This controversial Pokémon Go feature is useless according to players

Pokémon Go players can’t always take advantage of one of the game’s rarest features due to an incredibly flawed mechanic, plunging the community into a big debate.

Pokémon Go players are currently discussing the Lucky Friend mechanic, with several noting that despite the considerable work required to achieve it, the coveted “Lucky Friend” status is actually pretty useless.

The problem, as discussed by users on the Pokémon Go Reddit, is that you can only trade with people locally.

Online gamers’ dilemma faced with a faulty Pokémon Go feature

This means that if your friends list is mostly made up of people online, then you will never be able to benefit from being Lucky Friends, because you cannot trade.

Im lucky friends with 24 people from around the world that ill never meet in person to trade with. Feels like a flawed feature, Niantic. byu/ders89 inpokemongo

“If they don’t add global trading for normal use, they should at least do it when we’re lucky friends,” one player suggested, while another said, “That seems like a good idea.” option. You get a lucky friend, you can do a global trade with them. The “payback period” could be 30 days, so you can only get the lucky trade once a month.»

“I have dozens of lucky friends with people I’ve met and played with in real life, but I’ll never see them again,” laments one player, “This definitely feels flawed. I’m just keeping them as friends in case, in 5 years, I bump into them again somewhere in LA.»

“I have the same problem,” another user wrote, “And as if to taunt me, I have to do 28 more lucky trades to level up. Every time I look at my friends list, I have to scroll through all these lucky friends I’ll never be able to interact with.»

Even people who play Pokémon Go every day have a small chance of becoming someone’s Lucky Friend. First you need to become Best Friends by interacting a lot with someone on your friends list, then there is a tiny chance that sending a gift, trading or fighting will make you Lucky Friends.

A huge benefit of becoming a Lucky Friend is that the next Pokémon you trade will have the Lucky trait. This means that Stardust prices are reduced when this Pokémon grows in power and gives it high IVs.

It’s a shame that Pokémon Go still lacks a true online trading mechanic, especially since it’s been a central part of the main series since the Nintendo DS era.

Until such a feature arrives, players must therefore rely on local friends and hope for luck to benefit from lucky Pokémon.