Pokemon Refresh is a little mini-game that allows you to care for your Pokemon, in a very personal manner, by feeding them and stroking them, etc. If you used Pokemon Amie in the previous games, it’s essentially that. You can access it via the main menu, by press the X button while on the field.

Aside from the blatant cuteness, Pokemon Refresh has a surprisingly large amount of in-game benefits too, such as boosted experience gain, increased critical hit rate, and even allowing you to clear status afflictions after a battle! You’d be silly to not at least give it a cursory glance!

Compared to Pokemon-Amie, Pokemon Refresh has a few differences. The in-game battle benefits have been expanded upon, but there are no more minigames or facial recognition games. Additionally, Poke Puffs have been replaced with Poke Beans, but they do the same thing.

Pokemon Refresh Stats¶

There are three stats specific to Pokemon Refresh:

Affection is the king of all stats. Unless traded, a Pokemon’s Affection stat will never go down. Maxing out Affection will earn you all the benefits from Pokemon Refresh possible.

Fullness refers to whether the Pokemon will still eat Poke Beans or not. At max fullness, if you offer them a bean they will reject it. Feeding Poke Beans will increase Affection, but you can’t just stuff them until they burst!

Finally, Enjoyment will tell you how much your Pokemon has been played with. Petting your Pokemon will increase Affection, but after being pet a lot, your Pokemon will stop gaining Affection and instead gain Enjoyment.

When you start seeing musical notes pop out of your Pokemon’s model, it’s very happy but its Affection isn’t going up!

Increasing Affection¶

When a Pokemon is petted, cured of a status, or fed, you will see small hearts pop out of it. These hearts are actually very relevant. The number of hearts your Pokemon sends your way will indirectly show you its Affection.

At certain milestones your Pokemon will suddenly make its happy gesture twice in a row and sparkle. When this happens, this means its Affection has gone up a level!

The following table shows you how many small hearts total your Pokemon needs to give to you to reach each level of Affection. When in the Pokemon switching menu, the Affection meter is shown with 5 hearts, so there are 5 possible levels of Affection (not including 0).

If your Pokemon has maxed out Affection, you can take it to an NPC in Malie City’s Community Center. Show the NPC your spoiled sweet Pokemon to receive the Best Friends Ribbon.

Using Pokemon Refresh to Care for Your Pokemon¶

Occasionally after battle you will see on the touch screen a hairbrush icon with the prompt to press the Y button. This means that your Pokemon is afflicted with a status (Poison, Paralysis, Burn, Sleep, or Freeze) or that it got a bit dirty during its battle.

You will then see a special care kit menu show up instead of the Poke Beans menu, allowing you to cure your Pokemon of statuses and get it cleaned up. After tending to your Pokemon, you’ll be rewarded with a cured Pokemon and Affection points!

Here’s the list of care items you can use and what they do.

Battle Benefits¶

We’ve been talking a lot about why you should use Pokemon Refresh for the in-game benefits, so it’s time we actually tell you what they are! Each level of Affection gives you new benefits, giving you plenty of incentive to max the Affection of any Pokemon you use frequently.