Pokémon GO Friends and Friend Codes: Gifts, Levels and Lucky Friends

Pokémon GO is a social game wearing a collecting game's clothes. Raids want a lobby, trades need a partner, and the single biggest XP payouts in the game come not from catching but from friendship milestones. All of it starts with a 12-digit number: your Trainer Code.

Finding and Using Your Friend Code

Once you reach trainer level 10, tap your avatar in the bottom-left, open the Friends tab and choose Add Friend. Your own 12-digit code sits on that screen with a copy button and a QR version that another phone can scan in person. To add someone else, type their code into the same screen — or add people straight from your phone contacts. You can hold a maximum of 450 friends.

One quirk to know: the refresh icon beside your code generates a brand-new Trainer Code and kills the old one instantly. Only do it if you are deliberately ducking someone, because every code you ever posted online stops working.

Friendship Levels and Why They Matter

Each friend has a friendship level that rises by one "day" whenever you interact — opening a gift, trading, raiding or battling together. Only the first interaction each day counts.

That XP column is why serious players garden their friend list. Levelling a friendship to Ultra with a Lucky Egg running pays 100,000 XP for a month of opening gifts — coordinate the big milestones with friends before popping the egg. Gifts themselves, spun from PokéStops, deliver items and a chance at a 7 km egg, and opening one counts as your daily interaction even if you never meet.

Lucky Friends and Trading

Once you are Best Friends with someone, your first interaction each day has a small chance to make you Lucky Friends. Your next trade with each other is then guaranteed to produce lucky Pokémon — both with high IV floors and half-price Stardust power-ups. It is the best reason to keep interacting with Best Friends after the XP runs out. Ordinary trades, meanwhile, need you to be physically close (within about 100 metres), which is why remote friends are for gifts and raid invites, and local friends are for trading.

Referral Codes Are a Different Thing

Do not confuse your Trainer Code with a referral code. Referrals are for recruiting: a brand-new player, or one returning after 90+ days away, can enter your referral code within 72 hours of starting, and both of you earn rewards — encounters, Rare Candy, incubators — as the recruit hits milestones. You will find yours under the Invite option in the Friends tab.

Finally, a word on hunting codes online: communities, the official Discord's friend-code channels, event meetups and subreddits like r/PokemonGoFriends are all legitimate ways to fill your list. Dedicated friend-code websites are sketchier — never sign into anything with your Pokémon GO account to get one. A code is meant to be public; your login is not.