Adding friends in Pokemon GO is one of the most consistently rewarding things you can do in the game, yet it remains surprisingly underused by newer players. The friendship system touches almost every part of Pokemon GO — from raid performance and Stardust costs to Lucky trades and daily XP gains. If you are not actively managing your friends list, you are leaving meaningful progression on the table every single day.
This guide covers everything you need to know about Pokemon GO friend codes in 2026: how to find and share your code, how each friendship level works, how to reach Best Friends as efficiently as possible, and how to make the most of Lucky Friend moments when they occur. Whether you are building your list from scratch or looking to optimise an existing one, the information here applies directly to how the game works right now.
What Is a Pokemon GO Friend Code and How Does It Work?
Every Pokemon GO trainer has a unique 12-digit friend code permanently tied to their account. Sharing this code with another player allows them to send you a friend request directly, regardless of whether you have ever met in person or live in the same country. Friend codes remove the geographic barrier that originally limited the friendship system to players who could physically meet at PokeStops and Gyms.
Once two players are friends, they can exchange gifts collected from PokeStops, trade Pokemon when within range of each other, participate in trainer battles remotely, and receive attack bonuses when joining the same raid lobby. The friendship system rewards consistent daily interaction — the more regularly you engage with a friend through gifts, raids, and trades, the faster your friendship level climbs toward the maximum tier.
How to Find Your Friend Code and Add New Friends
Your friend code is located inside the Friends section of Pokemon GO. Tap your trainer portrait in the bottom left corner of the main map screen, then tap the Friends tab at the top of the screen. Your unique 12-digit code is displayed near the top, alongside your trainer name and level. You can copy it to your clipboard with a single tap or use the share icon to send it directly through any messaging app, social media platform, or community group.
To add someone using their code, return to the Friends screen and tap the Add Friend button. Enter or paste the 12-digit code and confirm. The other player receives a friend request notification on their end and can accept it from their own Friends screen. Once accepted, your friendship begins at the Good Friend level, and the countdown toward Great Friend starts from your next shared interaction.
The Four Pokemon GO Friendship Levels — What Each One Unlocks
Pokemon GO friendship progresses through four distinct levels, each reached after a set number of daily interactions. An interaction counts as opening or sending a gift with that friend, completing a trade, or joining the same raid lobby on the same day. Only one interaction per friend counts toward friendship progress each day, so consistency over time matters more than volume in a single session.
Good Friend — Day 1
Good Friend status is reached immediately after your first interaction following a mutual friend request. At this level you unlock the ability to trade Pokemon with that player when you are within the required distance of each other. You also receive a small attack bonus when raiding in the same lobby, and you can begin sending and receiving gifts.
Great Friend — Day 7
Reaching Great Friend requires seven days of interactions spread over time. The raid attack bonus increases at this level, and the Stardust cost for trading certain Pokemon begins to decrease. You also gain the ability to give your Great Friend a Poke Ball bonus during gym raids, which appears as a coloured ring during the catch phase after defeating a raid boss.
Ultra Friend — Day 30
Ultra Friend status is reached after 30 days of interactions and brings a significant jump in benefits. The raid attack bonus increases again, reaching a level that provides a meaningful advantage in difficult five-star and mega raids. Trade costs drop substantially at this level, making it the practical threshold at which trading regional exclusives and rare Pokemon becomes affordable for most players.
Best Friend — Day 90
Best Friend is the maximum friendship level and requires 90 days of interactions to reach. The raid attack bonus at Best Friend level is the highest available and consistently makes a measurable difference in raid performance, particularly in solo or small-group raids. Trade costs at Best Friend level are at their lowest point, and the Lucky Friend mechanic — one of the most valuable features tied to the friendship system — becomes active once this level is reached.
How to Reach Best Friends More Efficiently
The 90-day requirement for Best Friends is a calendar commitment rather than a grind. You cannot accelerate it by doing multiple interactions in a single day. What you can do is make sure you never miss a day with your most important friends by building a consistent daily habit around the gifting system.
The most reliable approach is to open gifts first thing each time you open the game and send gifts immediately after. This ensures your daily interaction is recorded before anything else. Players who keep a mental note of their five or ten closest-to-Best-Friends relationships and prioritise those daily will reach the maximum level steadily without it ever feeling like a burden.
