Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (SV)

How to Increase Friendship

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV Character and Sprigatito

Increase your friendship with your Pokemon by catching it in a Luxury Ball, giving it a Soothe Bell, and feeding it EV-reducing berries. Read on to learn the best way to increase friendship with Pokemon, how to increase friendship with Pokemon, how to check friendship levels, and which Pokemon evolve with high friendship in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (SV)!

Best Way to Increase Friendship with Pokemon

Best Way to Increase Friendship


Catch the Pokemon in a Luxury Ball

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (SV) - Luxury Ball

A Pokemon caught in a Luxury Ball will have its friendship growth boosted. If you've found a Pokemon that you would like to increase your friendship with, use a Luxury Ball to catch it.

Luxury Balls can be purchased at the Poke Mart for ₽3,000 each after collecting 4 Gym Badges.

Gym Leader Order, Map, and Levels

Give It a Soothe Bell

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (SV) - Soothe Bell

A Pokemon holding the Soothe Bell will have its friendship growth boosted as well. This boost stacks with a Luxury Ball, so a Pokemon caught in a Luxury Ball while holding a Soothe Bell will get a hefty friendship boost!

Soothe Bell can be purchased at all Delibird Presents branches, which are found in Mesagoza, Cascarrafa, and Levincia.

Soothe Bell Location and How to Get

Feed It EV-Reducing Berries

Berry Effect
Pomeg Berry Increases Friendship.
Lowers HP EVs by ten points.
Kelpsy Berry Increases Friendship.
Lowers Attack EVs by ten points.
Qualot Berry Increases Friendship.
Lowers Defense EVs by ten points.
Hondew Berry Increases Friendship.
Lowers Special Attack EVs by ten points.
Grepa Berry Increases Friendship.
Lowers Special Defense EVs by ten points.
Tamato Berry Increases Friendship.
Lowers Speed EVs by ten points.

Lastly, feed your Pokemon EV-Reducing Berries to increase their friendship level with you. However, do note that doing so will reduce your Pokemon's EVs in a certain stat. As such, they can also be used for resetting unwanted EVs.

Number of EV-Reducing Berries Needed to Evolve and Max Friendship With a Pokemon

We tested out freshly hatched Eevees to see how many berries it would take them to evolve and max their friendship. The table below shows our findings. You can also use this to get your friendship evolution Pokemon to evolve and get the Best Friend ribbon from the friendship checker at Cascarrafa.

Pokemon Conditions EV-Reducing Berries Needed to Evolve EV-Reducing Berries Needed to Max Friendship
Pokemon in a Luxury Ball with a Soothe Bell 6 38
Pokemon in a Luxury Ball with no held item. 9 58
Pokemon in a regular Poke Ball with Soothe Bell 8 101
Pokemon in a regular Poke Ball with no held item. 12 107

How to Increase Friendship with Pokemon

Do Activities That Increase Friendship

There are plenty of other ways to increase your friendship with your Pokemon aside from the ones mentioned above.

Check out the table below to see what other things you can do to increase your friendship with your Pokemon.

Actions that Affect Friendship Friendship Thresholds
0-99 100-159 160+
Catch Pokemon with a Luxury Ball Friendship gains doubled
Give your Pokemon a Soothe Bell Friendship gains boosted 50%
Feed EV-Reducing Berries to your Pokemon +10 +5 +1
Battle with and level up your Pokemon +1 +2 0
Include the Pokemon in your party
(50% chance every 128 steps)
+1 +1 0
Use the Let's Go! feature ? ? ?
Feed Your Pokemon Vitamins +4 +2 0
Shower Your Pokemon During Picnics +8 +8 0
Feed Sandwiches to Your Pokemon in Picnics +16 +16 0

These are some of the actions that have been known to affect Friendship in recent Pokemon titles. New methods from SV will be added when discovered!

Battle With and Level Up Your Pokemon

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (SV) - Battling and Raising Level

The cheapest and simplest way for you to raise your Pokemon's Friendship is by letting it battle and earn experience in battles to level up and grow stronger. As long as you avoid letting your Pokemon faint in battle, its friendship is bound to grow as it levels up more.

Feeding your Pokemon with Rare Candies and Exp. Candies of all sizes will also raise your friendship with them, so try to use some of those that you can get from Tera Raid Battles!

