Pokémon GO Friendship: Complete Guide to Rewards, Levels, Vivillons, and Gifts

One of the key elements that contributes to the camaraderie in Pokémon GO is the Friendship system, which allows players to connect with each other in a variety of meaningful ways. From pinning postcards to leveling up, the Friendship feature has enriched the gaming experience, making Pokémon GO more fun and rewarding for players. In this article, we will dive into the different aspects of Friendship in Pokémon GO and how it enhances the overall gameplay.

Add friends

Adding friends in Pokémon GO is a simple process. Players can share their Trainer Codes with others or scan another player's QR code . Just go to your trainer profile, click the Friends tab , and select Add friend . Here, you can find your own trainer code or you can enter another player's code.

Friend requests will appear as a yellow banner at the top of the Friends tab . You can have up to 450 friends in Pokémon GO.

Send Gifts – Share Love

PokéStops provide gifts that players can send to friends, with up to 20 of them being held at a time. These gifts contain useful items and can be opened once per day by the recipient. Sending gifts to friends is a great way to maintain Friendship levels and help each other progress in the game. Additionally, gifts can contain special 7km eggs that hatch Alolan and Galarian Pokémon, adding an extra layer of fun to the feature.

Trainers can only send 100 gifts per day and open 30 gifts per day in Pokémon GO. You can send a specific friend 1 gift per day. This limit is in place to ensure a fair and balanced gaming experience and to prevent misuse.

During events, 7km eggs may contain event-themed Pokémon and may have rewards that affect how many gifts you can open or keep.

Pokémon Buddy – A Helping Hand

A player's Buddy Pokémon can also contribute to the Friendship experience by delivering gifts when the player is running low. This thoughtful feature helps trainers who have difficulty accessing PokéStops frequently or during special events when PokéStops offer more gifts than usual.

Pin postcards – Share adventures around the globe

Pinning postcards is a fun way to connect with friends around the world! When you receive a gift, you can pin it to your postcard book. Pinning a gift saves it and you can review it later.

Not only that, pinning postcards can help you unlock and collect all the Vivillon patterns in Pokémon GO. The pin icon is located to the right of the Open button when you open a gift from a friend. You cannot pin a postcard that you have already opened.

How to Get Vivillon and All Vivillon Forms in Pokémon GO

The butterfly-like Pokémon, Vivillon, is famous for its unique regional variants. Each variant is tied to specific real-world regions and is distinguished by wing patterns that often appear in different parts of the world.

Every time you pin a gift postcard from a friend around the globe, you have a chance to gain an encounter with a Scatterbug from that friend's region!

You will get a Scatterbug encounter after pinning a specific number of postcards from an area related to the Vivillon pattern. The number of postcards to pin increases each time you unlock a Scatterbug encounter. The pattern the Scatterbug is related to will be highlighted above its evolution button.

Vivillon sample map

The official Vivillon map shows where you can find each version of Vivillon:

There are 18 Vivillon patterns to collect in Pokémon Go, each of which is associated with a specific region around the world. Here are all the Vivillon patterns currently available in Pokémon Go and the respective regions they are associated with:

1. Archipelago – Caribbean and South Africa
2. Continental – Argentina, Central Europe – Germany, Poland, Denmark, Central Asia, India
3. Elegant – Japan
4. Garden – UK, Ireland, New Zealand
5. High Plains – Western United States, Eastern Europe
6. Icy Snow – Greenland, Northern Canada, Northern Europe (Norway, Finland, Sweden)
7. Jungle – Colombia, Northern South America, Central Africa, Indonesia
8. Marine – Chile, Greece, Eastern Europe (Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria), Spain
9. Meadow – France, Italy
10. Modern – Eastern United States
11. Monsoon – Southeast Asia
12. Ocean – Hawaii, Galápagos Islands, Madagascar
13. Polar – Alaska, Eastern Canada, Western Canada, Southern Argentina and Chile, Northern Europe (Norway, Sweden, Finland)
14. River – North Africa (Egypt), South Africa, South Australia
15. Sandstorm – Middle East
16. Savanna – Brazil
17. Sun – Northern Australia, Mexico, Madagascar
18. Tundra – Iceland, Southern Norway, Sweden, Northern Japan

Vivillon Evolution

To evolve Vivillon, you will need to earn 125 Candy to evolve Scatterbug into Spewpa and Spewpa into Vivillon.

