Pokémon GO: Stardust requirements for Trading based on Friendship level

Stardust is a very valuable resource within Pokémon GO that may deter Trainers from Trading. However, increasing your Friendship level will reduce the Stardust cost when Trading with another Trainer.

Currently, there are five Friendship levels within Pokémon GO.  These levels are Friend, Good Friend, Great Friend, Ultra Friend, and Best Friend.  As each Friendship level is obtained, Trainers will earn additional benefits of lower Stardust costs during Trading.

When a Trainer initially becomes Friends with another Trainer, they will be in the Friend level.  While a Trainer is at this Friendship level, only non-Shiny, non-Legendary, and non-Regional Pokémon can be traded.  Owned Pokémon will cost 100 Stardust while unowned Pokémon will cost 20,000 Stardust.

After a Trainer becomes Good Friends with another Trainer, they will be able to trade Shiny, Legendary, and Regional Pokémon.  Owned Shiny and Legendary Pokémon will cost 20,000 Stardust, while owned Regional and other Pokémon will cost 100 Stardust.

Although these Stardust amounts are not of that much of a concern, the unowned Shiny and Legendary Pokémon at the Good Friends level cost a whopping 1,000,000 Stardust.  However, the unowned Regional and other Pokémon are a much more manageable 20,000 Stardust.

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When a Trainer becomes Great Friends with another Trainer, they will see the owned Shiny and Legendary Pokémon Stardust cost decrease to 16,000.  The owned Regional and other Pokémon will also decrease to just 80 Stardust.  Unowned Shiny and Legendary Pokémon will drop to 800,000 while unowned Regional and other Pokémon will drop to 16,000.

After a Trainer becomes Ultra Friends with another Trainer, the Trading benefits from an increased Friendship level start becoming even more apparent.  Owned Shiny and Legendary Pokémon will only cost 1,600 Stardust while owned Regional and other Pokémon will only cost 8 Stardust.

Unowned Shiny and Legendary Pokémon will decrease all the way down to 80,000.  Unowned Regional and other Pokémon will decrease to 1,600.  Although 80,000 is not a small amount of Stardust, it is leaps and bounds better than sending out 1,000,000 or 800,000 Stardust to acquire an unowned Pokémon from another Trainer.

The next step in the Friendship level process is becoming Best Friends with another Trainer.  During this level, owned Shiny and Legendary Pokémon only cost 800 Stardust and owned Regional and other Pokémon only cost 4 Stardust to Trade.  Unowned Shiny and Legendary Pokémon only cost 40,000 Stardust while unowned Regional and other Pokémon only cost 800 Stardust.

Friendship has been a wonderful addition to Pokémon GO as it has made the Pokémon GO community much more social.  It was a great idea to tie Friendship levels into Trading as it makes it much more difficult to sell Pokémon due to the time requirements to reach each of the different Friendship levels.  Good luck to all Trainers in acquiring your favorite Pokémon through Trading!