How Many Steps Does It Take to Max Happiness in Pokemon?
The simple answer is: it depends. There’s no single step count that guarantees max happiness for every Pokémon in every situation. While walking is a factor, it’s not the fastest or most reliable method to maximize your Pokémon’s happiness, also known as Friendship or Tameness. The primary driver is a hidden value between 0 and 255 and the rate at which you can affect that value. While walking does increase happiness, it’s a slow process, requiring hundreds of steps for a minor increase. Let’s break down the various methods and understand why steps aren’t the whole story.
The Slow Path: Walking for Happiness
Steps and Happiness: The Base Rate
As the provided information suggests, a base rate of 1 happiness point is gained for roughly every 256 steps you take. This increment applies to all Pokémon in your party. This means even without your lead pokemon, every single Pokemon on your party will increase at this rate. So, if you are relying solely on walking, it’s going to take a considerable amount of time.
Example: Eevee and the Long Road
Let’s take the example of Eevee, which starts with a base friendship of 70. To max its happiness at 255, you would need to gain 185 friendship points. If you were to rely entirely on walking, it would take around 47,175 steps. This illustrates why solely walking is the least efficient and why it is better to use multiple methods together.
The Fast Track: Berries, Bells, and More
The Power of Berries
Certain berries significantly boost happiness while also reducing EV (Effort Values). This makes them ideal for trainers who are both EV training and trying to increase friendship. Berries like the Grepa, Hondew, Kelpsy, Pomeg, Qualot, and Tamato berries all have this effect. With the Soothe Bell held, most Pokémon will reach max happiness after consuming about 20 of these berries. This is much faster and easier than walking hundreds of steps.
Soothe Bell: The Friendship Amplifier
The Soothe Bell is an essential item for increasing happiness quickly. This item doubles the rate of increase to happiness, this will mean that the amount of berries consumed will be less, and that the steps required to increase the value, will be significantly reduced.
Other Friendship Boosting Activities
- Leveling Up: Gaining a level significantly increases friendship. This is one of the most reliable methods, as many of the other methods will be done whilst leveling up your Pokemon.
- Battles: Using your Pokémon in battle increases friendship, although only “important battles”, like gym leaders, provide an increase. Auto battles also increase friendship.
- Vitamins: Using vitamins on your Pokemon will also increase friendship but not by as much as other methods.
- Pokemon Camp: In some games, feeding your Pokémon curry in camp or playing with them can increase happiness.
- Catching in Special Balls: Catching a Pokemon in a Luxury Ball or Friend Ball will improve their initial friendship.
Activities that Lower Happiness
It is more difficult to lower happiness than raise it but it is still worth knowing.
- Fainting can lower a pokemon’s happiness and is best to be avoided.
- Herbal medicine can significantly lower happiness. It is best to use other items when healing.
Max Happiness: How to Know
A Friendship Checker will let you know when your Pokémon has reached max friendship. The dialogue will be “Whoa, you’re the best friends ever! I can tell just being together gives you warm fuzzies!” They will also give you the Best Friends Ribbon to further identify your bond.
The Bottom Line
Walking alone is a very slow way to increase friendship. The fastest way is to use a combination of friendship-boosting berries, the Soothe Bell, and other in-game activities like battling and leveling up. While it does not take away from its importance it is best to treat walking as a method to always progress the friendship, rather than the fastest method to maximize it.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Does the lead Pokémon get more happiness from walking?
No, the rate at which happiness increases from walking is the same for all Pokémon in your party; they all receive +1 happiness for about every 256 steps. This occurs no matter if they are the lead Pokemon or not.
2. Can I increase friendship in Pokemon GO?
Yes, but not through steps directly. In Pokemon GO, you build friendship with other players through gifting, trading, and battling together. You have a system of “buddy” pokemon where activities with that pokemon will increase your friendship, and give extra perks for that pokemon.
3. What is the highest happiness value in Pokémon?
The maximum happiness value is 255. This value is what determines the power of the move Return.
4. Do berries increase friendship in all Pokemon games?
While the effects can vary slightly between games, the Grepa, Hondew, Kelpsy, Pomeg, Qualot, and Tamato berries generally increase friendship while lowering specific EV points.
5. Does fainting a Pokémon lower its friendship?
Yes, fainting a Pokemon lowers it’s friendship. This makes it important to avoid fainting your Pokemon, if you wish to maximize happiness.
6. Does using Rare Candy affect happiness?
Using any item on your Pokemon will increase happiness, with rare candy being no exception. This value is lower than methods like EV reducing berries.
7. What is the fastest way to evolve a Riolu?
Riolu requires high friendship (220+) to evolve into Lucario. Using the methods of the Soothe bell and EV reducing berries is your fastest way.
8. Does using herbal medicine lower friendship?
Yes, herbal medicine can decrease friendship significantly. It’s best to use other healing items if you’re trying to increase your Pokémon’s happiness.
9. How do I know when my Pokémon’s friendship is maxed out?
A Friendship Checker will give you the dialogue, “Whoa, you’re the best friends ever! I can tell just being together gives you warm fuzzies!”. They also give you a Best Friends Ribbon.
10. Which Pokémon always appear to be happy?
Some Pokemon are designed with a happy demeanour, such as Blissey, Togetic, Ludicolo, Cherrim, Hoppip, and Quagsire.
11. Does defeating wild Pokémon increase friendship?
Winning battles with wild pokemon will not increase friendship, unless they are a part of an important battle. Leveling up from a victory however will increase friendship.
12. What is the hardest Eevee evolution to obtain?
Sylveon is often considered the most difficult to obtain, as it requires a high level of friendship and a fairy type move. The other Eeveelutions can be achieved easily through specific items.
13. What Eevee evolution has the highest CP?
Espeon tends to have the highest combat power (CP) and attack stats, making it a strong choice in many Pokemon games.
14. Do Auto Battles increase friendship?
Yes, Auto Battles do increase friendship, providing that your pokemon are healthy and aren’t being constantly fainted.
15. Does friendship carry over when breeding Pokemon?
Friendship in a Pokemon will not carry over to a hatched Pokemon, it will always start with the base value. However, some game mechanics can affect this slightly, depending on the specific game.
By understanding these methods, you can efficiently increase your Pokemon’s happiness, benefiting from increased power with moves like Return, and obtaining Pokemon that require happiness evolutions. Don’t rely solely on steps, but incorporate berries, battles, and the Soothe Bell to forge the strongest bonds with your Pokemon.