Niantic has announced details of a new featured called Buddy Adventure which will be coming soon to Pokémon GO. The new feature which will launch in 2020, allows players to have their buddy by their side in your Pokémon GO explorations.

Buddy Adventure coming soon—even more ways to explore, grow, and bond with your buddy!

Trainers, world with your Buddy Pokémon! In the all-new Buddy Adventure feature, your buddy will be by your side in your Pokémon GO explorations like never before.

Buddy Adventure is an elevated bonding experience for Trainers and their buddies. You’ll get to know your Buddy Pokémon’s mood as you increase your Buddy Level by playing with your buddy, feeding your buddy treats, and battling and exploring with your buddy. In addition, swapping Buddy Pokémon no longer resets progress toward earning Candy. Like any great Pokémon Trainer, you’ll find that the world around you will become richer with Pokémon by your side as they grow with you and help you along your journey.

The Buddy Adventure feature set will roll out to Trainers around the world by 2020.


The Berry that blossomed into friendship
Kick off your buddy adventure by feeding your buddy Berries. This will increase your Buddy Level to Good Buddy, and you’ll see your buddy on the map, following right behind you! To feed your buddy, just head to the new buddy profile page, tap on Play!, and interact with your buddy. You can also give your buddy a quick treat directly from the buddy profile page. Each Pokémon has different quirks and ways to express itself. Watch closely to see a diverse range of movements and expressions, whether you and your buddy are playing together or exploring the world around you!

Along with feeding your buddy, you can also play with it! Watch what your buddy does when you interact with it in AR+ mode. Different Pokémon react in different ways! Make sure you have AR+ turned on in your Settings.

Unlock exciting new Perks with Buddy Adventure
As you and your buddy get closer and your Buddy Level increases, you’ll get to unlock exciting new Perks together! The Buddy Levels are Good Buddy, Great Buddy, Ultra Buddy, and Best Buddy.

• Good Buddy: Your buddy can join you on your map view! You’ll also see how your buddy feels on the buddy profile page.
• Great Buddy: Having a hard time catching a Pokémon? Your buddy may help you out in Pokémon encounters! It can also bring you items that can help you in your Pokémon GO journey.
• Ultra Buddy: Your buddy will help you explore the world around you by letting you know about interesting places nearby! Your buddy will also bring you Souvenirs, which you can keep track of on the buddy profile page.
• Best Buddy: Become Best Buddies, and your buddy will sport a Best Buddy Ribbon to show off to everyone just how close you two are! Pokémon that you’re Best Buddies with can get a CP boost in combat as long as they’re still assigned as your Buddy Pokémon.

How to become better friends with your buddy
Become better friends with your buddy by earning affection. Affection is measured by hearts, and you can earn hearts with your buddy by exploring with your buddy on the map, battling with your buddy, playing with and feeding your buddy, and taking snapshots of your buddy. The more affection you earn, the better your buddy’s mood will be!

When you reach the highest mood (excited), you can unlock the following Perks:

• The distance it takes for your buddy to find Candy will be cut in half.
• The number of hearts earned per action will double.
• Trainers can earn bonus hearts!

With the upgraded buddy profile page, you’ll see your buddy’s progress toward finding Candy, your buddy’s current mood, a chart of daily activities you can do to earn affection with your buddy, and your Buddy Level! You’ll also be able to see the history of other Pokémon who have been your buddy and the adventures you’ve shared together. Remember: friendship is something you build together! So be sure to complete the daily activities with your buddy each day to earn more affection and become fast friends!

Coming soon: Meet your (real-world) buddy’s buddies, too! After Buddy Adventure is available to Trainers around the world, there’ll be even more to look forward to. Soon, your buddy will be able to meet your fellow Trainers’ buddies in Shared AR Experience mode!

In the new Shared AR Experience mode, you can sync up with up to two other Trainers with AR+ to take a group photo with your buddies together! It’ll be the perfect chance to create your own epic Pokémon moments and capture new Pokémon memories with your friends!


We hope you have a blast discovering all the new ways you can bond with your Buddy Pokémon, Trainers! Be sure to share your favorite buddy moments and photos with #PokemonGOBuddy once the feature is released.

