Niantic decided to surprise us this morning by announcing that the Trading system will come together with a Friends system.
I know that this is a little bit confusing for some, so I’ve decided to dig deeper and get the right info on the new Trading and Friends system. So, here are the most important things that each of us should know when talking about Trading and Friends.
Each player will be given their own Trainer code that can be used for exchanging friend requests. When a friend has added you or you have added a friend, you will be able to gain one of four Friendship Levels:
- Good Friend;
- Great Friend;
- Ultra Friend;
- Best Friend.
When you progress from one level to another, you will have many bonuses, which will include a reduced Stardust cost for trades, extra damage during gym battles together with a friend and more. We are listing the bonuses for each friendship level:
- Good friend: Trade all Pokemon except Mythical;
- Great friend: Stardust discount for trading, attack bonus during gym battles with that friend, one additional Premiere Ball for raids alongside that friend;
- Ultra friend: Additional stardust discount for trading, larger attack bonus during gym battles with that friend, two additional Premiere Balls for raids alongside that friend;
- Best friend: Major stardust discount for trading, largest attack bonus during gym battles with that friend, four additional Premiere Balls for raids alongside that friend.
The bonuses will not stack up. For example, if you are in a raid with a Best Friend (which will give you 4 extra balls during raids) and an Ultra Friend (which gives you 2 extra balls during the raid), you will only receive the highest bonus from the single highest friend in the raid group.
The friendship levels can be increased by sending a particular friend some gifts, by trading or even participating in gym/raid battles together. Here is how much time it will take you to increase your friendship level:
- Good friend: 1 day;
- Great friend: 7 days;
- Ultra friend: 30 days;
- Best friend: 90 days.
The current limit for the friends’ list is 200 friends, but it was that this number will get bigger, and will not require players to play for additional space.
Talking about trading in PoGO, it will be possible only with the players you have on your friends’ list, and only if you are within 100 meters/109 yards. The minimum Trainer level has to be 10 if you want to participate in trades.
FYI – According to the Japanese blog post, trading is restricted to ages 13 and younger.
There is a feature that is called a Special Trade. This is only for Legendary, Shiny, or the ones you currently do not have in the Pokedex. Special Trade can be done only once per day. It was clarified that the once a day does not mean to a 24-hour period, meaning that it will reset at midnight.
To do a trade, you will need Stardust. There were screenshots released by Niantic which show a 1,000,000 Stardust fee for a special trade, but then it was reduced to 40,000 Stardust because the players are Best Friends. They will also receive candy bonuses which will depend on the original catch location of the Pokemon that is being traded. The HP and CP of a Pokemon that is traded will be reset, which means that you will have random IVs for the Pokemon you will receive. Depending on your friendship level, the range of the possible HP and CP outcomes will be extremely wide or narrow.
Another new feature is the Gifts that PokeStops will occasionally give. These Gifts will have a “postcard” from the PokeStop where you picked up the gift, and a rare item. It’s confirmed that these gifts include rarer items within the normal PokeStop gift pool. Also, when receiving a gift, the player will have a chance to receive a 7KM egg, which will hatch to reveal an Alolan Pokemon.
The Pokemon in the 7KM eggs are exclusive to hatching, but this will not be the only way a player can receive Alolan Pokemon. The previously released Exeggutor and the recently announced Diglett and Geodude will spawn in the wild.
Niantic also stated that there will be much more new additions that will come to PoGO, which will include some new music, and new social features.
The new features discussed above, are expected to be released before this year’s Pokemon GO Fest, which will happen in Chicago on July 14 and 15.
For last, check out the list of Pokemon that can evolve when traded.
