Pokemon Go is now available for iOS and Android. (Niantic)
The highly-anticipated buddy system is beginning to roll out to Pokemon Go trainers.
This, of course, is the update that allows players to choose one Pokemon as a buddy and then walk around with it throughout the game. Aside from it just being incredibly cool to be able to walk with a Pokemon like a pet, the main benefit is that you receive candy for every few kilometers you travel with this Pokemon. For instance, if your buddy is Dratini, you will receive Dratini candy for walking with it.
You can switch your buddy at any time, although doing so will erase any progress you had with that particular Pokemon. As well, it unfortunately does not appear on the map with you, but it does appear on your avatar screen and on the bottom right of the game’s screen at all times.
The overwhelming majority of players do not yet have the update. But a few lucky ones do, and so we now know exactly what the system looks like and how it operates.
These screenshots come from the Reddit user evilili on the Pokemon Go subreddit. The first photo shows the player selecting Charmander as their buddy. The second one shows where the new “buddy” button appears; the player’s language is set to German, but it’s the option “Kumpel” with the two smiley faces. The third photo shows the player’s character and their buddy standing next to each other, and the fourth shows what the map looks like once you have a buddy selected. Click through the arrows to move to the next photo:
As well, when you go to your buddy, you can see how much progress you have made and how much further you have to walk to get candy. Here’s an example of what that looks like; you can see that Lapras requires 5km walked to receive a single piece of candy.
It seems you may also be able to receive additional pieces of candy; here’s an example of a player’s buddy Pokemon “finding” candy while on a walk.
The new Pokemon Go update just started to hit app stores on Saturday, but it should hopefully make its way to your area by the end of the weekend.