Pokémon Go: How to battle other trainers

After two and a half years, it’s almost time to battle your friends in Pokémon Go.Niantic

• After two and a half years, Pokémon Go players will finally get the ability to challenge other players to Pokémon battles. 
• The update will literally change the game: It introduces a revamped battle system that lets Pokémon learn a third attack, introducing a whole new layer of strategy. 
• The fights themselves will let trainers take a team of three Pokémon into battle, with otherwise hard-to-find items as a possible prize for the victor.
• To start a battle, you’ll generally need to be close enough to your would-be opponent to scan a QR code on their phone — a mechanic designed to encourage real-world interaction.
• Here’s how it all works.

Last week, developer Niantic teased that Pokémon Go players will soon be able to battle their fellow Pokémon trainers — a feature that’s been in hot demand since the game first launched in the summer of 2018. 

On Tuesday, Niantic announced its first feature, including the key detail that trainers will take teams of three Pokémon into battle with them.

It’s not immediately clear when, exactly, this feature will start rolling out, though Niantic says that it’s slated for launch before the end of the year. In the past, it’s rarely taken Niantic long after the announcement to begin the rollout of new features, though it often brings the new features to high-level players first, before fully rolling out the changes.

What is clear is that the addition of player-versus-player (PvP) battles is slated to completely change the game. And I mean that literally: Among many other things, the trainer battle update will add the ability for your Pokémon to learn a third attack, beyond the two that they already know. The game’s battle system itself is getting tweaked slightly, such that you’re rewarded for tapping rhythmically to charge up certain attacks in combat.

Much of it builds on the game’s new social features, which were introduced a few months ago alongside the also-much-requested Pokémon trading feature. While you can battle strangers, there are a few advantages to fighting your friends. 

Here’s how Pokémon Go trainer battles will work:

To the victor go the spoils. Niantic says that you’ll earn rewards for the first three times you battle in a given day, though you can battle indefinitely just for fun. The rewards include the hard-to-find Sinnoh Stone item, as well as the Stardust you need to make your Pokémon more powerful.

Niantic

The availability of the Sinnoh Stone as a reward should come as a relief to frustrated players, who can currently get it only as a random prize for completing a seven-day streak of Field Research tasks.

Also of note is that winners and losers both get some prizes, as a way to make sure even lower-level players get something from the experience, Niantic says.