How can you get your Buddy Pokémon excited?

pokemon-go

With the new buddy system you can get candy faster, if your buddy is excited. So the question is, how to get him/her in that mood?

How many days or hearts do I need to fill?

screenshot depocting the faster candy

Solution 1:

There are two ways that you can get your buddy to be excited.

Poffin

The fastest way to get your buddy to be excited is use the new item Poffin. You can purchase this from the shop for 100 Pokecoins. The benefits to using Poffins are

Completely fills your buddy's hunger meter
Automatically boosts their mood to excited
Automatically earn the maximum number of hearts in the feeding category. This includes the additional three hearts you can obtain while they're excited
Your buddy will stay full and excited longer than when they become excited through activities (see below)

Activities

You can increase you buddy's mood by simply interacting with them based on the activities listed on the buddy's profile page. The following activities are:

Walking - You can earn up to 3 hearts a day (6 if they're excited). Your buddy must be visible on map to earn hearts
Feeding - You can earn up to 3 hearts a day (6 if they're excited). Feeding your buddy berries until provide you 1 heart whenever you fill up the hunger meter to the max
Playing - You can earn up to 1 heart a day (2 if they're excited). For this one, all you need to do is press "play" on the buddy menu and pet them for a couple of seconds until there is the visual that they are happy.
Battling - You can earn up to 1 heart a day (2 if they're excited). Battling in Gyms, Raids, Team GO Rocket Battles, or Trainer Battles will provide you the hearts
Screenshots - You can earn up to 1 heart a day (2 if they're excited). Simple take a screenshot of your buddy from the buddy menu to earn a heart.
New Pokestop/Gym - You can earn up to 1 heart a day (2 if they're excited). Simply just visit a Pokestop or Gym that you have not visited before to earn a heart. (This might be actually bugged right now. I received a heart after visiting a gym I had visited before)
Bonus - You can earn up to 1 heart a day. You can a bonus heart when your buddy gives you a present (required Great Buddy), gives you a Souvenir (requires Ultra Buddy), or by visiting a Pokestop or Gym they wish to visit (requires Ultra Buddy)

As you do these activities, your buddy's mood will steadily increase. Their mood does not appear to be based on the number of hearts it obtains, but by how often you interact with them. So the more you partake in these activities, the better mood your buddy will be in. The activities and hearts reset at midnight local time.

Do note though! Their mood can decrease overtime, so always interact with your buddy as much as you can.

Once your buddy becomes excited, additional perks become unlocked. These perks available as long as they are excited:

Earn twice as many hearts in the given day (excluding bonus category)
Walking distance for candy is reduced

The following is a chart of the different mood levels, where Excited being the last one with hearts around it.

Mood icons

Source

Solution 2:

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Found this while trying to find answers. Still searching to an excitement guide.

Solution 3:

It changed so fast... as of Dec 20, 2019, there is a 30 minute cooldown for most activities. So you get 1 point for most activities, but there is no use to do the same thing again unless you wait another 30 minutes.

For walking, it is said that you gain 3 points for 2km and there is no cooldown time needed.

When you gain 32 points, then your buddy is excited.

If you have 100 Pokecoin, then Poffin from the shop is the fastest way.

Source: