On Legendary Buddies

I like the buddy concept in Pokemon GO. It’s one of the few things where Pokemon are treated as friends rather than candy. Sure, not a lot happens with the buddy system, but it’s a unique thing that you can passively work towards. Some Pokemon are easier to walk than others, and walking a Pokemon to Best Buddy isn’t always needed. I’ve also recommended in the past to not walk a Legendary or Mythical Pokemon, because they take too long before getting any tangible benefits.

Well, call me stupid, because I don’t actually listen to my own ramblings. At all, really.

Legendary Buddies are cool.

I mean, who DOESN’T want to be followed around by a giant sky noodle? Or what about Mewtwo, the king of psychic types? Sure, you can walk literally any Pokemon you want. But Legendary Pokemon are basically deities, and mythical Pokemon are stupidly rare.

The other day, I finally got a shiny Giratina and a shiny Palkia to Best Buddies. I had started off leveling up both off them at the same time, then switched to Giratina only when I hit Great Buddy with them. Once Giratina was done, I swapped back to Palkia and best buddy-ed him too.

Since they were both now Best Buddies, I started the same old quest of choosing a new buddy. As an aside, in that article, it turns out that I was mostly right, that Mega Pokemon would be tied to both Raids and Buddies. Thankfully, future me knows a bit better. Funnily enough, walking a buddy is a genuinely great way to get Mega Candy, although you need to unlock the Mega in the Pokedex before you can start walking.

But yeah, I spent quite a long time trying to decide on who to walk.

20km per candy does suck though.

Walking 20km for one single candy is a bit of a trek. It does very much depend on the person though. A hardcore player could potentially do 20km in a shortish amount of time. However, I am a lazy fucker and don’t walk around nearly enough.

But at the same time though, depending on what you are walking, walking a Pokemon is the third fastest way to get candy, after catching and transferring a Pokemon (especially with a Pinap), or flat out feeding them Rare Candies. However, transferring Pokemon is inefficient for most Legendaries. And if a Pokemon isn’t in raids or as a reward for GBL, then walking and and rare candy are the ONLY way you can get more candy for a Legendary. Both the rare candy option and the walking option aren’t the fastest (unless you always use Poffins or have a huge stockpile of rare candy) but they are the most consistent way to earn candy. On top of that, walking a higher leveled Pokemon is the only (mostly) consistent way to get XL Candy.

On the plus side, if you have the time, patience or money, you can make things a little easier. Making your buddy excited though halves the distance needed for a candy.

But honestly, it’s just cool.

At the end of the day, I chose the cool option. And there are few Pokemon that are as cool and badass as a shiny, level 40, 98% Rayquaza.

Honestly it’s kinda weird that I haven’t made Ultra Noodle (the Rayquaza) my buddy yet…