Raiding together provides the same daily interaction credit as a gift exchange, with the added benefit of shared raid rewards. If you and a regular playing partner are targeting the same raid boss on a given day, joining the same lobby counts your daily interaction for both of you simultaneously. For players in the same local community, coordinating raid days around friendship milestones is a natural and efficient approach.
Trading also counts as a daily interaction and becomes increasingly affordable as your friendship level rises. Even exchanging common Pokemon you do not need — duplicates from a Community Day, for example — costs very few Stardust at Great Friend level and above. These low-cost trades serve double duty: clearing inventory and maintaining friendship progress at the same time.
Lucky Friends — How the Mechanic Works and Why It Matters
Once you and another player reach Best Friend status, every subsequent daily interaction gives you a small independent chance of becoming Lucky Friends for that day. When Lucky Friends is triggered, you will see a notification and a visual indicator on that friend’s profile. The Lucky Friends status lasts until you complete a trade with that person — after the trade, it resets and the random chance begins again from your next interaction.
The trade made while Lucky Friends is active is guaranteed to produce a Lucky Pokemon for both players. Lucky Pokemon have a minimum IV floor of 12 across all three stats and cost 50 percent less Stardust to power up than standard Pokemon. For high-investment targets — Pokemon with very high maximum CP that require tens of thousands of Stardust to reach top level — a Lucky version reduces the resource cost so dramatically that it often makes an otherwise unaffordable power-up project completely viable.
The practical implication is that your most valuable trades should be saved specifically for Lucky Friend moments. Coordinate with trusted trading partners in advance so both of you know exactly which Pokemon you want to exchange when Lucky Friends activates. Having a short wishlist ready — the rare Pokemon you most want a Lucky version of — means you are never caught without a worthwhile trade when the moment arrives.
Maintaining more active Best Friend relationships increases how frequently Lucky Friends can occur, simply because each Best Friend interaction is an independent trigger opportunity. Players who keep 10 or more Best Friend relationships active and interact with all of them daily will see Lucky Friends trigger noticeably more often than those with only one or two Best Friends.
Finding Active UK Pokemon GO Friends
The quality of your friends list matters as much as its size. A friends list filled with inactive players who never send gifts provides no meaningful friendship progression. Prioritising active daily senders — players who open the game regularly and gift consistently — makes the path to Best Friend dramatically faster and more reliable.
For UK-based players, the most productive places to find active friend codes are local Pokemon GO Discord servers and Facebook groups organised around specific cities or regions, the TheSilphRoad subreddit’s friend code megathreads, and community boards posted at popular local raid spots. When sharing your own code, mentioning your approximate region, your daily activity level, and whether you open gifts consistently helps other players decide whether you are a good match for their list.
It is also worth reviewing your existing friends list periodically and removing players who have clearly gone inactive — accounts that have not sent a gift or interacted in several weeks. Replacing inactive friends with active ones keeps your daily interaction count productive and your friendship progression moving forward continuously.
Frequently Asked Questions — Pokemon GO Friend Codes
How many friends can I have in Pokemon GO?
The current friends list limit is 400 trainers. The vast majority of active players will never approach this limit under normal circumstances.
Can I add friends from other countries?
Yes. Friend codes work globally and there is no geographic restriction on adding friends. You can exchange gifts with international friends freely. Trading with players in other countries requires a Remote Trade, which costs significantly more Stardust than a standard trade unless you have reached Ultra or Best Friend level.
What is the daily gift limit?
You can open up to 30 gifts per day and hold a maximum of 20 gifts in your inventory at any time. You can send one gift per friend per day. Gifts are collected by spinning PokeStops and Gyms and contain a random selection of items along with a postcard showing the location where the gift was collected.
Do friendship levels reset if I stop playing for a while?
No. Friendship levels never decrease or reset due to inactivity. If you stop playing for a period and return later, your friendship level with each friend will be exactly where you left it. You will simply resume progress from your next interaction.
What happens if I remove a friend?
Removing a friend permanently deletes your friendship level with them. If you re-add that person later, your friendship starts again from Good Friend. There is no way to recover a lost friendship level, so consider carefully before removing someone you have invested significant time in reaching Ultra or Best Friend status with.
Can my friend see when I remove them?
Pokemon GO does not send a notification when someone removes a friend. The removed player will simply notice that you no longer appear on their friends list if they check it.
Internal linking suggestion: Link the phrase ‘raid attack bonus’ to your raid counter guides. Link ‘Community Day’ to your most recent Community Day guide. Link ‘Lucky Pokemon’ to any IV or powering-up guide you have on the site.
