Now your 'Pokémon Go' buddy will gather gifts while you stay at home

The features Niantic announced for Pokémon Go in mid-April are starting to make their way to your mobile devices. To start with, your Buddy Pokémon — that one special monster you choose to appear next to your avatar — will now bring back gifts from nearby PokéStops and Gyms for you. It’s obviously a feature meant to encourage staying at home, so you don’t have to venture out to PokéStops to gather gifts for friends. If your buddy isn’t doing any gift gathering yet, don’t worry: Niantic’s announcement says the feature is rolling out on a regional basis to ensure stability.

In addition, Remote Raid Passes are now available in the in-game shop. The passes will give you a way to join raid battles on the Nearby screen or elsewhere on the map.

Finally, there’s a new 1 PokéCoin bundle you can buy. From today until May 4th, 2020 at 10AM ET/1PM PT, you can get 20 Ultra Balls, 15 Pinap Berries and 15 Razz Berries for just one coin from the in-game shop. Niantic launched the bundle as a way to make it easier and cheaper to play while you’re sheltering-in-place and can’t visit PokéStops, introducing a new one every week as one-time purchases.