Remote Trading is a great feature in theory, but it seems to have been a source of frustration for many people. Half the posts about remote trading that I’ve seen on reddit involve friends failing to tag Pokemon or unreasonable trade requests.
As someone who sends and opens as many gifts as possible every day, I have now reached 50 Forever Friends and completed 20 remote trades. I thought I would compile a list of tips based on what I’ve learned that will hopefully help improve your experience with remote trading.
My Current Stats
- 276 Best Friends
- 50 Forever Friends
- 20 Remote Trades completed
- Of 30 Forever Friends remaining:
- 21 have tagged a reasonable number of interesting Pokemon
- 4 have tagged nothing interesting (no shinies or legendaries)
- 5 have tagged nothing
Friendship Tips
- Prioritize reaching Forever Friends with people who you can’t easily meet in person.
- Prioritize reaching Forever Friends with people from other countries / areas with regional Pokemon. They are more likely to have Pokemon you do not have.
- Prioritize reaching Forever Friends with higher-level friends / friends with a higher number of Pokemon caught. They are more likely to actually tag Pokemon for remote trade, and more likely to have Pokemon you actually want.
- Send and open as many gifts as possible every day.
- To maximize friendship gain each day, prioritize opening gifts from people you have not yet interacted with on that day.
- Near the end of the day, searching “interactable” on your friend list will filter to people with whom you have not gained a friendship point.
- By searching “interactable&friendlevel4”, you can further filter to your Best Friends.
Tagging Tips
- Take the time to go through your entire Pokemon storage and tag Pokemon you think might be interesting to others. Suggestions: Legendaries, duplicate shinies, regional Pokemon, Gigantamax Pokemon, Dynamax Pokemon, Pokemon with costumes (search “costume”), Pokemon with backgrounds (search “background”), Pokemon with special moves (search “@special”).
- Avoid tagging Pokemon caught in 2020 or earlier. Trading older Pokemon will use up one of your guaranteed lucky trades even if you are already Lucky Friends.
- Update your Remote Trade tag before submitting any Remote Trade request.
- Before submitting a trade request, browse a person’s available Pokemon and have a target in mind. Then, update your Remote Trade tag to exclude any Pokemon that you are unwilling to trade for that target.
- For example, I have focused most of my remote trades on acquiring new shinies. Before I submit a trade request, I un-tag most of my Legendary shinies that I am not willing to give up in that trade.
- Updating the tag is very helpful if you want to request a mirror trade.
- If you are not actively submitting a trade request, make sure to re-tag all your Pokemon so that others can see them.
- To help with easily adjusting your Remote Tag, create helper tag(s) as backups. Below are a few suggestions.
- Create a tag that is an exact duplicate of your Remote Tag. When you un-tag a Pokemon from your actual Remote Tag, you can then easily re-tag it in the future.
- Tag for specific Pokemon that you are only willing to give up in a mirror trade (Galarian birds, non-duplicate shinies, etc.)
- Tag for regional Pokemon
Trading Tips
- Search “friendlevel5” to filter to all of your Forever Friends.
- When submitting a trade request, only request 1 Pokemon at a time. This makes it more likely that you will actually get what you want.
- If you are already Lucky Friends, avoid requesting a Pokemon caught in 2020 or earlier so you do not waste a guaranteed lucky trade.
- If any of your Forever Friends have not tagged any Pokemon for remote trade or have not tagged anything interesting, try messaging them politely on Campfire. Many people do not use Campfire, but it is still worth a shot.
- On any friend’s profile screen, click the orange Niantic balloon logo in the top right corner. This will tell you their Campfire username.
- Then, open the Campfire app and search your friend list for their username to send a message.
Good luck and happy remote trading!
by JLoneWolf
21 Comments
Good tips, fingers crossed that people see it!
Some of my Forever Friends with zero tagged mons feel like they’re taunting me with their stickered gifts. Not on Campfire either.
I guess more will come together but I’m not exactly prioritising the next remote unlock on those friends if we can’t even do a remote in the first place.
Not sure if worth noting but each remote unlock nets another 150k exp, with the option to use an egg.
