Every way to earn XP in Pokemon GO

Every trainer in Pokemon GO can use extra ways to farm XP.

It’s one of the most valuable resources in Pokemon GO, and no trainer can have enough of it. XP is what levels up Pokemon. Similar to the main series, the higher the Pokemon’s level, the more XP it will need to level up. This means that, if a trainer wants a level 40 Pokemon, they’re going to need to dump a ton of XP to get there.

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How can trainers level up their Pokemon more quickly?

First thing’s first: if anyone is going to start to farm XP, they’re definitely going to need Lucky Eggs. These items, when activated, double any XP gained for half an hour. Trainers should want to plan a time where they want to work on gaining XP and activate that Lucky Egg beforehand.

The most basic way to farm XP is through catching Pokemon. A basic catch will award the player 100 XP. There are ways to really capitalize on this, however.

Players can get tons of catch XP during special events like Spotlight Hours. Oftentimes during these events, the effects from Lucky Eggs will be extended for a full hour. The Pokemon that is the focus of the Spotlight Hour will have an increased spawn rate, so trainers can catch several of them and get 200 XP for each catch. If the event has a bonus of 2x XP, then that becomes 400 XP per catch.

Evolving Pokemon will also earn the trainer 500 XP (1,000 with a Lucky Egg active). This might seem tedious since some Pokemon require lots of candy to evolve, but there is a way around this problem.

There are several Pokemon that require a low amount of candy to evolve. These tend to be the weaker Pokemon in the game (Pidgey, Caterpie, Weedle, etc). If a trainer has lots of these Pokemon on the bench, though, they can evolve them simply for the XP gain.

One way of getting lots of XP is through beating Raid bosses. Defeating one Tier five Raid boss gets the player 10,000 XP (without a Lucky Egg active).

Of course, this method is unreliable since Tier five Raids feature really strong legendary Pokemon that aren’t easy to beat. Tier one and three Raids, on the other hand, feature weaker Pokemon that can easily be beaten by one player. This would give the player 3,000 and 4,000 XP respectively.

Finally, a great way to gather up XP is to send gifts to friends. Each gift gives both players 200 XP. This even has the added benefit of improving the trainer’s friend rating. Continuing to interact with a player through giving gifts can end up being very profitable. Earning Best Friend status with another player gives them 100,000 XP!

In addition to these, there are other actions that give players small amounts of XP. These actions include spinning a Poke Stop, hatching eggs, and participating in a gym battle. Depending on the month, certain Special Research events can give out a lot of XP as well.