Overview
A Poffin is a special buddy treat that immediately fills your active Buddy Pokémon's hunger meter, summons it onto the Map for about six hours, and boosts its mood to Excited. While Excited, the walking distance required to earn buddy Candy is cut in half, and daily heart limits for standard affection activities are doubled. It is most useful when you plan to spend time walking and interacting with that buddy to earn extra Candy, Mega Energy, or progress toward Best Buddy status.
How to get it
Buy a Poffin in the in-game shop for 100 PokéCoins (or in limited-time bundles), or earn Poffins from eligible AR Mapping tasks, seasonal Field Research, Special and Timed Research, and monthly GO Pass reward tracks.
How to use it
Feed the Poffin to your active Buddy Pokémon in AR play mode or via Quick Treat mode; if your throw misses, the Poffin is not deducted from your Item Bag and can be thrown again.
Plan your walk and buddy activities during the 6-hour effect, before midnight local time or switching buddies, as either action resets the Excited mood.
Worth knowing
If a buddy has already walked at least half of its normal Candy distance (such as 10 km on a 20 km buddy), feeding a Poffin immediately awards one Candy and carries any leftover distance toward the next halved threshold. Candy XL remains a separate roll on each reward, not a guarantee.
Excitement can also be reached through buddy interactions without a Poffin; the item saves the setup time.
Match the treat to your buddy’s walking distance
Buddy Candy distances are 1, 3, 5, and 20 km. Halving the distance has a different practical value depending on how far you intend to walk during the excited period.
For example, starting from zero progress, a 10 km walk with a normally 5 km buddy reaches two Candy thresholds, whereas at the 2.5 km Excited distance the same walk reaches four. If you have already walked at least half of a buddy's normal requirement before feeding—such as 10 km on a 20 km Legendary buddy or 2.5 km on a 5 km buddy—feeding a Poffin immediately awards one Candy and carries the remaining distance toward the next halved interval.
These examples ignore event bonuses and assume the Excited mood stays active throughout; earning Candy twice as often gives eligible Trainers twice as many rolls for Candy XL, though Candy XL is a separate chance on each reward rather than a guaranteed drop.
Buddy mood and Buddy Level are separate systems. Mood is a temporary daily state that peaks at Excited, whereas Buddy Levels (Good, Great, Ultra, and Best Buddy) represent permanent friendship milestones requiring 1, 70, 150, and 300 total hearts. Feeding a Poffin immediately triggers the Excited mood so you can earn daily hearts faster, but it does not instantly make the Pokémon a Best Buddy or grant the Best Buddy CP boost.
| Normal Candy distance | Excited distance |
|---|---|
| 1 km | 0.5 km |
| 3 km | 1.5 km |
| 5 km | 2.5 km |
| 20 km | 10 km |
Hearts, walking, and sources
Feeding a Poffin immediately fills all six Give your buddy a treat hearts (three standard plus three Excited) and doubles the daily heart limits for other standard categories: Explore together (3 to 6), Play together (1 to 2), Battle together (3 to 6), Take a snapshot (1 to 2), Visit a new place (1 to 2), and Follow a Route together (1 to 2). You still have to perform those activities while your buddy is Excited to earn their hearts.
Bonus hearts—such as opening Buddy Presents or Souvenirs—follow separate rules, so a Poffin does not universally double every bonus heart.
You can buy a single Poffin in the in-game shop for 100 PokéCoins, and discounted bundles appear occasionally in limited-time shop boxes. Without spending PokéCoins, you can earn Poffins from eligible AR Mapping tasks, seasonal Field Research tasks, Special and Timed Research, and as rank rewards on the monthly GO Pass.
Choose the buddy before feeding
Set the Pokémon you intend to walk as your active buddy before feeding it a Poffin in AR play mode or Quick Treat mode. If you miss your throw, the Poffin is not removed from your Item Bag and you can toss it again until your buddy eats it.
Once fed, the Poffin keeps your buddy full for about six hours, and you cannot feed a second Poffin while the hunger meter is active to stack the duration. Keep in mind that both the Excited mood and daily heart progress reset at midnight local time, and swapping to a different buddy clears the active Poffin timer and Excited state.
If that Pokémon family is already eligible to earn Mega Energy from walking, the shorter Candy interval also lets you reach its energy reward more often. The Poffin does not unlock Mega Energy walking for a family you have never Mega Evolved.
Feeding a single Golden Razz Berry or Silver Pinap Berry also completely fills the standard Berry hunger meter (matching three regular Berries) and puts your buddy in a Happy mood, but it does not immediately trigger the Excited mood. A Poffin keeps the buddy fed longer and is most useful when you want halved Candy distance and doubled heart caps right away without spending time building excitement through repeated interactions.
