Larvitar charges into centre stage for January’s Community Day Classic – a reoccurring Pokémon Go event that increases the spawn rate for a specific Pokémon, while also boosting shiny rates and offering an exclusive move, along with a whole host of other bonuses. It’s like a Community Day, but celebrates a that deserves a victory lap with a second or even third time to shine!

The Rock Skin Pokémon is a fan favourite and evolves into one of the best non-Legendary Pokémon in the game, making this event well worth showing up for...

It’s been a long time since Larvitar Community Day — that was all the way back in June 2018, when it got the all important move Smack Down — so if you’re still missing the shiny (or more importantly, a Smack Down Tyranitar), in Pokémon Go, this will be the perfect Community Day for you!

This event is also perfect for catching a Larvitar with 100% perfect IV stats and, if you achieve this feat, it’s a good idea to know Tyranitar’s best moveset (spoiler warning, it involves Smack Down).

And for those of you who already have an army perfect shiny Smack Down Tyranitars – all one of you – you can can still get a lot out of this this month’s Community Day thanks to the triple catch XP bonus that runs alongside the event.

Larvitar’s 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon GoLarvitar evolution chart: What does Larvitar evolve into?Tyranitar moves and best moveset recommendationWhat do shiny Larvitar, Pupitar and Tyranitar look like?Other Larvitar Community Day Classic bonusesTo see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings Watch as battle Guzzlord - one of the Ultra Beasts in Pokémon GoWatch on YouTube

Larvitar’s 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go

January’s Community Day Classic is the perfect opportunity to find a Larvitar with perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go.

Larvitar.

For Larvitar, the CP values which correspond to perfect 15/15/15 stats are as follows:

Level 30 (wild CP maximum) – 891 CPLevel 35 (weather boosted CP maximum) – 966 CP

Larvitar’s wild CP value aligns with your current Trainer Level until you reach Level 30, so, since the majority of the player base is above this level, we keep to these values for the sake of simplicity. If you’re currently beneath Level 30, however, these values will be different.

Perfect stats in Pokémon Go, however, depend entirely on what you want to use your Pokémon for.

A Pokémon that is perfect for the Master League and raids means exclusively 15/15/15 – the best possible stats that a Pokémon can have. Meanwhile, perfect for Great League and Ultra League are completely different, as the goal is to get the lowest attack for the highest defence, and getting that CP as close to the league’s cap as possible.

If you want to run Tyranitar in Go Battle League, you’re looking for different stats:

A perfect Great League Tyranitar is 0/15/15, reaching 1499 CP at Level 14.5A perfect Ultra League Tyranitar is 0/13/11, reaching 2500 CP at Lvl 24.5A perfect Master League Tyranitar is 15/15/15, reaching 4335 CP at Level 50

That said, Tyranitar isn’t great in Go Battle League, so don’t worry too much about IVs for that reason. Instead, the main reason to go go hunting for a perfect Larvitar is that Smack Down Tyranitar is one of the best Pokémon to use in raids against Bug, Fire, Flying and Ice-type Pokémon.

And if you don’t have Smack Down, Bite/Crunch Tyranitar is pretty excellent as a Dark-type raid attacker, adding Ghost and Psychic-type Pokémon to Tyranitar’s list of excellent match-ups.

Thanks to its excellent attack stat, you can make short work whatever you come up against

In Go Battle League, you generally want the opposite of what you want for raids – higher defense than attack – so don't expect Tyranitar to win you many matches in competitive play. Outside of Master League, it is incredibly low ranked and really not worth your time.

Larvitar evolution chart: What does Larvitar evolve into?

Really? Ok, I suppose it is tradition...

Pupitar.

Pupitar is Gen 2’s Metapod, but instead of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, this is one dinosaur becoming a bigger, badder dinosaur, and we unabashedly love it.

Larvitar’s final evolution really was the epitomy of cool in its generation. As it evolves, it loses the Ground-typing of its first two stages to add the Dark-typing alluded to in the facial expression and stance that Larvitar rocks so hard. You can read their official Pokédex entries below:

Larvitar – Born deep underground, it comes aboveground and becomes a pupa once it has finished eating the surrounding soil.Pupitar – Even sealed in its shell, it can move freely. Hard and fast, it has outstanding destructive power.Larvitar – Its body can’t be harmed by any sort of attack, so it is very eager to make challenges against enemies.

Fortunately, in Pokémon Go, all forms of a given Pokémon share the same resources – this means you’ll need a total of 125 Larvitar Candy in order to complete this evolution line; 25 for Pupitar and another 100 for Tyranitar.

Everything in Larvitar’s evolution line is a Rock-type Pokémon, but Tyranitar loses Ground typing for Dark typing. (Image credit: pokemon.com)

January’s Community Day Classic event runs between 2pm and 5pm (local time), so you’ll have three hours to gather as much Larvitar candy as possible.

If you’re hurting for candy, use Pinap Berries and Silver Pinap Berries to double the amount of candy you earn from catching, and make sure to have a Ground or Rock-type Pokémon Mega Evolved – either Steelix or Aerodactyl – to get one extra candy per catch without any extra work.

Tyranitar moves and best moveset recommendation

The question we all have now is what is Tyranitar’s best moveset?

