Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: Niantic Labs, nintendo, pokemon go, the pokemon company

Pokémon Go is Getting a Friends List, Trading, and Gifting

Niantic Labs is going to be adding new ways to hang out with your friends in Pokémon Go , which mostly comes down to a new friends list, as well as trading and gifting items and Pokémon. The Friends feature will start rolling out in an update later this week and will let you connect with your friends and keep track of their adventures in the game.

To add a friend, you'll need to share trainer codes. Simply enter their Trading Code into the game client and send them a request. If they accept, you'll become friends.

As for the gifting features, well, when you spin a photo disk at a PokéStop or Gym, you have a chance of receiving a special gift. While you won't be able to open the gift, you can send it to a friend on your Friends List. The gifts will include helpful items, a postcard saying where you picked up the gift, and possibly an egg. That Egg, when hatched, will contain an Alolan form of a Pokémon originally discovered in the Kanto region. Maybe even the brand-new Diglett and Geodude variants.

From the Pokémon Go blog:

When you send a Gift to a friend or participate in a raid or Gym battle with them, you can increase your Friendship Level. As your Friendship Level builds, you'll then unlock bonuses when you play together. For example, when you and a Great Friend participate in a Gym battle or Raid Battle together, you can earn an Attack bonus to give your Pokemon an edge! You can increase your Friendship Level once per day per friend.

You can also build your Friendship Level by trading Pokemon with a friend. If you're near a friend and have a Trainer Level of 10 or higher, you can trade Pokemon you've caught with that friend. Completing a trade earns a bonus Candy for the Pokemon you've traded away, and that bonus can increase if the Pokemon you traded were caught in locations far apart from each other! All trades are powered by Stardust, and some trades require more Stardust than others. As you build your Friendship Level with the friend you are trading with, you'll find that you can complete the trade with much less Stardust.

Certain Pokemon, such as a Legendary Pokemon, a Shiny Pokemon, or a Pokemon not currently in your Pokedex, require a Special Trade to complete, so keep that in mind before trading away that golden Magikarp! Special Trades can only occur once per day with a Great Friend or Best Friend, and it often requires a lot of Stardust to complete a Special Trade. Special Trades are a great way to show a friend how much you care!

Trading is a pretty core mechanic in most Pokémon games, so having the feature make its way to Pokémon Go is fantastic. If anything, not having trading in the game was a major oversight, but finally, Pokémon Go players can trade items and Pokémon with their friends. And that's never going to be a bad thing.

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