Tuesday Tips: The Buddy System!

[inkstone]

All right, I received the update a few minutes ago. Hopefully, this means that it's live for everyone on both Android and iOS!

Here are the official patch notes:

• Implemented Buddy Pokémon: Trainers will now be able to choose one of their Pokémon to be their buddy. A Trainer can earn Candy for their Buddy Pokémon by walking a certain distance


• Made it easier to select smaller Pokémon on the screen


• Fixed an issue where Eggs would sometimes hatch without displaying the animation.


• Improved performance reliability when a device switches networks to no longer cause the application to hang or stop updating


• Pokémon GO Plus support


• Minor text fixes

Other changes not mentioned in the patch notes:

• Your trainer journal now notes when you receive an egg from a PokeStop


• The design of your profile page has slightly changed.


• So has the design of the team leader appraisal overlay.


• PokeGo no longer works on rooted or jailbroken phones.

And now for details on the Buddy System!

• Each pokebuddy requires a certain distance to earn a candy. This distance is generally dependent on the type of egg they hatch from. If a mon hatches from a 2km egg, you need to walk 1km to earn a candy through the buddy system. If they hatch from a 5km, you need to walk 3km (2.5km rounded up). If they hatch from a 10km, you need to walk 5km.


• Starter mon (bulbasaur, charmander & squirtle) have a 3km requirement.


• Don't worry. When you add a buddy, the screen tells you the distance requirement!


• If an egg hatches while you're walking a buddy, your buddy will find an extra candy!


• If you evolve your buddy mon, you will lose all progress to the next candy. So time your evolutions!


• But if you switch your buddy to another mon and then back again to your original buddy, the system remembers the total distance. It just has to be the same mon (i.e. not evolved).


• Your buddy mon can train and fight at gyms. Yes, this means you can walk your buddy mon when they've fainted. Which, uh, is an unfortunate visual.


• But you cannot leave your buddy mon to defend gyms.


• There's an easter egg involving pikachu: after you walk 10km (or pikachu finds 10 candy, whichever comes first), pikachu will jump onto your shoulder. (It's a reference to the anime.)

I believe that's it. I'll update this entry if I stumble across anything else. If y'all discover other things, tell us in the comments!! Otherwise, tell us how you're planning to use the buddy system and who you're walking first!

Comments

[brightknightie]

Shout out for the fix for "when a device switches networks"!

Whenever I walked out of the range of a known wi-fi network, and my phone has to heave itself over to cell data instead, or vice versa, the game would hang or stick.

[ephemera]

I have to say, I haven't noticed it being spectacularly better about that today, but possibly the times when I do that are also times when I'm doing something else that makes it hang...

OTOH - BUDDIES! I am walking my Flareon for Eevee candies, and she's so cute!

[brightknightie]

You're right; I spoke too soon. The transitions from wi-fi to cell data, and back, are still rough.

They seem somewhat differently rough, with more proactive error messages and less outright hanging...