Pokémon Go friendship guide: How to get Lucky Friends

Every Pokémon Go trainer needs friends. Whether it’s to help with raids or trade Pokémon, friendship shouldn’t be ignored.

When adding a friend in Pokémon Go, there are four levels: Good, Great, Ultra, and Best. Raising friendship every day will improve this level over time. The higher your friendship is with somebody, the better. You’ll be able to trade Pokémon for less Stardust, do more damage if you raid together, and even get a bonus Premier Ball or two when you complete a raid.

Special trades that feature Legendary or Shiny Pokémon that aren’t yet in your Pokédex can cost up to 1,000,000 Stardust to trade, so players should get their friendship levels up before trading. The cost lowers to 800,000 for Great Friends, 80,000 for Ultra Friends, and 40,000 for Best Friends.

How do I raise friendship?

You can raise friendship once per day by sending and opening gifts, raiding together, trading Pokémon, battling in a gym together, or battling each other.

Note that you can only raise your friendship level one time every day, so if you’re trying to maximize your gifts or save time, you should make sure you haven’t raised your friendship already that day. You can check this by looking at the friend’s portrait on the friend screen. If there is a light blue halo glowing around the friend’s circle, that means your friendship has already been raised that day. Note that this isn’t to be confused with the flat circle behind the player, which is just an indicator of what team they’re on.

The friend on the right has raised friendship today, but the friend on the left has not
Niantic via Polygon

How do I get a Lucky friend?

Once you’re Best Friends with another player, anything that would normally raise your friendship levels will have a chance to turn you both into Lucky Friends. This means that your next trade with that player will turn both traded Pokémon into Lucky Pokémon.

Lucky Pokémon have their power up Stardust cost cut in half, so it’s pretty nice to have one of your big Pokémon Lucky. But beware — IVs shift around quite a bit when you trade them, so the high IV Kyogres you might want to swap with your Lucky Friend may end up being a little weaker than before. That said, Lucky Pokémon are guaranteed to have at least 12 in all three main stats, which means an 80% IV or higher.

Getting to Best Friends with other players will take several months of daily friendship raising, but the payoff is worth it. In addition to the bonuses mentioned above, you also get heaping amounts of XP every time your friendship with another player ranks up. It’s frequently advised to pop Lucky Eggs before hitting Ultra or Best Friends to double that XP. With a Lucky Egg, reaching Best Friends with a single player rewards a whopping 200,000 XP.

Source: Read Full Article