Buddy Pokémon guide (Candy distance and Best Buddy)
TrainingLast checked 2026-10-31
In 3 lines
- Walk with the Pokémon you set as your buddy and you get its Candy every set distance (1, 3, 5 or 20 km), which depends on the Pokémon.
- Play with your buddy to earn hearts and raise its buddy level. Once it becomes your Best Buddy, its CP goes up by one level's worth.
- It's especially handy for collecting Candy for hard-to-find Pokémon and for evolving Pokémon that need 'walk with your buddy' to evolve.
Candy distance
| Distance to walk | Number of Pokémon (regular forms, site data) | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 1 km | 157 | Magikarp and others |
| 3 km | 495 | Most Pokémon |
| 5 km | 234 | Slow-to-evolve Pokémon like Dratini and Larvitar |
| 20 km | 114 | Legendary and Mythical Pokémon |
You can see each Pokémon's distance on the "Evolution" tab of its detail page. If you're Trainer level 31 or higher, Candy from walking sometimes comes with Candy XL too.
Buddy levels
Earn hearts through activities like walking together, feeding berries, petting, taking snapshots and battling together, and the buddy level goes up. The last level is Best Buddy.
- While it's set as your buddy, a Best Buddy gets a CP boost as if it were one level higher (max level 50 → 51).
- That's why the site's CP tables have a level 51 (Best Buddy) row (Dragonite CP table).
How to use it
- Set as your buddy a Pokémon you want to build up as a raid attacker but don't have enough Candy for (especially 5 km and 20 km Pokémon).
- Some Pokémon, like Eevee, need 'set as your buddy and walk' to evolve. We list the condition on the "Evolution" tab of each detail page (Eevee).
- To keep counting steps even when the app is closed, turn on Adventure Sync in Settings (Egg hatching guide).
Checklist
- Make a Pokémon that needs Candy your buddy
- Check for Pokémon whose evolution condition involves a buddy
- Take your favorite Pokémon all the way to Best Buddy
Sources
- Site data: buddy distance for each Pokémon from the Pokémon settings in the Game Master (PokeMiners); level 51 from the game rules settings (config/rules.json)
- Bulbapedia: Buddy Pokémon — buddy levels and perks
Related Pokémon & events
- Eevee
- Dratini
- Larvitar
More in Training
- How to earn and save StardustStardust goes into power-ups, second Charged Attacks and trades, so you'll always be short. Deciding where to spend it first is the biggest way to save.
- How to use Candy and Candy XLYou collect Candy by catching, transferring, walking with your buddy, trading and hatching, and from level 40 you power up with Candy XL.
- What to power up first (power-up priorities for beginners)Stardust is limited, so first power up strong counters you'll use for a long time across many raids.
- TMs and how to learn exclusive moves (Elite TMs and Community Day moves)Fast TMs and Charged TMs change a move at random, and they can't teach exclusive moves such as Community Day moves.
- How to raise your Trainer level fast (earning XP)The fastest way is to activate a Lucky Egg (2× XP for 30 minutes) and do your evolving, catching and raids all at once.
- Shadow Pokémon: when to purifyShadow Pokémon have 1.2× Attack but also take more damage, and they cost 1.2× Stardust and Candy to power up.
- Evolution items and the Pokémon that use themSome Pokémon need an evolution item on top of Candy to evolve. The Sinnoh Stone is used for 18 species and the Unova Stone for 7.
- Every way to evolve Eevee (nicknames, Lure Modules and buddy)Eevee evolves into one of 8 Pokémon for 25 Candy, and you can choose the evolution you want by meeting its condition.
- Egg hatching guide (Eggs by distance and incubators)Eggs come in distances such as 2, 5, 7, 10 and 12 km. Put one in an incubator and walk that far, and a Pokémon hatches.
Game rules and numbers can change, so each article shows when it was last checked. Articles are rechecked once that date is 6 months old. If you spot a mistake, let us know with 'Report an error' at the bottom of the page.