Teams are in-game groups that Trainers can join, led by NPC Team Leaders. Trainers must be at least level 5 to join a team by tapping any Gym. A Trainer's team is displayed in their profile.

Since February 26^th, 2019, Trainers are able to change their team, once a year, after purchasing for 1,000 and activating a Team Medallion.^[1]

Gameplay

Team members can work together to defeat and claim other Teams' Gyms or help defend their Team's Gyms. When a Trainer spins the Photo Disc of Gyms controlled by their Team, they will earn bonus items. The team that controls the Gym during a Raid Battle will also earn bonus Premier Balls after the Raid is completed.

When a Trainer joins a team, that team's leader will also provide Appraisal. The information is the same between all three teams, but each team leader has different mannerisms when appraising a Pokémon.

Team affiliation does not have any other in-game effects. There are no team-exclusive Pokémon, and the mascot Pokémon do not have any extra effects for team members.

Team Info

Teams
Name	Instinct	Mystic	Valor
Logo
Leader	Spark	Blanche	Candela
Icon
Mascot Pokémon	Zapdos	Articuno	Moltres

Descriptions

Each Team holds certain values, beliefs, and goals.

Team Instinct relies on a Trainer's instincts. Instinct's members believe that Pokémon have excellent intuition and are interested in learning more about its connection to the egg hatching process.

Team Mystic relies on analyzing every situation. Mystic's members believe that Pokémon have immeasurable wisdom and are interested in learning more about why Pokémon experience evolution.

Team Valor relies on strength in battle. Valor's members believe that Pokémon are stronger and more warmhearted than humans and are interested in enhancing their natural power.

Gallery

Team Instinct Mobile Background

Team Mystic Mobile Background

Team Valor Mobile Background

Stickers

Día de Muertos 2023

Día de Muertos 2023

Día de Muertos 2023

Trivia

• Prior to version 0.135.0 and since the game's inception, Trainers were unable to change their team after choosing one.^[2]
• It is possible for a player to not join any team.
  • Instead of one of the Legendary Birds, their profile would have a green logo of a Poké Ball as a background. Any part of the interface with a team-specific colour (e.g. experience bar, buddy candy progress) would also be green, instead of yellow, blue, or red.
  • They are unable to participate in Gym or Raid Battles (and thus cannot earn PokéCoins without paying real money, with the exceptions of the PokéCoin test that ran in Australia, Germany, New Zealand, and Taiwan for a few months in 2020 which allows other methods to earn them, or Google surveys with Google Play Store rewards). If they ever tap a Gym, they must close the game and restart it to avoid being forced to pick a team.
  • They can fight in Trainer Battles, including Team Leader battles and Team GO Rocket Grunts battles. In the latter case, the three Team Leaders would randomly appear to give advice regardless.
  • They can battle Team GO Rocket Leaders, and similarly a random friendly Team Leader would speak if the Rocket Radar cannot find any Rocket Leader, or advice them if they are defeated by a Rocket Leader. They cannot fight Giovanni however as Looming in the Shadows requires winning raid battles.
    • GO Fest Weekly Challenge: Battle notably gives a Super Rocket Radar without this requirement, marking the first time a player without a team can fight him. Suicune is thus the first Shadow Lengendary obtainable by those players.
    • The ticketed Special Research during Pokémon GO Fest 2020 allows encounters with Shadow Articuno, Moltres, Zapdos, and Mewtwo.
  • They cannot complete certain Research tasks, including those requiring the Trainer to fight in Gym or raid battles. This also prevents them from obtaining any Mythical Pokémon from Special Research, as obtaining Meltan or Mew both require Gym and raid battles on the third part of their task sets, and Mew's task set (A Mythical Discovery) must be completed up to the third part to unlock other Mythical task sets. However, obtaining Meltan is still possible by using Mystery Box, and the aforementioned Pokémon GO Fest 2020 research allows an encounter with Victini.
  • They are unable to use the Appraisal feature, although they can still use Pokémon search to find Pokémon of a certain broad rating.
  • Mega Evolution is limited, as they cannot do raids.
  • Level cap is 72 as level 73 requires winning 30 raids.
    • Before October 15^th, 2025, the level cap was 40 as level 41 originally required winning 30 raids.^[3]
  • Though it has no official name, some players have referred to those who have yet to join any team with the unofficial term Team Harmony.^[4][5]

References