Also known as “friendship” or similar terms, Happiness is what you’d expect–how happy a Pokémon feels towards you. There isn’t really a clear way to determine a Pokémon’s Happiness, besides consulting a NPC. Which is slightly awkward, since Happiness plays a bigger role in these games, compared to previously.
Checking Happiness¶
(1 of 2) Your rival’s sister can identify how happy a Pokémon is.
Your rival’s sister can identify how happy a Pokémon is. (left), Our Articuno has a happiness of 200 or higher. (right)
You can check how happy your Pokémon are by speaking to your rival’s big sister back in Pallet Town. Depending on the Happiness value, you’ll receive a particular comment from her.
| Comment | Happiness |
|---|---|
| Maybe it gets KO’d a lot in battles…? | 0 |
| Oh, I guess you just met, huh? Well, I’m looking forward to seeing you become fast friends! | 1 to 49 |
| Seems like it’s starting to like you! I’m excited to see how you two grow. | 50 to 99 |
| You’re really starting to get friendly! I’m sure you’ll be best friends in no time. | 100 to 149 |
| It seems like (Pokémon) likes being with you! | 150 to 199 |
| I can tell (Pokémon) really likes you. It’s saying it wants to always be with you! | 200 to 249 |
| (Pokémon) really, really, really loves you! I can tell you reall trust each other! | 250 to 255 |
Increasing Happiness¶
There are various methods to increase Happiness. So long as you keep using and battling with your Pokémon, there’s a good chance their Happiness will naturally increase. With that said, there hasn’t been a lot of research into these methods.
In general though, you’ll have a far easier time raising the Happiness of your Partner Pokémon. Notably, by making use of the Partner Play feature, where you can pet your partner and feed it berries.
For all Pokémon, you can typically increase their friendship by having them Level Up through battle. Be careful not to let your Pokémon faint, as their Happiness will drop instead. You can also set them as your Buddy Pokémon and walk a large number of steps (works even if indoors).
Benefits of Happiness¶
(1 of 2) Here’s a Snorlax we just caught.
Here’s a Snorlax we just caught. (left), The same Snorlax, after making it walk on a treadmill for a hour or so. (right)
Keeping your Pokémon happy has two major benefits. Firstly, a Pokémon will receive a stat boost for all of their key stats (minus HP) dependent on their current Happiness. This stat boost caps at 10% at maximum Happiness and scales proportionally at other values.
| Stat Boost (%) | Happiness (Minimum) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 26 |
| 2 | 51 |
| 3 | 77 |
| 4 | 102 |
| 5 | 128 |
| 6 | 153 |
| 7 | 179 |
| 8 | 204 |
| 9 | 230 |
| 10 | 255 |
Secondly, when a Pokémon is exceptionally happy, they may trigger random effects during battle. If you’ve played Pokémon X/Y or subsequent games in the series, you may recognize these effects from raising a Pokémon’s Affection stat. In Let’s Go, Affection has essentially been merged into Happiness.
Currently, it’s not clear exactly how much Happiness is required to trigger each effect.
| Happiness (Minimum) | Effect |
|---|---|
| Unknown | Chance of surviving an attack that would KO with 1 HP. |
| Unknown | Chance of completely evading an attack. |
| Unknown | Chance of recovering from a status condition. |
| Unknown | Increased chance of landing a critical hit. |
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