Pokemon GO via Twitter
The first community day of 2021 in Pokemon GO is almost here.
During January 16, 2021 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time, Machop will be more frequently encountered in the wild. You can catch up to five Machop by taking snapshots with the Snapshot GO feature, according to Leek Duck. You can evolve Machop into Machoke and then Machamp up to two hours after the event is over to teach it an exclusive move known as Payback. You’ll also have a much higher chance of catching Machop’s shiny form.
In addition, players will get three times the Stardust from catching Pokemon for the duration of the event.
There’s also an optional paid Special Research quest you can complete. You can get this research quest for free (as well as the research quest for February’s Community Day event) if you’ve purchased the ticket for the Pokemon GO Tour: Kanto event by January 13, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. PST, according to Leek Duck.
Here’s a step-by-step guide for the Special Research task for Community Day January 2021, courtesy of Leek Duck.
Straight to the Top, Machop! Step 1 of 4
Power up Pokemon 10 times – 10 Pokeballs
Catch 15 Machop – 20 Machop Candies
Make 5 Nice Throws – Machop encounter
Tips: Incense will last for three hours during Community Day, making the rewards from these research tasks pretty valuable.
Make sure to keep your distance from people. We’re still in the middle of a pandemic, after all.
Completion Reward: 1,000 Stardust, 1 Incense & Machop encounter
Straight to the Top, Machop! Step 2 of 4
Catch 15 Machop – 20 Machop Candies
Transfer 10 Pokemon – Machoke encounter
Evolve 3 Machop – 2,000 XP
Tips: You should have enough candies to evolve three Machop, but be sure to use Pinap Berries as you catch Machop so you have enough candy to evolve them.
Completion Reward: 10 Pokeballs, 1 Incense & 15 Great Balls
Straight to the Top, Machop! Step 3 of 4
Make 3 Great Curveball Throws – 20 Machop Candies
Evolve 1 Machoke – 5 Golden Razz Berries
Transfer 10 Pokemon – 2,500 XP
Completion Reward: 10 Pokeballs, 1 Incense & 1 Rocket Radar
Straight to the Top, Machop! Step 4 of 4
Claim Reward – 4,000 Stardust
Claim Reward – 2,500 XP
Claim Reward – 5 Silver Pinap Berries
Tips: You don’t actually have to do anything for this step. Just collect the rewards.
The Machamp you get from this step will have the Community Day exclusive move Payback.
Completion Reward: 2,000 Stardust, 3 Rare Candies & Machamp Encounter
Is the Community Day exclusive move worth it?
Machamp has always shined in PvP thanks to its stats and impressive movepool. Counter and Cross Chop allows it to fire off hard-hitting fighting-type attacks that take advantage of a wide variety of Pokemon types. The secondary Charge Move Rock Slide let Machamp counter the flying- and bug-types that would normally counter it. However, it always struggled against psychic-, ghost- and fairy-types. While Payback is resisted by fairy-types, it’s perfect for countering the ghost- and psychic-types.
As GamePress argues, you’d probably still want to use Cross Chop and Rock Slide in the Great League due to the presence of Azumarill, though Payback could be useful against Defense form Deoxys and the psychic-type Mythical Pokemon Mew and Jirachi. A Machamp with Payback would be wonderful against Cresselia and Giratina in the Ultra League. It’s even useful in the Master League against Giratina, though Mewtwo and Lugia will probably kill you before you can pop off a Payback.
As for Raids, since your main damage is going to come from your fighting-type attacks Counter and Dynamic Punch, Payback isn’t going to do you much.
Read More: Pokemon GO GO Beyond: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know