Tracking Vivillon's progress

You can track your Vivillon progress by tracking medals for each model and by using the official in-game map:

Friendship Level and XP Increase – Grow Stronger Together

As players interact with their friends in various ways, such as sending gifts, participating in raids, and fighting together in Gyms, their Friendship level will increase. There are four levels of Friendship: Good Friends, Great Friends, Ultra Friends, and Best Friends. Each level offers different rewards, such as reduced Stardust costs when trading, attack bonuses in raids, and additional Premier Balls in raids. The journey to increase Friendship levels not only brings significant advantages in the game, but also strengthens the relationship between players.

Eggs and coordination

Players trying to level up in Pokémon GO know how quickly the XP required for each level increases. One way to earn XP is through Friendship leveling.

When people search for friends on Twitter , you may see the phrase "egg for UF/BF", which means they want to place a lucky egg when you reach Ultra Friends and Best Friends to maximize those huge XP benefits. For this, when your friendship says " Play together for 1 more day to become Ultra Friends / Best Friends!", you should message the person you're friends with and arrange a time for both of you to have a lucky egg before either of you open the gift for the day.

After deleting a friend, your Friendship level can be restored for a limited time. If you add a friend again within that time, your Friendship level will be restored. After 120 days, you can add a friend again and your Friendship will be reset to 0, at which point you can continue grinding XP.

Raid and Trade Rewards – Best Friends, Best Benefits

Once a trainer reaches the highest Friendship level, Best Friends, they unlock a whole host of rewards. The most notable benefits include the ability to gain additional Premier Balls in raid encounters and the ability to trade Pokémon for a much lower Stardust cost. Additionally, when trading Pokémon, there is a guarantee that the Pokémon will have a minimum of 5 Individual Values ​​(IV). This makes trading high-value Pokémon much easier and encourages more interactions between players to reach these high Friendship levels.

Bounties in raids

Trading Bonus

The blue circle represents interaction.

There are 5 actions you can take to count towards Friendship each day:

1. Opening a Gift – If your friend opens a gift on a day that counts as an interaction of the day, you don't have to open any more gifts from them. Unless you want to, of course!
2. Exchange
3. Join the Gym Battle together
4. Join the raid battle together
5. Fight each other

To help players keep track of their daily interactions with friends, a blue circle will appear around friends' avatars in the friends list after they have interacted during the day. This visual indicator is helpful in managing daily activities and maximizing Friendship progress.

Lucky Friends

After becoming Best Friends, all subsequent interactions that would normally increase your Friendship level (i.e. participating in raids, opening presents, etc.) have a small chance of making you and your Best Friend Lucky Friends. You have one chance to become Lucky Friends with each Best Friend each day.

You will be notified in the app and will be able to see that they are your Lucky Friend in your Friend List and Friend Profile page. When you are Lucky Friends with someone, the next time you trade, both Pokémon will become Lucky Pokémon. After the trade, your Lucky Friend status will be cleared. You can try to become Lucky Friends again by increasing your Friendship.

In short, the Friendship feature in Pokémon GO adds a whole new dimension to the game by fostering connections between trainers, fostering teamwork, and encouraging exploration and cooperation. By pinning postcards, achieving higher Friendship levels, and sending gifts, players can form lasting relationships with each other while enjoying the adventure of catching Pokémon.

Whether it's sharing the beauty of Vivillon variants from different regions or enjoying the benefits of becoming Best Friends, the Friendship system emphasizes the power of unity and teamwork in the world of Pokémon GO. So go out, make friends, and embark on an unforgettable journey together!

Jessica Tanner

Update 28 May 2025