Slowpoke Community Day Guide for PvP

Surf is an improvement for all four evolutions in the Slowpoke family and gives them strong meta potential in Great League and Ultra League themed cups. As a whole, Slowbro, Slowking, and their Galarian forms have solid stats and typing but up to now have lacked convincing moves. Surf provides much needed speed to the Slowpoke family and expands coverage for the Galarian forms. All four should prefer Surf in PvP going forward.

Galarian Slowbro and Galarian Slowking are recommended as a first priority since Galarian Slowpoke is more difficult to obtain outside of special events and has a special task that must be completed for it to evolve. Both are poised to succeed in Great League and Ultra League themed cups. Galarian Slowbro is equipped to handle rival Poison types while Galarian Slowking has play against rival Psychic types with its Ghost coverage.

Kanto Slowbro is another strong priority and should see similar improvement in Great League and Ultra League themed cups. Slowbro may also find an anti-meta niche in the current Open Great League where it resists all of Medicham's Charged Moves. Slowbro has a shadow variant worth considering as well—if you have any Shadow Slowpoke with Frustration removed, look to obtain Shadow Slowbro with Surf during the event. Lastly, Mega Slowbro will notably improve in Mega Master League with Surf and is worth pursuing if you're a dedicated Master League Factions or draft player.

Kanto Slowking is the lowest priority and generally worse than Slowbro. Its movepool features more expensive Charged Moves (Blizzard and Fire Blast instead of Ice Beam). There may be niche situations where these are useful, but Slowbro is likely to be preferred over Slowking barring future move updates. Slowking will still be best with Surf than without it.

During event hours and until 10pm local time, you must catch 30 Psychic types while Galarian Slowpoke is your buddy to unlock the ability to evolve it. Outside of this time, Galarian Slowpoke ordinarily requires you to catch 30 Poison types.

The main event is from 2pm-5pm local time, and the exclusive move Surf can be obtained via evolution up to 5 hours afterward until 10pm local time.

Here are some recommendations and tips to complete your PvP checklist during Community Day:

• Clear your storage. Before Community Day, clear adequate Pokemon space to minimize time transferring during the event.
• Early on, catch 'em all! Prioritize catching early in the event with a focus on Galarian Slowpoke.
• Save/stack any Slowpoke field research encounters so you can catch them to progress Galarian Slowpoke's evolution task later during the event or afterward.
• Stop, it's appraisal time! Halfway through your playtime, appraise your Galarian Slowpoke catches and identify/label/tag which you want to evolve. Consider doing this earlier if completing the evolution tasks will take you longer (depending on the number you want to evolve or the spawns available in your area).
• Buddy up and keep on catching. With your remaining playtime, rotate the Galarian Slowpokes you want to evolve as your buddy and prioritize catching until you complete the evolution task on each.
• If you have one, use a catching device like the Pokemon GO+ to complete your evolution tasks faster.
• If you plan to use Incense or Lures during this event, consider saving them for this step so their spawns will count toward your evolution tasks. They will be especially useful if you don't have many spawns in your area.
• Hit up raids if needed. If you need to evolve more Galarian Slowpoke after the main event hours, look to defeat Slowpoke or Galarian Slowpoke in four-star Raid Battles after the event. Defeating them will cause additional Slowpoke and Galarian Slowpoke to spawn around the Gym.
• Complete appraisal and evolutions after the main event. Once the main event has finished, you have until 10pm local time to appraise your Kanto Slowpoke and perform your evolutions to obtain the exclusive move Surf.

No, a Shadow Pokemon with Frustration cannot learn an exclusive Charged Move when it evolves, even if it has a 2nd Charged Move unlocked. You must have removed Frustration during a previous Team Rocket event.

Exclusive Charged Moves will replace Return if you evolve a Purified Pokemon during its Community Day event. To obtain both Surf and Return, you must evolve your Pokemon after the event's evolution window (10pm local time), unlock a 2nd Charged Move, and use an Elite TM to obtain Surf.