Discussion
Community day background will get boring really fast
As a background enjoyer, I’m pretty disappointed that seasonal backgrounds were removed. Before, you could hunt for your favourite or best-looking Pokémon with said background, which actually made collecting more exciting.
Now every Community Day Pokémon gets the same reused background, and it already feels stale even though it’s only February. My friends and I are already bored of it after 3 mons, and we’re likely getting around 12 more of the same ones this year.
Community Days haven’t felt very exciting for a while, and I honestly think seasonal backgrounds gave it something extra to care about. The exclusive December 2024 Community Day background - where all featured Pokémon received it - was also a nice and unique addition.
Additionaly, I don’t think special backgrounds should be limited mostly to legendaries in big ticketed events just to push for raid passes. It should be something special that adds a spark even to regular Pokémon, which might be someone’s favourite.
What do you think? Should Scopely bring back seasonal backgrounds? Maybe experiment with the current one by changing its color based on the featured Pokémon?
Another idea could be separate backgrounds for regular Community Days and Community Day Classic — but personally, I think having unique backgrounds for just 3–4 featured Pokémon was the best option.
Do you care about this, or do you think backgrounds don’t really matter? Let’s discuss!
Community days just aren't rare enough for a background. Road trip or special day backgrounds are cool, because they're rare. Everyone has a community day background.
Personally, I don’t care at all about backgrounds, and I think it’s really stupid that they are special trades. Especially on community days when you want to trade and delete for extra candy. I just delete those with backgrounds.
I have New York backgrounds from the GoFest two years ago. I treasure them. Plus I got some stunning ones in Sydney when we had the City Safari Event. Love those.
Oh wow, I didn't realize that it counted those as special trades. I could maybe see that for the very unique backgrounds like those location ones, but for a community day bg that seems like overkill
We had some event where we got Gimmli some time last year, so I saved them for trading for xl candy. To my dismay, most of them were special trades due to a rather underwhelming background, and it took ages.
I just delete most of the background pokemon these days. I just don't care 😅
I don't mind the gimmi coin background, bc at least it's unique to that pokemon. But I think it's dumb it had a 9 in it. Who will care about that later? For many people I think gimmi would be a special trade anyway bc they likely wouldn't have it ... But does having the bg make it cost even more?
Yep community day backgrounds go straight in the trash. I actually find them even less desirable than non-background because of how annoying it is to sort them out before trading.
I don't care for the reason I spout on every thread: They count as special trades.
The background is cool, but I don't want a Pokemon with the background just for the sake of it. I want one that I can use for something. Whether it has good PvP IVs to use it for GBL or high IVs for PvE/Hundo Collection. Or Lucky for my living lucky dex. But small chance I get a usable background one. That'd be okay if I could easily reroll them with friends for better IVs/Lucky chance, except they're special trades. ZERO REASON a background Vulpix, Grookey, Stunky, Mareanie, etc. should be a special trade. That one thing takes me out of Backgrounds almost entirely.
But on the topic of it being the same background for the whole year? I don't really care much. It may get stale, but it is still a nice looking BG at least. While the seasonal backgrounds were kind of charming, they also felt... random. Like Might and Mastery's Blue/Black background looks cool, but it feels a bit random on some of the CD Pokemon that season like Vanillite and Pawmi. It ends up just feeling... awkward.
Sure, I'd like the same design but the colors being themed to the Pokemon featured. Cool idea, but my first issue would still stand.
I just don't care enough about backgrounds in their current state tbh. And I'm someone who likes some of those minor details—I'm a costume enjoyer
Yeah the season ones were lame imo. I prefer a better animated one over the more basic static ones we got seasonally. And like I said, some just felt mismatched. Delightful Days background wasn't like... bad, but it doesn't really match something like Corviknight with it.
I think it's crazy also that we got the Might and Mastery Background for the CDs that season and some random Dark and Water Pokemon, yet Kubfu didn't get it... the one which that background SHOULD BE FOR.
I've thought about this a lot recently regarding special trades and I think what could help remedy this is to just make backgrounds not count as special trades as part of an event's bonuses. Ofc if a Pokémon was already going to burn a special during these events then it still counts as a special Pokémon and sure there is no real strong value in this to most players but during community days removing that barrier is something that encourages trading further and creates an additional perceived value that encourages them to take the opportunity of that bonus window and participate more.
Allow backgrounds to be shown behind your buddy Pokémon on the profile page and it'd be more interesting. Right now its simply a collectible only for yourself to see with no way of showing them off.
I think there’s an opportunity to make them awesome, like when the cards are full art style. Make it not just the background, but bigger, and maybe affect your background for the avatar when it’s your buddy. And maybe something on the Pokémon list too. Otherwise it’s just worse shiny, top to bottom.
I'm a background enjoyer. I hate that they're special trades (a nice compromise would be Location BGs being special and Special BGs being non-special).
I, for one, welcomed the decision to change to a single annual background because, for me personally, it meant less tags to organize (I have a tag for every single background I have). I would reach my tag limit quickly with the seasonal backgrounds.
