Pokemon Sleep Research Community: How to Add Friends and Get Bonus Candy

Adding friends in Pokemon Sleep expands your research community and earns you free candy
Image of Snorlax sleeping in a field with the Pokemon Sleep logo and Research Community icon
Screenshot by The Escapist

Connecting with Pokemon and people has always been a part of the Pokemon franchise, and that hasn’t changed with the newest mobile game, Pokemon Sleep. However, it’s not immediately obvious how to add friends in Pokemon Sleep or why you would want to. Through the Research Community, you can add friends and receive perks every day, if you know where to look.

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Why Add Friends in Pokemon Sleep?

You might be wondering why you’d even want to add friends in Pokemon Sleep, a game that feels relatively geared to solo play. There’s no battling with your Pokemon teams or trading features, but you will receive additional Pokemon candy from your friends in the game thanks to the Research Community feature.

So, even though friends in Pokemon Sleep don’t function quite like we’re used to in games like Pokemon GO, there is a reason to find and add other players.

How to Add Friends in Pokemon Sleep

Connecting with other Pokemon Sleep players isn’t super intuitive, but it’s pretty straightforward once you know where to go.

To add friends in Pokemon Sleep, open up the main menu. Then, click on the Research Community option on the right hand side, indicated with a little envelope icon.

The main menu in Pokemon Sleep with an arrow pointing to the Research Community
Screenshot by The Escapist

From here, you’ll see a list of your Research Community aka your friends. To add users, click on the little person with a plus sign icon at the top of the screen.

Image of the Research Community in Pokemon Sleep, with an arrow pointing to the "add friends" icon
Screenshot by The Escapist

This page includes a QR code that friends can scan to add you and shows your Researcher ID. You can easily copy this and share it with someone so they can add you as a friend.

To add a friend in Pokemon Sleep, click on the Scan 2D code or Enter a Researcher ID button. Then, either scan the QR code of a fellow researcher or enter their ID. Hit search and you’ll be able to send that person a friend request. Once they accept, they’ll show up in your Research Community and you’ll be able to see their Sleep Research and earn daily bonuses.

How to Accept Friend Requests in Pokemon Sleep

You won’t get a clear notification when another Researcher sends you a friend request, so it can be hard to know how to accept these requests. To do so, you’ll once again head to the Research Community area. Beside the button for adding friends, there is a second icon of a person with three horizontal lines next to them.

Image of the Research Community menu in Pokemon Sleep with an arrow pointing to the friend request icon
Screenshot by The Escapist

If you have pending friend requests, you’ll see a red box with a number. To review and accept/delete your requests, click on this icon. Then, you can click the Requests menu option to see a list of pending friend requests in Pokemon Sleep. Hit the green Details button to review the request, which you can then delete or accept.

There’s a cap of 50 friends per person in Pokemon Sleep, so if a user requests to add you but has a full list of friends, you will not be able to accept the request and will receive a “This person’s Friend List is full” error message.

How to Collect Candy from the Research Community in Pokemon Sleep

To reap the rewards of having friends in Pokemon Sleep, you need to visit the Research Community. When you have new research rewards that can be collected, there will be a yellow dot on the Research Community icon.

By clicking on the icon, you’ll get a list showing your friends’ latest sleep research and which candies you received from their studies. Usually, you’ll get one candy for whichever Pokemon they selected as their photo from the day. This can be a great way to get more candy to level up your helpers so they’ll bring you more berries and ingredients to feed Snorlax tasty dishes.

During special events, there may be other perks from friends as well, such as event items like Raikou Mane.

If you get up as early as I do, you may want to check this tab a few times a day to make sure you grab all of the candies from your friends in other time zones or with different sleep schedules.


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Author
Amanda Kay Oaks
Amanda Kay Oaks is a freelance writer for The Escapist. She's a lifelong gamer with an affinity for Pokemon, RPGs, and cozy games, especially The Sims. Amanda has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction, with prior work on pop culture and entertainment at Book Riot, Fanfare, and Gamepur.