Many Players Are Struggling With the "Make a New Friend" Challenge in 'Pokémon GO'

There's a variety of reasons you'll want to have friends who also play Pokémon GO. You'll need pals on your team if you want to take down some of the tougher Pokémon in five-star and Legendary raids, and having friends is a good way to get gifts with free items and additional XP. Plus, there are some special research tasks that will require you to add players as friends to get more XP and other in-game opportunities.

If you don't already have friends in Pokémon GO, here's how to make a new friend.

There are a couple of different ways to add another player as your friend in Pokémon GO — and if you don't have any friends who play the game, there are also ways to add others online without meeting them in person.

To add a new friend in the game, you'll need either their Trainer Code or their QR code. Click your avatar in the bottom-left corner of the screen and then select the tab titled "Friends" at the top. Choose "Add Friend" and either enter their Trainer Code or scan their QR code.

Once you've done this, the other player will just have to accept your friend request, making you friends. There is no restriction on the distance between the two players to become friends, so you can add players who are in a different country with no issues.

If you don't have anyone locally or within your friend group to add as a friend, there are some websites and subreddits where players post their codes so you can add them as a friend and share gifts.

Unfortunately, if you were hoping to collect the XP or other reward for completing the "Make a New Friend" challenge, you may have to wait some time before you can collect the reward.

Niantic has a series of known issues it's addressing within the game, and this objective not marking as completed has been a common problem among players. You can contact Niantic support about it through the Pokémon GO app, but unfortunately, it seems to be a bug that the developers will have to fix.