5 reasons you should send and open gifts in Pokemon GO

Since Pokemon GO first launched in the Summer of 2016, gifts have been an invaluable part of the game for countless trainers around the world. By adding a player to their Friends List, trainers can send each other gifts found by spinning Pokestop discs. These gifts can be opened to collect different goodies and increase the overall Friendship Level between the players swapping gifts.

Many Pokemon GO trainers who have collected a plethora of items in their travels may be ignoring gift-opening to a certain extent, but this is a missed opportunity. There are several benefits to both sending and opening gifts, some of which may not be readily apparent to some fans.

Given this information, it isn't a bad time to examine why players should continue sending and opening gifts in the game often.

Note: This list is subjective and solely reflects the opinions of the writer

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Why players should keep sending and opening gifts in Pokemon GO

1) They're helpful for raids

Increasing Friendship Levels via gifts in Pokemon GO provides multiple raid benefits (Image via Niantic)

Although Pokemon GO players can increase their Friendship Levels by battling each other, fighting together in gyms or raids, or trading, sending gifts is one of the easiest and most convenient ways to raise a Friendship Level between two trainers. Each gift sent will bestow 200 XP on the sender, which doesn't seem like much at first, but it adds up over time.

Friendship Level	Required Days of Interaction	XP Rewarded	Trade Stardust Discount	Bonus Damage in Raids	Bonus Premier Balls for Catching Raid Pokemon
Good Friends	1	3,000	0%	+3%	+0
Great Friends	7	10,000	20%	+5%	+1
Ultra Friends	30	50,000	92%	+7%	+2
Best Friends	90	100,000	96%	+10%	+4

One of the main reasons for using gifts to increase Friendship Levels in Pokemon GO is the raid bonuses. As two trainers become better friends, they'll deal more damage to raid bosses while raiding together. Moreover, both players will receive bonus Premier Balls to help them catch the raid boss after defeating it, and all this requires is a steady pace of gift transactions.

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2) They're the only way to get 7km eggs

Some creatures in Pokemon GO are certainly worth hatching 7km eggs for (Image via Niantic)

Pokemon GO fans can collect various eggs with different distance requirements and hatchable creatures by spinning Pokestops or beating Team GO Rocket. However, one egg type is only obtainable by opening gifts: 7-kilometer eggs. Though they don't always contain the best Pocket Monsters, trainers can sometimes find some great creatures and rack up a ton of candy for them by egg-hatching.

For example, December 2023 begins the Season of Timeless Travels, allowing players to hatch several regional variants of existing species, including:

• Alolan Sandshrew, Vulpix, Meowth, Geodude, and Grimer
• Galarian Meowth, Ponyta, Slowpoke, Farfetch'd, Stunfisk, Darumaka, and Zigzagoon
• Paldean Wooper

With so many regional variants available in 7km eggs during the Season of Timeless Travels, it would be a shame for trainers not to take advantage of them by opening gifts and dropping the eggs they receive in an incubator.

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3) Gifts are the gateway to 18 Vivillon patterns

Pokemon GO's gifts and postcards can result in different Vivillon patterns being obtainable (Image via Niantic)

Some Pokemon GO players likely don't care much about Vivillon since it doesn't really have any battle applications. For collection enthusiasts, though, one of the toughest tasks is snagging every available wing pattern for Vivillon. However, sending out and receiving gifts from trainers worldwide is a means of adding different global locations to a player's scrapbook.

Once enough postcards from a certain region have been pinned, a Vivillon with one of 18 different patterns will spawn in the wild based on the regions the gifts containing the postcards came from.

For hardcore collectors in Pokemon GO, getting every Vivillon pattern will require plenty of gifts and friends alike.

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4) Sponsored Gifts have solid benefits

Though players will have to enable the ability to see them before they pop up on the game map, Sponsored Gifts occasionally offer rewards that they won't find when opening gifts from friends. This includes items like Golden Razz Berries, Silver Pinap Berries, and even Poffins.

Since these items often require trainers to complete other in-game activities like research tasks, sitting through a short ad by the Sponsored Gift can be well worth the time invested. Sadly, they can't be sent to friends, but players don't stand to lose anything by opening them.

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5) Johto region evolution items

Up-Grades are only one Johto evolutionary item worth snagging in Pokemon GO gifts (Image via Niantic)

Regardless of whether trainers are hunting for a new addition to their battle party or just want to fill out their Pokedex, they're going to need evolutionary items eventually. Although fans can find the evolution items for several Johto species by completing research, spinning Pokestops, or completing a Pokestop spin streak, gifts offer the same benefits.

Johto's evolution items are by no means guaranteed in every gift that players receive. However, they're a great way to supplement a trainer's supply while they carry out other in-game tasks to get the items they need.