Party Play launched in October 2023 as Pokémon GO’s first true co-op system — a way for groups of two to four trainers to adventure together, complete shared challenges, and unlock a powerful raid damage bonus. Two-plus years on, the feature is fully stable and well worth building into your regular play sessions, especially during Raid Hours, Community Days, and any local event. This guide covers the full mechanics, practical strategies, and the mistakes most players make the first few times out.
What Is Party Play in Pokémon GO?
Party Play is a local co-op feature that allows between two and four trainers to group up and play together in real-time. To access it, your account must be Trainer level 15 or above, and every member of the group needs to be physically near you — the game enforces a proximity limit and will remove anyone who drifts too far away.
Once a party is active, three things happen: your party members’ avatars appear on your in-game map so you can see exactly where everyone is, you unlock access to Party Challenges (shared objectives with item and encounter rewards), and during raids you gain access to Party Power — a gauge-based mechanic that doubles the damage of your next Charged Attack.
Party Play lives inside the Social tab of your Trainer Profile, which also houses Weekly Challenges — a different, remote-play feature introduced in 2025. The distinction matters: Party Play requires everyone to be in the same location; Weekly Challenges let you group up with friends from anywhere in the world and reset each Monday. Both are worth using, but they serve different situations.
How Party Play Works — Full Mechanics
Setting Up and Joining a Party
To create a party, open your Trainer Profile and tap the Party tab. Select Create and the game generates a numerical code and a QR code you can share with up to three nearby trainers. Other players join by tapping Join Party, then either scanning your QR code or entering the numerical code manually. Once all members are in, the host taps Start and everyone is returned to the map as a party.
The whole setup takes about a minute. The most common friction point is the proximity check — members who are too far away won’t be able to join, and if someone walks beyond roughly one kilometre from the group during a session, the game automatically removes them from the party.
One note for parents: child accounts connected through Pokémon Trainer Central or Niantic Kids have avatar sharing disabled by default. Their Trainer avatar will not appear on other members’ maps, and they won’t see other members’ locations either, even while in the party.
Party Challenges
As soon as a party starts, the game prompts the group to select a Party Challenge. These are shared objectives that every member works toward simultaneously. Challenge types include:
- Catch Pokémon — catch a set number of Pokémon, sometimes with a condition such as using Ultra Balls or hitting specific throw types
- Spin PokéStops — spin a combined total across all members
- Win Raids — complete a set number of raid battles together
- Make Throws — Nice, Great, or Excellent throws, often with a Curveball requirement
- Walk Distance — accumulate a combined distance total across the party
Only one challenge runs at a time. When it is completed, a new one starts automatically. Progress is tracked live in the Party tab, and you can see a running tally of each member’s individual contributions — a small competitive element that keeps everyone engaged.
Rewards scale with party size: the targets are higher with more members, but so is the rate of completion. Typical rewards include Poké Balls, Razz and Pinap Berries, Revives, Potions, Stardust (ranging from 500 to 800 per challenge), Mega Energy for various species, and Pokémon encounters — commonly Diglett, Eevee, Vaporeon, or Tandemaus. A separate set of avatar-item challenges rewards Eevee evolution-themed T-shirts for your in-game character.
Important: Pokémon caught and PokéStops spun using a GO Plus+ or any other Bluetooth accessory do not count toward Party Challenges. Manual interaction only.
Party Power
Party Power is the feature’s headline mechanic and its most strategically interesting element. It is only available during raid battles when your party is present in the same lobby.
Here is how it works:
- A Party Power gauge appears at the bottom of the raid battle screen.
- The gauge charges as each party member lands Fast Attacks.
- The more party members in the raid, the faster the gauge fills.
- When the gauge is full, a dedicated button appears. Any member can trigger it.
- Activation causes every party member’s next Charged Attack to deal double damage.
A few important nuances:
Party Power is tied to the trainer, not the Pokémon. If the Pokémon you are using faints before you fire your Charged Attack, the doubled damage bonus carries over to your next Pokémon automatically. You will not lose it simply because your active Pokémon went down.
There is a known bug with full party wipes. If every member’s Pokémon faint simultaneously — a complete team KO — the Party Power gauge will not recharge even after everyone rejoins the raid with fresh teams. This is a documented issue. The practical workaround is to ensure at least one party member stays in the battle at all times, even on a weakened team.
At its best, Party Power is a significant damage spike. A four-person party can fill the gauge multiple times per raid, giving the group several waves of doubled Charged Attack damage. That is often the difference between a close loss and a comfortable win on Tier 5 and Mega raids.
