You've got the candy. You’ve checked the IVs. You’ve even hovered your thumb over that green button, only to realize it isn't there—or it's locked behind a weird requirement you can't quite figure out. It’s frustrating. We've all been there, staring at a Galarian Farfetch'd or a Pancham, wondering why the game is making us jump through hoops. The buddy evolve Pokemon Go mechanic is one of those features that Niantic added to spice things up, but honestly, it mostly just adds a layer of "wait, what do I do now?" to your afternoon walk.
It isn't just about walking anymore. Back in the day, you just walked a Magikarp for 400 candies and called it a day. Now? You're catching Dark-type Pokemon while a panda sits on your shoulder, or you're winning raids with a quill-bearing bird just to get a Sirfetch'd. It’s a grind. But it’s a specific kind of grind that requires you to actually engage with the Buddy System rather than just treating your Pokemon like a passive candy generator.
The Reality of the Buddy Evolve Pokemon Go Mechanic
The core of this system is simple: Niantic wants you to use the Buddy feature. If every evolution was just "collect 50 candy," the game would get stale fast. By tying evolution to buddy tasks, they force you to interact with the AR features, the map, and the combat system in ways you might otherwise ignore.
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Take Eevee, the poster child for complex evolutions. If you want a Sylveon, you don't just need candy; you need 70 Buddy Hearts. That’s not a "walk 5km" task. That is a multi-day commitment of petting, feeding berries, and taking snapshots. It’s a test of patience.
Interestingly, some of these requirements are actually hidden until you set the Pokemon as your buddy. You might look at your inventory and see a "???" where the evolve button should be. Once you swap that Pokemon into your active buddy slot, the requirement reveals itself. It might tell you to "Win 10 Raids" or "Catch 30 Poison-type Pokemon." If you swap that buddy out before finishing, don't worry—the progress usually saves. You can pick up right where you left off whenever you’re ready to deal with that specific grind again.
Why Some Evolutions Feel Impossible
Let's talk about Galarian Yamask. To get Runerigus, you have to win 10 raids while it's your buddy. Ten raids! For a free-to-play player using only daily passes, that’s a week and a half of work for one evolution. It feels heavy because it is.
Then there’s Primeape. To get Annihilape—a beast in the Great and Ultra Leagues—you have to defeat 30 Ghost or Psychic-type Pokemon while Primeape is your buddy. The trick here, which many players miss, is that you don't actually have to use Primeape in the battle. It just has to be "adventuring" with you. You can smash through a Team GO Rocket grunt or a friend in a trainer battle using your strongest counters, and it still counts.
Mastering the Specific Buddy Requirements
Not all buddy tasks are created equal. Some are passive, like walking, while others require active hunting. Understanding which category your Pokemon falls into will save you a lot of wasted time and Berries.
The Walkers
The most common buddy evolve Pokemon Go requirement is distance.
- Eevee to Espeon/Umbreon: Walk 10km and evolve during the day (Espeon) or night (Umbreon). This is a classic. Just make sure you have GPS signal when you hit that button, or the game might get confused about the time of day and give you a Vaporeon instead. Talk about a heartbreak.
- Feebas to Milotic: Walk 20km. Simple, but slow.
- Pawmo to Pawmot: Walk 25km. This one caught a lot of people off guard when the Paldea region launched because 25km is a significant jump from the usual 10km.
The Taskmasters
These are the ones that actually require you to play the game differently.
- Galarian Farfetch’d: Make 10 Excellent Throws. This doesn't have to be in a row, thankfully. If you’re struggling, find a legendary raid boss or a large Pokemon like Wailmer or Slowbro—their catch circles are massive targets.
- Pancham to Pangoro: Catch 32 Dark-type Pokemon. This is easy during a Halloween event but a total nightmare during a Grass-type themed week.
- Sliggoo to Goodra: This isn't strictly a buddy task, but it’s often confused with one. You need rain or a Rainy Lure Module. However, many players keep Sliggoo as their buddy to farm the massive 100-candy requirement while waiting for a thunderstorm.
