One of the major elements that is missing from Pokemon GO is the ability to play against other players in real-time. However, it is not entirely hopeless because there is a way to play against your friends. The first rule necessary for playing against a friend is to be in the same team as your friend; if your friend is in Team Yellow, you should be in Team Yellow as well. Also, there are benefits when you battle a friendly gym, such as increasing its prestige level and empowering it.

If your friend takes over a gym, then you can battle against your friend in a friendly battle. Your Pokemon won’t be knocked out but will be left with 1 HP so you can heal them. This is the only known way you can play against your team or friend. For example, we managed to have two of our friends play together by having one claim a gym and the other playing against him for practice. It was fun since both of their Pokemon were battling and it made it somewhat competitive as well.

You can play as much as you want against your friend since it’s safe for your Pokemon in a friendly gym. One of the main benefits is that you train your Pokemon into leveling up. Note that the battle against your friend is in real-time for you but not for him; his AI will be playing against you. Of course, according to some rumors this will change in the future and Niantic will introduce a live battle system in future updates. This should be very exciting and we can’t wait until they introduce it. Stay tuned with our website for more Pokemon GO news.