The addition of a buddy in Pokémon Go gives you the chance to walk around with your favorite Pokémon and explore the world together. There are multiple benefits for picking a certain buddy, such as at certain distances you’ll earn candy for that Pokémon, making it easier to power them up and make them stronger. This is especially useful for legendary or even rare captures you might have. If you walk with your buddy enough and complete the tasks for it every day, eventually, you’re going to earn the Best Buddy status with that Pokémon.
You can reach four statuses with a Pokémon that you’ve chosen to make your buddy: Good Buddy, Great Buddy, Ultra Buddy, and Best Buddy. Best Buddy is the highest stats, with all Pokémon starting at Good Buddy. You can level up your status with your buddy by feeding them, walking together, battling, playing together, taking a snapshot of them, or visiting a new place. Each day, you can complete a maximum number of activities with that buddy. Each activity gives you hearts.
These are the amount of hearts you’re going to need to earn with your buddy Pokémon to reach each level.
- Good Buddy: One heart
- Great Buddy: 70 hearts
- Ultra Buddy: 150 hearts
- Best Buddy: 300 hearts
If you complete all of the daily activities you can do with your buddy, you have the chance to earn at least 12 hearts a day. When your buddy Pokémon has reached the “excited” mood, they receive double hearts, giving you the chance to earn bonus hearts, but this is a fairly infrequent mood level for most Pokémon, so I wouldn’t bet on this happening outside of using a Poffin, a special treat you can feed your buddy.
