The buddy feature in Pokémon GO is here and leaves some questions unanswered. We show you how to battle, how to level up the buddy, and provide valuable tips.
What is the buddy feature? Recently, your buddy now wanders around the map with you and you can increase the buddy level.
The system is significantly more complex than the previous buddy feature. Therefore, we will explain the complete system again so that you have no more problems with it.
Buddy Level – How to level up your buddy
These are the buddy levels: A total of 4 different buddy levels await you. You can level them up through various interactions. The higher the level, the more you have to do.
| Buddy Level | Required Hearts |
| Good buddy | One heart |
| Super buddy | 70 hearts |
| Hyper buddy | 150 hearts |
| Best buddy | 300 hearts |
This is how quickly you can level up: You can earn 10 hearts per day. If your buddy is excited, you can earn up to 20 affection hearts per day.
If your buddy is not excited, you can reach the “best buddy” status in 30 days, provided you do your daily interactions.
This is how you earn hearts: You can earn the necessary hearts for leveling up in various ways. You can:
- Feed berries: You can earn 3 hearts per day by feeding berries. You have to spend 9 berries daily.
- Walk together: With your buddy, you can walk 2 kilometers for one heart. You can earn a total of 3 hearts per day this way, so you need to walk 6 kilometers.
- Fight together: Fight alongside your buddy in raids, rocket battles, gyms, or PvP to earn one heart per day.
- Play together: This way, you can earn one heart per day. Touch your buddy in AR mode with your finger and pet it.
- Take a snapshot: If you take a photo of your buddy, you also get one heart per day.
- Visit new places: If you visit a gym or PokéStop with your buddy that you have never visited before, you receive one heart per day for that.
It seems like you can also unlock an additional 10 hearts per day. To do this, you need to fulfill certain criteria for each activity. For example, it seems that you need to take 200 photos per day to earn another heart.
However, there isn’t enough information available about this yet. Diligent players are currently trying to evaluate this.
What are buddy levels used for: At each level, different bonuses are unlocked for you. You can find the exact overview of the bonuses in another article of ours.
Fight together with your buddy – Here’s how
This is the task: You must fight together with your buddy for one heart per day. This can be a bit tricky, as you need to fulfill certain conditions.
This is how you battle together: You can choose any type of battle. You can choose between:
- Gym
- Raid
- Team GO Rocket
- Team Leaders
- Other Trainer
There, you must then place your buddy in your battle team. The buddy itself does not have to participate but must be in your team. Additionally, it is important that your buddy is already walking next to you at that time. Otherwise, the battle doesn’t count.
The buddies also sometimes move really amusingly across the map. Here are 7 highlights:
