What is Party Play in Pokémon Go? How to start, Party Power explained

Party Play is a local co-op feature which allows you to team up with fellow trainers and earn unique bonuses in Pokémon Go.

Released in time for 2023’s Halloween event, the headline benefit is the ability to see fellow players on the map screen as you explore, showing off their locations in the world for the first time.

Other benefits include the chance to complete a series of challenges for rewards, and a boost to raid damage when participating as a group.

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How to start Party Play in Pokémon Go, Party Play requirements

Party Play debuted the week of 2023’s Halloween event, and can be accessed by selecting the “Party” tab in the Trainer screen. Players can invite others into a party by entering a code or scanning a QR code.

Image: Niantic / The Pokémon Company

If you don’t see the Party option in the menu, developer Niantic said it “started rolling out” the feature from Monday, Oct. 16, and as part of a pre-release briefing with Polygon, said it would be available for all players starting Thursday, Oct. 19.

Note that Party Play has a trainer level requirement of 15, and those you party with do not need to be in-game friends — so feel free to team up with new players if you prefer.

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What is Party Play in Pokémon Go?

Image: Niantic / The Pokémon Company

Party Play allows you to create a team of either two, three, or four local players. By doing so, you have the following benefits:

• The chance to see your party member’s avatars explore the map around you.
• Everyone can contribute to a rolling series of Party Challenges — such as catching Pokémon under certain conditions, or spinning a set number of PokéStops — which will reward items based on their difficulty, such as Poké Balls, Berries and Mega Energy.
• Completing Challenges in Party Play can unlock new avatar items as part of the “Welcome Party” Special Research task.
• Party members have access to a Party Tab to show on-going stats from the session (such as Pokémon caught) which can then be shared as a visual recap once the Party disbands.
• If one Party member enters a raid, the others in the party will automatically be sent a raid invite to join.
• During the raid, Party members can use the Party Power mechanic, which is a gauge which increases the more each player does damage to the Raid boss. Once filled, the next Charged attack’s damage will be doubled.

Let’s look closer into perhaps the most practical feature Party Play has to offer: the Party Power damage boost.

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How does Party Power work, and what is the Party Power damage increase?

Image: Niantic / The Pokémon Company

By filling the Party Power mechanic in a raid battle — a gauge which you collectively increase by attacking the boss before tapping when full — your next Charged move’s damage will be doubled.

For players keen to min-max their raid strategies and take down powerful bosses with fewer players, it’s a tantalizing new feature. In a pre-launch preview of the feature, they used the example of three players working together to take down a Mega Pokémon, which ordinarily would require more raid participants.

However, at the feature’s launch, exactly how powerful this will be in practice is unknown: it’s confirmed that the bigger your party, the faster the gauge will fill, meaning a larger Party size will be able to strengthen their attacks more often. But how fast does the gauge fill? Do all players get a doubled Charged attack, or simply the first to use it? We’ll know more when the feature launches later this week.

Finally, know that Party Power works in raids of all difficulties, including — and likely the most beneficial for — Shadow Legendary raids, which by their nature are local-only.

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What else do we know about Party Play in Pokémon Go?

Here are some other intel about Party Play ahead of launch:

• The maximum party size is four. If the Party is not full, then any player — not just the host — may invite new members to the group while the session is ongoing.
• Players have to be within close radius of one another while using Party Play (the specific distance is unknown), with a warning being issued if they stray too far. (And if it isn’t clear — Party Player is local only, so no remote sessions!)
• You cannot explore Routes while in a party (thanks to valuequest on reddit for confirming).
• Party stats do not carry over to future sessions, even if you are playing with the same group of players.

Image: Niantic / The Pokémon Company

• With Party Challenges, players can choose between one of three objectives at any given time, with a new Challenge being offered once the current one has been completed. Everyone on the team gets the same reward upon completion.
• Beyond the tease of a Party Play-exclusive Eevee avatar item from completing the “Welcome Party” Special Research, which revolves around completing Party Challenges, there are no sign of other rewards (such as the chance to find exclusive Pokémon) being tied to the feature.