The piece that they missed when they rolled this out was that if the other person has not tagged any Pokemon you should be allowed to make some kind of message/offer/in game ‘hey’ which they can respond and say I’m not doing that or it could spark them to maybe tag something. It doesn’t need to be something where you have freeform text it could simply be a button you hit to say I’m interested in trading and they can respond by clicking me too or decline so at least now you know. Or maybe let us browse their tagged trades at any friendship level so we can see back at great friends that they’re not even going to bother.
Are they all lucky because you had lucky status with all of them or is this remote trade benefit?
I wouldn’t delete people who don’t tag automatically. Just give them sometime as they might be busy. If that’s the case don’t stress and move onto the next person.
2020 Pokemon are always guaranteed to be lucky?
Tks, good tips, especially the Tagging Section is helpful 👍
Also worth noting to tag regionals, even if they aren’t shiny!
I’m in the UK and I’ve done 5 remote trades with people overseas, all 5 of them wanted a Stonjourner.
People who missed certain events may not have Mr Mime, Kangaskhan, Tauros, Corsola etc.
Oricario and Furfrou are common spawns that you’re probably bored of, but people in other continents likely need the one you have. Furfrou can be trimmed [to specific regions](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/1r17usi/psa_it_may_be_useful_to_trim_few_extra_regional/) that they can’t get.
> Trading one of your older pokemon will use up one of your garenteed lucky trade even if you’re lucky friends
That’s not true (tried on 5 distinct instances)
And I would also suggest talking on Campfire, that avoids most of the struggle involved with the feature…
And some people voluntarily don’t tag stuff because they don’t want to showcase their entire collection to strangers… Or get trade requests when they already trade other remote trades
How do you approach a trade with a forever friend who has tagged pokemon? Do they have to be online to see your request, like how in person ones are, or can it be done offline? Like a message,
You request a Pokémon and wait for them to get back to you?
Seems so tedious but I want to do it because it has benefits and play with some hardcore overseas players.
One thing I’ve experience having met dozens and dozens of players IRL, is that there is a type of person who literally don’t want to trade, even if they have like 8000 Pokemon. Because I’ve hit FF with high level players who clearly play daily but they either won’t tag anything or will only tag one single pokemon/junk.
Waitt, tagging tip 2, is this true???? Does remote trading a pokemon from 2020 use up a guaranteed lucky trade, even if you are already lucky friends?? Can people please confirm this??
Also **please evolve your shiny scatterbugs** because we cannot see what it will turn into.
Never would have figured out about the `interactable` friends list filter on my own, thanks!
I get it, if you trade something insanely rare you want something equally rare back…. but some people just can’t put money towards the game, and are still hoping for that white whale of their own….. IDK.
All my ‘mon I’m OK trading are tagged Remote Trade, and will be no matter what I’m trading for. I’m not going to be doing thousands of these trades…. I’ve already got 500+ tagged, I’m just hoping I have something they are looking for. First trade I got a regional Ocario for a shiny Magmar back from the 2020 community day. I don’t really care if it was ‘even’, I got something I wanted, and they did as well. Spread the love. 🙂
I’ve unlocked with 6, first two went great and I thought this is one of the coolest new mechanics they’ve added in a while .. third guy is a higher level than me and has nothing tagged, doesn’t respond on Campfire. I waited about a week but unfriended him, not worth the time to waste and keep building friend points. If he had anything tagged I would wait.
Fourth person has 2 Tauros tagged and doesn’t respond when I try to trade for either… 5th and 6th both wanted shiny legendaries they didn’t have (cost 40,000 stardust) you’re welcome I’m so generous, I guess. At least they had anything of value tagged and accepted the trades!
YMMV
Nice info
-40k stardust everyday. Im going bankrupt.
LMAO
OP, of all your remote trades, how many of them were you able to communicate with on campfire? I feel like this is a no brainer, but it sounds like hardly anyone has been doing this.
I just tried my first remote trade with a buddy of mine. We had a lucky trade available but the trade didn’t give us lucky pokemon even though it used our lucky trade. Anyone else run into that?