How to add friends for Pokémon Unite multiplayer battles
Ready for a Poké Battle against real people?
Pokémon Unite is a novel spin on the beloved franchise that involves multiplayer online battles akin to League of Legends.
It’s out now for free on Nintendo Switch. With Pokémon Unite being a MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game, part of the fun is playing with or against friends.
Unfortunately, the game doesn’t make it explicitly clear how to match up with specific players. Like any Pokémon, the process of acquiring and playing with friends is a bit involved. Here’s how to handle it all, from creating a lobby to joining your friends’ games and more.
How to add friends in Pokémon Unite
Before you start inviting or joining players, you’ll need to actually become friends with them through Pokémon Unite itself. This friends list is separate from the one on Nintendo Switch, so you’ll need to go in and add everyone manually.
From the game’s main menu, press L to pull up your Trainer Info. Here, you’ll see your trainer’s name and the Trainer ID associated with it. This is the code you’ll use to add other friends.
To add a friend, press X from the main menu and scroll down to Friends. From here, select Friend Search and then press X to enter a Trainer ID. Type in the ID and then select Add Friend.
How to invite friends to a match in Pokémon Unite
When you boot up a lobby, you can see your Lobby ID in the top left of the screen.
Once you’ve added all the friends you’d like to play with, there are two methods of getting paired up with them in a match. First, let’s cover how to invite friends.
From the main menu, select Unite Battle, and you’ll be taken to a lobby. To invite friends, press Y and all of the players who are online will appear here. Then select their names and invite the ones you’d like to join you.
You can also give your friends the Lobby ID located in the top left of the screen to allow them to join themselves, as well.
How to join a friend’s match in Pokémon Unite
To join a friend, type in their Lobby ID.
Alternatively, you can join your friends’ games using the aforementioned Lobby ID. If you plan on joining their match, have them create a lobby by following the steps above. Then, get their Lobby ID and you’ll be ready to join!
To do so, select Lobby Search from the main menu and input the Lobby ID given to you by your friend. This will allow you to join their lobby so you can play with one another. Have other players mirror these steps to join the lobby, too.
One thing to note is that you can only play Ranked if you’re a level 6, and you’ll have to wait until your level 8 to play Quick Battle. So the lobby will only be able to play matches the lowest level player can get into.
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