Pokemon Scarlet and Violet - How to increase Friendship level

Friendship level is an important part of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, offering numerous perks if you can grow a bond with your Pokemon. Most of these apply in battle, but Friendship level can also affect certain evolutions.

Along with the gameplay benefits, it’s also nice to simply deepen a bond with your favourite Pokemon, so we’ve got it all covered in our Friendship guide below.

Here’s everything you need to know about Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Friendship level, including how to increase Friendship level and how to check Friendship level.

What does Friendship level do in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet?

Friendship level comes with a number of different perks, but they don’t take effect until your Friendship level with a Pokemon has been considerably increased.

Here are the Friendship level rewards:

180-219 Friendship – The Pokemon has a 10% chance of surviving a KO

220-254 Friendship – The Pokemon has a 15% chance of a surviving a KO, a 20% chance of healing a status effect, and a 20% EXP bonus
255 Friendship (MAX) – The Pokemon has a 10% chance of evasion, double critical rate, 20% chance of surviving a KO, 20% chance of healing a status effect and a 20% EXP bonus

Also, some Pokemon require a certain Friendship level to evolve. These are the Pokemon in question:

Pichu into Pikachu
Igglybuff into Jigglypuff
Azurill into Marill

Chansey into Blissey
Riolu into Lucario (daytime only)
Snom into Frosmoth (night-time only)

Eevee into Espeon, Umbreon or Sylveon (these evolutions depend on the time and whether Eevee has a Fairy move – check out our full Eeveelutions guide here)

None of these evolutions require maximum friendship, and the requirements vary for each Pokemon. You’ll also need to level them up after sufficiently raising Friendship for the evolution to trigger.

How to increase Friendship level in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

There are many different ways to raise the Friendship level with your Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Here are all of the methods to do it.

Battling and levelling up

The most basic way of gaining Friendship levels is to fight battles with your Pokemon and keep levelling them up.

The more levels you gain, the more Friendship points you will acquire.

Keep them in your party

Even if you don’t actually battle with a Pokemon, there are very minor increases to Friendship level by simply keeping them in your main party.

When you are walking around, every Pokemon in your active party will have small incremental gains to their Friendship. It’s not quick, but it’s a free and organic way to keep your Friendship points ticking up.

This one is dictated by steps taken, and you won’t get the boost whilst standing still. Unfortunately, this means you can’t just leave your console for a while and come back to increased Friendship levels.

Give them the Soothe Bell

Give a Pokemon the Soothe Bell item to increase the impact of any activity that boosts Friendship by an extra 50%. The Soothe Bell costs ₽5,000 from Delibird Presents and can be purchased from the Cascarrafa, Levincia and Mesagoza branches.

This is a nice easy way of providing a boost, and you can swap the Soothe Bell over to a different Pokemon when you are done.

Auto-Battle and Let’s Go mode

A simple way of gaining Friendship levels is to let your Pokemon roam around in Let’s Go mode by pressing ZR.

This prompts your lead Pokemon to venture out on their own, which will gradually increase their Friendship further. Engaging in Auto-Battles will provide an additional benefit, which can be done by pressing R.

Picnics

There are two things that can be done during Picnics to raise Friendship level with your Pokemon. Either feed the Pokemon a sandwich you’ve made or wash them with a shower.

Both of these give solid increases to Friendship, but a sandwich is more beneficial than a shower.

Picnics are therefore an excellent way of increasing Friendship level in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. They also provide an opportunity to give a rough estimate of your current Friendship levels.

Feed Berries to your Pokemon

One of the best ways to increase Friendship in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is to feed them any of the six different EV-reducing Berries. Here are the Berries that boost Friendship and the additional effects they have:

Pomeg Berry – reduces HP EV by 10
Qualot Berry – reduces DEF EV by 10

Kelpsy Berry – reduces ATK EV by 10
Tamato Berry – reduces SPD EV by 10
Hondew Berry – reduces Special ATK EV by 10

Grepa Berry – reduced Special DEF EV by 10

These Berries can be found on the floor in the wild or acquired during Tera Raids. However, arguably the quickest way of getting a large bulk is at Porto Marinada Auction House, where you can get them in multiple quantities. Unlock this by clearing the Cascarrafa Water Gym, and Berries may be called out as auction items.

You can even adjust the Date and Time settings on your Nintendo Switch console to respawn the auction items until some Berries show up. If they are not there, move your system time forward by two hours and try again.

Unfortunately, it appears that the effect of the Berries get gradually weaker as Friendship level increases, but it is still a great way of increasing Friendship to max (especially when combined with the Soothe Bell/Luxury Ball).