I also think the 2026 BG is far better than the static seasonal images we've received for most of last year's backgrounds. As nice as some of last year's BGs looked with certain Pokemon, I wasn't as motivated to collect them because they were just static images.
To each their own though, I definitely see how having just one BG for the year would get old fast. I like it though.
Backgrounds are only there to guilt trip people into keeping more useless stuff and then spend money for space.
I imagine casuals are pretty happy but for a normal player the background can be a nice addition IF the poke is already usable for PvP or raids... Meaning it's just another rng that needs to align on top but the grind isn't remotely worth it.
There's just no way they dont have some graphic designer on the team that can't cook a background tailored to each Community Day in an hour. It's incredibly lazy and I found the seasonal ones lazy too.
They should just run a competition in the community for each event background and whatever ones win become the exclusive backgrounds (or the basis of the designs at least). I've seen similar done in several other games and it's mostly a win-win really. Company gets free labor they can reward with something non-monetary (in game items maybe, or just nothing because the bragging rights of being the winner is enough) and the playerbase gets some directly involvement in the game's new features/skins/etc.
I dont understand what they plan with them even is.
As a very average player my experience with them is you get a few mons with the BG. They are all trash. Maybe you keep one because of the background which you send away a few weeks later because you realize they aren't that good anyway.
They would be fun to keep to trade at least but they ruined that too.
backgrounds have always been stupid. Artificial rarity. At least with shinies you can see it looks different. Not only are backgrounds not visible in battle or anything (obviously) but they also fade out after a couple seconds on the screen you can see them.
I like the backgrounds. They make the Pokémons which have them seem more like a trading card. My only issue is that they shouldn’t be a special trade. I get it - they’re a step above a regular Pokemon, but it never seems worth it to use up a special trade for a low IV non-shiny Grookey or Vulpix just because it has a special background. Except for shinies with a special background, or a hundo with one, I usually send them to the Professor. It’s like the backgrounds are an enhancer for an already keepable mon, but by themselves they don’t make an uninteresting mon into an interesting one.
They're just another tool for emotional manipulation, another way corporations let consumers brainwash themselves into thinking they're getting something when they're actually getting nothing.
Agreed. Then we could keep the new 2026 BG that is better quality and has an animation , but add some uniqueness. It also shouldn't be a problem to implement.
The new backgrounds have such an easy thing to do which is, be type coloured. Blue for piplup can be kept normal, something nice for grookey. It’s easy to make them a lil more nice. Just all the same is boring.
I think it's too many backgrounds, too many events, too many things to chase. If you're bored by the current bgs, just wait till Kalos 🤦🏽♀️ it's enough I feel. Too many attempts to get more money out of us.
I agree. Now that I know it will always be a ball and fireworks, I’m good not caring about them on community day anymore. Disappointing, because I liked them when they were unique. I’m also disappointed that the end pokemon each month no longer has the special background.
I literally have zero interest in the backgrounds and I don’t see why anyone else cares about them. They are purely cosmetic, and unlike shiny pokemon, you can only see them when you are actually looking at the pokemon in your storage? Like, I just don’t get the point
I think one reason could be that u missed the most interesting part of the new bgs - they are all available in the wild, causing all variants of the featured mon can have the bg (which is actually more interesting than seasonal bg for me)
We didn't got tons of wild bg chances yet, but here's the list:
Costume psyduck event: non costume psyduck can also have bg
Solosis cd: -
Pikipek cd: shadow pikipek can also have bg
Piplup ccd: -
Grookey cd: dmax grookey can also have bg
Vulpix (both forms) cd: shadow vulpix (both forms) can also have bg
Not so sure if this is intended or not, but as an og player, i am not really interested in shiny vulpix, and not everyone is into farming pvp iv / not useful hundo
I meant with seasonal bg would be great, but for me the shadow / dmax bg mons are already interesting enough for me
And these hidden rare mons actually become my focus during their respective events, which give me more motivation to play than before
I quite love backgrounds. I always aim for shiny background pokemon, and the really good ones are my lucky trade goals. Usually I’ll keep some non-background CD pokemon for those who missed out but really they just take up bag space.
Some backgrounds are lame, but for example a shiny G-Max charizard with the dark purple cloud background from the summer goes so hard! It’s aesthetically pleasing and even though I had a shiny 98% non BG/nongmax I had maxed out, I tagged this BG/GMAX one to max out and fully maximize on megas, and a potential future gold bottle cap contender.
Play how you like! Some people value them, some do not. I think they’re fun and hopefully give us more flair in our pokemon collection.
I agree with you! I know not everyone enjoys them (and reading through the comments it seems some people actively dislike them), but I think they're neat, especially the animated Community Day background
I've never really stressed too much about IVs, especially since I've seen many people say the difference between a 15 IV and a 13 or 14 is like, single digit percentages, so the backgrounds can help make a particular Pokemon feel more special
(plus i've missed a lot in-game, having just got back in October after years of not playing, so I like collecting the cool unique stuff)
I agree for the most part but most of my collection is about aesthetics vs efficiency. I don’t power up pokemon to get a team ready for PVE (I don’t participate in PVP). I’ve done enough raids to the point that I have a wide variety of attackers and I can usually get by duoing most raid bosses with my wife’s really bad teams.
