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Trainers sipping hot chocolate.
Image via Niantic

Can you fix the Best or Ultra Friend 0 XP notification in Pokémon Go?

Where is the XP?

In Pokémon Go, you have several ways of getting XP, and becoming Best Friends with other users is one of the most effective ways to do so. But you can be notified of this without earning any experience points.

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Raising friendship levels in Pokémon Go is a long, slow process, but it doesn’t ask you to waste too much time, either. You have to exchange gifts for a certain number of days to reach specific levels of friendship, and the XP you get from that is significant.

After exchanging gifts for 30 days, you should earn the Ultra Friends status and gain 50,000 XP. If you do it for 90 days, you’ll earn 100,000 XP for becoming Best Friends.

You will receive the notification once they’ve opened the gift or after you opened them. But in the first case, the notification might indicate that while becoming Ultra or Best Friends, you’ve earned 0 XP points.

Can this notification bug be fixed in Pokémon Go?

Is it possible to fix the Ultra or Best Friend 0 XP notification in Pokémon Go?

Best Friends screen in Pokémon Go.
You need patience for friendships. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Unfortunately, there currently isn’t a “fix” for the Best Friends 0 XP issue. But there are steps you can take to prevent it from happening again.

You will get notified when you’re on the overworld when reaching a new friendship threshold in Pokémon Go. You have to stop what you’re doing for a few seconds for the notification screen to pop. If you’re completing various activities without taking a break, you won’t see the notification at all.

The notification will usually read something in the likes of “[Name of friend] and you have become Ultra Friends!” before disclosing the amount of XP earned at the bottom of the screen.

If this amount is 0 XP, you might think of it as a bug. But it’s actually impossible to fix it: In certain cases, you won’t receive any XP for reaching new friendship thresholds. This will mainly happen when the friend removes you from their list before you earn the XP.

When you reach the Best Friend status with another user when they opened your gift, they can cash in the XP and remove you right afterwards. If you’re not logged in before they remove you, you won’t receive any XP. In that case, there is nothing you can do to get the XP, so you’ll lose it all, unfortunately. Be sure to keep track of the days you’ve been exchanging gifts with another user and give those people an extra day or two to log back in before removing them from your friends list so that everyone gets their rightful XP.


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Author
Image of Eva Martinello
Eva Martinello
Eva is a Staff Writer from Paris. Her part-time job is charging into walls with Reinhardt. She has been covering League of Legends esports and other titles for six years. She still believes in a Moscow Five comeback. She also fell into the MMO pit and covers FFXIV and Genshin.