Feed them Candy

Like Berries, Rare Candy and EXP Candy will provide an increase to Friendship level.

This one is a double bonus because these items will cause your Pokemon to level up as well, which has an impact on Friendship level. However, these items are obviously pretty rare in their nature and it can be difficult to gain a large stock.

Instead, you will need to take part in Tera Raids if you want to bolster your supply of the different Candies.

Catch them with a Luxury Ball

Catching a Pokemon with a Luxury Ball will double the impact of each activity that boosts Friendship. This effect applies forever, once you have caught the Pokemon in the Luxury Ball. It also stacks with the Soothe Bell for an added bonus.

This is particularly useful for the Pokemon who will need high friendship to evolve. Unfortunately, Luxury Balls are quite expensive, coming in at ₽3,000 each from the Poke Mart. They are only available after conquering 4 Gyms.

NOTE: You can also use a Friend Ball, but these only give a one-off increase to Friendship when you first catch a Pokemon. Overall, the Luxury Ball is a far superior long-term option.

Feed them Vitamins

Feeding Vitamins to your Pokemon will also boost their Friendship, though not as much as Berries.

On the plus side, you can actually buy Vitamins from shops (unlike Berries). On the other hand, they are very expensive. coming in at ₽10,000 a pop from Chansey Supply shops.

Unless you are very flush with the Pokemon Dollars, this is not the most recommended way to raise Friendship level. As quick as it can be, you will surely bankrupt yourself by getting Vitamins in bulk.

How to reduce Friendship level in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

Unfortunately, it doesn’t all go in one direction. There are also some ways of your Friendship level being reduced. These are the things to watch out for:

Pokemon faints during battle (online battles don’t count)
Using herbal remedy items like Energy Powder, Heal Powder, Energy Root and Revival Herb

Make sure you swap out your Pokemon when they are on low health, and stick to the more expensive but better-tasting recovery items.

What is the fastest way to increase Friendship to max?

If you want to raise a Pokemon’s Friendship level from 0 to 255 as quickly as possible, then follow these steps:

Catch the Pokemon in a Luxury Ball
Give the Pokemon the Soothe Bell immediately

Feed them repeated EV-reducing Berries

This should get them to max Friendship within about 38 Berries. If you don’t have the Soothe Bell or Luxury Ball bonuses, then it will take over 100 Berries. This means both items offer a good return on investment, saving you a lot of time.

If it’s a Pokemon who needs high Friendship to evolve, then the evolution Friendship requirement can usually be achieved within just 10 Berries using this method.

How to check Friendship level in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

The most reliable way to check Friendship level is to speak to the Friendship Checker NPC, who is standing near the fountain in Cascarrafa. She can be found in the middle level, wearing green clothes with a Marrill next to her.

Your current Friendship level with the Pokemon in question will be determined by their answer:

0 Friendship – “Oh my gosh! What happened between you two?! There’s not even a smidge of friendship here!”
1-49 Friendship – “Are you two just starting to get to know each other? I’m sensing some awkwardness here…”
50-89 Friendship – “You two seem kinda neutral—like you don’t mind each other. I hope you get closer!”

100-149 Friendship – “You’re starting to get friendly. I bet you’ll get along better soon!”
150-199 Friendship – “You’re getting along well…but I’m sure you could get way friendlier!”
200-229 Friendship – “You’re good friends, all right! You definitely enjoy each other’s company!”

230-254 Friendship – “Wow, you’re pretty great friends! You sure mean a lot to each other.”
255 Friendship (MAX) – “Whoa, you’re the best friends ever! I can tell just being together gives you warm fuzzies!”

For some reason, you cannot check the exact Friendship stat anywhere in the menu and the best you can get is the range provided by the above responses. The only times you can be absolutely certain of your Friendship level is if it is 0 or 255.

You can also get an idea of a Pokemon’s Friendship by interacting with them during a Picnic. At this point, you will see up to 5 hearts appear above them, vaguely indicating how strong your Friendship level is with that Pokemon. A full 5 hearts signifies the maximum 255 Friendship has been reached. However, no hearts appear at all until around 100 Friendship.

Why isn’t my Friendship increasing?

Like Pokemon Sword and Shield, it seems like there is a soft cap that affects certain Friendship activities.

Once you have reached around 160-180 Friendship, you will only be able to increase your Friendship further with Berries and Picnic-related activities (showers and feeding sandwiches). However, the exact mechanics are not certain at this point.

That’s all you need to know about Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Friendship level, including how to check Friendship level and how to increase Friendship level. Check out our other Pokemon Scarlet and Violet content below: