How To Increase Pokemon Friendship Level In Pokemon Legends: Z-A

Are you perplexed as to how you’d be able to increase Pokemon friendship levels in Pokemon Legends: Z-A? The friendship mechanic, also known as happiness, determines your teammates’ respective affinity toward you, their trainer. This can be improved through various means to help unlock new evolutionary paths.

Pokemon can become friendlier toward you through the following methods:

• Exploring the game world while they’re your active buddy.
• Using various items and equipment.
• Chilling in cafes and restaurants.

Which Pokemon tend to evolve based on friendship levels?

Friendship level in Pokemon Legends: Z-A matters to certain creatures whose evolutions are tied to this concept. These include the following:

• Pikachu – Evolves from a Pichu at high friendship levels.
• Eevee – Can turn into an Espeon (daytime evolution), Umbreon (nighttime evolution), or Sylveon (evolution with a Fairy-type ability in the moveset).
• Cleffa – Evolves into a Clefairy.
• Budew – Evolves into a Roselia during the day.
• Buneary – Evolves into a Lopunny.
• Riolu – Evolves into a Lucario during the day.

Items that help increase friendship levels: Berries and the Soothe Bell

Various items can increase Pokemon happiness and friendship levels in Pokemon Legends: Z-A. These include different kinds of berries that boost friendship, while also lowering a particular stat. We don’t really recommend using these since it’s hard to offset the penalties to a Pokemon’s stat growth. But if you really want to, you can check unmarked vendor and market stalls all over the city:

• Pomeg Berry – Lose base points for its HP stat.
• Kelpsy Berry – Lose base points for its attack stat.
• Qualot Berry – Lose base points for its defense stat.
• Hondew Berry – Lose base points for its SP attack stat.
• Grepa Berry – Lose base points for its SP defense stat.
• Tamato Berry – Lose base points for its speed stat.

Still, one item that’s quite viable is the Soothe Bell. It’s a reward from Side Mission 36: Some Friendly Competition. Here are a few tidbits:

• The quest giver NPC is right in front of Cafe Rouleau in Magenta Sector 5. It’s in the western part of the map.
• Defeat the trainer’s Clefairy to receive the item.
• You can have a Pokemon hold the Soothe Bell via the inventory screen. This makes the creature friendlier.

Fast friendship boosts via cafes and restaurants

By far the fastest method of improving friendship and happiness levels involves cafes and restaurants. These are found all throughout Lumiose City:

• Go to a cafe and purchase a coffee or tea drink. Each option costs roughly 500 gold or more.
• Do this three or four times to fully max out a Pokemon’s affinity toward you. You don’t even need to go to a different establishment.
• You’re going to spend 2,000 gold or more each time, but you can still earn a lot of money from the Battle Zone at night.

That does it for our guide on how to increase friendship levels in Pokemon Legends: Z-A. If you’re keen on improving the capabilities of your teammates, you can visit our best early-game Pokemon guide and TM locations guide.