The Heart-Seekers
Sylveon is the big one here. 70 hearts. You can speed this up by getting your buddy "Excited." If you give your buddy a Poffin, you double the hearts you can earn per day. If you don't want to spend coins on Poffins, you can manually get them excited by interacting with them every 30 minutes—play, feed, snapshot, and battle. It takes about two hours of consistent checking, but it cuts your Sylveon grind time in half.
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Common Mistakes That Reset Your Progress
One of the biggest pitfalls involves the "Walk X distance" requirement. In the buddy evolve Pokemon Go system, the game tracks the distance while the Pokemon is your buddy. If you walk 9.9km, swap to a different buddy to catch a raid, and then swap back, that progress is usually safe. However, there have been documented bugs where distance tracking lags.
Always check the evolution silhouette. If the "Evolve" button still shows a silhouette or a question mark instead of the actual Pokemon, the game hasn't registered that you've met the requirements yet. Do not evolve it until that button turns green and shows the correct sprite.
Another huge error: evolving the wrong Eevee. If you are going for Espeon or Umbreon, you must evolve it while it is still your active buddy. If you walk the 10km, swap it out for a Charizard, and then try to evolve the Eevee from your storage, you’re just going to get a random Flareon, Jolteon, or Vaporeon. Keep it on your shoulder until the transformation is complete.
Nuance in the "Battle" Requirements
When a Pokemon says "Win 10 raids" or "Defeat 30 types," the wording is very specific. For Annihilape, you don't need to be the one to deal the finishing blow with Primeape. You just need to have Primeape in your "buddy" slot.
Wait, it gets better. For the "Defeat 30 Ghost or Psychic types" requirement, you can actually cheese this with a friend. Hop into a trainer battle with a buddy, have them bring three low-CP Ghost types (like a 10 CP Gastly), and wipe them out. Do this 10 times. Boom. Requirement met in five minutes. You don't have to wait for Grunts to show up or for a specific event. This "friendship cheese" works for almost every battle-related buddy evolution.
Why Does Niantic Do This?
Honestly? It's about engagement metrics. But from a lore perspective, it actually makes sense. In the main series games, many of these Pokemon have unique evolution methods. Sirfetch'd evolved in Sword and Shield by landing three critical hits in a single battle. Since "critical hits" aren't really a thing in Go's standard catch screen, "10 Excellent Throws" is the closest thematic equivalent.
It makes the Pokemon feel a bit more special. When you see someone with a fully evolved Braviary (Hisuian) or a Slurpuff, you know they didn't just dump Rare Candies into it. They had to put in the "Buddy" time.
Actionable Strategy for Efficient Evolution
If you're looking to tackle a backlog of buddy evolutions, don't do them one by one. It's inefficient. You get 20 buddy swaps per day. Use them.
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- Group your tasks. If you have three Pokemon that require "10 Raids," swap them in one by one before you start your raid hour. Win a raid with Buddy A, swap to Buddy B, win the next, and so on.
- The Snapshot Trick. For Pokemon like Combee (if it ever gets a weird buddy requirement) or others that need quick interactions, do your snapshots and feedings for all of them in one sitting.
- Tagging. Use the "Tag" feature in your storage. Create a tag called "Buddy Evolve" so you don't forget which ones are midway through their requirements.
- Adventure Sync is your best friend. Make sure it's on. If you're walking the 20km for Feebas, you want every step to count, even when the app is closed. If your distance isn't tracking, check your phone's power-saving mode; it often kills the background GPS tracking that Pokemon Go relies on.
The buddy evolve Pokemon Go system is a test of how you integrate the game into your daily life. It’s less about the "grind" and more about the "journey"—which sounds cheesy until you finally get that Annihilape you've been working on for three days. Just remember: check the button, verify the time of day, and for the love of Arceus, don't swap your buddy out at 9.9km.