How to increase Friendship Levels in Pokemon GO

Friends are a very important thing to have in Pokemon GO. They can help with Raids, trade Pokemon, help defend gyms, and the list of uses go on. The boosts players receive the longer they are friends with someone can make these uses a lot more convient. As friendship levels grow, the pair is granted bonuses like cheaper stardust costs for trading.

Players and their friend groups who invest a lot of time into Pokemon GO may be wondering about the best ways to quickly gain friendship levels in order to maximize their benefits when playing with friends. There are many ways players can do this. This article will suggest methods that players can use to speed up the time it takes them to reach maximum friendship levels.

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Quick ways to maximize Friendship in Pokemon GO

Sending gifts

Gifts can contain something as small as a Pokeball or something as valuable as a seven kilometer egg (Image via Niantic)

When two players become friends in Pokemon GO, the option to send gifts to one another is unlocked. Players can receive gifts to send other players from spinning Pokestops.

Once players receive these gifts, they can go into their "Friend" menu by tapping their avatar icon at the bottom left of their screen. After that, players can simply tap a friend and press the "Send Gift" option. Afterwards, players will be prompted to select a "postcard" to attach to the gift showing where it came from. After selecting a postcard, the gift will be sent.

After a gift is sent, it can be received and opened by going into the "Friends" menu once again. Afterwards, simply select the friend that sent the gift and the player will be prompted to open the gift. Players can only send and receive one gift to another trainer once per day.

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Participating in Raids together

After defeating the Raid Boss, all participating trainers are rewarded with a chance to catch the defeated Pokemon (Image via Niantic)

Trainers who live in more urban areas where Raids and Gyms are more common can easily just wait for a Raid Boss to spawn, contact their friends, invite them to Raids, stomp out the bosses, and repeat the process once a day. This is also a great way to grind friendship levels with multiple friends at once.

This effect is most common among Pokemon GO players in group chats or community boards where local players talk and gather teams for Raid Battles. Players can simply wait for whenever someone posts a request for help with a Raid Battle, then buy a Remote Raid Pass and say they want to help. This is also an incredibly easy way to make friends in Pokemon GO. Sadly, trainers can only increase friendship levels with one other player once per day using this method.

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Challenging each other to a battle

Various screenshots of how a Trainer Battle appears in Pokemon GO (Image via Niantic)

Players can choose to challenge another friend to a battle in Pokemon GO when they are near one another. This method functions similarly to Pokemon GO's competitive Battle League as players will be given the choice of three Pokemon from their collection as well as two shields to use throughout the battle. After this battle is finished, players will be granted a boost to their friendship levels.

There are many ways players can increase their friendship levels between other players in Pokemon GO. Sadly, dedicated players cannot simply grind these methods out to maximize their friendship levels in one day. Rather, players can only increase their friendship with another player once a day.