While Pokémon Legends: Arceus features many new mechanics, it still has plenty of classic quirks known by fans of the series. Among these returning features is friendship, which allows certain Pokémon to evolve differently than normal. In particular, friendship is vital in obtaining Espeon, Umbreon, and Sylveon – three beloved Pokémon that can be extremely difficult to obtain otherwise. Thankfully, there are ways for players to check the friendship level of any Pokémon they travel with.
How to Check Friendship Level
The amount of friendship each Pokémon has can be checked at Jubilife Village. Near the Pastures, players will encounter an NPC named Belamy. After playing through some of the main story, he’ll have a request to check the compatibility between you and your Pokémon. Following this request, players can speak with Belamy to check any Pokémon in their collection – including any Pokémon sitting in the Pastures.
While you can’t check exactly how high the friendship of each Pokémon is, Belamy’s comments will give you a general idea on how friendly they’ve become. For especially high friendship, Belamy will close his eyes and smile while complimenting your bond. If you haven’t managed to reach that point just yet, you should do whatever you can to increase your friendship.
As previously mentioned, friendship is required to evolve specific Pokémon. For those Pokémon, you should do your best to avoid using items like Remedies. These will lower friendship, making it more difficult to evolve them. Higher friendship levels will also result in your Pokémon surviving lethal attacks and landing critical hits, similar to affection in previous entries. As a result, players will benefit from raising friendship with Pokémon even if they don’t evolve as a result.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is an exclusive title for the Nintendo Switch.
