First clues found about Friendship Day 2022 in Pokémon GO – what could happen?

Dataminer found the first indications of a possible Friendship Day event in Pokémon GO. We’ll show you what the event has looked like in recent years and what you can expect.

What was found? In the code, the dataminers found the text “Old friends, new beginnings” (via pokeminers.com). From the data it can be seen that this is an event that has not yet been announced. This also includes limited research.

Trainers suspect this could be this year’s friendship event. This has not yet been officially confirmed or announced. The event drew criticism last year. We’ll show you how this usually works and what wishes the players have after the last time.

How does a friendship event work?

This is how it went so far: The first Friendship Day event ran on April 24th in Pokémon GO. So almost exactly a year ago. Niantic announced at the time that this was a recurring event that would adjust its bonuses slightly every year and focus on plant-type Pokémon.

An announcement for this year is still pending. The date the data miners were found, almost a year after the first event of this kind, suggests that this is the name of this year’s event.

Last year the majority of the event was active for three hours. Occasionally bonuses ran for six hours. There was also a big Collector’s Challenge that rewarded Trainers with 175,000 XP. Other bonuses were:

• Chance of Lucky Pokémon increased for 6 hours
• Exchange range increased to 40 kilometers
• Triple XP was awarded for catching Pokémon
• Smoke and Lure Modules lasted 3 hours during the event

This caused criticism: After the Friendship Day, there were some negative voices from the community. Many criticized the short time window of 3 hours for the main event. In addition, one would have wished for an increased limit for special exchanges as an obvious bonus, but this was not activated.

The ability to earn large amounts of XP in a short amount of time was praised. Many trainers are still in the leveling process from level 41 to level 50 and could use an XP boost.

So it’s quite possible that the bonuses will look similar again this year and that Niantic will maintain a large XP gain.