Walking is basically the currency of Pokemon Go. You lace up your shoes, open the app, and hope the GPS doesn't drift too much while you're trying to evolve that Larvitar. It sounds simple enough. But if you’ve been playing for a while, you know the struggle of hitting a wall where you just need three more pieces of Pokemon Go buddy candy to finally hit that power-up button, yet the distance tracker feels like it's stuck in mud.
Most players treat the buddy system like a passive background task. They pick a cute Pokemon, feed it a berry, and forget it exists until a notification pops up saying they found a candy. That’s a mistake. If you’re trying to max out a Mythical or prep a team for the Master League, you need to understand the weird, sometimes frustrating mechanics that actually govern how and when you get rewarded for your steps.
The 24-Hour Cap Nobody Tells You About
There is a hard limit. Niantic doesn't explicitly shout this from the rooftops, but there is a cap on how much Pokemon Go buddy candy you can earn in a single day.
For most species, that limit is roughly 40 kilometers worth of distance. Once you hit that wall, your buddy will keep walking, the animation will keep playing, but the candy counter stays at zero. It's a burnout mechanic designed to stop people from using "phone rockers" or strapping their devices to ceiling fans (which, honestly, rarely works anyway). If you’re a marathon runner or a hardcore hiker, you might find yourself hitting this ceiling faster than you think.
Distance tracking is also tied to your speed. Go over 10.5 kilometers per hour (about 6.5 miles per hour), and the game starts discounting your movement. It thinks you’re in a car. Or on a bike going too fast. This is why a slow jog is often more "profitable" for candy than a fast cycling session. The game’s internal clock pings your location every few seconds and calculates the straight-line distance between Point A and Point B. If you run in a tight circle, you’re essentially cheating yourself out of candy because the displacement is negligible.
Getting Excited Changes Everything
You’ve probably seen the "Excited" mood—that glowing halo around your buddy's portrait. Most people think you need a Poffin to get there. Poffins are great, sure, but they’re also 100 PokeCoins a pop in the shop, and that adds up fast.
You can get a buddy excited for free. It just takes patience.
To get your buddy excited without spending a dime, you have to interact with them every 30 minutes. Take a snapshot. Give them a treat. Play with them. Do a battle (even just a training bout against Blanche or Spark counts). Each of these actions gives you "emotion points." Once you hit 32 points, your buddy enters the Excited state.
Why do you care? Because it cuts the distance requirement for Pokemon Go buddy candy in half.
Suddenly, that 20km walk for a Mewtwo candy becomes a 10km walk. A Magikarp goes from 1km to 0.5km. If you’re planning a long walk on a Saturday, spend the first hour manually interacting with your buddy to trigger that Excited state before you start the heavy mileage. It effectively doubles your efficiency.
The Hidden Value of XL Candy
Once you hit Level 31, the game changes. You stop worrying just about regular candy and start obsessing over Candy XL. This is the stuff required to push a Pokemon past Level 40, and it’s notoriously hard to find.
Your buddy is one of the most reliable ways to get it, but it’s not a 1:1 drop. The probability of finding an XL candy while walking is directly tied to the Pokemon’s own level.
If your buddy is Level 1, your chances of finding an XL candy are basically bottom-of-the-barrel. However, once that Pokemon reaches Level 31 or higher, the odds of finding an XL candy per "walk cycle" jump significantly—somewhere in the neighborhood of 70% to 75%.
It feels counter-intuitive. You have to spend candy to make the candy-finding more efficient. If you’re walking a Legendary like Rayquaza or Zacian, make sure you’ve powered it up to at least Level 31 first. Walking a low-level Legendary for XL candy is, quite frankly, a waste of your time and effort.
Swap Tactics for the Best Buddy Ribbon
You can swap your buddy 20 times a day. If you’re just sticking with one Pokemon until it hits "Best Buddy" status, you’re leaving progress on the table.
Smart players rotate. They have a "rotation" of five or six Pokemon they want to level up. They do the easy interactions—feeding, petting, and snapshots—for all of them, then settle on the one they actually need Pokemon Go buddy candy for to do their actual walking.
