Go Hunting With Your Own Pokemon By Your Side With Pokemon GO’s Buddy System

Following up on their promise of new features for ridiculously-successful mobile game Pokemon GO, developer Niantic has released the first details of a new Buddy system set to be released in the near future.

Detailing how the new system will work over on the game’s blog, Niantic says that you’ll be able to pick any Pokemon you’ve caught in the past and designate them as your buddy. Doing so will confer several benefits such as in-game rewards and experiences, but best of all, your chosen critter will appear alongside you on the profile screen and while you walk. The more you walk together with your buddy, the more chance you’ll have of being awarded bonus Candy.

If you ever get fed up of your current buddy, Niantic says you can swap them out for something else at any time, so you need not spend hours making your first choice when the update goes live.

Besides the recently released Appraisal Feature, the Buddy system will be the first major content update for Pokemon GO, so it’ll be interesting to see how fans receive the changes to the core experience, no matter how slight they may be, especially as changes made in the past haven’t exactly gone over too well with fans.