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/en/post/buddyadventurelaunch/

Dev Insights: Discovering more with Buddy Adventure

Trainers, The bond between Trainers and their Pokémon has been at the core of every part of the Pokémon franchise, from the main-series games to the anime and beyond. The partnership between a Pokémon and its Trainer is built on trust, and as with any great partnership, those involved grow together, play together, and explore together. In the new Buddy Adventure feature, Trainers worldwide will be able to experience what it’s really like to have a Pokémon exploring the world with them.

Collaborating with our partners like Best Buddies!
“Since launching Pokémon GO, this might be the most collaborative feature we have had with The Pokémon Company,” shared Ryuta Hiroi, the lead Niantic product manager on the project. “Even with your phone in your pocket, you’ll feel like your buddy is right beside you!”

Niantic tech artist Lena Verstappen added to the point about collaborating with our partners, mentioning that there was a deeply respectful way in which each and every Pokémon was treated throughout the process of developing the features.

Each Pokémon species has been designed to express itself in distinct ways, and the team here at Niantic found itself time and again charmed by Pokémon. From tackling the fact that Exeggcute has six heads to taking on the challenge of feeding an Alolan Exeggutor (“How do you feed something so tall?” said Lena), everyone came away with a deeper appreciation for not only the partnerships we had but for the Pokémon themselves.

“It’s almost as if each Pokémon were a family member!” Lena shared. “How they eat, how they walk, and even where the Best Buddy Ribbon should be placed on each Pokémon’s body—all of this and more was taken into account when crafting an as-immersive-as-possible experience.”

“I’m surprised by the number of Pokémon I’m falling in love with from interacting with them,” said Laura Warner, the lead game designer on the project. “Like watching a Spheal roll behind me on the map... I just care about Pokémon unlike ever before. We’re excited for Trainers to try out different buddies and see how each one becomes their friend!”


Challenges along the road to exploration
Buddy Adventure touches on almost every aspect of Pokémon GO. You see your buddy on the map, you use your buddy in battle, and your buddy helps you when you catch Pokémon. Developing something as ambitious as this feature set was an interesting challenge for the team to tackle head on.

“When a feature is so all encompassing, it’s important to break it up from a development standpoint,” says Trey Williamson, the lead technical program manager on the feature. “What was Buddy Adventure’s ideal experience? What defines that ‘successful’ experience for a Trainer? It was very much a learn-as-you-go kind of process.” Determining what Trainers would want out of Buddy Adventure really helped the team focus their development on the most important parts of the feature.


Designing relationships with both Niantic and Pokémon values
Niantic products and features strive to bring people together in real life, get people moving, and encourage people to explore the areas around them and discover new places.

When the Buddy Pokémon feature was first released, we introduced the ability for Trainers to walk with their buddy to get Candy, which encourages exercise. Buddy Adventure will feature more discovery and exploration mechanics than ever before. Upon reaching a certain Buddy Level, buddies will be able to alert their Trainers whenever an interesting PokéStop is nearby. The upcoming shared AR mode creates a meaningful real-world social experience by letting up to three Trainers place their Pokémon in the same space and take a photo together. We hope that features like this will enrich Trainers’ lives as they discover even more places alongside their buddies.

Our core design philosophy was not the only guiding compass when developing Buddy Adventure. We also wanted to make sure it still fit within the Pokémon universe. In this case, we wanted Trainers to be able to feel as if their buddy is a true partner and friend—just like in the sorts of partnerships they’ve seen in various Pokémon series in the past!

The experience of Buddy Adventure goes beyond the AR experience. You see your buddy on the map. Your Pokémon is growing alongside you. Your Pokémon can help you in Pokémon encounters once you reach a certain Buddy Level, which really makes you feel like your Pokémon is there to help you. It creates a special feeling. You and your buddy have a real partnership.

—Ethan Chan, technical lead for Buddy Adventure and Pokémon GO client engineer
Introducing: Your Buddy Adventure!
We feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have been able to work on a feature that will let Trainers get closer to their Pokémon while exploring the world around them. We cannot wait for you all to experience Buddy Adventure and create memories and relationships with your Buddy Pokémon that will last!

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/en/post/buddyadventure-devinsights/

YouTube Clip - Pokémon GO Buddy Adventures

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C461fBV-J7c

YouTube Clip - Pokémon GO Buddy Adventures

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs22v0XUKyU