Today the monthly Community Day took place, once again starting at 11 am local time and lasting through 5 pm local time. This time it featured Roselia the Thorn Pokémon. Incense activated during the event last for 3 hours and would attract only Roselia. As additional bonus there was a 1/4th Hatch Distance bonus for Eggs incubated during the event. Which was useful to attempt hatching more 2 km Eggs with a high chance of hatching Budew.
This Community Day is the first one that features 2 Exclusive Moves for the evolved Pokémon. Any Roselia evolved to Roserade during, and up to 2 hours after, the event would learn the Fast Attack "Bullet Seed" and the Charged Attack "Weather Ball (Fire)". These moves aren't particularly great for Gym and Raid battles, being inferior to other options and Weather Ball having no benefit of STAB. They can definitely open up more potential for Roserade in PvP though.
It was a pretty busy morning until early afternoon for me, so I had no time to start playing early at all. It didn't have an impact on the event for me though, because I was already good on Roselia prior to the event. I already had 3 100% IV Roselia, and 6 Shiny Roselia of which I had evolved 1 into Roserade a while back already. So I wasn't that excited for this event since its announcement. You can see these in the screenshot below.
As I purchased the Ticket for the Pokémon GO Tour: Kanto event a while back, I received the Stop and Smell the Roselia Special Research Quest today. I did want to complete this one, and at least evolve some Roselia. So once I got back home around 2 pm I decided to launch the game and activate an Incense to start working on this Special Research while relaxing and resting for a bit.
Sometime closer to 3 pm I received a message from a friend who had decided to go walk around for a bit and checked if I was walking around or wanted to. It had been snowing a lot throughout the night and was like -3°C outside, but as I felt quite rested from the busy morning I decided I'd join him. That way I could try to hatch some Eggs too.
During the walk we got a report in the group chat about a 100% Roselia spawn somewhere in the city. We decided to walk there then. Even though I already had 3 100% IV Roselia, it's always fun to catch a 100% IV Pokémon! 😄 It took us a while to get there as we had to be careful of our steps, but it was still there once we arrived. Here is a screenshot of it.
With the final step of the Special Research quest I received a Roserade that knows both of the Exclusive Moves. Most of the day we had Snowy Weather in-game too so I got this snowy background to capture all of it in a screenshot. I should've taken an AR photo in the snow too while walking around, but honestly didn't think about it cause it was pretty cold xD
The Team GO Rocket event was still going on simultaneously with the Community Day. Since I already had plenty Shiny Roselia I was mostly focused on defeating Rocket Grunts while walking around with that friend. From some spawns at home with Incense and some that I clicked on during the walk I did end up with an additional 4 Shiny Roselia. Those can be seen here.
After the event was over I decided to evolve one of my older 100% IV Roselia into Roserade. Even though the Exclusive Moves aren't great for Gym and Raid Battles, by teaching it a secondary move I could still give it Grass Knot and perhaps use it in Raids, just with lower DPS than a Razor Leaf one. Perhaps in PvP Master League when Legendary Pokémon aren't allowed it could be useful, so it's better to have than not. I might end up evolving the other 100% that was also at 1683 CP to the stronger Grass moveset after the event. You can see the Roselia's CP before and after evolution here.
As I already had a Shiny Roserade I didn't evolve a Shiny this time, and I already evolved a Lucky Roselia sometime ago. I don't have a Lucky anymore since the time I evolved it I already transferred it due to lower IV than the 100%.
Did you participate in today's Roselia Community Day? If so, how did it go?