Pokemon friendship is an important stat that’s easy to overlook while you’re busy exploring the Hisui region or battling. Like in previous games, some Pokemon will only evolve after you’ve increased their Friendship Level. If you want to fully evolve Pokemon like Riolu into Lucario, you’ll need to increase Friendship and level up during the day. That stays true here, but the rules that determine what increases Friendship have changed.
There are multiple ways to increase friendship, but after a lot of experimenting, I think the best way is simple. We’ll explain all the details of increasing friendship below. Even if you don’t need friendship to evolve, it is still a great bonus for your favorite Pokemon. Pokemon with high friendship will fight harder and survive longer — they can shake off annoying status effects, land critical hits, and survive KO attacks. Whatever Pokemon you pick for your team are likely going to gain high friendship all on their own as you play through the game. The tricky part is increasing friendship with Pokemon you’ve just captured. That’s when you’ll have to put on your grinding boots.
More Pokemon Legends: Arceus guides:
How To Catch Legendary Arceus | How To Catch Mythic Darkrai | How To Catch Legendary Palkia & Dialga | How To Craft Pokeballs & Potions | How To Get All 3 Starter Pokemon | How To Earn Tons Of Money With Crafting | How To Hunt Shiny Pokemon
How To Increase Friendship Level Faster
Friendship is a special stat unique to each individual Pokemon that determines their connection with the trainer. The higher a Pokemon’s friendship, the more often you’ll receive buffs and other bonuses while in battle. This includes surviving KO attacks from enemy Pokemon, shaking off status effects, or being the first to attack in a turn. Some Pokemon also require high Friendship Level to evolve.
- How To Check Friendship Level: Complete the main story quest “The Frenzy of the Lord of the Woods” then return to the village and take the request “Measuring Your Compatibility” from Belamy. Show him a Pokemon with high friendship, and you’ll be able to return to Belamy to get your Friendship Status judged.
There are multiple ways to increase friendship with your Pokemon.
- Releasing your Pokemon to run around in the wild with you.
- Using your Pokemon to collect material nodes (trees, rocks).
- Battling with Pokemon.
Your hidden friendship score will lower if your Pokemon is KO’d in a battle, or if you use KO recovery items. With all that in mind, the best way to increase friendship is to battle.
- Increasing Friendship Fast: Take your high level Pokemon back to the starting region and enter into as many battles as possible. Unlike with XP, you’ll earn the same amount of Friendship from each battle, no matter what the different in levels between you and your opponent.
While you’re farming Friendship Stats, you can also do some other simple farming — enter Space-Time Distortions to collect Stardust and Shards to craft Star Pieces to earn lots of money. You’ll also want to check the map for Outbreaks. If any Outbreak has occurred in a lower-level region, rush over and you can farm Shiny Pokemon while you’re grinding out friendship. It never hurts to maximize your time out in the wilds of Hisui.