Experience Candies
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV - Exp. Candy XS ImageExp. Candy XS Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV - Exp. Candy S ImageExp. Candy S Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV - Exp. Candy M ImageExp. Candy M
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV - Exp. Candy L ImageExp. Candy L Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV - Exp. Candy XL ImageExp. Candy XL Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV - Rare Candy ImageRare Candy

How to Level Up Fast

Include the Pokemon in Your Party

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (SV) - Including Pokemon in Party

Another cheap and easy way to raise a Pokemon's friendship is to keep them in your party as you travel across the map.

Every Pokemon that you bring with you will earn friendship as long as you walk around and traverse the world. The more steps you take, the more friendship your party members will earn.

Walk and Auto Battle with Let's Go! Feature

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (SV) - Auto Battling

You can also raise a Pokemon's friendship if you walk with them and let them partake in auto battles with the use of the Let's Go! feature.

Note that you can only bring out your lead Pokemon and they will be the only Pokemon in your party who will engage in auto battles. If you need to raise the friendship of several Pokemon, simply let them be your party lead.

We still don't know how many points it adds to the Pokemon's friendship stats exactly but this process doesn't take up a lot of time so it's surely worth a try!

How to Auto Battle and Evolve Pokemon

Feed Your Pokemon Vitamins

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (SV) - Using Vitamins

The most efficient way to raise your Pokemon's friendship is by feeding them Vitamins, which also raises their EVs.

However, you'll need to purchase large amounts of Vitamins to significantly increase their friendship, so this is only recommended if you have the money to spare.

List of Vitamins and How to Get

Eat Sandwiches and Shower in Picnics

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV Sandwich at Picnic

Another easy way of increasing your friendship with your Pokemon is by having Picnics with them. Giving them a shower and making Sandwiches during Picnics will raise the friendship of your entire party.

We still don't know how many points it adds to the Pokemon's friendship stats exactly but this process doesn't take up a lot of time so it's surely worth a try!

How to Picnic: All Features and Benefits

Benefits of Increasing Friendship

Improved Battle Performance

Battle Performance Improvements
Friendship Level Effect
Highest ・Higher chance to dodge opponent's move
・Higher chance to land critical hits
・Higher chance to heal status conditions on its own
・Higher chance to hold on to 1 HP
・Bonus experience per battle
High ・Chance to heal status conditions on its own
・Chance to hold on to 1 HP
・Bonus experience per battle
Mid ・Chance to hold on to 1 HP
Low to Base Friendship ・No improvements

Increasing friendship with your Pokemon can improve their performances in story battles. Pokemon with high friendship have a higher chance of inflicting critical hits onto their target or hold on to 1 HP when getting attacked by a move that would otherwise knock it out. It may also heal its own status condition.

Pokemon with increased friendship also earn a boost in earned experience after every battle. Keep in mind that these bonuses only apply to in-game battles and are not present in competitive battles.

Where is the Friendship Checker?

Found in the Middle of Cascaraffa

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV Friendship Checker at Cascaraffa

You can check your Pokemon's friendship by talking to the woman with a Marill in Cascarrafa. She can be found near the fountain at the center of the city.

Friendship Checker: How to Check Friendship

Max Your Friendship With Your Pokemon To Get a Friendship Ribbon

Title How to Get
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV - Best Friends Ribbon
Best Friends Ribbon
Obtained by talking to the lady with a Marill in Cascarrafa and showing her a Pokemon with a maxed Friendship Level.

If your Pokemon's friendship stat is maxed out when you talk to the woman at Cascarrafa City, she will reward you with the Friendship Ribbon. This ribbon can be seen on the Pokemon's summary screen.

List of Ribbons and How to Get All Ribbons

You Can Also Check Friendship Levels at Picnics

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (SV) - Checking Friendship during Picnics

You can also know how close your Pokemon is to you by interacting with them during Picnics. If their friendship with you is high enough, hearts will appear on the top of their heads; the more hearts that appear, the closer they are to you!

How to Picnic: All Features and Benefits

What Decreases Pokemon Friendship

Activities That Decrease Friendship

Actions that Affect Friendship Friendship Thresholds
0-99 100-159 160+
Allowing your Pokemon to Faint in battle
(If the opponent is less than 30 levels higher)
-1 -1 -1
Allowing your Pokemon to Faint in battle
(If the opponent is more than 30 levels higher)
-5 -5 -10
Feeding Herbal Medicine to your Pokemon -5 -5 -10

These are some of the actions that have been known to affect Friendship in recent Pokemon titles. New methods from SV will be added post-release!

