What is a Party Challenge in Pokémon GO? Answered

Completing challenges with friends never felt so easy!

Image of players doing a party challenge in a park for Pokémon GO.
Image via Niantic

Developer Niantic has recently rolled out Party Challenges in Pokémon GO, adding yet another collaborative system for Trainers to enjoy together. Teaming up to take on these objectives can be beneficial, so if you’re curious, here’s what to know about Party Challenges.

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How Party Challenges Work in Pokémon GO.

In Pokémon GO, Trainers can use a new co-op feature called Party Play to group up with others to complete Party Challenges, ranging from catching creatures to spinning PokéStops. For all the trouble, you and your friends will score in-game rewards such as cosmetics and Stardust. 

Each team member will receive a list of Party Challenges and the leader will select which becomes a priority for the group to finish. Naturally, every member’s contributions will add toward the goal, whether catching specific elements of Pokémon or taking Snapshots. 

In a way, Party Challenges aren’t unlike what you’d expect from standard research tasks, with an added twist of more players in the mix. Although, what’s very interesting about Party Play is that you can only spend an hour in this mode with friends.

The time limit will begin when players start working toward completing challenges, forcing a team to buckle down and get things done or lose out on rewards. The mode is still young, meaning Niantic may add more flexibility to the time limit in the future, like encouraging quicker sessions for better prizes. Only time will tell how far the developer plans to take it.

Image of Trainer completing a Party Challenge with friends in Pokemon GO.
Image via Niantic

How to Create a Party in Pokémon GO.

If you’d like to start a party, you and joining Trainers must be level 15 or higher. Moreover, each party can only have a maximum of four Trainers.

To create a party or join a group, head to the Trainer menu in Pokémon GO and hit “Create” or “Join Party.” Some players on Reddit have reported the feature not working as intended and advised refreshing the game app if this happens to you.

If you’d like to learn more about Party Play, here’s a breakdown of Party Power for raids and everything else you should know.

About the Author

Anthony Jones

Anthony is a Weekend Games Writer for Prima Games and an RPG nerd in love with retro games and the evolution of modern gaming. He has over two years experience as a games reporter with words at IGN, Game Informer, Distractify, Twinfinite, MMOBomb, The Escapist, and elsewhere. More than anything, Anthony loves to talk your ear off about JRPGs that changed his childhood (which deserve remakes) and analyzing the design behind beloved titles.