How to Get More Friends in Pokémon GO for Gifts, XP, Raids and Vivillon

If you've been playing Pokémon GO for more than a few weeks, you've probably noticed that a good chunk of the game's rewards are locked behind having friends — and not just any friends, ones who actually log in. Gifts, XP bonuses, raid help, Vivillon postcards: all of it depends on your friends list being alive, not just full. Most players don't struggle with understanding how the friend system works. They struggle with finding people who stick around.

Why do you need more friends in Pokémon GO?

It's easy to treat the friends tab as an afterthought, but it quietly touches a lot of the game. A decent friends list gets you:

• Gifts from PokéStops and Gyms, which turn into items, Stardust, and Egg chances.
• Friendship levels that unlock trade discounts and a solid one-time XP payout each time you level up.
• Raid partners, including remote raids with people who live nowhere near you.
• Cheaper Pokémon trades once you've known someone in-game for a while.
• Postcards from wherever your friends live — which, as we'll get to, matter a lot for Vivillon.

None of this costs money. It just costs having friends who actually open the app.

How to add friends in Pokémon GO

Once you've got a code, adding someone takes about ten seconds:

1. Open your Trainer Profile.
2. Tap the Friends tab.
3. Tap Add Friend.
4. Type in their 12-digit Trainer Code (or hand them yours instead).

As soon as they accept, you can start sending each other gifts. If you're standing next to someone in person — at a raid, a Community Day, wherever — you can also just scan their QR code instead of typing anything.

Best ways to find active Pokémon GO friends

Adding a friend is trivial. Finding one who's still playing next month is the actual challenge. A few things that tend to work:

• Friend Code — the active Pokémon GO friend codes page on this site exists for exactly this. Drop your own code, grab a few that look recent, done.
• Reddit — there are whole threads of people posting codes specifically looking for gifts, XP, or raid partners.
• Discord — most regional and global Pokémon GO servers have a friend-code channel buried somewhere in the sidebar.
• People you meet at Community Days or raid hours. In-person friends tend to stick because you already know they play — you just watched them do it.

One rule of thumb that saves a lot of wasted adds: a code posted an hour ago is much more likely to be active than one that's been sitting on a page since last spring.

How friends help you earn XP faster

Trading gifts with a friend nudges your friendship level up through five stages — Good, Great, Ultra, Best, and finally Best Friend. Each stage-up hands you a one-time XP bonus, and the later ones aren't small. Hitting Best Friend with someone is genuinely one of the bigger single XP payouts you'll see outside of raids.

Because that bonus fires the moment you level up, popping a Lucky Egg right before a bunch of friendships are about to tick over is a classic trick — you're basically doubling XP that was already coming your way for free. The more active friends you've got climbing toward Best Friend with you, the more of these you can line up.

How friends help with Vivillon patterns

This part surprises a lot of players. Vivillon's regional patterns don't come from catching Scatterbug or Spewpa somewhere exotic — they come from postcards, and postcards mostly show up as gifts from friends who live in a different region than you.

Each postcard is stamped with the region it came from. Once you've collected postcards from enough different places, the matching Vivillon pattern unlocks, along with the medal that goes with it. So a friends list stacked entirely with people from your own country won't get you far here — you specifically want friends scattered across different regions sending you gifts on a regular basis. It's honestly one of the better reasons to add trainers outside your usual circle instead of just filling slots with local players.

Tips to get better Pokémon GO friends

• Read the fine print on a posted code — "daily gifts," "XP grind," "raids," or a country name usually signals someone who's serious about it.
• Send gifts every day if you can. People reciprocate. Skip a week and you'll notice your return rate drop too.
• Clear out anyone who hasn't opened a gift in a couple of weeks. The cap is 400, and a dead slot is a wasted one.
• Keep your own code posted somewhere and bump it occasionally — it's a two-way street.
• If Vivillon is the goal, be deliberate about adding friends from regions you don't already have postcards from.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find my Pokémon GO friend code?

Trainer Profile → Friends tab. Your 12-digit code sits right at the top.

How do I add friends in Pokémon GO?

Trainer Profile → Friends → Add Friend, then enter a code or scan a QR code in person.

Why do I need Pokémon GO friends?

Mostly for the daily gifts, the XP that comes with leveling up friendships, cheaper trades, remote raid invites, and the postcards that unlock Vivillon.

Can friends help me get Vivillon patterns?

Yes — the postcards you get as gifts show where they came from, and enough different regions unlocks the pattern for that area.

How do gifts help with XP?

They build friendship levels, and leveling up pays out XP in one lump sum — bigger than you'd expect, especially paired with a Lucky Egg.

Where can I find active Pokémon GO friend codes?

The Pokémon GO friend codes page on Friend Code is updated with codes from real players, so it's a decent place to start if your own list is looking thin.

Ready to grow your friends list?

Head over to the Pokémon GO friend codes page to share your Pokémon GO trainer code and start adding players. And if you're into other mobile games as well, Friend Code has active communities for Nintendo Switch, Pokémon HOME, Monopoly GO, Township, Fortnite, and Mario Kart Tour too — worth a look once you're done here.