Pokémon Go A Route to New Friendships quest steps and rewards

'A Route to New Friendships' quest steps in Pokémon Go

A Route to New Friendships was released in Pokémon Go on Tuesday 5th December 2023 to mark the release of the Gift Exchange feature.

Due to this, you'll have to use both the Gift Exchange and Routes features to complete this special research task. It's also important to note that one of the challenges is timed gated, so, unless you've got some trickery up your sleeve, it's impossible to complete this quest in one day.

Thankfully, A Route to New Friendships doesn't have a deadline since it's a special research task. This means you can complete it whenever you like without the risk of losing its rewards.

Below you'll find the A Route to New Friendships quest steps and rewards in Pokémon Go. Be wary of spoilers!

Thank you to Amiibofan101 from reddit for the help with this information.

'A Route to New Friendships' Step 1 of 4

• Explore 1km - Lillipup
• Spin 3 PokéStops - 900 XP
• Earn a Candy exploring with your buddy - 5 Razz Berries
• Exchange a Gift with Mateo - 1 Incense

Rewards: 1000 XP and 1000 Stardust

'A Route to New Friendships' Step 2 of 4

• Catch 7 Pokémon - 10 Poké Balls
• Spin 5 PokéStops - 1500 XP
• Explore 3km - Wooloo
• Walk 1,000 m while travelling Routes - Woobat

Rewards: 1000 Stardust and 5 Great Balls

'A Route to New Friendships' Step 3 of 4

• Hatch an Egg - Feebas
• Spin 15 PokéStop - 2000 XP
• Complete 5 Field Research tasks - 1000 Stardust
• Exchange 3 Gifts with Mateo - Hisuian Sneasel

Rewards: 1000 Stardust and 3 Ultra Balls

'A Route to New Friendships' Step 4 of 4

• Claim reward - 10 Great Balls
• Claim reward - 5 Pinap Berries
• Claim reward - 10 Razz Berries

Rewards: 2000 Stardust and Hisuian Sneasel encounter

The Max Out Season is here. The new global event, Wild Area, is nearly here and In the Wild is our lead-up event, which includes the global release of Toxel. You can now catch Dynamax Pokémon through Max Battles. First, however, you need to visit Power Spots to collect Max Particles and complete the To the Max! quest. Don't forget to try out Routes, Gift Exchange and Party Play while you're hunting down rare Pokémon, fighting in the Go Battle League or competing in PokéStop Showcases.

How A Route to New Friendships works in Pokémon Go

A Route to New Friendships was released during the Season of Timeless Travels on Tuesday 5th December 2023 to mark the debut of the Gift Exchange feature in Pokémon Go.

To our knowledge there is no requirement for this special research quest and it should appear automatically when you log into the game after the launch of Gift Exchange. If it does not appear you can either try opening and closing Pokémon Go or levelling up depending on your current Trainer Level.

Certain special research quests are level-gated, but all typically unlock by the time you've reached Level 30 at least unless they had a limited-time release. Niantic has not stated whether A Route to New Friendships has such a time window and since it was designed to encourage players to use the Gift Exchange feature, we doubt it has one.

Once you've unlocked A Route to New Friendships, it can be completed at your own pace since, being a special research quest, it has no deadline.

Like all research quests, A Route to New Friendships follows the structure of completing a set of challenges and collecting the associated rewards to unlock the overall quest step rewards, which then allows you to move onto the next step. This cycle is then repeated until the quest is completed.

It is important to note that one of the challenges in the third quest step is time gated, so it will take you a number of days to complete A Route to New Friendships.

Best of luck with A Route to New Friendships!