How To Find and Exchange Gifts With Mateo in Pokemon Go

The December 4, 2023 “Along the Routes” update adds the friendly Mateo NPC to Pokemon Go. Meet him at the end of a Route, and he’ll help you obtain as well as send out Gifts to other Trainers. But for some reason, occasionally, Mateo won’t show up and blocks players from doing Exchange Gifts. So what is the proper way to find Mateo and perform the Exchange Gift feature when you’ve completed a Pokemon Go Route?

Pokemon Go: Where Can You Find Mateo?

The Pokemon Go Gift Exchange NPC Mateo can be found at the end of the first Route you take in a day. That means you can only meet Mateo and perform a Gift Exchange once per day.

To access and find Routes, open the Nearby menu by pressing the bottom-right icons and press the Route tab. Doing so will show you a list of nearby locations that serve as Route’s starting points. A Route will always start and end at a PokeStop or Gym. Don’t forget to claim the rewards by pressing the blinking Route yellow icon above the Nearby icons.

Once you’ve finished following a Pokemon Go Route, you will find Mateo at the designated PokeStop or Gym. Speak with him and you will be able to send and receive Gifts from other random Trainers. Don’t worry though, the Gifts won’t be taken from your Item Bag, so take the scenic route every day!

What To Do if You Can’t Exchange Gift With Mateo

As mentioned above, Mateo can only appear at the end of a Route each day. However, Pokemon Go Trainers have reported other troubles finding and exchanging Gifts with Mateo at the end of a Route.

Niantic is currently investigating those issues. But for the time being, here are some that you should and shouldn’t do when encountering Gift Exchange problems:

• Sometimes, Mateo doesn’t show up at a Gym at the end of a Pokemon Go Route.
  • When that happens, try tapping on the Gym.
• When the Gift Exchange dialogue pops up, try not to exit and reenter the dialogue.
  • Nearby Gifts will end up disappearing from the Gift menu if you speak to Mateo the second time.
• Always finish a Pokemon Go Route before quitting one to make sure you can find Mateo.
  • Quitting an unfinished Route might block Mateo from appearing in subsequent Routes. Even if you didn’t encounter him before quitting.
• If you have maxed out the number of Pokemon in the storage, you might not be able to complete a Gift Exchange.
  • For now, the only solution is sending some unused Pokemon to Professor Willow or purchasing additional storage upgrades in the Shop.

Pokemon Go is available on iOS and Android.