Friend-Making Battle Story Event returns to Pokémon Masters EX, alongside Seasonal Scouts featuring past New Year's Sync Pairs

With New Year now well and truly under way, last year's Friend-Making Battle Story Event is making a return to Pokémon Masters EX, alongside a set of Seasonal Scouts featuring a collection of New Year's Sync Pairs going back to 2021.

Story Event: Friend-Making Battle
In this returning Story Event, after Poppy is defeated by Raihan in a Pokémon battle, she challenges him to a "friend-making battle". This event will run through to January 22nd, at 9:59pm (PST)

Players in this Story Event will collect Event Points as they complete battles, earning rewards based on the total amount of event points acquired instead of trading for specific desired rewards.

Finishing the Breadth and Depth of Friendships story area or earning 500 Event Points in this event will allow players to team-up with an exclusive 3★ Sync Pair, Blossom (Furisode Girl) & Kirlia, a Fairy-type Tech Role Sync Pair with an expanded sync grid. Additional copies of Blossom (Furisode Girl) & Kirlia can be unlocked at 1000, 2000, and 3000 Event Points, while 3★ Custom Power-Ups ×20 for them can be unlocked at 1500 Event Points, and 4★ Custom Power-Ups ×20 can be obtained at 2700 Event Points.

Other event rewards include a 5★ Scout Ticket, Skill Items, a Sprint Move Candy Coin, 5★ Power-Ups, and Event Medals. Other rewards able to be obtained include Special Skill Feathers 67 and 68, Custom Sync Orbs for Raihan (New Year's 2025) & Sandaconda, Poppy (New Year's 2025) & Steelix, and Blossom (Furisode Girl) & Kirlia, and Lucky Cookies for Raihan (New Year's 2025) & Sandaconda, Poppy (New Year's 2025) & Steelix, and Adaman & Leafeon. Players will need to collect a total of 10,000 Event Points for this event in order to receive all possible rewards.

As usual for events of this type, players will receive bonus rewards if they take on event battles using teams that feature specific sync pairs. The more of these sync pairs that players place in their lineup, the greater the bonus received. The applicable Sync Pairs and reward rates are as follows:

• Raihan (New Year's 2025) & Sandaconda, Poppy (New Year's 2025) & Steelix: +60% (×1.6) Bonus Rewards
• Blossom (Furisode Girl) & Kirlia, Lana (New Year's 2026) & Dondozo, Clair (New Year's 2024) & Drampa, Wallace (New Year's 2024) & Blacephalon, Lisia (New Year's 2023) & Rapidash, Dawn (New Year's 2023) & Oricorio, Volkner (New Year's 2022) & Electivire, Sabrina (New Year's 2022) & Chingling, Lance (New Year's 2021) & Gyarados, Lillie (New Year's 2021) & Ribombee: +40% (×1.4) Bonus Rewards
• All other Sync Pairs with the Galar or Paldea Theme Skills: +20% (×1.2) bonus rewards

These bonuses stack additively, so having a team consisting of Raihan (New Year's 2025) & Sandaconda, Poppy (New Year's 2025) & Steelix, and Blossom (Furisode Girl) & Kirlia would grant a combined +160% (×2.6) rewards.

Players should also note the following when playing this event:

• The number of plays available for Daily Extreme Battle 1 are reset every day at 10:00pm (PST).
• To participate, players must have completed Main Story Chapter 1: The More the Merrier (Normal) in single-player.
• The sync pairs that appear as opponents in battle have different capabilities than those players can actually obtain.
• All mission completion rewards must be claimed within three days of the mission period ending.
• All Event Points collected during this event will be automatically deleted once the event is over.

Past New Year's Sync Pairs Return in these latest Seasonal Scouts
The Super Spotlight Seasonal Scout, Seasonal Tiered Scout, and Seasonal Featured Ticket Scout offer players a limited-time opportunity to scout the featured sync pairs from the Friend-Marking Battle event, along with other past New Year's Seasonal Sync pairs.

• Raihan (New Year's 2025) & Sandaconda
• Poppy (New Year's 2025) & Steelix
• Wallace (New Year's 2024) & Blacephalon
• Clair (New Year's 2024) & Drampa
• Dawn (New Year's 2023) & Oricorio
• Lisia (New Year's 2023) & Rapidash
• Volkner (New Year's 2022) & Electivire
• Sabrina (New Year's 2022) & Chingling
• Lillie (New Year's 2021) & Ribombee
• Lance (New Year's 2021) & Gyarados

More information about each of these sync pairs can be found via the Bulbapedia links above.

The Super Spotlight Seasonal Scout includes a daily discount, where players can perform a single scout for ×100 paid gems. This daily discount can be used up to 3 times per day during the entire length of the scout.

The Seasonal Tiered Scout has five tiers, each of which is a Sync Pair Scout ×11. Players are able to scout once on each tier by using Paid Gems, with the amount of gems increasing with each tier. Additionally, Tiers 2 through 5 grant the player additional in-game rewards.

• Tier 1: 1,000 Paid Gems
• Tier 2: 1,500 Paid Gems - 5★ Power-Ups ×3
• Tier 3: 2,000 Paid Gems - 5★ Great Scout Ticket P, which can be used in the Seasonal Featured Ticket Scout
• Tier 4: 2,500 Paid Gems - 5★ Power-Ups ×7
• Tier 5: 3,000 Paid Gems - Player's choice of 5★ Sync Pairs from those available in the scout, including any of the 10 featured New Year's Seasonal Sync Pairs

The Super Spotlight Seasonal Scout and Seasonal Tiered Scout will both run until January 22nd, at 9:59pm (PST). The associated Seasonal Featured Ticket Scout meanwhile runs through to January 29th, at 9:59pm (PST). All tickets must be used prior to this scout ending.

Champion Stadium: Johto Challenge
The Champion Stadium is rotating around to Johto until February 1st, at 9:59pm (PDT), giving Trainers the opportunity to challenge the Indigo Plateau Elite Four members from Generations II and IV, Will, Koga, Bruno, and Karen, as well as the Champion Lance.

Successful Trainers will gain access to Master Mode, which allows players to face more challenging battles against the Elite Four, an in-game badge that signifies their accomplishment, and other special reward items including Champion Spirit, which can be used to raise sync pairs up to 6★ EX.

To participate in the Champion Stadium, Trainers must have completed Main Story Chapter 10: A Reason to Battle (Normal) in single-player. To attempt the Johto Challenge, players must also have completed the Kanto Challenge on Normal difficulty. The Normal difficulty of the Kanto Challenge is always available, regardless of the current regional rotation of the Champion Stadium.