Making Pokemon Faint

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (SV) - Pokemon Fainting

Your Friendship with a Pokemon will decrease every time it faints. When you are trying to increase their friendship, it is best to avoid letting them faint as much as possible.

Feeding Herbal Medicine to Your Pokemon

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (SV) - Herbal Medicine

Herbal Medicine, also known as Herbs, are another type of healing item in the game that are cheaper than standard Potions. However, using herbs leave a bitter aftertaste to the Pokemon consuming it that it decreases your friendship with them.

If you don't want to lose the Friendship you've built, it might be best to stick with healing items such as Potions or berries.

Herbal Medicine
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV - Energy Powder ImageEnergy Powder Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV - Energy Root ImageEnergy Root
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV - Heal Powder ImageHeal Powder Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV - Revival Herb ImageRevival Herb

List of All Medicine (Recovery Items)

High Friendship Evolutions

Level Up After Reaching 160 Friendship Value

Once certain Pokemon reach a Friendship value of 160 or higher, they will evolve upon leveling up. Below is a list of Pokemon from Scarlet and Violet that are known to evolve via high happiness.

Base Game

Pre-Evolution Evolution Evolution Condition
Chansey ImageChansey Blissey ImageBlissey Evolve from Chansey with high friendship
Alolan Meowth ImageAlolan Meowth Alolan Persian ImageAlolan Persian Evolve from Alolan Meowth with high friendship
Azurill ImageAzurill Marill ImageMarill Evolve from Azurill with high friendship
Igglybuff ImageIgglybuff Jigglypuff ImageJigglypuff Evolve from Igglybuff with high friendship
Pichu ImagePichu Pikachu ImagePikachu Evolve from Pichu with high friendship
Riolu ImageRiolu Lucario ImageLucario Evolve from Riolu with high friendship
Eevee ImageEevee Espeon ImageEspeon Evolve from Eevee with high friendship during daytime without knowing a Fairy move
Umbreon ImageUmbreon Evolve from Eevee with high friendship during nighttime without knowing a Fairy move
Sylveon ImageSylveon Evolve from Eevee with high friendship while knowing a Fairy move
Snom ImageSnom Frosmoth ImageFrosmoth Evolve from Snom with high friendship during nighttime

The Teal Mask

Pre-Evolution Evolution Evolution Condition
Cleffa ImageCleffa Clefairy ImageClefairy Evolve from Cleffa with high friendship
Munchlax ImageMunchlax Snorlax ImageSnorlax Evolve from Munchlax with high friendship
Chingling ImageChingling Chimecho ImageChimecho Evolve from Chingling with high friendship during nighttime
Swadloon ImageSwadloon Leavanny ImageLeavanny Evolve from Swadloon with high friendship

All Special Evolution Conditions

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Related Guides

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet SV - Train and Breed Banner

Training and Breeding

Training and Breeding Guides
How to Breed Pokemon and Hatch Eggs How to Hatch Eggs Faster
Nature and IV Breeding Guide How to Increase IVs
How to Check IVs (Judge Function) How to Check EVs
How to EV Train Fast Shiny Hunting Guide
How to Change a Pokemon's Nature How to Soft Reset for the Best Nature and IVs
How to Get and Breed for Hidden Abilities How to Learn Egg Moves
Is There Pokerus? How to Reset EVs
How to Increase Friendship How to Get 6IV Dittos
Post-Game Grind: What Should You Grind For?
Calculators for Training
Stat Calculator IV Calculator
Ranked Battle Damage Calculator How to Use the Ranked Battle Damage Calculator
Tera Raid Damage Calculator How to Use the Tera Raid Damage Calculator
Best EV Training Locations
Best HP EV Training Locations Best Attack EV Training Locations
Best Defense EV Training Locations Best Special Attack EV Training Locations
Best Special Defense EV Training Locations Best Speed EV Training Locations

Comment

1 Anonymousabout 2 years

The friendship bonuses of the luxury ball and the soothe bell additively stack. Combined they give a x2.5 bonus to friendship. Also fun fact: it takes 39 berries to max friendship from neutral using a soothe bell and luxury ball

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