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Pokémon Go guide: Stardust and Combat Power

You need heaps of Stardust to power up your Pokémon

By Julia Lee
Photo: James Bareham/Polygon
Julia Lee (she/her) is a guides producer, writing guides for games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Genshin Impact. She helped launch the Rift Herald in 2016.
Part of Pokémon Go guides and walkthroughs

As you level in Pokémon Go, you need to keep powering up your Pokémon using Stardust. Our Pokémon Go guide explains how to power up Pokémon with Stardust, shows the costs of powering up with a CP chart, and explains effective Stardust farming methods.

Using Stardust to power up Pokémon

To power up Pokémon and increase their Combat Power (CP), you need to use their respective candy and Stardust. This is important, as the more CP your Pokémon has, the more HP, attack, and defense they have. The stronger your Pokémon are, the easier it is to complete raids and take down gyms. As you level them up, the more candy and Stardust they require to power up further. Lucky Pokémon require less candy and Stardust to power up.

Since candy and Stardust goes fast when powering up, we recommend only leveling the strongest of the strong.

Each time you power up a Pokémon, they gain a half level. Your Pokémon’s level cannot exceed your trainer level, and it caps at 40. You can see a chart of the power up costs below.

Pokémon Go power up cost chart

Level Required Stardust Required Candy
Level Required Stardust Required Candy
1.5 200 1
2 200 1
2.5 200 1
3 200 1
3.5 400 1
4 400 1
4.5 400 1
5 400 1
5.5 600 1
6 600 1
6.5 600 1
7 600 1
7.5 800 1
8 800 1
8.5 800 1
9 800 1
9.5 1,000 1
10 1,000 1
10.5 1,000 1
11 1,000 1
11.5 1,300 2
12 1,300 2
12.5 1,300 2
13 1,300 2
13.5 1,600 2
14 1,600 2
14.5 1,600 2
15 1,600 2
15.5 1,900 2
16 1,900 2
16.5 1,900 2
17 1,900 2
17.5 2,200 2
18 2,200 2
18.5 2,200 2
19 2,200 2
19.5 2,500 2
20 2,500 2
20.5 2,500 2
21 2,500 2
21.5 3,000 3
22 3,000 3
22.5 3,000 3
23 3,000 3
23.5 3,500 3
24 3,500 3
24.5 3,500 3
25 3,500 3
25.5 4,000 3
26 4,000 3
26.5 4,000 4
27 4,000 4
27.5 4,500 4
28 4,500 4
28.5 4,500 4
29 4,500 4
29.5 5,000 4
30 5,000 4
30.5 5,000 4
31 5,000 4
31.5 6,000 6
32 6,000 6
32.5 6,000 6
33 6,000 6
33.5 7,000 8
34 7,000 8
34.5 7,000 8
35 7,000 8
35.5 8,000 10
36 8,000 10
36.5 8,000 10
37 8,000 10
37.5 9,000 12
38 9,000 12
38.5 9,000 12
39 9,000 12
39.5 10,000 15
40 10,000 15

Using Stardust to trade

Trading Pokémon with friends also costs Stardust, with Legendary and new Pokémon costing more. As you rank up your friendship, the Stardust cost of the trades decreases.

Stardust trade costs vary, depending on what you’re trading. Trading a Legendary or Shiny Pokémon that your friend doesn’t have yet can cost up to 1,000,000 Stardust. The trade cost decreases to 800,000 for Great Friends, 80,000 for Ultra Friends, and 40,000 for Best Friends.

Farming Stardust and using Star Pieces

Just like XP, there are many ways to gain Stardust, including catching Pokémon, hatching eggs, and battling.

You can use a Star Piece to increase your earned Stardust by 50% as well. Each Star Piece lasts for 30 minutes, so it’s best to use them to farm Stardust during events like a Community Day. You can buy one Star Piece in the shop for 100 PokéCoins or eight in a bundle for 640 Poké Coins.

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