Grookey Community Day: Your Essential PvE Guide

Hello trainers! The first of 2026 Community Day is coming, with the Grass Starting Pokémon from the Galar region: Pokémon Chimpanzee Groogy being the featured Pokémon. Evolve Thwackey (Grookey evolution) during the event or up to four hours later to obtain a Rillaboom who knows the charged attack Frenzied Plant. From the event onwards, Rillaboom will also have access to a new charged attack: Drumbeat. So how does Rillaboom fit into the PvE meta and what impact do these new moves have on its performance, let’s find out!

The Drummer Pokémon: Rillaboom

Rillaboom

Grass

Rillaboom reaches a max CP of 3758 at level 50, supported by solid stats of 239 attack and 225 HP but a weaker defense of 168. This build favors him as a high damage dealer compared to a tank, thriving in Sunny weather for an extra boost Grass move. Weaker at Bug, Fire, Flight, IceAnd Poisonit shines against Ground, RockAnd Water bosses where Grass coverage is essential.

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Rillaboom in Pokémon GO PvE

Raids

Rillaboom, for a long time, has managed a fairly standard Grass set of movements Razor foil + Grass knot. Backed by its solid stats, Rillaboom has always been a pretty decent and budget-friendly product. Grass type of raid attacker only lags behind the megas and more expensive options of legendary and ghost variants. But after Grookey’s Community Day, the story changes as Rillaboom begins to rise. Let’s take a look at how Rillaboom performed with and without its Community Day move, and also compare it with other top performers Grass attackers in Pokémon GO. Using our DPS Comparison Tool:

As we can see, even if Rillaboom fails to enter the Top 5, its scores remain comparable to those of the top. Grass attackers, and there’s a pretty solid upgrade with Frenzy Plant as a charged attack. If we take a closer look at the table above and put it into context, we may realize that Rillaboom is actually an even better product. Grass attacking than it originally appears. Shaymin and Zarude are Mythical Pokémon and therefore have accessibility issues. Kartana, despite having high DPS, has an incredibly low TDO, meaning that in practice players may struggle to maximize its high DPS output.

A fairer comparison, I believe, would be to compare Rillaboom’s performance with that of others Grass entries.

While Rillaboom may be lagging behind the top shadow Grass For starters, it’s ahead of their non-ghost variants, doing justice to its solid budget position Grass raid attacker. What we can also deduce from the table is that when Shadow Rillaboom is released, it will be ahead of other shadow casters. This makes the Grookey Community Day event more interesting, as it gives players a great opportunity to stock up on some much-needed XL Candy.

Update: We now have statistics for Drumbeat Charged attack. In PvE, Drum Beating is a 3-bar charged attack with a base power of 115. This makes Drum Beating a slightly better charged attack than Frenzy Plant, meaning players do not need to have a legacy move for Rillaboom in PvE (although players can still have one with Frenzy Plant, as it is a Community Day-exclusive move). Rillaboom’s overall position and performance as a Grass the raid attacker always remains similar (Rillaboom moves one place higher, above Shadow Torterra).

Maximum Battles

Rillaboom possesses a powerful Gigantamax form that can unleash its exclusive G-Max Move, G-Max Drum Solo – A Grass G-Max attack type. Although Grookey Community Day does not impact Rillaboom’s performance in Max Battles, it provides a great opportunity to stock up on Regular and XL Candies needed to power up your G-Max Rillaboom and also to unlock and upgrade its max moves.

G-Max Rillaboom is currently the top Grass attacker in Max Battles. The table below shows the simulation of G-Max Blastoise Max Battle:

G-Max Rillaboom is the best counter for G-Max Blastoise Max Battle. The story remains similar for all other Max battles where Grass type counters are required. So Trainers, don’t miss the opportunity to build a G-Max Rillaboom, it will always be useful in Max Battles.

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Farewell words

The sparkle of Rillaboom with Frenzy Plant makes it a budget must-have Grass powerhouse, surpassing regular starters and preparing the Shadow and G-Max variants for even bigger raids and Max battles to come. Whether you’re searching for that elusive shiny high IV, farming XL candy, or fueling that thrashing beast, this monkey is ready to lead the charge.

Don’t sleep through this event, trainers: collect those candies, evolve your Grookey, and build a team of Rillaboom that will take on the raids of future seasons. Your team’s meta has become much greener.

Let us know, trainers! Which Grass Starter is your most and least favorite? (I know Turtwig is someone’s favorite!)

With Grookey hosting its community day, Scorbunny and Sobble won’t be far behind. Have you ever played Pokémon Sword and Shield? Which First Partner Pokémon did you choose?

As always, stay safe! and happy shiny hunting!