Things I’d Like Pokemon Buddies to do
I love the whole buddy system in Pokemon GO. It’s like having a little virtual companion that doesn’t need much maintenance. However, considering how long it takes to get to Best Buddies, the incentives for doing so are a bit… lackluster. So today I’ll be musing about some extra incentives that I’d like to see.
Spin Pokestops
Buddies actually already have a thing to do with pokestops, but it’s not that useful. After all, we can already see Pokestops we haven’t visited yet. The buddy just doesn’t do anything useful. However, we can put our Pokemon to work by having it spin a Pokestop for us. Because, let’s face it, everyone has been in that situation where a Pokestop is just out of reach. With your buddy, they wander around as it is, so why not get them to spin a Pokestop for you?
Some might consider this a bit unbalanced, so it would have a cooldown or something, but it does mean having your buddy on the map has extra benefits.
Point to rare Pokemon
Another thing buddies could do is show nearby rarer Pokemon. They would act like the nearby radar but better. Actually, the unspun Pokestop idea would work better if it showed a Pokestop with a nearby rare Pokemon. Alternatively, give us some sort of radar or something that says “rare Pokemon around here.”
As to what exactly counts as a rare Pokemon, I have no idea. There is a massive difference between a rare Larvitar and a rare Unown.
Boost allies ever so slightly in raids
This might be stepping on the toes of Mega Pokemon, but I feel that a best buddy in a raid should give a small boost. Maybe a defensive boost while your buddy is out. It might end up with someone putting their best buddy Rattata in a raid, but that won’t last long at all.
More animations
Really, our Pokemon are pretty static individuals. They use the same sort of animation for everything. It would be nice to be able to command our Pokemon to do tricks, like balancing a snack on their nose, giving hi-fives on demand and laying down, rolling over and playing dead. At the very least, a sleeping animation would be neat.
Allow us to un-buddy a Pokemon
Ok, this seems a bit mean. Whenever you set a Pokemon as your buddy, it is kept permanently in a list on your profile page. However, this list will quickly fill up with Pokemon you don’t want as a buddy. For example, in an event where Eevee’s evolutions could all get special moves, you had to buddy with various Eevees to evolve them into Umbreon, Espeon and Sylveon. But now, in my own buddy list, I have tons of Eeveelutions clogging up space. I’d like to remove all those Eeveelutions and only see Pokemon that I want to work towards. The same goes for Pokemon that require doing things as a buddy to evolve.
At the very least, let us remove good and great buddies. Once you reach ultra buddies, it’s pretty clear that you do want them to reach best buddies.
And there we have it, some nice suggestions for buddy Pokemon, to make them worth the effort.