A lot of us just love hunting Achievements or Trophies, we go that extra mile, slay that absurdly difficult bonus boss, trek that nearly impossible dungeon just for bragging rights. Luckily, Pokémon GO knows our plight and have brought us Medals, milestones to commemorate our achievements. While medals don’t affect gameplay, they don’t even rewards exp, they can be guides if you don’t know what to do anymore. Medals come in 3 levels, bronze, silver and gold each one asking for your endeavor more than the last. While there are a total of 28 medals, they can all be separated into 3 groups: catching, battling and exploration and did you know that each medal’s name is the classification of enemy Trainers in the main Pokémon games?
Catching Medals
Medals awarded for catching Pokémon are generally divided into Pokémon types you can catch, one for each of the 18 types: Normal, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ground, Rock, Bug, Ghost, Steel, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Ice, Dragon, Dark and Fairy. These type medals require 10,50 and 200 Pokémon of the type caught for bronze, silver and gold respectively. There are also quirky medals that are given to you when you catch Large Magikarps, Tiny Rattatas and Pikachus. It should also be noted that we currently cannot obtain the Dark-type caught medals since there are no dark-type, full or half, generation 1 Pokémon, the earliest dark type is Murkrow and it comes out in generation 2. And no, Alolan Rattata and Meowth aren’t released yet too.
Battling Medals
There are only 2 medals awarded for successful battles, one for conquering and the other for reinforcing. They both need 10,100 and 1,000 for bronze, silver and golf respectively. Staying near a hotly contested gym will put you on the fast track to earning that Gold Battle Girl medal. Earning the Ace Trainer medal needs a stable gym controlled by your team to earn. Getting both these badges to gold will require a top tier team, and a fast smartphone so you don’t get any visual lag while battling.
Exploration/Completion Medals
This last category is more about completion and experiencing what Pokémon GO has to offer. It includes the Jogger, Backpacker, Kanto, Scientist and Breeder medals. These medals are more easily achieved by just opening Pokémon GO and starting your own Pokémon journey rather than aiming to complete them.
If you want a cheat sheet on the various Pokémon GO medals, here’s one by the SilphRoad Community on reddit:
Badge Name |
Name in the protobuf |
Bronze |
Silver |
Gold |
Jogger |
BADGE_TRAVEL_KM |
10 km |
100 km |
1000 km |
Kanto |
BADGE_POKEDEX_ENTRIES |
5 |
50 |
100 |
Collector |
BADGE_CAPTURE_TOTAL |
30 |
500 |
2000 |
Scientist |
BADGE_EVOLVED_TOTAL |
3 |
20 |
200 |
Breeder |
BADGE_HATCHED_TOTAL |
10 |
100 |
500 |
Backpacker |
BADGE_POKESTOPS_VISITED |
100 |
1000 |
2000 |
Fisherman |
BADGE_BIG_MAGIKARP |
3 |
50 |
300 |
Battle Girl |
BADGE_BATTLE_ATTACK_WON |
10 |
100 |
1000 |
Ace Trainer |
BADGE_BATTLE_TRAINING_WON |
10 |
100 |
1000 |
Schoolkid |
BADGE_TYPE_NORMAL |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Black Belt |
BADGE_TYPE_FIGHTING |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Bird Keeper |
BADGE_TYPE_FLYING |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Punk Girl |
BADGE_TYPE_POISON |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Ruin Maniac |
BADGE_TYPE_GROUND |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Hiker |
BADGE_TYPE_ROCK |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Bug Catcher |
BADGE_TYPE_BUG |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Hex Maniac |
BADGE_TYPE_GHOST |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Depot Agent |
BADGE_TYPE_STEEL |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Kindler |
BADGE_TYPE_FIRE |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Swimmer |
BADGE_TYPE_WATER |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Gardener |
BADGE_TYPE_GRASS |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Rocker |
BADGE_TYPE_ELECTRIC |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Psychic |
BADGE_TYPE_PSYCHIC |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Skier |
BADGE_TYPE_ICE |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Dragon Tamer |
BADGE_TYPE_DRAGON |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Fairy Tale Girl |
BADGE_TYPE_FAIRY |
10 |
50 |
200 |
Youngster |
BADGE_SMALL_RATTATA |
3 |
50 |
300 |
Pikachu Fan |
BADGE_PIKACHU |
3 |
50 |
300 |
??? |
BADGE_TYPE_DARK |
10 |
50 |
200 |