You can currently increase your buddy level in Pokémon GO really easily. With a certain item, it gets even better.
Currently, the “Buddy Class” event is taking place in Pokémon GO. Here, you can not only get a Shiny Goldeen more easily and receive Shiny Fidough for the first time, but also evolve some monsters faster, which usually require more time-consuming tasks.
But even buddy Pokémon that you don’t want to evolve can benefit greatly from the event, especially if you use a certain item.
Make use of time, save time
Why do buddy Pokémon benefit? The number of hearts you can get with your buddy is increased during the event. For example, if you usually receive 1 heart for taking a snapshot with your buddy, you receive 2 during the event.
If you complete various tasks throughout the day, you can earn a significant amount of additional hearts. This means you can bring your monsters to the rank “Best Buddy” much faster.
What item should be used? To earn even more hearts with your buddy, you need to put the monster into the “excited” status. This can be done by interacting with your buddy for an extended period of time. It becomes easier if you have and use the item “Poffin”.
This will put your buddy immediately into the special mode and you can earn many more hearts. A user on Reddit shows that he managed to earn a whopping 42 hearts with his buddy using the mode during the event.
During the event, you can earn 6 hearts in each category that brings you hearts with your buddy, when the Pokémon is “excited”. Additionally, you only need half the regular walking distance to earn candies with a monster in this mode, even outside of the event.
In a self-test, I gave a monster in the event a Poffin, played with the Pokémon, and took a snapshot. This resulted in a substantial 14 hearts without much effort.
How to obtain Poffin? Poffin is one of the rarer items in Pokémon GO. You cannot obtain the item at PokéStops or through raids. As a reward, you can only receive it through limited special research or the GO Pass.
In the current GO Pass, you receive a Poffin at level 31. If you have the Deluxe variant of the pass, you receive even 2 copies.
Additionally, you can obtain Poffin in the in-game shop. You need to spend 100 PokéCoins for each Knursp.
Besides the buddy event, there are several other contents waiting for you this month. If you want to know what those contents are, what you can expect, and when they are active in the game, feel free to check our overview with all events in January 2026 in Pokémon GO.
