Making friends in Pokémon Go

The main hook of the Pokémon Go experience is getting out and exploring your neighborhood looking for powerful Pokémon. This experience is even better when walking around with a buddy or two, so Pokémon Go offers plenty of activities for you to do with friends as you check out local PokéStops.

This guide will give you a rundown on the friend system in Pokémon Go. You'll learn how to make friends, where to find your friends list in the app, and how you can interact with your friends in-game while you hang out with them in the real world. Making lots of Pokémon Go friends offers a ton of in-game benefits, so it's worth learning how to build up that friend list one pal at a time.

Making friends in Pokémon Go is simple. Every account in Pokémon Go is assigned a 12-digit Trainer Code, which you can find by tapping Add Friend on the in-game friends menu. Once you find the number you've been assigned, you can begin adding friends.

Adding friends happens in one of two ways: you can exchange Trainer Codes or QR images with your pal and enter theirs in the appropriate field after tapping Add Friends, or you can import your Facebook Friend List and add them that way.

You can also add your friends by syncing your Contacts with your Niantic Pokémon Go profile. As long as your friend logs in the game with the same email as mentioned in your Contact list, you can add them to your Friend List directly. Once that's done, you can start interacting with one another in Pokémon Go.

Always keep an eye on your friends list while in a play session. The more you interact with friends in the app, the higher your Friendship Level will be with those friends. One way to raise that level is through the Gift system. You can send your friends a Gift – an item commonly collected at PokéStops – and each Gift contains a handful of useful items.

You can check how many Gifts you're able to give in the Items section of the main menu. Choose one of your friends in the Friends menu, and select "Send Gift" to send a gift. You can't send another Gift until the friend has opened the first one, though, so tell them to open their Gift ASAP!

Now that you've become friends with another Pokémon Go player, you have opened up two new ways to play the game: Trades and Battling. Trades allow you to exchange Pokémon between one another using Stardust, with the number and type of Pokémon eligible for trades based on your Friendship Level.

For battling, you and your friend will choose a team of three Pokémon and take them into battle to see who comes out on top. Each player will receive some rewards for participating in the battle, but the winner will be granted a few extra items for coming out on top.

While you don’t need to be with a friend in order to challenge a Gym or go on a Raid, having another person there to help you is highly encouraged. The more players fight alongside one another, the easier the Gym or Raid will be.

Gyms will have you and your friends challenge each of the Pokémon in the Gym separately, but Raids will allow all of you into one lobby in order to defeat the big boss. If you and your friends can also theme your Pokémon to the raid boss's weaknesses, you should have no trouble steamrolling it and claiming the rewards within.