As you probably know by now, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is out since January 28, 2022, and the game is a global hit at this very moment. The newest Pokémon game is something completely new, a bold step forward for the franchise and while it does keep the same basic mechanics, it has added a lot of twists and complete novelties to the franchise. In this article, we are going to explain one of those concepts, as we are going to tell you how to check and increase your Friendship level with your Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Friendship levels can be checked by talking to Belamy in Jubilife Village, near the Pastures where your Pokémon are kept. After unlocking Belamy, he will evaluate your Friendship levels with each Pokémon and give you a description of the Friendship level you have with that specific creature. As for increasing it, Friendship can be increased through several means, including but not limited to battling, using the Pokémon, and others.
This article is going to function more as an in-game guide to the Pokémon Legends: Arceus game, or one of its concepts, to be precise. You’re going to find out how to check your Friendship levels and increase them in the Pokémon Legends: Arceus video game, since that might prove to be essential for some of your evolutions.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus – Friendship levels
Friendship (also referred to as loyalty in Generation II core series games, tame in Pokémon Stadium 2, and friendliness in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, and commonly referred to by fans as happiness) of a Pokémon describes the relationship between the Pokémon and the trainer. It’s been of great importance since the Silver, Gold, and Crystal editions, as it triggers the evolution of certain Pokémon and affects the effects of some moves.
A Pokemon’s Friendship level is usually indicated by its Friendship rating, a numerical value ranging from 0 (disdain) to 255 (love). Already in Pokémon Yellow, you can experience the friendship of your Pikachu, which you get from Professor Oak by turning to him and talking to him. However, a real friendship value system did not yet exist in Generation I. In Generation VI, Affection, a separate mechanic, was introduced. However, from Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! onward, Affection no longer exists and friendship has all of its effects instead.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a Generation VIII game and the Friendship system was upheld. If you talk to Belamy, the guy who evaluates your creature’s Friendship level, he’ll say one of the following things:
| Best | What an excellent pair of friends you and [your Pokemon] make. You must mean a lot to each other! |
|---|---|
| Great | You and [your Pokemon] seem to be fast friends. You must be quite good companions! |
| Good | [Your Pokemon] seems to get on well with you. But I’m sure it could get on better! |
| Base Friendship | I suppose [your Pokemon]’s become a bit friendly toward you, but you’ve a ways to go… |
And this is how you can know your Pokémon’s Friendship in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Now, some earlier games had a numerical scale that gave out precise numbers for a Pokémon’s Friendship level, but as far as we know, Pokémon Legends: Arceus hasn’t kept that system. Now, the system wasn’t an in-game one and it was revealed through guides and other material, so we’ll have to wait for the official guide to see whether the numbers have been kept or not. So far, we only have these descriptions.
How to check Friendship levels in Pokémon Legends: Arceus?
Friendship is a very strange, yet extremely important feature in the Pokémon games. It cannot be checked via a Pokémon’s status screen and you cannot actually determine it from any other elements, HP and EXP included. In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, there is a quick way to check your Pokémon’s friendship level, but in order to do that, you have to perform a mission first.
Friendship evaluation can be unlocked after completing Request 28, called “Measuring Your Compatibility”. The request involves a villager named Belamy, who says you remind him of his grandmother. He wants you to show him that you can likewise befriend Pokémon as she could, demanding from you a Pokémon with a high-enough Friendship level.
Now, since you don’t know your Pokémon’s Friendship levels at that moment (since Belamy still has to be unlocked), you cannot know the exact levels so you have to take a wild guess. Since your Starter is probably going to be your best pick in this case, we advise you to show Belamy your Starter Pokémon.
Belamy will then proceed to check your Friendship level and if it is high enough, he’ll be pleased and your request will be completed. You will then have unlocked Belamy for all future evaluations and you will now be able to know the exact Friendship level of your Pokémon, which is essential for evolving some of them.
How to increase Friendship in Pokémon Legends: Arceus?
Over time, a Pokémon’s relationship with the protagonist changes. Depending on how you treat your Pokémon, your friendship will be affected positively or negatively. How strong the influence is also depends on how much the Pokémon already likes you; for example, for a Pokémon that has a friendship value of fewer than 100 points, a level increase can give 5 points; for a Pokémon that has a friendship value of over 200, only 2 points are added when the level increases.
If the Pokemon was caught with a Luxury Ball or you are in the exact same location where it was caught (its location), each Friendship gain is increased by one more point (two points if both are true). In addition, giving a Pokémon Soothing Bell to wield increases all beneficial effects by 50%. In some games, there are special ways to get more bonuses.
The Pokéwalker is available to players in HeartGold and SoulSilver. Here, a Pokémon can be transferred to the device and you can take it for a walk. However, there are no exact values for the increase in friendship. Several game-exclusive opportunities were added with the fifth generation. For one, the Pokémon Dream World, an online feature, was implemented.
Here, the Pokémon can collect Dream Points while they sleep. Depending on how many points have been collected before they wake up again and are picked up, the friendship value also increases. However, there are no exact figures here either. The so-called transfer forces are also available. Depending on the level, the affection power there increases the growth bonus by one, two, or three points.
The O-forces take on a similar function in generation six. Here, too, the affection power is available to the player for a limited time, with which, depending on the power level, one to three points are added for each increase in friendship value. With the item friendship bonus, there is also a possibility in the seventh generation to receive a bonus.
The Rotom power is activated for ten minutes and thus provides extra points for friendship value increases. Exact numbers are not known for this function either. However, bonuses are not always included. They do not apply in the following situations: in generation four there is no bonus if you are at the location, nor if you receive the Band Syndicate massage.
In generation five, on the other hand, there is no bonus on the massage in Castelia City, and in the following, sixth generation, all massages, drinks from the juice bar and the relax sack in super training are not taken into account. In the seventh generation, the massages are also excluded from the bonuses.
Now, all of these pieces of advice may not apply to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, as we still don’t know everything about the game. These elements were beneficial for a Pokémon’s Friendship in earlier games, but whether Pokémon Legends: Arceus changed some of this is still unknown. Elements applying to certain Items and Pokéballs that do not appear in the game don’t apply here, as well as those that refer to specific games.
Some of these notes will certainly apply, though, but we’ll be updating the article once we progress far enough into the game to actually confirm everything.
Friendship-based evolutions in Pokémon Legends: Arceus
As we know from the older games, some Pokémon can only evolve if their Friendship level is high enough; this is likewise present in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Friendship is increased by leveling up a Pokémon and using it in battle more often. As we have said, there is an NPC named Belamy in front of the Pastures in Jubilife Village who will evaluate your friendship levels with your Pokémon (see above). These are the Pokémon that require a high-enough Friendship level to evolve in Pokémon Legends: Arceus:
- Budew → Roselia
- Buneary → Lopunny
- Chingling → Chimecho
- Cleffa → Clefairy
- Eevee → Espeon (daytime)
- Eevee → Sylveon (while knowing a fairy-type move)
- Eevee → Umbreon (nighttime)
- Golbat → Crobat
- Munchlax → Snorlax
- Pichu → Pikachu
- Riolu → Lucario
- Togepi → Togetic
If you want to know more about evolving Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, you can check out our guide.