Change #2 -“Frienemies Bonus”

I would believe that almost everyone has at least one friend that they know and play with or see their Pokemon in a gym on a somewhat regular basis. I mentioned my friend who is Red/Valor whom I raid with on Wednesday Nights and play with on weekends on a semi-regular basis. We trade Pokemon and hints/ideas. We gripe about some things. We defeat Yellow/Instinct gyms. Sometimes the gym in the mall on Wednesday night after the raids for walking is her color and I know her defending Pokemon is in the gym. I don’t knock her out. It’s my choice, I know, but there’s an understanding that we just don’t knock each other’s defenders out of a gym unless either of us has 8:20 in the gym or the person who wasn’t supposed to win the gym won the gym (we alternate who gets the defeated Yellow/Instinct gyms so we both get credits). Sometimes I am walking around 2 hours or so later and her defending Pokemon is weaker. I wish I could help out, I would be OK with only a little bit of reward in return. Obviously not as much as if we were on the same team, but I value real life friends and want to help.

Solution: I call it the “Frienemies Bonus”. For those friends on other teams who are at least Ultra (3 hearts), if you are close enough to a gym where your “Frienemy” is, you can feed that friend’s defending Pokemon. Your “Frienemy’s” defending Pokemon gets full credit for the berry you feed, you get 50% credit of the XP and Stardust. You cannot feed the entire gym, nor can you use this as a boost to then attack the gym to gain more XP from fighting it. The Ultra Friends requirement also limits the bonus to those people whom you trade gifts with and/or complete raids with on a regular basis. At least there is some sort of a relationship.

Rationale: We trade gifts and get benefits from those gifts regardless of team. Players team up to fight in raids (which benefits everyone regardless of team). Gifts and raid teaming up give friend XP up to Best Friends (4 Hearts). In the past, there have been weekend events where if the Pokemon Universe reaches certain goals we get benefits based on what team we are on. Everyone contributes as long as they play. Even the leaders team up in the various story lines (the Team Go Rocket story line is an example).