Activity Summary
After the party ends, the game generates a visual recap showing each member’s avatar alongside their stats. The Party tab tracks contributions across five categories: Pokémon, Throws, Adventure, Battle, and General. You can bookmark individual highlights to review later — a useful way to compare who drove the most challenge progress.
Practical Tips for Party Play
Use Party Play during Raid Hour. Raid Hour runs every Wednesday evening with boosted Tier 5 availability. A coordinated four-person party cycling through raids during this window generates Party Power repeatedly, letting your group take down the hardest bosses far more efficiently than going in solo or with a random lobby.
Coordinate before activating Party Power. Once the gauge fills, the activation button waits — there is no time pressure. Take a few seconds to confirm that every member has their hardest-hitting Charged Attack queued, then trigger it together. Wasting the activation on a weak move, or on a Pokémon that is about to faint, is the most common source of frustration with this feature.
Keep the party as large as possible. The difference between a two-person and four-person party is significant: challenges complete faster, Party Power fills faster, and the effective difficulty of raids drops. If you are playing at an event, recruiting a fourth member — even if it costs a couple of minutes — pays off quickly across a multi-hour session.
Save Community Day sessions for parties. The three-hour spotlight windows are a natural fit for Party Play. High spawn rates mean catch-based challenges complete rapidly, and your group earns multiple cycles of Stardust and item rewards on top of the event’s existing bonuses. It is one of the most reward-efficient activities you can run during an event.
Switch off GO Plus+ during challenge sessions. Auto-catching and auto-spinning via Bluetooth bypasses Party Challenge tracking entirely. If your current challenge is catch-based or PokéStop-based, keep the accessory in your pocket and play manually until the challenge is done.
Watch your distance. The one-kilometre proximity limit is enforced silently — the game removes members without a prominent warning. At larger events where the group might spread across a park, designate a meeting point and check the Party tab periodically to confirm everyone is still connected.
Common Party Play Mistakes
Relying on Bluetooth accessories for challenge progress. This is the mistake that catches nearly every new Party Play user. Regardless of how many Pokémon your GO Plus+ catches or how many PokéStops it spins, none of that activity counts toward Party Challenges. Manual in-app interaction only.
Trying to complete Routes while in a party. Routes — the in-game trails with distance and encounter rewards — are disabled during an active Party Play session. If Route progress is on your agenda, either complete them before forming the party or leave the party temporarily, finish the Route, then rejoin.
Letting the full party wipe during a raid. A simultaneous KO for all party members breaks the Party Power recharge. On Tier 5 and Mega raids, manage faints deliberately: if three members are close to going down, have them switch out before the fourth is knocked out to maintain at least one active presence in the battle.
Activating Party Power at a random moment. Once the button appears, it waits. There is no countdown. Take the extra five seconds to ensure every member is primed and ready to immediately fire their strongest Charged Attack — ideally a move with a high damage-per-energy ratio against the current boss’s weakness.
Forgetting that Party Play is proximity-only. There is no remote-join option. If someone in your group heads to a different area, they will be automatically dropped. The Weekly Challenges feature in the same Social tab does support remote play — but that is a separate system with different rules and a different reward structure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you do Party Play remotely with friends?
No. Party Play requires all members to be physically near each other. The game enforces a proximity limit of roughly one kilometre; anyone who exceeds that distance is automatically removed from the party without warning. If you want to run co-op challenges with friends who are not in the same location, use Weekly Challenges instead — this is the separate feature in the Social tab that supports remote grouping and opt-in matchmaking with strangers (available since January 2026).
What happens to Party Power if my Pokémon faints before I use my Charged Attack?
Party Power is stored on your trainer account, not on your active Pokémon. If your Pokémon faints after Party Power has been activated but before you fire your Charged Attack, the doubled damage bonus automatically carries over to whichever Pokémon you send in next — you will not lose it. The exception is the known full-party-wipe bug: if every member’s Pokémon faint simultaneously, the gauge loses its charge and will not refill even after the group rejoins with new teams.
Does Party Play give bonus XP for catching Pokémon?
There is no direct catch XP multiplier within Party Play. XP gains come indirectly: completing Party Challenges rewards items and Pokémon encounters, and those encounters generate the usual catch XP. For a large standalone XP reward, Weekly Challenges are the better vehicle — successful completion grants 20,000 XP along with 6,000 Stardust and a Tandemaus encounter. In Party Play itself, focus on cycling through challenges quickly for Stardust and item accumulation rather than expecting per-catch bonuses.