The "Catch Assist" perk you get at Great Buddy (two stars) is a literal game-changer. When a Pokemon headbutts your Poke Ball back at a wild encounter, it’s not just a cute animation; it saves balls and secures catches that would have otherwise fled. I usually aim to get my top 10 attackers to Great Buddy status as quickly as possible just for this utility alone.
Real World Frustrations with Adventure Sync
Adventure Sync is the tech that tracks your steps while the app is closed. It’s notorious for breaking. One week it’s perfect; the next, you’ve walked five miles and the game says you’ve moved two inches.
Usually, this is a battery optimization issue. Your phone wants to "sleep" the app to save power, which kills the location tracking. On Android, you have to go into settings and specifically tell the phone not to optimize Pokemon Go. On iOS, make sure "Motion & Fitness" is toggled on.
Also, distance is calculated differently if you have a fitness watch synced. Google Fit and Apple Health are the middle-men here. If they don't report the data correctly, Niantic won't give you the candy. It’s a fragile ecosystem.
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Mega Evolution and the Candy Bonus
Here is something a lot of people miss: Mega Evolution affects candy, but in a specific way. While having a Mega Evolved Pokemon active doesn't technically increase the rate at which your buddy finds candy while walking, it does increase the candy you get from catching Pokemon of the same type.
If you’re walking a Charizard to get Mega Energy and Pokemon Go buddy candy, and you happen to be catching a bunch of Fire-types during a Community Day, having that Charizard Mega Evolved at a high Mega Level will net you extra "Catch Candy."
It’s about stacking bonuses. If you’re walking for candy, you should also be looking at how that Pokemon fits into your current Mega rotation. If you’re walking a Garchomp (Dragon/Ground), having a Mega Rayquaza (Dragon/Flying) active while you play will maximize your total candy intake from all sources.
Does the Buddy "Catch-Up" Trick Still Work?
There used to be a glitch—or perhaps a feature—where if you walked your buddy to 1.9km out of 2km, then swapped them out and back in, it would sometimes trigger an immediate candy find.
Mostly, that’s been patched out. The game is much better now at remembering exactly where the decimal point is for your distance.
What does still work is the "Berried" distance. If your buddy isn't on the map, you aren't earning distance toward candy. Period. If you see your buddy icon at the bottom left has a red ring around it, they’ve gotten hungry and returned to their ball. You are now walking for nothing. Keep them fed. Use Golden Razz Berries or Silver Pinaps only if you’re desperate for the "Full Meter" instantly; otherwise, regular Nanab berries (which are basically useless elsewhere) are perfect for keeping the candy meter moving.
Actionable Steps for Maximum Yield
Stop treating your buddy like a cosmetic pet. If you want to actually see progress in your Pokedex and your Battle League rank, you need a system.
- Audit your levels: Check if your current buddy is at least Level 31. If it’s not, and you’re hunting XL candy, use some Rare Candy to get it there first. The investment pays for itself in the long run.
- The 30-Minute Timer: If you’re at home or work, set a recurring timer. Every 30 minutes, open the app, pet your buddy, take a photo, and feed it one berry. You’ll hit the "Excited" state in about two to three hours without spending a single PokeCoin.
- Check Battery Settings: Disable "Battery Saver" modes on your phone if you’re heading out for a long walk. These modes often throttle the GPS polling rate, meaning the game "misses" segments of your walk, resulting in less candy.
- Sync Your Health Apps: Open Google Fit or Apple Health before you open Pokemon Go after a long walk. Sometimes giving the health app a second to "finalize" the step count helps Pokemon Go import the data more accurately.
- Prioritize 1km/3km Buddies: If you just need "Best Buddy" ribbons for a medal, don't walk Legendaries. Walk Magikarp, Caterpie, or Pidgey. You'll cycle through the hearts much faster and earn the candy rewards at a much higher frequency.
The buddy system is a grind, but it's the only way to "farm" resources for the rarest creatures in the game. Don't let your steps go to waste by ignoring the underlying math. Pay attention to the speed caps, keep the "Excited" status in mind, and always make sure that Pokemon is actually on the map before you head out the door.