Leaked Pokémon Go ‘buddy system’ will let you farm candies just by walking

Dedicated Pokemon Go players who have been playing the game consistently since day one are finding themselves at a sort of crossroads. By now, they’re likely getting real close to “catching them all” and have a difficult decisions to make: either quit playing altogether, or continue their journey of building up an army of high level Pokemon to use in gym battles. Even then, it’s safe to say that for rare Pokemon, this is much easier said then done.

Unlike commons, rare Pokemon are extremely hard to come by. This means farming for candies to max out their CP level is much harder to accomplish for something like an Aerodactyl than a Pidgeot or Arbok. This is even more concerning when you factor in legendaries — something we know are coming and may only show up at special events — and how nearly impossible it would be to power up these types of Pokemon using the game’s current system. But there could be hope…

Once again, someone has cracked open Pokemon Go’s code and discovered references to what could be a “buddy system” coming in a future update. It seems that, by making a Pokemon your special little buddy, it would appear on the map along with your avatar, with it’s placement either on your shoulder, walking behind you, or flying above. According to the code, making a Pokemon your buddy would allow you to gain “Buddy Candies” (something we’re assuming would be correlate with that specific Pokemon) based on the distance traveled in the real world. It’s pretty much the same way the egg hatching works in the game right now.

km_buddy_distance

BUDDY_MEDIUM, BUDDY_SHOULDER, BUDDY_BIG, BUDDY_FLYING

buddy_candy_awarded

Making a Pokemon your buddy apparently would mean it can’t be transferred or used in gym battles during that time, but it would a great way to farm candies for incredibly rare Pokemon, whether it’s a Mewtwo, or a regional exclusive obtained in a trade. In fact, this seems to be the only logical way of implementing something like this and is the perfect way to get delinquent players up off the couch, and out on the town again.

The biggest question, of course, is when Niantic plans on rolling out the feature. It would make sense to push it out whenever legendaries go live, but we wouldn’t mind seeing in before then. The big question is if it were to arrive tomorrow — which of your Pokemon would you choose to make your buddy?

UPDATE: It’s official!

[via Reddit]