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Getting Fast XP in Pokemon Go can be done with a few simple methods that can greatly increase your leveling up speed.
In Pokemon Go, there is a max level of 50 that requires you to acquire a total of 176,000,000 XP to reach it and so you'll want to be making sure you're grinding the best XP methods in Pokemon Go.
You can get XP in Pokemon Go from a lot of different sources. You can view a list of these sources in our Pokemon GO Level Up Guide.
If you're a casual player in Pokemon Go, you will slowly get XP just by playing the game. However, if you want to try and get to the higher levels of the game, XP grinding can be increasingly difficult. Most players aim for at least Level 40 to unlock Rare Candy XL and that will require you to obtain a total of 20,000,000 XP! It sounds like a lot, but using the methods below you can easily get to this amount with a bit of patience.
Lucky Egg Double XP Rate
You can use the methods below with an item called a Lucky Egg. These sell for 80 Pokecoins in the Shop (or 8 for 500 coins), and you get a bunch of them free when you level up in Pokemon Go.
This item will double your XP rate for 30 minutes, which is great for boosting the amount of XP you get from the methods below. If you don't have any Pokecoins to buy them, not to worry, the methods below are still really good for earning XP.
Pokemon Go Friend Fast XP
In Pokemon Go, trainers can add other trainers as friends using Pokemon Go Friend Codes.
This allows you to send and open gifts with other trainers, which contain items and Stardust that come in handy.
But crucially, you also gain XP each time your friendship level increases. The following list shows how much XP you get when you reach the different levels of Friendship:
- Good Friends - 3,000 XP
- Great Friends - 10,000 XP
- Ultra Friends - 50,000 XP
- Best Friends - 100,000 XP
You can also use a Lucky Egg to double the amount of XP, allowing you to earn up to a max of 200,000 XP in one go!
Trainers can add up to 200 Friends in Pokemon Go and send up to 30 gifts a day.
By using a tool like our Pokemon Go Friend Codes Finder, you can add hundreds of friends each day with very little effort.
The trick to maxing the amount of XP you receive is to wait for the notification that your friendship level has increased whilst using a Lucky Egg. The XP is only added to your account once the notification is shown to you- so if you want to preserve the XP until you're ready to pop a Lucky Egg, you should log off the app.
There are two main methods for grinding XP from friends in Pokemon Go:
Method 1
- Add a bunch of new friends to your list
- Send one gift so that you reach Good Friends status. You only need 1 interaction to reach Good Friends, and you get 3,000 XP each time.
- Wait around 12 hours or so for all your new friends to either open the gift or send you one. Don't open the App otherwise you'll risk getting the notifications before the next step.
- Pop a Lucky Egg, and then start playing Pokemon Go- each time you get a notification that your friendship level has increased, you'll get 6,000 XP!
- Open any gifts you have waiting for you in your friend list to also activate the notification.
You can then delete those friends and repeat the process. You'll likely have left over time from your Lucky Egg, so you can either grind some Raids or Evolve some Pokemon for more XP.
Method 2
- Add a bunch of new friends to your list
- The aim of this method is to get your friendship level to Best Friends status. It takes around 90 days if you send one gift per day.
- When you're near to getting Best Friends status, you'll want to pop a Lucky Egg to get the 200,000 XP bonus.
You get more rewards from gifts for having higher friendship level, so this method is useful in more ways than just XP. If Best Friends status is too long, Ultra Friends is still good too as that only takes 30 days.
Evolving Pokemon XP Method
Every time you evolve a Pokemon in Pokemon Go you get 1,000 XP!
That may not seem like a lot, however, you can store all your Pokemon that can be evolved, pop a Lucky Egg and then go on an evolving binge to grind XP.
The best method is to capturing Pokemon that only require 12 Candy to evolve. You get the same amount of XP as evolving a Pokemon with 12 Candy (the lowest amount) as evolving a Pokemon that needs 400 Candy (like Magikarp to Gyarados!) so it makes sense to save up Pokemon with the 12 Candy requirement.
The following Pokemon only require 12 Candy to Evolve:
- Weedle
- Pidgey
- Caterpie
- Whismur
- Wurmple
Useful tips:
- When you begin to evolve Pokemon, you can type the words "Evolve" into your Pokemon Storage and it will list all Pokemon that are eligible for evolving.
- Use Pinap Berries on these Pokemon to double the amount of Candy you get from them when you capture them.
Pokemon Go Raiding XP Method
Finally, the last method, and the one that will actually cost you money (unless you save up lots of Pokecoins from Gyms) is Raiding.
Each time you complete a Pokemon Go Raid, you get an amount of XP.
- 1 Star Raid - 3,500 XP
- 3 Star Raid - 5,000 XP
- 5 Star Raid - 10,000 XP
And like with the other methods, using a Lucky Egg will double the amount of XP you receive.
To participate in a Raid, you will need either a Premium Raid Pass or a Remote Raid Pass. Both of these items cost Pokecoins in the shop (you do get 1 free Raid pass a day, which cannot be stored so not very useful for this method).
You'll also need to make sure you have plenty of Raids lined up- you can use our Pokemon Go Raid Finder Tool to find Raids that are being hosted.
Once you're ready to Raid, pop the Lucky Egg and try to hit up as many Raids as you can to grind the XP. You will get plenty of other goodies too, like Rare Candy and Legendary Pokemon from Raiding, so it's one of the more popular methods even if it does cost Pokecoins to do.
You can also try raiding in Raid Hour, which is when Raids start appearing more frequently during a specific hour of the day.
Your XP Methods
Let us know in the comments what are your most popular XP grinding methods for Pokemon Go. Do you prefer raiding over sending gifts? How viable is Evolving Pokemon for XP compared to the other methods?
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