Finding Your Own Friend Code
Take note of your friend code so you can share it with others you want to add as friends by following these steps.
Power on your Nintendo 3DS. Find the Friend List icon near the top of the touch screen—it looks like an orange smiley face—and tap it. Tap your own Friend Card (it will have an image of your Mii next to a gold crown icon). Your friend code is at the bottom of your Mii card.
Registering a New Friend
Power on your Nintendo 3DS. Find the Friend List icon near the top of the touch screen—it looks like an orange smiley face—and tap it. Tap the Register Friend icon, which also looks like an orange smiley face. When the menu opens, choose whether you want to register a friend that is Local or on the internet. If your friend is local and within the range of your Nintendo 3DS’s signal, you won’t need to use Friend Codes. You both can scan the area and then tap one another’s Friend Cards. This will register you on each other’s Friends Lists automatically. In this case, you’re done and can skip the remaining steps! If you are registering friends over the internet, after you tap the Internet option, enter your friend’s 12-digit friend code with the touchscreen number pad. Don’t forget that you will need a working Wi-Fi connection to register internet friends. Tap OK. If your friend hasn’t registered you as a friend yet, you will see a gray placeholder Friend Card and be asked to enter a name for his or her profile. As soon as your friend registers your Friend Code, their full information will be populated in their Friend Card. If your friend has already registered your information, his or her Friend Card will pop up automatically with all their details filled out. Now you can view each other’s favorite games, online status, and play games together.
You can add up to 100 friends on your Nintendo 3DS Friends List. You can also add a saying that your friends can see when they view your Friend Card — be clever, funny, inspired, or express your current mood here, just about anything (but don’t be rude).
Remember that your friend must add you back in order for you to exchange information and play together.
What Are Nintendo 3DS Friend Codes?
The process for adding a friend on the Nintendo 3DS requires you to identify yourself and your friends with a “Friend Code” before you can all communicate online, similar to the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi. Unlike the Nintendo DS, however, the process of registering a friend is fairly streamlined, as each Nintendo 3DS has its own 12-digit Friend Code.
Once you add a friend, you can play games together locally or online, see each other’s online status, and view each other’s Friend Card, which is a basic profile that outlines a friend’s name, number, and favorite game.
You will need a friend code from the person you want to add on your 3DS, and they will need your friend code to add you as well.
