Sometimes your friends will be luckier than you in Pokémon GO, or they live in a different part of the world, giving them access to Pokémon you wouldn't encounter. To help make encountering these Pokémon potentially rarer, Niantic has allowed friends to trade with each other. You need to know some steps of trading when doing it with other trainers.
How to trade with friends
The first thing you need to do before trading with another trainer is to add them to your friends list. You will need to send them your 12-digit code, or receive theirs, and become friends. After that, there is no longer a cooldown period. You can start trading with them immediately. You also need to be Trainer Level 10 to start trading as well.
After that, you need to click on your avatar icon in the lower left part of the screen and visit your friends list. From there, click on the trainer you want to trade with and open their profile. On the right side of this section, you should have the option to trade. Click on it and the other trainer will get a notification that you want to trade with them. They must accept it to start trading.
You can choose a Pokémon from your list to send with them and wait for them to make their selection. The trade should be quick and be sure to consult the other trainer on what you want in trade.
You can only trade with Trainers when you are close enough to them. You will not be able to trade with Trainers that are too far away.
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Stardust costs for trading
Unfortunately, you cannot trade on a whim. You must gift Stardust to trade with friends, and the values vary based on your friendship levels. The higher the friendship level with a trainer, the less stardust you need to spend. These values vary for unowned Pokemon, owned Pokemon, and Shiny Pokemon of both categories.
Pokémon without an owner
- Good friend – Shiny is 1000000, and regular is 20000
- Big Friend – shiny is 800 and regular is 000
- Ultra Fiend – Shiny is 80 and Regular is 000
- Best Friend – shiny is 40 and regular is 000
owned pokemon
- Good friend – shiny is 20 and regular is 000
- Tall Friend – Brilliant is 16 and Regular is 000
- Ultra Friend – Shiny is 1600 and regular is 8
- Best Friend – shiny is 800 and regular is 4
Change of individual values
When you trade a Pokemon with another trainer, chances are its individual values (IV) will change. There is a random chance that these IVs will increase or decrease. If they increase, the Pokémon becomes stronger than it could have been originally, but if it decreases, it becomes weaker.
Trading Pokemon can become a gamble, and if you get it wrong, you might walk away with a weaker Pokemon than you initially thought. You can see the range of potential stat changes each Pokemon has, giving you a decent idea of the outcome. Unfortunately, you can only trade a Pokemon once, and you can't continuously trade them in an attempt to get yourself perfect IVs.
