Last weekend on July 14-15 it was Pokémon GO fest in Chicago, Illinois that brought us Shiny Plusle and Minun. During the weekend we had a global challenge to complete field research quests to unlock bonuses for a week. These Candy-related bonuses started on July 16. The bonus also includes newly incubated eggs to be halved in distance required. Giving me a higher chance to hatch a Summer-style Pichu
As a bonus unlock for all regions completing their field research quest tasks we had Zapdos Day yesterday, July 21. Which brought Zapdos back to raid battles for a 3 hour period in the same time frame as the Community Day takes place. All Zapdos caught from these raids have the special fast attack Thundershock. We may even encounter a Shiny Zapdos for the first time now. To give us even more incentive to go out and do raids we got 5 free raid passes from Niantic by spinning Photo Discs at Gyms
Pictured above is the Shiny Zapdos that I was able to catch during the Zapdos Day event. I really love the attack that it does when you click on it as pictured on the left side. On the right side it's just flapping its wings
I was back home from my vacation in Albania between 4-5am on the day of Zapdos Day, so I slept until around 11am to still get at least some sleep and I planned on joining the other raiders at the 4th gym they would go to. I ended up taking too much time to prepare though and it was already around 11:35 by the time I got to the Wooden Tree Sculpture gym. So I knew they would likely not be there anymore, and indeed there was nobody there. I knew the gyms they would go to next and figured I may not get there in time either so I headed to the Wooden Playground gym. While walking there they posted in the chat they were going to start at Biedermeierke. So I knew they would need to go by 2 more gyms after that before heading to Wooden Playground. I spent my time there walking around a bit to catch some Pokémon and spin both Pokéstops and the Gym
When they were almost there I saw that they posted they would be outside of the park, as it's more convenient to go to the next gym when you're outside the park and you can usually still reach the gym from there. As I sat on a bench inside the park I just stayed there and joined the raid battle when I saw them enter. It was my first Zapdos raid ever as I wasn't playing the first time Zapdos was in raids. I did luckily have 4 already thanks to the weekly reward for field research quests. This first ever Zapdos raid and first raid during Zapdos Day resulted in a Shiny Zapdos for me right away!
While we were doing this raid my brother arrived in the park too, unfortunately just too late to join. After talking a bit he quickly checked from the side of the park if he could see them outside, but they left for the next gym already. There was no other group anymore. So we then decided to go to the 2nd gym they would do after Wooden Playground. While walking there I posted in the chat that we were going there, to see if they could wait if they got there before us. Someone else replied that he was there, apparently he and his son didn't join the other group. One other friend also said she'd go to that gym. So we all met up at the Fontein Gym and did the raid together. When we finished the raid the group that I joined for Wooden Playground showed up there. We decided we'd just go with our newly formed small group then for the three last gyms in the list, which were all nearby. At the next one we saw another group of raiders who had just started the raid there. So we talked with them a bit while starting our own raid too. As we were close to the Wooden Tree Sculpture Gym again, and none of us did that one yet due to missing the other groups, we went there as well for our last raid
I ended up doing only 6 Zapdos raids this day, but that's not too bad considering I missed the groups at first. With these raids I had a 100% catch rate, so that's really nice. I ended up catching more than 6 Zapdos. One friend was there with his wife's phone and his other son's phone too. So at the 2nd raid he asked if I could use his phone as using 3 phones was a bit too much for him. For all 4 Zapdos that I used his phone with I was able to catch them on his phone too
These raids went smooth with this small group, so we agreed that we'd try to form this group again for Moltres Day the weekend after Pokémon GO Safari Zone at Yokosuka. If we all have time that is. We'll see when Moltres Day gets closer as Moltres Day will most likely be September 8 or 9 so still a while away
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