Pokemon Go May Community Day Features Swablu

Pokemon Go's May Community Day will take place on Saturday, May 15, developer Niantic has announced. The upcoming event will run from 11 AM to 5 PM local time, and the featured Pokemon this time will be Swablu, the pre-evolved form of Altaria.

Throughout May's Community Day, Swablu will appear in the wild much more frequently than normal. That makes this event a good opportunity to stock up on Swablu Candy, especially as it takes a whopping 400 Candy to evolve the Pokemon into Altaria.

Not only will you have more opportunities to catch Swablu during May's Community Day, but you'll also have an increased chance of encountering a Shiny version, which is yellow rather than blue. Shiny Swablu will still be fairly uncommon during the event, but you'll increase your chances of finding one by using an Incense.

If you're able to earn enough Swablu Candy to evolve the Pokemon either during the Community Day or up to two hours afterward, your Altaria will automatically know the powerful Fairy-type Charged Attack, Moonblast. Altaria normally cannot learn this attack in Pokemon Go, so you'll need to evolve it within the designated time frame to get the move.

Moonblast will certainly come in handy for Altaria, as Niantic says it is introducing Mega Altaria to the game immediately after May's Community Day ends. Unlike its standard form, Mega Altaria is part-Fairy, so it'll gain a same-type attack bonus when it uses Moonblast during battle. Mega Altaria will appear as a Mega Raid boss at least through the rest of the month.

On top of all that, Niantic is also offering another paid Special Research story for May's Community Day. This one is called Cotton-Winged Bird, and it'll cost $1 to access. The studio will also sell a special Community Day item bundle in Pokemon Go's in-game shop. That costs 1,280 PokeCoins and contains the following:

• 50 Ultra Balls
• 5 Super Incubators
• 5 Incense
• 1 Elite Fast TM

Finally, a few bonuses will be active during May's Community Day. First, any Incense you use will last for three hours rather than one. Additionally, eggs you place in incubators will hatch at a quarter of the distance they typically require. You can read more about the event on the official Pokemon Go blog.

In the meantime, a New Pokemon Snap-themed event has begun in Pokemon Go. As part of that, you'll have your first chance to catch a Shiny Smeargle in the game. Niantic has a handful of other May events already lined up as well, including the debut of the Legendary Pokemon Xerneas and Yveltal.