Pokemon Go Buddy Excited State Guide

by VanityDestroyer

Introduction

This analysis will take a closer look at the mechanics involved with the excited state and the upkeep required to maintain it. Three topics will be covered with accompanying evidence:

1. Emotion Point (EP) Decay
2. Excited State Cap and Decay Reset 1 & 2
3. Reaching the Excited State and Maintenance

Protocol

Each topic has start and end time points accompanied by an imgur gif album to provide a visual of interactions and mood changes. My Rayquaza, Pistachio, was maintained at either 1 EP from excited (31 EP) or excited (32 EP) throughout this analysis. A mix of team leader battles (EP is awarded for simply entering the battle and exiting immediately) and berry feeding were the interactions primarily used. These reward 1 EP and have a 30 minute cooldown.

Emotion Point (EP) Decay

A common misconception is that total EP is decreased by 1 every 30 minutes. This has lead trainers to believe getting to the excited state is an uphill battle as various interactions award 1 EP with 30 minute cooldowns each. The following example shows that the actual decay timer is 40 minutes from the last interaction with your buddy.

1. Rayquaza is 1 EP from being excited and enters a team leader battle at 11:53AM to become excited.
2. 40 minutes pass without any additional interactions and Rayquaza loses its excited state at 12:33PM. Interestingly the mood change is reflected in your buddy’s profile without having to return to the overworld.

Excited State Cap and Decay Reset 1

Many trainers have been wondering if it is possible to “overcharge” the excited state. Is it possible to go beyond 32 EP and have the excited state last for hours without additional upkeep? Are interactions cumulative in that a second interaction after excitation can add 40 more minutes? The following example shows that there is a hard cap of 32 EP for the excited state but the second interaction becomes the last interaction effectively resetting the 40 minute decay timer.

1. Rayquaza enters a team leader battle at 12:34PM to become excited.
2. Berry feeding, a different interaction that would reward EP, is given at 12:50PM as a second interaction in an attempt to prolong the excited state.
3. Mood was observed 40 minutes after the first interaction, at 1:14PM, to see if the excited state is lost. The excited state persisted beyond 1:14PM.
4. Mood was therefore observed 40 minutes after the second interaction, at 1:30PM. The excited state ended. The cap cannot be exceeded and additional interactions only become the last interaction.

Excited State Cap and Decay Reset 2

A new question arose from this finding. Does the second interaction need to award an EP to reset the decay timer? The following example shows that no it does not. This means that any interaction, even if it was used to excite your buddy thus putting it on an EP cooldown, can refresh the decay timer.

1. Rayquaza enters a team leader battle at 3:00PM to become excited.
2. Rayquaza enters a team leader battle again at 3:10PM to serve as a second interaction, even though the 30 minute cooldown has already been activated.
3. Mood was observed 40 minutes after the first interaction, at 3:40PM, to see if it loses its excited state. The excited state continued beyond 3:40PM.
4. Mood was therefore observed 40 minutes after the second interaction, at 3:50PM. The excited state ended. Once again the cap cannot be exceeded but an EP gain is not necessary to reset the decay timer.

Reaching the Excited State and Maintenance

As many of you know it takes a while to get your buddy excited. In this portion of the post I will share my method of getting my Rayquaza to 31 EP in order to run this analysis.

I engaged my buddy Pistachio every 31 minutes (setting a timer is helpful; I chose 31 minutes to make sure the cooldown definitely reset) with the following interactions: play, snapshot, berry feed, and team leader battle. If this is done consistently and most importantly before decay sets in it takes about 4 hours to reach excited at 8 EP/hour. This can be achieved more quickly by mixing in other interactions that reward EP, but I wanted to have finer control at each interval.

Now that the decay of 40 minutes from the last interaction has been shown what is my recommendation to keep your buddy excited? After the interaction is completed that brings it to the excited state, set a 39 minute timer to interact with your buddy once, just before decay sets in.

Trying to excite your buddy is very time consuming and arduous, but wanting to know the minimum needed to keep your buddy excited is what drove me to conduct this analysis. I hope this is helpful to others and I encourage my fellow trainers to try it out!

Conclusion

1. EP Decay occurs 40 minutes after the last interaction.
2. To prolong the excited state interact with your buddy in any way prior to 40 minutes from the last excited-triggering interaction.