Friendship is an important hidden stat in Pokémon Sword & Shield. For every Pokémon it’ll provide certain bonuses and perks such as the ability to survive a killing blow or recover from status effects. Some Pokémon even require a certain friendship level in order to evolve to the next phase, such as Eevee to Espeon.
There are a number of ways to increase the Friendship you have with your Pokémon in Sword & Shield. Some are better than others, with one easily being the most important if you want to max this important stat.
10 Use Luxury Ball To Capture
If you want to give yourself a headstart at maximizing a Pokémon’s Friendship stat one thing you can do is use a Luxury Ball to capture them. When a Pokémon is caught using one of these special Poké Balls they will obtain Friendship points at double the rate.
This means whenever you follow the below advice such as feeding them Curry or enjoying some quality time at Camp then they’ll earn the points faster than they would normally. To get a Luxury Ball buy one from the Wyndon Pokémon Center for three thousand Pokédollars or through Watt Traders in the Wild Area.
9 Use A Friend Ball To Capture
Friend Balls are much more effectively than Luxury Balls as they’ll raise a Pokémon’s friendship level to 200 once they’re caught. Considering the max friendship level is 255 that’s huge and cuts down significantly on grinding.
The catch is that there are only two ways to obtain these balls. Getting a single free one from the Ball Guy in the Turrfield Stadium or sometimes getting them as a reward for winning tournaments.
8 Feed Berries
Now that you’ve captured a Pokémon using one of the two ball types you can start feeding them barriers to increase their friendship level. Any type of berry will increase their Friendship so it really doesn’t matter which one you use, simply pick whatever you have the most of or easy access to.
Having said that it’s important to keep in mind that berries are used to lower a Pokémon’s stat. A Pomeg Berry will lower HP for instance. Unless you’re offsetting a mistake with EV training then this really shouldn’t be your go to method for making your Pokémon like you.
7 Keep Them In Your Party
The simplest and most passive way to raise a Friendship stat is to have the Pokémon in your party at all times. Just being along for the ride, even if they don’t participate in any fighting or activities will slowly raise their friendship stat.
This is handy if you have a number of Pokémon you want to max Friendship with. But individually speaking there are better and more efficient ways than simply letting them sit in their Pokéball.
6 Fight In Battle
When a Pokémon fights in battle they will start to gain Friendship points for every battle they participate in. Considering this is the primary reason you’re playing the game in the first place and is a critical component of almost every other goal in the game it’s a convenient way to raise Friendship while grinding for other things.
That being said it is important to make sure your Pokémon does not faint during a battle. Whenever a Pokémon faints their Friendship level will actually decrease undoing all the bonding that just occurred.
5 Whip Up Some Curry
Cooking and feeding your Pokémon Curry is a great way to raise their Friendship levels without any downsides. Depending on the recipe it also has the benefit of raising experience and curing status effects.
Diving into the well of Curry making is a bit complex and requires an article by itself. But some general tips are to use a lot of berries, nail the mini game mechanics, and cook the Curry with an NPC for the best results.
4 Give Them Vitamins
Like Berries, Vitamins will also raise a Pokémon’s Friendship level but they have the benefit of raising stats instead of lowering them. Vitamins are also a major key to EV training and because of this are great for raising Friendship levels.
They are very expensive at 10 thousand Pokédollars at the Wyndon Pokémart. It’s recommended you have a solid money making strategy if you want to purchase a significant amount of these.
3 Equip Soothe Bell
If you caught the Pokémon with the Luxury Ball and have started using the above methods to raise Friendship than it’s worth the effort to get your hands on a Soothe Bell. A Soothe Bell is an item that when held by a Pokémon will increase their Friendship gains for every activity.
This means whether you’re sending the Pokémon into battle or feeding them vitamins you’ll see an increase in the amount of Frindship gained. To get a Soothe Bell you’ll want to visit the blonde staying at the Frienship Checker’s house in Hammerlocke. While you’ll only get one it really cuts down on grind time for the Pokémon that holds it.
2 Play At Camp
The single best activity you can do to raise Friendship is to spend time with your Pokémon when you set up Camp and play with them. After tossing a ball around you’ll notice a noticeable boost to Friendship, especially if they have the Soothe Bell equipped.
It’s also worth noting that this is the only activity that will raise Friendship after level two. Battles, Vitamins, and Curry will get you there, but playing at Camp is required to progress further.
1 Avoid Bitter Items
While not a way to raise Friendship it’s important to know that having your Pokémon consume any items with the Bitter subtitle will result in a loss of Friendship. Certain types of Berries can be bitter and any Curry made from those Berries will also be bitter.
There are also incredibly useful items like Revival Herb, Heal Powder, Energy Root, and Energy Powder that are also considered bitter. The loss from a Heal Powder is better than fainting, but you should ideally avoid anything bitter.