How to Increase Friendship

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. Give it a Soothe Bell. Feed it EV-reducing berries.

Catch the Pokemon in a 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

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

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.

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.

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

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
Exp. Candy XS	Exp. Candy S	Exp. Candy M
Exp. Candy L	Exp. Candy XL	Rare Candy

How to Level Up Fast

Include the Pokemon in Your 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

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

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

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

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

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
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

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

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

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

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
Energy Powder	Energy Root
Heal Powder	Revival 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	→	Blissey	Evolve from Chansey with high friendship
Alolan Meowth	→	Alolan Persian	Evolve from Alolan Meowth with high friendship
Azurill	→	Marill	Evolve from Azurill with high friendship
Igglybuff	→	Jigglypuff	Evolve from Igglybuff with high friendship
Pichu	→	Pikachu	Evolve from Pichu with high friendship
Riolu	→	Lucario	Evolve from Riolu with high friendship
Eevee	→	Espeon	Evolve from Eevee with high friendship during daytime without knowing a Fairy move
	→	Umbreon	Evolve from Eevee with high friendship during nighttime without knowing a Fairy move
	→	Sylveon	Evolve from Eevee with high friendship while knowing a Fairy move
Snom	→	Frosmoth	Evolve from Snom with high friendship during nighttime

The Teal Mask

Pre-Evolution		Evolution	Evolution Condition
Cleffa	→	Clefairy	Evolve from Cleffa with high friendship
Munchlax	→	Snorlax	Evolve from Munchlax with high friendship
Chingling	→	Chimecho	Evolve from Chingling with high friendship during nighttime
Swadloon	→	Leavanny	Evolve from Swadloon with high friendship

All Special Evolution Conditions

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Related Guides

Training and Breeding