Pokémon Go's new Party Play feature lets you group up, if you physically stick together

Pokémon Go has now fully detailed Party Play, a major new multiplayer layer coming to the popular monster collection app seven years after its initial release.

Party Play is designed to reward groups of people playing alongside each other in the real world, with gameplay bonuses, extra challenges and the ability to see each others' avatars in-game on Pokémon Go's map.

Perhaps most enticing for players is a new Party Power raid bonus, which will double the damage of Charged Attacks in the game's popular PVE battles.

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But you'll need to stay in relatively close proximity to your fellow players while grouped up in a party. In a virtual briefing on the feature attended by Eurogamer, Niantic suggested this proximity would be roughly equivalent to the interaction radius of a PokéStop. Stray further and you will be warned you are headed too far apart.

Party Play launches tomorrow, 17th October, at 9am local time. A raid weekend featuring the debut of Shiny-possible Shadow Lugia is also on the way, allowing you to team up and try to battle the boss with your party of friends.

The feature will continue to evolve over time, Niantic said, with Pokémon Go senior producer Tim Nguyen saying the developer had something special planned for the feature for this season's yet-to-be-announced finale event.

When Party Play becomes available, a new tab will be activated in the player menu to allow you to start a party by sharing a QR code. (This means you can party up with friends or new acquaintances you might bump into on a Community Day or Go Fest event.)

Parties can range from two to four players, and once partied up, the host will be offered a selection of Party Challenges to choose from. This will give the group a shared goal to hit ("Catch 50 Pokémon", for example) for rewards, with a wide range of stats shown for players in the group.

Other neat features include the ability where, if someone in your party enters a raid, other members of the party will also get invited. And finally, exclusive avatar rewards to be unlocked using the feature include Eevee T-shirts for you and your friends to wear. Nice!

Finally, Party Play is currently limited to one-hour sessions (though you can just re-party up immediately after the hour ends). However, Niantic says it plans to extend this time limit for events such as Community Days and Go Fest.