Trading Is Finally Coming to Pokémon Go and More This Week!

After nearly two years an update for Pokémon Go will go live this very week which will add a much requested feature and that its trading.  There is a catch however, because if you wish to trade you must have that person you wish to trade with on your new friends list and it will cost you a big dose of Stardust, how much Stardust it will cost will depend on your friend rating.  There are a host of other new features arriving with the update, so I’ve broken it all down the best I can below.

 

Friendship

• Each player will have a friend code, you must provide the code to the friend in question to add them to your Pokémon Go friends-list
• Once you’ve added a friend to your list, you’ll begin to earn a friendship level. Depending on your Friendship Level with a particular friend, you will earn various bonuses and trade requirements.
• Your friendship level will increase when you send gifts, trade, as well as battling in Gym’s and Raid’s together.
• You can only increase your friendship level once per friend, per day
• The friendship ratings are as followed; 1 Day = Good Friend, 7 days = Great Friend, 30 Days = Ultra Friend and 90 Days = Best Friend

• Here’s what each friend level will unlock; Good Friend: Trade all Pokémon (except Mythical). Great Friend: Attack bonuses during Gym and Raid Battles with friends, you’ll also earn one additional Premiere Ball for raiding with friends and you’ll receive a Stardust discount for trading.  Ultra Friend: Increased Attack bonus during Gym and Raid Battles with friends, two additional Premiere Balls for raiding with friends and an increased Stardust discount for trading.  Best Friend: Maximum Attack bonus during Gym Battles with friends, four additional Premiere Balls for raiding with friends and the largest Stardust discount for trading.
• Bonuses will not stack. For example, if Raiding with a Best Friend which earns you four additional Premiere Balls, they will not stack if your battling with another friend that is Great or Ultra.  You’ll only earn the bonuses with the highest rated friend in your raid group.
• The friends list will initially be capped at 200, but that could grow with future updates. However, you will not be charged to increase your friends list, like you do with additional Items and Pokémon Storage via the Pokémon Shop.  When the cap increase arrives, it will be via  free update.

Trading

• You can only trade with players on your friends list.
• You will need to have at least a Trainer Level of 10 to trade
• You must be within 100 meters of a friend to trade with them
• Players can make one special trade per day (not per friend) which includes Legendary, Shinny’s or Pokémon not in your Pokédex.
• In order to trade, each player must also spend their Stardust, the amount will vary depending on your friendship level and the distance within each other at the time of the trade. You can see an example of the cost in the screenshots provided, where in one image it costs 1,000,000 Stardust to make a Special Trade, then another shows the same trade at 40,000 Stardust if the players are rated as Best Friends.  Each player will pay the same amount of Stardust for a trade with each other.
• Players will also receive additional bonuses when trading with friends. For example, if the Pokémon that are being traded between the two players were originally caught far apart from each other, you’ll receive extra candy.  So let’s say that one trade has a distance of 2km between the two Pokémon caught, and another separate trade has a distance of 10km, players will receive more Candy for the 10km distance.  The maximum distance limit for bonuses will be 100km.
• Lastly (and this is an interesting one), the HP and CP for the Pokémon being traded between friends will be reset. So the level they’re at before the trade, will be different once the players receive the Pokémon via the trade.  The new HP and CP will be random and the level will also depend on your friendship level.  The higher your friendship level, the stronger the Pokémon will be once received via the trade.

Gifts and Alolan Eggs

• With the free update, players will on occasion receive Gifts when spinning PokéStops.
• You cannot open the Gift yourself, as they can only be gifted to someone on your friends list.
• The Gifts will include items such as more powerful potions, max revives and more. However, they will not include items rewarded from Raids such as Rare Candy’s or TM’s.
• Gifts will also include postcards highlighting where the gift was received, so that the friend that receives the Gift knows of its origins.
• Then a player receives a Gift, they’ll also have a chance of being rewarded with a new 7km egg which will hatch an Alolan Pokémon. The Alolan Eggs will include Pokémon exclusive to hatching from the new 7km eggs.

Other new features includes new social tools that will allow you to add friends via Facebook, however we don’t know at this time if the social tools will also include the likes of Twitter or Google Plus, though I’d be surprised if that was the case.  Pokémon Go will also be updated with new in-game music and other coming “soon” TBC features.