moves including Community Day Exclusive Moves and legacy ones. Lastly, if players take a snapshot of Pokemon, they will see a surprise.

The Buddy Up event focuses on boosting relationships between trainers and their Pokemon. The goal should be to reach best friends so players get the level bonus. (Niantic) 

The other festivity for April is called the Buddy Up Event. It will run from 8 a.m. April 21 to 10 p.m. April 27 and it features the debut of shiny Volbeat and shiny Illumise. The Volbeat has a color palette that emphasizes blue and purple while Illumise will have gold and orange one. Personally, go after the Illumise. It looks much better. Best of all, both Pokemon will be available worldwide. This is your chance to fill that hole in your Pokedex.

Along with the new shiny Pokemon, trainers will see Woobat in the wild for the first time. The bat Pokemon also appear in 2 km eggs after the event is over. For the Buddy Up event, Alolan Meowth (shiny available), Chansey (shiny available), Feebas (shiny available), Lillipup (shiny available) and Joltik will appear more often as well. Those same Pokemon except Chansey will hatch from 5 km eggs.

The Buddy Up event will also have special Field Research tasks that offer encounters for Alolan Meowth, Volbeat, Illumise and Woobat.

As one would expect from the name, the bonuses for the event will focus on buddy relationships. Expect buddy Pokemon to give players more souvenirs and new kinds of gifts. Perhaps, this could be more wearables for a player avatar. My buddy Pokemon gave me pearl earrings though they don't exactly fit my character. In addition, the distance to earn buddy candy and heart will be halved. It will also be easier to get buddies excited, meaning that it will double the hearts earned. Lastly, trainers earn double experience points for evolving Pokemon and berries and Poffin will keep buddy Pokemon on the map for twice as long.

So how should trainers use this event? I'd prioritize Pokemon that you would use for raids and Go Battle League. If players have a perfect Pokemon, having them as a Best Buddy can boost them above level 40 and it could be a big difference in Master League. For those who raid, having a Best Buddy Pokemon will boost its stats and that can be the difference between beating a boss and failing when you don't have many people in the lobby.