Medals

Medals are in-game achievements Trainers earn for reaching certain gameplay milestones. A Trainer's medals are displayed on their profile page. When a Trainer earns a medal, an animated pop-up displays in the Map View, similar to the one when a Trainer levels up.

Each medal has four tiers: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. Some medals award Trainers with extra bonuses when they are earned, such as an increased chance of successfully catching certain Pokémon types or unlocking wardrobe pieces for purchase.

List of medals
A Trainer's medals are split into two sections: general milestones and catching specific Pokémon types. Medals are first sorted in order of tier. Medals at the same tier are then usually sorted by the order in which the related mechanic was added to the game.

General medals
The first section displays medals for general tasks and milestones. These include catching Pokémon, battling in Gyms, challenging other Trainers or Team GO Rocket, and completing each regional Pokédex.

Most of these medals are initially hidden until the player begins progressing them towards the bronze tier. The following medals will always appear even if the player has made no progress on them: Jogger, Collector, Scientist, Breeder, Backpacker, Battle Girl, Ace Trainer and Best Buddy.

Pokémon types
The second section displays medals for catching Pokémon with different types. Each medal corresponds to a specific type. Catching a dual-type Pokémon contributes progress towards both medals of the Pokémon's two types.

These medals all share the same catch requirements:
 * 10 catches for a type's bronze medal,
 * 50 catches for a type's silver medal,
 * 200 catches for a type's gold medal, and
 * 2,500 catches for a type's platinum medal.

Earning a new tier for a type's medal increases the Trainer's capture rate for Pokémon of that type by 10%. If a Pokémon has two types, the game will average the catch bonus trainer has for those two types.

Exclusive medals
These medals are exclusive and were only obtainable during their event. There are exclusive medals for Ticketed Special Researches, including: These medals are inscribed with a 4 digit month-year label.
 * A Colossal Discovery
 * A Drive to Investigate
 * Investigating Illusions

An exclusive medal Legacy 40 was given to Trainers achieving level 40 by December 2020.

Rewards
For acquiring certain medals, mainly specific-type Pokémon related medals, there are some bonus rewards on each achieved level of such medal.

Catch bonus
Described in above.

Avatar items
Twelve medals for general actions grant trainers having them with special avatar items themed for each name of medal. These medals are:
 * Jogger,
 * Battle Girl,
 * Fisher,
 * Gym Leader,
 * Pikachu Fan,
 * Ace Trainer,
 * Great League Veteran,
 * Ultra League Veteran,
 * Master League Veteran,
 * Kanto,
 * Johto
 * and Ultra Hero.

Achieving higher tier of each medal unlocks more purchasable clothing for trainers.

Jogger and Fisher unlock only-male avatar clothes when Battle Girl unlocks only-female avatar clothes, therefore depending on which gender of avatar is currently chosen these wardrobe pieces are displayed in rewards section of medal in its detail view. Thus, if avatar is male there are no rewards for Battle Girl medal and if avatar is female there are no displayed rewards for Fisher nor Jogger medals.

Premier Balls
Tiers of Purifier and Hero medals count towards the number of bonus Premier Balls given in Shadow Pokémon rescue mission.

Trivia

 * The medals for catching a certain number of each Pokémon type were originally generic bronze, silver, and gold medals. Version 0.41.2 replaced them with new medals that showed the corresponding Pokémon type in the medal itself. The generic medals have remained unused since then.
 * The Ace Trainer medal was originally obtainable by training Pokémon in team-owned Gyms. Training was removed during the Gym rework. This medal was made available again when Trainer Battles were introduced.
 * The medal was still shown in game, keeping the progress when it was unavailable.
 * Before the introduction of Team GO Rocket Leaders, the Hero medal description said "Defeat Team GO Rocket Grunts".
 * Most of medals are named after Trainer Classes from the main game series.
 * Fisher and Rail Staff were previously called Fisherman and Depot Agent. The names were updated in mid-January 2020 corresponding to changes in Pokémon Sword and Shield.