Niantic has also made it clear that level 10 is the lowest level permitted to take part. And to be fair, it doesn’t take that much to get there. To actually do battle, you’ll have to make sure the other person is agreement to the idea. Once you both agree that you want to do battle with each other, you’ll both have to boot up the battle screen from the Nearby button on the bottom right. You’ll both see a QR code, and one of you will have to scan the other’s.
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) December 13, 2018 You can also have mock battles with the three Team Leaders to get a feel for the battle system first. Those who are familiar with the older Nintendo 3DS Pokémon games may be asking; is there an option for remote battles? The answer is yes, with a catch. You can only do remote battles with a limited number of people, and they have to be your Ultra Friend or Best Friend. There’s no option to get into a queue for battle against other random Pokémon trainers. (Source; Niantic [1], [2])
