Pokémon GO is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2026. While that is a monumental occasion, the aging mobile game has been about ready to get a facelift for some time now. Earlier this month, Niantic announced exactly that, and it comes with a lot to parse through. So, let’s take a look and break down everything that came with the new update in October 2025.
You have a new level when you log into Pokémon GO, up to Level 80 now!
First things first: The Trainer level cap has been increased from 50 all the way up to 80. If you haven’t been paying attention, this is only the second level cap increase for Pokémon GO players in the history of the game. The last level cap increase was during the GO Beyond update in November 2020, which raised the original level cap from Level 40 to 50. So, this is significant.
But it gets even better as they went through and rebalanced how leveling up works in Pokémon GO to make it more attainable for casual players. This means that anyone who was at least level 23 gained some levels, and no one lost any levels during this restructuring.
Here is a breakdown of how much XP you need to reach each level, which changes every 10 levels.
- Level 10: 48,000 total XP
- Level 20: 258,000 total XP
- Level 30: 1,083,000 total XP
- Level 40: 3,953,000 total XP
- Level 50:* 12,753,000 total XP
- Level 60: 34,353,000 total XP
- Level 70: 85,853,000 total XP
- Level 80: 203,353,000 total XP
The Level-Up Research tasks have been removed for levels 41-50, but have been added for 71-80, which are required to be completed to be able to level up once you get that far.
For instance, I was level 37 during the Pokémon GO “legacy” era, which officially ended on October 15th, 2025. Now, I am Level 48 under the new leveling system. When I logged in, the game automatically took over and informed me of the update, leveled me up, gave me a bunch of rewards for it, and a special “Legacy 37” medal.
Leveling up has new avatar rewards and upgrades for their Trainer
Once you hit level 25 in Pokémon GO, you’ll start earning special Trainer clothing and accessories based on types of Poké Balls. You can check out an easy list below that gives rewards all the way up to Level 80.
- Level 25: Poké Ball Cap
- Level 30: Poké Ball Shoes
- Level 35: Poké Ball Jacket
- Level 40: Great Ball Cap
- Level 45: Great Ball Shoes
- Level 50: Great Ball Jacket
- Level 55: Ultra Ball Cap
- Level 60: Ultra Ball Shoes
- Level 65: Ultra Ball Jacket
- Level 71: Level 71 Shoes
- Level 73: Level 73 Shades
- Level 75: Level 75 Pants
- Level 77: Level 77 Pose
- Level 79: Level 79 Hairstyle (Short) and Level 79 Hairstyle (Long)
- Level 80: Level 80 Jacket
But, that’s not all. Leveling up also gives rewards that increase your item, Pokémon, gift, and postcard storage, as well as various items to help you on your journey, like Ultra Balls or berries.
Here’s a visual to see some of the rewards I got from being at Legacy 37 and being upgraded to Level 48.
In addition, once you hit level 70, you can look forward to an increased chance of Lucky Friends when you achieve the Best Friends status.
A Daily Adventure Egg to keep you moving!
In addition to the Trainer level cap increase and rebalancing, you’re going to be given a free Daily Adventure Egg for the first time you log into Pokémon GO each day. It gets its own special incubator separate from any others you may have, and it only needs 1 km to hatch. This will give you a free 10,000 XP just for walking a kilometer, which equates to roughly .6 miles.
Keep in mind that you can only hold and incubate one Daily Adventure Egg at a time, but it won’t count towards your Egg storage.
You can read more about the new Pokémon GO update from their official blog post here. If you’re into Pokémon but would rather something more casual, you should check out my review for Pokémon TCG Pocket.
