Pokopedia

Optimal Community Box & Storage placement

TL;DR

The Community Box (item 441, Utility category) is a passive drop-off bin — it has no collection radius of its own. The 12-tile pickup circle belongs to the Gather Pokémon you station beside it, so “where to put the box” really means “where to station the gatherer.” A single gatherer can service 1-3 adjacent farms if their litter tiles all fit inside the 12-tile circle. For long-term overflow, build a Big storage box (103, ~3x capacity, unlocks at Palette Town Lv.2 / Cloud Island Lv.2) cluster next to your processing stations. When farms exceed 24 tiles of separation, the only two Storage-specialty Pokémon — Gulpin (#53) and Swalot (#54) — ferry items from far Community Boxes to that cluster. Never store live items in Plain chest (104); it is a decoration variant.

The build

PokémonRoleSpecialtyWhy
Any Gather PokémonSweeper at the Community BoxGatherOwns the 12-tile pickup radius; covers 1-3 adjacent farms
Gulpin (#53)Ferry — Community Box -> Big storage boxStorageOne of only two Storage Pokémon; Always/All weather
Swalot (#54)Ferry — higher capacityStorageEvolved form; the only other Storage-specialty Pokémon

Layout

Legend: F=farm tile  L=litterer  G=gatherer  C=Community Box
        B=Big storage box  S=Storage ferry  .=empty

   0         1         2
   0123456789012345678901234567890
 0 ..FFFF.........FFFF...........
 1 ..FLLF.........FLLF...........
 2 ..FLLF....G.C..FLLF...........
 3 ..FFFF....    .FFFF...........
 4 ..........    ................
 5 ..........    ................
 6 .........<24 tiles>...........
 7 ..............................
 8 .........S....C2..G2..........
 9 .........                  ...
10 ........B.B.B.................
11 ........(long-term storage)...

Gatherer G sits next to box C; both left-hand farms are inside its 12-tile circle. The third farm is too far, so it gets its own gatherer G2 and box C2. Because C and C2 are within 24 tiles, Gulpin/Swalot (S) ferry items from C2 down to the B storage cluster beside the processing stations.

Expected output

Throughput per hour = min(sum of litter drop rates inside the 12-tile circle, gather rate). Concrete numbers are not in the source data — see Missing.

Comfort setup

  • Flavor: Sweet (Gulpin and Swalot both appear on Pecha Berry, Honey, and most sweet salad/bread Liked By lists in items_enriched.csv).
  • Temperature: Mild 5-7 (no explicit pref in pokedex.csv; defaulting to Poison-type baseline).
  • Humidity: Mid 3 (unspecified in source data).
  • Light: Normal.
  • Furniture (favorites): Tantalizing dining set (Gulpin), Dinner table surprise (Swalot). Co-locate with a Big storage box to double-count it as Furniture.

Setup steps

  1. Measure tile distance between every litter-drop tile in your farms.
  2. All litter inside one 12-tile circle: place ONE Community Box (441) at the centroid; station one Gather Pokémon next to it.
  3. Two clusters 12-24 tiles apart: place TWO Community Boxes with overlapping 12-tile gather circles; one gatherer per box.
  4. Clusters >24 tiles apart: keep a local Community Box per cluster, then assign Gulpin (#53) or Swalot (#54) to ferry to your storage cluster.
  5. Build the long-term Big storage box (103) cluster next to your processing stations (Furnace, Crusher, Recycler) so the flow is box -> process -> big box.
  6. After Palette Town Lv.2 or Cloud Island Lv.2, swap Storage box (101) for Big storage box (103) for the ~3x capacity bump.
  7. Use Wall storage box (102, craft-only) on cottage walls for zero-footprint overflow.
  8. Do not use Plain chest (104) as live storage — Decoration sub-category, not part of the AFK loop.

Alternatives

  • Single Big storage box co-located with the Community Box for tiny bases (skip ferries).
  • Storage box (101) clusters in original regions before Palette Town Lv.2 unlocks Big storage box — drops naturally in Withered Wastelands, Rocky Ridges, Sparkling Skylands.
  • Wall storage box (102) on a Pokémon Center wall to save floor space once crafted.

Source data

  • /tmp/pokopia-data/items_enriched.csv rows 101, 102, 103, 104, 441 (storage hierarchy + Community Box).
  • /tmp/pokopia-data/pokedex.csv rows 53, 54 (Gulpin/Swalot — both Storage specialty).
  • /tmp/pokopia-data/pokemon_favorites.csv rows 053, 054 (favorite tag: Looks Like Food).
  • _brief.md AFK-loop section: Litter drops -> Gather collects in 12-tile radius -> Community Box -> Process -> Storage.

Missing / future research

  • Community Box capacity (slots/stacks).
  • Storage box vs Big storage box exact capacity (only “~3x” from flavor text).
  • Per-Pokémon gather rate (items/min).
  • Gulpin/Swalot ferry travel speed and inventory size.
  • Behavior when two gatherers overlap on the same litter tile (race vs. double-collect).
  • Confirmed Gulpin/Swalot comfort tiers — pokedex.csv lists only Time/Weather, not temperature/humidity/light prefs.