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Shiny Charmander, evolution chart, 100% perfect IV stats and best Charizard moveset in Pokémon Go

Make the most of Charmander's Community Day Classic!

Image credit: The Pokémon Company/Eurogamer

Charmander is being spotlighted for September’s Community Day Classic event in Pokémon Go.

Community Day Classic events are reruns of past Community Day events; giving you the chance to enjoy increased spawn and shiny rates, while also getting an exclusive move if you missed the original Pokémon Go event.

Charmander had its first Community Day event in the far flung days of May 2018 and this event is the perfect time to catch a shiny Charmander if you don’t have one already. You may even find a Charmander with 100% perfect IV stats and, if you decide to evolve a Charmander, you should know Charizard’s best moveset.

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Watch as battle Guzzlord - one of the Ultra Beasts in Pokémon GoWatch on YouTube

Charmander’s 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go

September’s Community Day Classic is the perfect time to find a Charmander with perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go.

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

  • Level 30 (wild CP maximum) - 840 CP
  • Level 35 (weather boosted CP maximum) - 910 CP

Charmander’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 depend entirely on what you want to use your Pokémon for though.

When it comes to the Master League and raids, perfect means focusing exclusively on 15/15/15, which are the best possible stats a Pokémon can have. Perfect stats for both the Great League and Ultra League, however, are different since the goal is to the lowest attack for the highest defence, while also getting that CP Level as close to the league’s cap as possible.

If you want to use Charizard in those two leagues, you’re looking for these different stats:

  • A perfect Great League Charizard is 0/15/13, with 1500 CP at Level 19.5.
  • A perfect Ultra League Charizard is 0/13/15, with 2500 CP at Level 35.

Charizard does best in the Ultra League, but it can still be quite the contender when it comes to the Master League. We wouldn’t recommend running it in the Great League though as the requirements prevent you from tapping into Charizard’s true fighting potential.

Keep in mind that it’s worth having Charizard learn the two exclusive moves during this Community Day event - Dragon Breath as a Fast Attack and Blast Burn as a Charged Attack.

Image credit: Niantic

Charmander evolution chart: What does Charmander evolve into?

Charmander has two evolutions - Charmeleon and Charizard - and, as you evolve Charmander, you’ll watch it become a mighty dragon.

Fire is an important element of the Charmander evolution line (unsurprisingly since it is a Fire-type Pokémon) and their official Pokédex entries reflect this:

  • Charmander - 'It has a preference for hot things. When it rains, steam is said to spout from the tip of its tail.'
  • Charmeleon - 'It has a barbaric nature. In battle, it whips its fiery tail around and slashes away with sharp claws.'
  • Charizard - 'It is said that Charizard’s fire burns hotter if it has experienced harsh battles.'
Unlike its past evolutions, Charizard is a Fire and Flying-type Pokémon. | Image credit: The Pokémon Company

September’s Community Day Classic event runs between 2pm to 5pm (local time), so you’ll have more than enough time to gather Charmander Candy as you’d like.

The following methods will help increase your Candy yield if you’d like:

  • Use Pinap or Silver Pinap Berries when catching Pokémon. If you successfully catch a Pokémon after using a Silver or regular Pinap Berry on it, you’ll receive double catch candy.
  • Have a member of the Charmander evolution family as your buddy. With one of those Pokémon as your buddy, you’ll earn candy every 3km you walk in Pokémon Go.
  • Have Mega Charizard X, Charizard Y, Houndoom, Blaziken or Primal Groudon active. Having one of these Mega Evolutions active will increase the amount of candy you earn from Fire-type Pokémon.

Charizard moves and best moveset recommendation in Pokémon Go

A good starting point for Charizard’s moveset is Fire Spin as a Fast Move and Blast Burn as a Charged Attack. This moveset will do you well in raids, but, if you’re planning to use Charizard in the Go Battle League, then you may want to diversify it further.

When it comes to the Go Battle League, for the Great and Ultra League we recommend using Wing Attack as a Fast Move and both Blast Burn and Dragon Claw as Charged Moves. If you’re planning on using it in the Master League, then you’ll want to switch the Fast Move to Dragon Breath.

As you can see from our recommendations above, a good number of Charizard’s best moves are either the Community Day exclusive moves or ones you can earn from Elite Charged TMs. Thankfully, the Community Day moves can also be earned by using the right Elite TM, but it’s important to keep these requirements in mind when planning out Charizard’s moveset.

You will also want to unlock the second Charged Attack for any Charizard you’re planning to use in the Go Battle League. It’s worth doing, not only for the advantage it will bring to these battles, but because this extra move may come in handy when using Charizard in raids.

If you’d like to move outside of our recommendations, then take a look at Charizard’s full moveset.