Tyranitar.

No matter the league, Tyranitar runs the same attacks: Smack Down (Fast), Stone Edge (Charged) and Crunch (Charged).

But remember, you mostly want this Pokémon for raids; fortunately, the best moveset is the same – if you want to save yourself the cost of adding a second move, you can simply swap Stone Edge and Crunch as necessary, but leave Smack Down alone, as it's the best bit of this moveset by far.

Assuming you do want to run it, the long and short of this Pokémon is that it is bulky and provides great Fast move and shield pressure, but it has a list of weaknesses as long as its arm. Despite being the Armor Pokémon, it is weak to Bug, Fairy, Grass, Ground, Steel and Water, and double-weak to Fighting-type Pokémon.

We will point out, however, that Tyranitar doesn't make the top 600 Pokémon in Great League, or the top 450 in Ultra League. Master League is the only place where’s remotely reasonable; you can expect quick wins against Ho-Oh, Mewtwo and Lugia, and slightly slower wins against Giratina and Gyarados. Meanwhile, you will fold instantly to Garchomp, Metagross, Dialga and Zacian, while losing slowly to Dragonite. This isn’t the best list for you, but could be a spicy pick if you want to come out of the left-field.

If you want to see the full move set, here it is:

Tyranitar Fast MovesBite (Dark)Iron Tail (Steel)Smack Down (Exclusive Rock)Tyranitar Charged MovesStone Edge (Rock)Fire Blast (Fire)Crunch (Dark)

The Season of Adventures Abound is here! The Halloween event has returned, bringing with it Greavard and Houndstone.Party Play - Pokémon Go's multiplayer feature - is here, along with the Welcome Party quest.You can also work on the Timed Investigation: Master Ball quest and compete in the Go Battle League.Be sure to compete in Shadow Raids, complete Routes, use Daily Adventure Incense for the chance of encountering Galarian Articuno, Galarian Zapdos and Galarian Moltres. This incense may also give you encounters with other rare Pokémon in Pokémon Go.

What do shiny Larvitar, Pupitar and Tyranitar look like?

The opportunity to catch a shiny form of the highlighted Pokémon is one of the biggest draws of any Community Day event. This is thanks to the increased shiny rate for the event’s highlighted Pokémon, along with the fact that Community Days often release a new shiny into the wild. Sure, in this case the shiny has been out since mid-2018, but that’s not the point...

To find a shiny Pokémon, you need to either start a catch encounter with a Pokémon in the wild or earn said encounter by completing an activity, like a raid or research task. From there, it’s easy to see if you’ve encountered a shiny Pokémon due to its alternative colouring, the sparkles which shine when the encounter begins and the shiny icon next to the Pokémon’s name.

Below you can take a look at shiny Larvitar, Pupitar and Tyranitar alongside their regular non-shiny appearances:

To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings

Thanks to reddit user BrkIt for the handy comparison

As you can see, these aren’t the best looking shinies in the game. While Pupitar takes on a beautiful deep purple, Larvitar just gets a slightly more saturated green, while Larvitar goes the other way and takes on a less saturated look. All in all, it’s a fairly disappointing shiny family!

If you want to evolve shiny Larvitar, we recommend waiting until after the event, where you will have until two hours (until 7pm local time) to evolve and gain the exclusive move, Smack Down. This will give you ample time to, hopefully, catch a couple of shiny Larvitar, along with enough Candy to evolve them, without having to worry about sorting through your collection at the same time. Remember, it’s a good idea to check your shiny Larvitar’s stats, because it might have perfect IVs – making it even better for battle!

Evolving a shiny Larvitar will add a shiny Pupitar and, if you complete the evolution line, shiny Tyranitar to your collection. If you do fully evolve a shiny Larvitar during the event hours, the resulting shiny Tyranitar will know Smack Down — this month’s exclusive move.

Other Larvitar Community Day Classic bonuses

Community Days in Pokémon Go always come with a string of bonuses, and Larvitar Community Day Classic is no different. While there are slightly fewer bonuses than a standard Community Day, that doesn’t mean that you’ll want to pass this one by.

But, as always, some of these bonuses are always the same – like increased spawns and increased shiny rates. However, there is a rotating set of other bonuses that come with Community Days, such as double or triple catch Candy, Stardust or XP.

A full list of Larvitar Community Day bonuses can be found below:

Increased spawnsIncreased shiny rateTriple catch XP3-hour Incense duration3-hour Lure durationPhotobombs – Take a snapshot of your buddy to earn a surprise encounter with Larvitar (and increase your Cameraman medal) up to five times during the event.Field Research – Spin Pokéstops to get event-exclusive tasks, similar to previous Community Day events. This is likely to be 'Catch 3 Larvitar' for a couple of Great Balls or Ultra Balls, Stardust or a Larvitar encounter.Special Research – For $1.00 (or the equivalent pricing tier in your local currency), you can take part in the exclusive Larvitar Special Research story.Exclusive move – Evolve Pupitar (Larvitar’s Evolution) during the event or up to two hours afterward to get a Tyranitar that knows the Fast move Smack Down (until 7pm local time)

We hope you enjoy Larvitar’s Community Day Classic, and good luck finding a perfect shiny!

To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings