Pokémon GO developer Niantic has revealed a brand new feature for the game called 'Buddy Adventure', alongside a mushy trailer that's sure to get nostalgic fans a little teary.
This new update will give players the ability to interact with their Buddy Pokémon in all-new ways, bringing them to life in a way that we haven't seen before. If you enable the AR+ mode, you'll be able to play with and feed your Buddy Pokémon to level up your friendship and even earn powerful boosts to their CP. Your friendship levels will rise as follows:
- Good Buddy: Your buddy will join you on your map, and appear on the new Buddy Profile page.
- Great Buddy: Your buddy can also appear in Pokémon encounters and bring you items.
- Ultra Buddy: Your buddy will point out "interesting places" nearby and bring you Souvenirs - new items found on the Buddy Profile page.
- Best Buddy: Your buddy will sport a Best Buddy Ribbon and gain a CP boost in combat while still assigned as your buddy.
In a lovely touch, the Pokémon will also walk around with you on the map, similar to the fan-favourite feature found in mainline games like Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver and Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!. If your chosen Pokémon doesn't walk, they can fly, too. Take a look at the Lugia in the screenshots below.
Not enough? Here's a Wailord swimming about, presumably destroying your local town in the process:
We don't have an exact release date for the update yet, but Niantic promises that it'll arrive by next year. Sometime after its initial launch, a Shared AR mode will also allow up to three players to take a group photo of their buddies together - expect social media to see the full force of that with immediate effect when it drops.
A nice update? Do you have a Buddy Pokémon that'll be perfect for this? Let us know in the comments below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 21
Oh... Okay that is pretty neat, I want this.
That... that trailer...
That was a hit right in the Poké-feels ;w;
This is actually pretty cool, I haven't played GO in a long time and it might be fun to go back and see what I've been missing
NICE! Wasn't the following Pokemon feature in the original beta of the buddy mechanic? I seem to remember a lot of silly posts about Magikarp around then...
I really like a lot of the new features, too!
Neat. I’ve always liked the features in the games.
Ugh, real life just sucks. I want to live in a world where Pokemon are actually real.
Between this and adding Team Rocket into the game, 2019 ended up being a pretty big year for Pokemon Go. Admittedly, I thought the game would have started on a slow downward decline by now, but I stand corrected. And I'm sure once the battle league starts up, there will even be another big boost down the line.
I wish we could have a buddy in Sword/Shield too. I have Lugia in Go and shiny Charizard in Let’s Go, Eevee! 😊
Whoever in marketing comes up with these trailers needs a big raise. This one was outstanding.
The fact that Niantic is selling off people’s location and behavior information makes this actually a little gross tbh. I’d love to be fully excited about this, but I find I hard to knowing that now tech companies are using our attachment to Pokémon to keep us in their ecosystems, literally from when we’re a child to when we die. When I played Pokémon it was alone on a game boy or with friends without adults and corporations monitoring us. Kids today deserve that same freedom.
Niantic - making adding in more content without needlessly removing stuff
Gamefreak- half the content and kills off over half the pokedex
sucks that despite the mobile basis for the switch most of the mobile pokemon games don't have a switch alternative
Please give the person who made that trailer a raise, wow.
@Pojos98 I wish everybody understood that.
@DarthFoxMcCloud I dunno. Humans manage to take anything that seems cool and turn it into something unlivably horrible. Look at the internet. And smart phones.
Now imagine what people would do if they actually had a freaking Charmander on them and perfectly obedient at all times? Your chestnuts would be roasted on an open fire.
Despite the long running power of friendship theme, being friends with your Pokemon making them legitimately more powerful is actually happening in Pokemon GO before the main series games.
Snorlax looks kinda tipsy. Is it still sleepy?
Wailord looks like a blimp
WAIT. Are you NOT supposed to see colorful pokemon dancing in the corner of your vision at all times? Was I NOT supposed to see that Mr. Mime bathing with me?
First of all I don't play this game. And second Puzzle and Dragons Gold is coming for Nintendo Switch on January 15 and I am going to play that!
I'm not stupid ok? I know what games I like and what I don't like. Ok? I really hate playing on my phone. I hate it. I only play on Nintendo hardware and Puzzle and Dragons Gold is what is being released on January 15 2020. I have the official website for it.
I don't care about exclusivity and all that rubbish trash. Stop lying about what you write about.
I know what you Internet Lords are doing. You're setting up traps to pull me from completing my List of Games I getting for my Switch. There are a few other games I have listed I plan on getting to play, but you can't stop me from achieving my goals. I know you're all setting up traps top stop me but they won't work!
This is when I needed Google Glass to have worked.
Also can somebody tell the marketing department for pokemon to stop hitting me in my childhood?! I'm trying to be a respectable, jaded, boring, sourpuss of an adult over here...like you're supposed to!
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