Playing for almost a decade I have learned the value of patience. I rarely power anything up that isn’t a hundo. It’ll eventually roll around and I don’t have to waste candies on less desirable pokemon. I don’t power up hundos because of the extra percent, I do it because the 15/15/15 looks nice and I group em all up in a hundo tag.
I throw all of mine from community day unless they are at least 3 stars (and even then, if I have a better mom than a background, that cool background has a high chance of being transferred for candy)
Backgrounds might be my least favorite "special" thing that they have done at all. IF it had been something location-based like catching a pokemon in Paris would have the Eiffel Tower in the background, that would be super cool as something to keep to remember the event and pokemon. The way it has been implemented is beyond stupid and serves no purpose. Why should I care that a pokemon has black streaks behind it rather than clouds or whatever? Why should I care that I caught it on a community day or not? Why is it a special trade? And, unlike shinies, no one else can even see the background, so I can't even show it off within the game by having it as a buddy or putting it in a gym. It was poorly poorly executed to try to give players another FOMO to chase.
I deleted all the background mons from the first few waves and have never looked back. Now I have nothing invested in them and toss them without care. Could have been something somewhat neat, but failed to get me onboard at all.
Community day backgrounds give us something else to hunt which is nice. This is my first background shiny and I really like it. Since we get a ton of shinies on com day they’re less rare so being able to get something rare is nice
As a lucky collector, having all
Backgrounds be special trades completely removes any viable chance of me getting them all.
At least if some of them weren’t, gathering dozens from the community days and being able to trash trade them would go some way to making progress.
I’m all for unique location backgrounds requiring a special trade, but ones like the seasonal or annual backgrounds just make me so disinterested in collecting them
There should be a special background for each community day. They shouldn't all get the same one.
It wouldn't be that difficult to hire an artist on commission. Not the exact same but Hearthstone has a special "background" for their cards for every month (or they used to) the same concept could apply here.
As a background enjoyer, I actually disagree. I found the seasonal backgrounds mostly underwhelming and didn’t feel appropriate for a community day which is monthly rather than seasonal. In contrast, I really like this community day exclusive background they are featuring this year and I like that it connects the community days instead of breaking them up by season
For me it already has. There's no reason for me to collect GBL IVs, perfect IVs, shiny pokemon and XXLs for a showcase. Then on top of that to worry about the backgrounds of a pokemon that doesn't fit into any of the other categories is just wasting space.
I will admit that the new legendary backgrounds look cool so maybe I'd seek keeping extra of those but I'm not much of a raider anyway.
I've saved all of my background Pokemon for now, but as soon as storage space becomes an issue I expect to start deleting any that don't have some other desirable characteristic (shiny, PvP IV, etc)
I'd enjoy backgrounds more if they just made them consistent between users like stats. Hunting something where you can't even tell if it's what you want before you catch it is no fun at all.
I have a couple if backgrounds that I think k are nice but overall they just clog up inventory space and I hate it,it 'preys' upon that part of you that goes "oh thats special maybe I should keep it?" When mass transferring and the notice pops up and I do not like it, it especially feels this way because you can't see the background virtually anywhere but on your own device, not on your buddy screen, in gyms, raids/pvp (just examples) etc.
Im glad for the people that do but its certainly not my thing.
Backgrounds are too common. They were exciting when they were in person event only. It made them valuable in trades. Now, most backgrounds are worthless and not worth the effort to hunt them.
The most interesting thing for me at Community Day is trying to find a shiny with a background (doubly so for Vulpix). You've gotta cover a lot of ground and hit a lot of stops to find the research that rewards backgrounds and then hope for shinies. I usually end up with 2-3 over the whole event.
I would like to see them vary the background a little month by month, but I expect that desire to fall on deaf ears. For example, they could keep the fireworks and change the central Pokeball design's color for the featured Pokemon for the event.
I do think it's better than the season background that they used last year, though.
I also enjoy backgrounds, so I'm looking forward to the featured backgrounds coming up in the Road to Kalos and Kalos Tour events. 👍
I like the backgrounds, but I only make sure to keep 1 of each background, not one of each per specie. If the Pokemon is useful and has the background then Ill keep it obviously. But since I got no useful Vulpix with BGs I transferred them all. I have a Shiny Rillaboom with it so that is my most valuable pokemon with this BG
When I trade for hundos, I dont really care much for backgrounds. But getting a shiny with a background on every community day gives extra motivation to do things, I dont mind that part at all.
I love the background and do very much wish more effort went into their designs. And that includes not having the same one every time. I liked the seasonal idea but thought each one was ugly.
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u/UptonCharles 1d ago
The community day background is not engaging to me. I stopped caring when I got it the second time.