Becoming Buddies with your Pokémon

Having friends in Pokémon GO is a fun and helpful feature that makes leveling up and getting items much easier. But, did you know you can befriend Pokémon too? Increasing your friendship level with the selected Pokémon yields great benefits as well. I’ll explain how to become Buddies with your Pokémon, as well as the levels and benefits associated with each.

First off, becoming Buddies with your Pokémon is quite simple. To become Buddies, all you need to do is go down near your Trainer profile and you will find a little circle to the right of it. Tap on that, and you can choose a Buddy. The Buddy that you choose will follow you around on adventures as you walk around in the game. Determining which Buddy you’d like to take with you can depend on a few things, but that is ultimately up to the Trainer. You could choose your Buddy based on level, CP, or even just a Pokémon that looks cool or is your favorite. Once you have chosen one and assigned them as your Buddy, they will appear in the aforementioned circle near your Trainer profile, as well as beside you in your Trainer profile.

Best Buddy Ribbon

Now that you’re Buddies, you can increase the Buddy Level. To do this, you must start off by feeding it berries. By doing this for the first time, you will achieve the first Buddy Level by collecting Affection Hearts. The first level you achieve will be “Good Buddy”. By reaching this level, you will have collected your first Affection Heart which will allow you to read the mood your Buddy is in, as well as allow the Pokémon to follow you on the map. The first level is by far the easiest to reach, considering you only need one Affection Heart. 

The second Buddy Level is “Great Buddy”. In order to reach this level, you must obtain 70 Affection Hearts. Now, this is certainly more of a strenuous goal than the one Affection Heart required for the first level. But, there are many ways you can reach the next level and gain more Affection Hearts than just feeding your Pokémon berries, which can be done 3 times a day. Other ways to gather Affection Hearts include battling, capturing a photo of your Buddy, walking, visiting a new Pokéstop, or following a Route together. Affection Hearts for walking, feeding, and battling can be done 3 times a day. Reaching the Great Buddy status will allow your Pokémon to bring you gifts, such as potions or revives. They can also assist in catching Pokémon.

The third level is “Ultra Buddy” and requires a total of 150 Affection Hearts. At this level, your Pokémon will let you know about “interesting locations nearby”. They will also bring you Souvenirs from specific locations that you get to keep and look at whenever you desire. The final and fourth level is “Best Buddy”. By achieving Best Buddy status, you have collected a total of 300 Affection Hearts with your Buddy. Your Buddy will sport a red Best Buddy Ribbon that can be seen by everyone, as well as receive a CP boost for battles.