Niantic has moved forward with the rollout of the new referral feature in Pokémon Go, pushing it live for players in Australia.
This news comes just seven days after the new feature was officially announced and will let players earn rewards for bringing friends into the game’s ecosystem.
Niantic previously confirmed rewards for referrals will include Pokémon encounters, Rare Candy, Incubators, and more. There will also be milestones included with the program, giving players better rewards as they introduce more people to the game using individual referral codes that they can share with friends.
Some of the reward milestones include having a referred friend catch 1,000 Pokémon, which will give you three Incense. If a referred player earns 50 Candy while walking with a Buddy Pokémon you can also get 30 Rare Candy, which is a big incentive to bring in active players.
New Stickers have also been added as exclusive rewards for the referral system.
The referral feature also applies to players who are joining the world of Pokémon Go for the first time or returning from an extended break.
Along with the confirmation that players in Australia are going to be able to start testing the feature, we also know some of the specifics behind the system. These additional details came thanks to datamining group PokéMiners, as they dug through update 0.203.0, which went live earlier today.
According to the data, referral codes will be applicable to all new players who have not played Pokémon Go before and any player that has been inactive for 90 days or more. There are also early signs that point to a grace period to redeem a code after coming back following an extended absence to the game being around three days.
Niantic has warned that some players who have access to the referral feature could encounter a bug that is causing the new referral pop-up to appear any time the app is opened. It shouldn’t impact the game in any way, but the support team is looking into fixing it now.
