Your Buddy in Pokémon Go will soon follow you on the map

Pokémon Go is getting ready to build the bond between trainers and their favourite Pokémon with a new upcoming feature called ‘Buddy Adventure.’

The feature presents more bonding opportunities for trainers and their Buddy Pokémon like it trailing behind you as you walk in the game, helping you catch wild Pokémon, bringing you collectable Souvenirs and more. The update is slated to roll out by 2020.

You can also interact with your Buddy in augmented reality (AR). This means you can feed it and play with it to increase its affection levels to you. You can earn affection by “exploring with your buddy on the map, battling with your buddy, playing with and feeding your buddy, and taking snapshots of your buddy,” reads the company’s blog post. 

Doing these things will also raise your Buddy’s mood. When it becomes excited, the distance you need to travel to get candies is cut in half and you can get bonus hearts to raise your affection levels faster.

There are four levels of friendship that you can have with your Buddy:

• Good – Your Buddy follows you on the in-game map and you’ll see how it feels on its profile page.
• Great – Sometimes it will help you catch Pokémon and it will bring you in-game items every once in a while.
• Ultra – Your Buddy will let you know about interesting places nearby and bring you Souvenirs. You can keep track of these on the Buddy profile page.
• Best – The Pokémon will wear a ribbon and will be stronger in battles.

Niantic also says that in the future multiple players and buddies will be able to take pictures in AR together.

Source: Niantic