With the upcoming addition of Friends and Trading to Pokemon GO, trainers have a lot of new opportunities to interact with their real world buddies. In order to get the most value and bonuses out of in-game friendships, players will need to put in some work to increase their status to Best Friends.

Pokemon GO players can increase their friendship status in a number of ways. Here's everything trainers need to know about the new system to get to Best Friend status and start taking advantage of the bonuses as soon as possible...

Add Your Friends

"In order to add a friend in Pokémon GO, you must first ask them to share their Trainer Code with you. To invite a Trainer to become your friend, simply enter their Trainer Code and then send them a request. If they accept, you’ll become friends, and you’ll see them in your Friends List."

Collect Gifts To Send To Your Friends

"When you spin a Photo Disc at a PokéStop or Gym, you have a chance of receiving a special Gift. Although you can’t open the Gifts you receive from PokéStops, you can send them to a friend on your Friend List. Inside the Gift will be a stash of helpful items, which your friend will receive along with a postcard showing where you picked up your Gift. Gifts can also include a special surprise: an Egg that, when hatched, will contain an Alolan form of a Pokémon originally discovered in the Kanto region!"

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Raid Together

"When you send a Gift to a friend or participate in a raid or Gym battle with them, you can increase your Friendship Level. As your Friendship Level builds, you’ll then unlock bonuses when you play together."

Trade Pokemon

"You can also build your Friendship Level by trading Pokémon with a friend. If you’re near a friend and have a Trainer Level of 10 or higher, you can trade Pokémon you’ve caught with that friend. As you build your Friendship Level with the friend you are trading with, you’ll find that you can complete the trade with much less Stardust."

Be sure to remember that you can only increase your friend level with another person once per day. We're not sure if there will be an in-game limit to the number of gifts you can send per day, but we should find out later this week.

Keep an eye out for the update sometime this week. Until then, good luck out there, trainers!

Pokemon GO is available now in select regions on Android and iOS devices.