New Feature Available
On December 18, 2019, Pokemon GO officially went live with the Pokemon GO Buddy Adventure, the new redesign of the Buddy feature from early in the game's lifespan.
The feature is being rolled out in stages based on your trainer level.
Buddy Adventure allows players to walk around the in-game map with their favorite Pokemon, as well as feed them berries and other items in order to grow friendship with them! Through this feature, you can raise your Pokemon's maximum CP up to level 45.
Check out the links below for more information and stay tuned for a full guide on the brand-new feature!
UPDATE: The new Buddy Adventure feature is now live for Trainers level 30 and above! #PokemonGOBuddy
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) December 18, 2019
Guide Info
If you’ve logged into Pokémon GO recently, you may have noticed that the Buddy system has been heavily revamped! Let’s break down what we know of the new system, and how to optimize it!
The Tasks
When you open up your buddy menu, you’ll see a ton of new things! These are tasks you can complete daily in order to increase your friendship with your buddy.
Walk together
Every 2km you walk, up to 6 km per day, you gain one extra heart, for a total of 3 per day!
Give your buddy a treat
Feeding your buddy until it’s full gives you an extra heart. Once again, this can happen up to 3 times per day! Do this from the play menu, opening the berry menu, and tossing a berry up toward your buddy!
Note that the buddy hunger bar has 6 segments. Razz Berries, Pinap Berries, and Nanab Berries each increase the bar by 2, whereas Golden Razzes and Silver Pinaps increase by 3!
Play together
From the buddy menu, hit the Play button (or just tap your buddy). In AR+, place your buddy. Without AR+, just wait for them to show up. Then, pet them until something happens! If you see a little pillar of light, you know it worked. You can do this once per day.
Battle together
Use your buddy in battle! This can be vs the team leaders (Blanche, Candela, or Spark), or vs a friend! It is currently unknown whether or not using them to battle Rocket Grunts or Leaders increases this heart. This can happen once per day.
Take a snapshot
From the buddy menu, you can hit the Camera button to take a picture! This can give you one heart, once per day.
Visit a new place
Spinning a stop or gym that you’ve never been to before gives you one more heart. This is probably hard to do consistently, but can be a nice boost! This has to be while your buddy is following you on the overworld, so make sure it doesn’t get too hungry!
Buddy Levels
Buddies, like Friends, have 5 different levels. From the base of Buddy all the way up to Best Buddy, you get different bonuses. While we don’t entirely know what each level does just yet, this section will get filled out as we learn more!
