Even more than Candy, Stardust is the currency of Pokémon Go. You need it to power up your Pokémon for Gym battles and Raids. You also need it to trade them with other players and to buy secondary charge moves. As though all that wasn’t enough, Stardust is also necessary for Purifying Shadow Pokémon. Fortunately, we here at iMore know how to earn Stardust fast, and be sure to check out our best Pokémon Go accessories. A Pokémon Go Plus is sure to increase your Stardust stock!
TL;DR: How do you get Stardust in Pokémon Go fast?
If you just want to grind for Stardust similarly to grinding for XP:
- Buy a Pokémon Go Plus (opens in new tab) and catch as many Pokémon as you can, as often as you can. Especially Weather boosted Pokémon. (And spin, spin, spin PokéStops and Gyms to keep up your supply of Poké Balls.)
- Buy Incubators and collect and hatch as many Pokémon Eggs as you can, all the time. (And walk, walk, walk to hatch them.)
- Feed as many Berries to as many friendly Pokémon as you can every half hour. (And spin, spin, spin PokéStops and Gyms to keep up your Berry supply.)
- Open the maximum of 20 Gifts a day to get as much Stardust as you can from them.
- Find and complete all the Field Research tasks that give you Stardust as a reward.
- Make sure to use at least your Free Raid Pass to get the Stardust reward every day.
- Use a Star Piece to get 1.5x more Star Dust whenever you’re about to grind hard-core.
- When and if there’s a Stardust event, make the most of it. Do all the above and make sure you always have a Star Piece active to multiply your earnings.
There are a variety of ways to get Stardust in Pokémon Go:
Stardust from catches
- 100 Stardust per base-level Pokémon caught in the wild.
- 300 Stardust per 2nd-evolution Pokémon caught in the wild.
- 500 Stardust per 3rd-evolution Pokémon caught in the wild.
- 600 Stardust for each Daily Catch Bonus.
- 3000 Stardust for the 7-day Weekly Catch Bonus.
Stardust from Weather-boosted catches
- 125 Stardust per Weather-boosted base-level Pokémon caught in the wild.
- 350 Stardust per Weather-boosted 2nd-evolution Pokémon caught in the wild.
- 625 Stardust per Weather-boosted 3rd-evolution Pokémon caught in the wild.
Stardust from hatches
- 400-800 Stardust per KM Egg hatched.
- 800-1600 Stardust per 5 KM Egg hatched.
- 1600-3200 Stardust per 10 KM Egg hatched.
Stardust from Gyms
- 20 Stardust per Berry fed to a friendly Pokémon on a Gym.
- 500 Stardust per Raid Boss beaten.
Stardust from Research
- 100-4000 Stardust for completing certain Field Research tasks
- 2000 Stardust for completing seven days of Field Research (Breakthrough)
- 2000-10,000 Stardust for completing Special Research tasks (e.g. Mew quest)
Stardust from Gifts
- 0-300 per Gift opened (in lots of 100)
Stardust from Events
Whether on Community Day or during a themed event or even as a reward for global achievements, Pokemon Go often boosts the amount of Stardust players can earn for limited times. Setting aside extra time to play during these limited events can earn you loads of Stardust.