Update March 2024: Niantic has introduced a feature that allows you to use a lucky egg when those friendhips milestones come up. That is covered by a new post.
As I may have mentioned before, the amount of xp that Pokemon Go requires in order to get from the old level 40 cap to level 50 is… a lot, to use the technical term.
Pokemon Go – Since 2016
It was 20 million xp to get to level 40, with 5 million of that being for just the final level. And that took us some time to conquer.
Going from level 40 to 50 is a solid 156 million xp, that last jump from 49 to 50 being 30 million of the ride all on its own.
My wife and I are currently level 43, which means we have already earned more than 22.5 million xp, or more that those first 40 levels, and we’re both past the half way mark to 44, which requires another 11 million xp to make.
Fortunately Niantic has changed up things since the early days so that earning xp isn’t quite as onerous as it used to be. There have been little buffs to xp for just catching Pokemon all the way up to quite large xp rewards for friendship levels.
The whole “friends” thing was introduced back in 2018, so has been there for a while. But it has become increasingly important to leveling up.
At each friendship level, which are achieved by exchanging a daily gift for a set number of days, shake out as:
- Good Friends – 3,000 xp
- Great Friends – 10,000 xp
- Ultra Friends – 50,000 xp
- Best Friends – 100,000 xp
So when you’re trying to get to 11 million xp, it is good to get some best friends. You need to advance 67 or so people to best friend to get there.
But, then there are lucky eggs.
A lucky egg gives you a 30 minute buff that doubles your xp gain, so if you really want to get ahead it is best to use one of those when your friendship level increases, at least for Ultra and Best friends.
And therein lies the catch.
When you get to that last day, when you hit the point when your friendship levels up with somebody, you have to be on the ball because you have a brief amount of time between when you log in and when the game processes that event in which to pop that lucky egg to double your xp.
I am a bit obsessive and keep my friends list sorted by friendship level so I can see who is getting close at a glace. When I know I am close, when I have seen the “1 more day” notice in their profile, I go straight to the friends list to check as soon as I log in to see if it is time.
If I am diligent, I catch the update before it hits. You have enough time to leave the friends list and open up your inventory to activate the lucky egg. And if it all works out, then you get the big xp bonus.
Best friends with Tipa!
But if you miss it, if the update comes when you’re doing something else, it may catch you by surprise and the first sign you’ll get is the friendship change message coming up… without any bonus xp.
And there are other problems, like when you aren’t paying close enough attention and you can’t remember if that “1 more day” notation came up today or was that yesterday, so today is the big day.
Then there are the times when Pokemon Go just screws up. This past week I had somebody hit best friend, used a lucky egg, left the game open… don’t forget to do that, don’t pop that egg and then close the game… I’ve done that before and wasted an egg… and had it sit there for the full 30 minutes and got nothing. No message, no update.
So I figured I missed it, that I was too late. Then two days later the game suddenly realized we were best friends and finally gave me the notification. No bonus xp on that one.
Finally, there is the fun of hitting that one more day situation with a random stranger you have friended, so you cannot coordinate opening that final gift. So you both sit there refusing to send each other a gift because only one of you has to open the next one to trigger the event and you want to make sure it happens when you are ready.
Or there is the person who wants to queue up a bunch of people for their lucky egg, so when you finally concede and just send them a gift and hope that you’ll catch it when they open it up… and then they wait for three weeks.
Such drama on the friends list.
But the worst is that person who stops playing when they are just a day or two away from the big moment. I have three people who are one or two days away from hitting the best friend mark… and they have been sitting there for months.
It is just the way it goes when you’re trying to level up in Pokemon Go.