Charizard Fast Moves

  • Air Slash (Flying)
  • Dragon Breath (Dragon - exclusive Community Day move or Elite Fast TM)
  • Ember (Fire - Elite Fast TM)
  • Fire Spin (Fire)
  • Wing Attack (Flying - Elite Fast TM)

Charizard Charged Moves

  • Blast Burn (Fire - exclusive Community Day move or Elite Charged TM)
  • Dragon Claw (Dragon)
  • Fire Blast (Fire)
  • Flamethrower (Fire - Elite Charged TM)
  • Overheat (Fire)

If you’re following our recommendations, then Charizard will have an advantage over the following Pokémon in the three main leagues:

  • Great League - Venusaur, Medicham, Sableye, Shadow Gligar and Shadow Alolan Ninetales.
  • Ultra League - Cobalion, Trevenant, Scrafty, Cresselia and Obstagoon.
  • Master League - Metagross, Zekrom, Groudon, Togekiss and Dialga.

The Pokémon Charizard has an advantage over varies quite greatly between leagues, so, if you’re planning on running it, it’s important to know when you want to use your Charizard to ensure you take proper advantage of its power.

What does shiny Charmander, Charmeleon and Charizard look like in Pokémon Go?

The opportunity to catch a shiny form of the highlighted Pokémon is one of the biggest draws of any Community Day event, with Community Day Classics being the perfect chance to get a shiny form you might have missed during a past event. This is thanks to the increased shiny rates for the event’s spotlighted Pokémon combined with how catching Pokémon of the same type naturally increases said rate making it easier to encounter shinies.

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. From there, it’s easy to see if you’ve encountered a shiny Pokémon due to its alternative colouring, the sparkles that appear when the encounter begins and the shiny icons next to the Pokémon’s name.

While the shiny forms for Charmander’s evolution line were released into Pokémon Go quite a while back, you may not have them in your collection due to Charmander’s status as starter Pokémon making it a rare spawn.

Here’s a look at shiny Charmander, Charmeleon and Charizard at the 10:52 mark:

Shiny Charmander Community Day 2020 | Pokémon GO

Thank you to ZoëTwoDots from YouTube for the help with this information.

Sadly both Charmander and Charmeleon suffer from the Gen 1 curse of not having very interesting shiny forms, with the only notable difference being a slightly lighter shade of orange. (So exciting…) Charizard, however, is completely different.

It’s out with the orange and in with black. Shiny Charizard truly looks like a dangerous dragon from ancient myths - always hungry and ready to burn down any village which dares stand in its wake.

If you want to evolve a shiny Charmander, we recommend waiting until the event begins to draw to a close around 5pm (local time) to ensure it learns Charizard’s exclusive moves. This way you’ll have ample time to, hopefully catch a selection of shiny Charmanders, along with gathering the candy to evolve them, and may even find one with perfect IVs.

Evolving a shiny Charmander will add a shiny Charmeleon to your collection and, if you fully evolve this Pokémon, you’ll gain an awesome shiny Charizard. If you fully evolve a shiny Charizard during the event, it will know Dragon Breath - the exclusive Dragon-type Fast Attack - and Blast Burn - the exclusive Fire-type Charged Attack.

Other Charmander Community Day bonuses

Community Day Classic events continue the tradition of bringing a host of bonuses to Pokémon Go during their event hours just like regular Community Day events.

Some of these bonuses are always the same, including increased spawns and shiny rates. There are, however, a rotating set of other bonuses, like triple Stardust from catching Pokémon.

A full list of the Charmander Community Day bonuses are as follows:

  • Increased spawns
  • Increased shiny rates
  • 3-hour Incense duration (not including Daily Adventure Incense)
  • 3-hour Lure Module duration (not including Golden Lure Modules)
  • x3 Catch Stardust
  • Photobombs - Take a snapshot of your buddy to earn a surprise encounter with Charamnder, including progress for your Cameraman medal, up to five times during the event.
  • Field Research Tasks - Spin PokéStops to get event-exclusive field research tasks.
  • Exclusive Move - Fully evolve Charmander into Charizard during event hours to have it learn Dragon Breath (Fast Dragon-type attack) and Blast Burn (Charged Fire-type attack).
  • Pay-to-play Special Research - For $1.00 or the equivalent price in your local currency, you can partake in the Charmander Special Research quest for this Community Day Classic. Keep in mind you need to complete this quest before its deadline or else you won’t be able to claim all of its rewards.

Hope you enjoy Charmander’s Community Day Classic event and catch a shiny Charmander!

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Lottie Lynn

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Lottie Lynn is Eurogamer's Guides Editor. She likes exploring new games and still has nightmares about the moon from Majora's Mask.

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