Yesterday I was super lucky: I became Lucky Friends with both my husband and another friend! 

Becoming Lucky Friends is somewhat rare, and it’s not something you can force. It happens by random chance. 

You have a 5% chance of becoming Lucky Friends every time you interact with a Best Friend, so basically for every 100 interactions, 5 might be lucky. If you have friends who are local (and I hope that you do), grow your friendship with them until you are Best Friends, but don’t stop there! Continue to interact every day, if you can. The more you interact, the more chances you have to become Lucky Friends. And when it happens, it’s so exciting! It’s like winning the lottery!

You may be asking, what’s so great about being Lucky Friends? Well, when you become Lucky Friends, you are guaranteed that the next Pokemon you trade will both be lucky. Lucky Pokemon have base stats of at least 12-12-12, and subsequently are stronger than average Pokemon. In addition, the required Stardust to power them up is half the usual requirement. Because it’s ‘cheaper’ to power them up, you can power them up much more quickly and spend fewer resources to do so.

How do you know when you’ve become Lucky Friends? First, remember that this can only happen with a Best Friend. What will happen is after you interact (whether it’s opening a gift they sent you, battling together in a gym or raid, or trading) their screenname will turn golden with little golden bubbles around it. You will very soon get a pop up on your screen announcing that you and your friend have become Lucky Friends. It’s not possible to miss it; you’ll know.

You don’t have to trade as soon as you become Lucky Friends–the friendship will remain Lucky until your next trade, even if that’s weeks or months away. But you won’t have any more chances to become Lucky with the same friend until after you’ve traded. You can’t be double Lucky, so to speak. So trade as soon as you are able, so that the clock will reset and you might become Lucky with that friend again.

When you are ready to trade with your Lucky Friend, you do have to be in the same vicinity. You must be at least within the same distance as you would to interact with a gym or spin a Pokestop. Unfortunately, at this time it is not possible to trade with friends who are oceans or even a few miles away. (But, who knows? Maybe someday Niantic will change that.)

Before you initiate the trade with your Lucky Friend, have a conversation about what Pokemon you’d both like to receive. This is a great opportunity to add a strong fighter to your team that you can quickly power up to max level. Take into consideration how much Stardust will be required to make the trade; if it’s a Pokemon that you don’t yet have in your Pokedex, it will cost significantly more Stardust.

My husband and I traded the same day we became Lucky Friends. He had been thinking about building a team of Dragonites, so he asked me to give him a Dratini or Dragonair. Luckily (haha, see what I did there?), I happened to have a Dratini to give him. After much deliberation, I asked him to give me a Litwick, which I can evolve into Chadelure.

Remember, the Pokemon you receive will be cheaper to power up, so you want to pick something that will be an asset to your team. Dragonite and Chandelure are not “A1” Pokemon, but they have diverse movesets and are good for raiding, which is a favorite activity of ours. The stats the Pokemon have before the trade don’t matter, because traded Lucky Pokemon are guaranteed to have at least 12-12-12 stats. So don’t worry too much about that!

Once you have your Lucky Pokemon, your last step is to enjoy powering it up and/or evolving it. If your Pokemon is Legendary, it would probably be a good idea to use your Rare Candy to power it up, like I did with Mewtwo. Don’t be afraid to use TMs to give it the optimal moveset.  Once you’ve done that, you’ll have a killer Pokemon to use to your advantage.

There are many benefits to having lots of friends in Pokemon GO, but becoming Lucky Friends and getting a Lucky Pokemon is one of the more exciting aspects, because it doesn’t happen too often!

But don’t lose patience; keep sending and receiving gifts with your local friends. When the time comes that you become Lucky, you’ll have the happy advantage of receiving a Lucky Pokemon. Because your Lucky Pokemon is so cheap to power up, it could quickly become your strongest Pokemon, and be the biggest asset to your attack lineup. The reward is well worth all your planning and walking and interacting!

Do you have a Pokemon GO topic you’d like to see featured in this blog? Please send your idea in an email to: emily@domedion.com. 

By Emily Domedion