A Pokemon with max friendship can be extremely valuable in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Sword. With enough friendship, your Pokemon will land critical hits and shake off paralysis like its nothing. Some Pokemon, like Togepi, will only evolve once you’ve become truly friendly with your Pokemon. Too bad there’s no Pokemon park to pat your Pokemon after each battle. There are fewer methods for raising friendship in this remake, at least compared to the newer games in the series. If you want to get your Pokemon to love you ASAP, these are the methods I use.
Friendship is a tricky stat in Pokemon Brilliand Diamond & Shining Sword. There are NPCs that can check for you, and there’s an app you can use on the Poketch to judge your Pokemon’s general friendliness. But, the game really does not explain what increases friendship and what lowers it. Your main Pokemon is most likely to be your friendliest, just because you’ll be leveling them up, fighting Gym battles, and doing lots of walking. Walking your Pokemon is the real key to maxing out friendship, but you’ll need a handy item first.
More Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl guides:
How To Catch All Legendary Pokemon | How To Get Mew, Jirachi & Manaphy | How Get A Useful Catcher Pokemon | Where To Find Evolution Stones | All Field Moves | Early Mystery Gifts | Easier Grand Underground Catching | How To Catch Rotom & Change Forms | All Gift & Fossil Pokemon | Ultimate Moves Locations | Shiny Pokemon Hunting Guide | Easy Cash Farming Method | How To Catch Feebas, The Rarest Pokemon | Ditto Breeding Guide | Best XP Grinding Method | How To Expand Secret Base | How To Catch Mesprit
How To Increase Friendship Faster | Max Friendship Tips
Why increase friendship? At higher friendship, your Pokemon will score critical hits, cure themselves of status effects, and even survive hits that would normally down them. Raising Friendship is also required to evolve some Pokemon. If you want to check your current Friendship level, visit the Friendship Checker in Hearthome City, in the Pokemon Fan Club. She will tell you how friendly you are with your Pokemon.
The most straightforward way to increase friendship is to walk around with your Pokemon. Select the Pokemon you want to make friendlier to walk around with you, and give that Pokemon a Soothe Bell.
- How To Get A Soothe Bell: A Soothe Bell can be found on Route 212 and in the Pokemon Mansion. While holding the Soothe Bell, a Pokemon will gain more friendship from all friendship-increasing activities.
The Soothe Bell is just the start. If you equip a Pokemon with the Soothe Bell, you’ll need to walk approximately 20,000 steps to fully max-out friendship. That isn’t the only way. Here are all the methods for increasing friendship, ranked from biggest increase to smallest.
- Giving Your Pokemon A Massage: Go to the Ribbon Syndicate in the Battle Zone Resort Area. There’s a masseuse that will give your Pokemon a massage once per day. Depending on your current friendship, you can gain a huge +30 Friendship early on. As your Friendship increases, the gains will be a little less.
- A second massager is located in Veilstone City. She gives slightly lesser massages, but will also do it once per day.
- Feeding your Pokemon Berries: Kelpsy, Grepa, Hondrew, Qualot, Pomeg and Tamato Berries work best. These types of berries all increase friendship.
- Walking With Your Pokemon: Select your Buddy Pokemon to walk outside with you. You’ll gain Friendship every 128 steps. While walking with your Pokemon, you’ll also want to battle, level up, eat vitamins, and so on.
If you are battling, make sure you don’t let your Pokemon get knocked out, and don’t use items that lower your total Friendship. If your Pokemon is poisoned, make sure to heal them right away.
To increase Friendship efficiently, equip the Soothe Bell, go walking, get daily massages, feed your Pokemon berries, and give Gym Rematches a try. Battles in Gyms earn you more friendship. If you can do all that, it is possible to max out friendship in a handful of hours.
