How many friends can players have in Pokemon GO? (December 2022)

Official artwork for Pokemon GO (Image via Niantic)
Official artwork for Pokemon GO (Image via Niantic)

Pokemon GO has always been a predominantly social experience. Whether it's challenging Raid Battles, trading and battling, or sending gifts, players will always need friends to get the results they want.

Recently, with the debut of Scatterbug, Spewpa, and Vivillon, gamers are once again turning their focus to the title's social aspects. The last of the three creatures has eighteen different forms at the time of writing. To avoid making trainers travel, Niantic has given them an easy way to obtain every pattern entirely for free. Enter the new Postcard mechanic; by sending gifts to friends, gamers can obtain Postcards from the places their friends are playing in.

To evolve every form or pattern of Vivillon as fast as possible, players are going to need a lot of buddies. However, much like other online video games, Pokemon GO has a limit on the number of trainers one can add to their Friends List. So how many pals can players have in the title, and how should one go about adding them?


Pokemon GO's social mechanics: Everything to know

Official artwork for Pokemon GO (Image via Niantic)
Official artwork for Pokemon GO (Image via Niantic)

Thankfully, Niantic has been rather generous with the number of friends a player can have. One can add up to a total of four hundred individual trainers to their Friends List. With gamers only requiring seventeen different Postcards to receive all the forms of Vivillon, this number is more than enough for them to get all the patterns of the aforementioned Pokemon.

Having a lot of in-game buddies is often the best idea any casual or hardcore player can have. This is because having multiple people on the Friends List makes completing most Raid Battles much easier, as this increases the likelihood of someone responding to a Raid invitation. More friends also mean more gifts that grant trainers a range of items as well as seven-kilometer Eggs.

If a gamer wants to fill the Friends List entirely, they have to find and interact with four hundred people and get their Friend Codes. That is a very large number of individuals to interact with. Thankfully, there are many different online communities trainers can join to have an easier time adding individuals to the aforementioned list.

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Social media sites are a good place to look for Friend Codes. Whenever the official Pokemon GO Twitter account makes a post, there are often players posting these codes to find other trainers to make acquaintances with. There are also groups on Facebook dedicated to Pokemon GO, with many catering to different states, provinces, or sometimes even cities.

With all the newfound friends players can make using places like social media and message board sites, the next natural step is to try and find a Raid Group. Normally, in message board groups like Facebook Communities, gamers will send messages to the board detailing the raid they are looking to pursue. Responding to these messages with the player's own Friend Code often results in a Raid invitation.

Overall, Pokemon GO's social aspects are among the many things trainers have grown to love about the title. Not many mobile games can claim to have a community as open and welcoming as this one, so everyone is always encouraged to make as many friends as possible.