Just like Ash chose Pikachu, Pokémon Go gives you the ability to choose Buddy Pokémon to take with you on your adventures. Sadly, the Buddy Pokémon doesn’t appear on the map with you when you walk around — at least not yet! — but it does appear with you on the avatar button and on your player screen.
When you walk with your Buddy you get candy that you can use to evolve it, power it up, or both. Walk a Larvitar, get candy you can use to evolve Pupitar and Tyranitar, and power up Tyranitar. Walk Chansey, get candy you can use to evolve and power up Blissey.
You can get a lot more candy from hatching an egg or catching a Pokémon in the wild than you can walking a Pokémon, of course. But you never know when you’ll catch or hatch a specific Pokémon,and some Pokémon can’t be hatched from eggs at all.
So, your Buddy should be a Pokémon you want to evolve, power up, or both, and one that’s rare, so it’s candy is hard to come by any other way. Here are my recommendations!
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Cheat sheet! Which Pokémon are the best to Buddy up?
Buddy with these Pokémon whenever possible to evolve and power up more top-tier Gym defenders and attackers:
- Chansey, so you can evolve and power up Blissey.
- Snorlax, so you can power it up.
- Magikarp, so you can evolve and power up Gyarados.
- Larvitar, so you can evolve and power up Tyranitar.
- Machop, so you can evolve and power up Machamp (with counter and dynamic punch).
- Dratini, so you can evolve and power up Dragonite.
- Rhyhorn, so you can evolve and power up Rhydon.
Buddy with these Pokémon only until you have enough candy to evolve them and complete your Pokédex:
- Chikorita, so you can evolve Meganium.
- Cyndaquil, so you can evolve Typhlosion.
- Totodile, so you can evolve Feraligatr.
- Mareep, so you can evolve Amphoros.
- Sunkern, so you can evolve Sun Flora (with a Sun Stone).
- Togepi, so you can evolve Togetic.
- Chinchou, so you can evolve Lanturn.
- Swinhub, so you can evolve Poliswine.
- Snubbull, so you can evolve Granbull.
- Teddiursa, so you can evolve Usaring.
- Houndour, so you can evolve Houndoom.
- Marill, so you can evolve Azumarill.
- Hoppip, so you can evolve Jumpluff.
- Grimer, so you can evolve Muk.
- Koffing, so you can evolve Weezing.
Why these Pokémon? Keep reading!
Wait, no evolved forms as buddies — why not?
Because then you can’t use them in Gyms, which is a waste. The candy is the same regardless of whether you’re using a baby, base, or evolved form. So, by making a lower form your candy, you don’t take the higher form out of the game.
In other words, walk Lavitar to get candy to power up Tyranitar. Best of both worlds.
How do you add or change your Buddy Pokémon in Pokémon Go?
If you’re brand new to Pokémon Go, here’s how to choose or change…