Friendship

**Friendship**, commonly referred to by fans as **happiness**, is a measurement of how much a Pokémon is attached to its Trainer and enjoys being in their care.

It affects the evolution of certain Pokémon, the power of Return and Frustration and the availability of a few in-game items and Ribbons. Certain events increase a Pokémon's friendship (gaining a level, walking a certain amount of steps) or decrease it (fainting, using herbal medicine).

## Informations

Friendship is a value that ranges from 0 to 255 (stored as a single byte). Certain NPCs will evaluate the friendship of a Pokémon in the player's party.

A Pokémon's friendship is generally set when the player first obtains it. When a Pokémon is first caught from the wild, its friendship starts at its base friendship value. Trading a Pokémon also resets its friendship to its base value, unless it is being traded back to its original Trainer, in which case it regains the friendship it had before being traded away. A Pokémon caught in a Friend Ball starts with 200 friendship instead of its base friendship, while a Pokémon hatched from an Egg starts with 120 friendship.

Friendship is generally increased by taking good care of a Pokémon. Keeping a Pokémon in the player's party, raising it, using items on it and getting it groomed will all increase a Pokémon's friendship. Letting it faint and using bitter herbal medicines on it will decrease a Pokémon's friendship.

## Boosting friendship

If a Pokémon was caught in a Luxury Ball, any increase to its friendship is boosted by 1. If a Pokémon is currently at the same location where it was caught (its met location), any increase to its friendship is boosted by 1. If a Pokémon is holding a Soothe Bell, increases to its friendship are boosted by 50% of the change (it applies to the friendship change after including Luxury Ball and met location bonuses).

None of these effects change the amount of friendship lost for negative changes or for changes of 0 (such as using an X Attack on a Pokémon with high friendship).

## Mechanics using friendship

There are Pokémon that evolve by friendship, which can only evolve if they have 220 friendship or more. Additionally, the moves Return and Frustration vary in power depending on how high or low the user's friendship is.

There is a Ribbon for Pokémon with maximum friendship, the Footprint Ribbon.

#### Moves

Friendship affects the following moves.

 Return | Normal | Physical | Varies

## Friendship values

Friendship can only be increased to a maximum of 179 without using Berries. While this is enough to evolve Pokémon that evolve with high friendship, it is not enough to reach the maximum friendship value of 255, for which friendship-raising Berries are needed.

The following methods can only increase Pokémon's friendship up to a maximum of 179. After 179 friendship, these methods no longer boost friendship.

* Leveling up.
* Walking with them in the party.
* Using battle items on them.
* Using vitamins or feathers on them. (Excluding Rare Candy and Exp. Candy)
* Battling with them against Gym Leaders or other "tough" Trainers.

The following methods can increase a Pokémon's friendship regardless of their current friendship (up to the maximum of 255).

* Using friendship-raising Berries

The following methods can decrease a Pokémon friendship (down to a minimum of 0).

* Letting a Pokémon faint, especially when battling a much stronger opponent.
* Using herbal medicine on it.

## Evolutions

Several Pokémon evolve after being leveled up when their friendship value is 179 or higher.

## Raters

Friendship raters are NPCs that will indicate the friendship of the first Pokémon in the player's party when spoken to.

## Misconceptions

Although frequently reported to the contrary, the following factors do *not* affect friendship

* Depositing a Pokémon in the Pokémon Storage System
* Healing a Pokémon with low HP or with a status condition
* Giving a Pokémon an item to hold (except the Soothe Bell)
* Evolving a Pokémon, regardless of method (level up, held item or Evolution stone)
* Using a Pokémon in battle
* Winning battles with a Pokémon
* Letting a Pokémon's HP fall to critical status
* Letting the player's Pokémon get a status condition like paralysis
* Walking when the player's Pokémon has a status condition