Medals are awarded to agents as they reach set mile stones.
Medals are needed to achieve levels 9-16.
There are 5 levels of each medal available: Bronze, Silver, Gold. Platinum, and Onyx Black. Each level requires more and more work than the previous.
One Time Medals
These medals can only be gained by agents playing during specific times. They have no levels and cannot be used to level up.
Founder
Founder badge is a special badge awarded to Agents that were supporting Ingress from early on. This badge doesn’t have tiers like the others but is something that every Agent is displaying proudly on their profiles. The Founder badge was only achievable on December 14th 2013 and only for agents that were Level 5+.
Verified badge is a special badge awarded to Agents that verified their account via e-mail. This verification needed to occur upon hitting level 2, as the interface would stop collecting XM and your inventory would be limited to 100 items. As of September 2015, verification was permanently removed from Ingress and the item cap is currently 2,000 for all Agent levels.
Event Medals
Participation in Anomalies will grant the agent a badge.
Mission Medals
Mission medals are rewarded for the first completion of any mission. They are one time and do not help with level. Every area has its own set of missions and, thus, medals for them. The number of medals is too large to include here.