How to Raise Friendship Fast in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

The ethos of Pokemon is straightforward – crush everyone in your way with raw elemental might and friendship. And while levels are easy to come by, especially with how easy it is to grind out low level Tera Raids, a natural friendship takes a little longer to blossom.

Unless you ply your Pokemon with “gifts”, vitamins, and strolling around with it.

If you want to increase your Pokemon’s happiness fast, likely because you have your eyes on that snazzy Eeveelution or Lucario that has been stubbornly eluding you, there are a few ways to accelerate the process in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. The more methods you use, the faster the outcome.

How to Raise Friendship Fast in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

First, it likely goes without saying that your Pokemon needs to be on your team. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the Pokemon that battles, but it helps if it is.

Once it’s on your team, you should equip that Pokemon with a Soothe Bell. A Soothe Bell is a hold item that you can purchase in Delibird Presents in Cascarrafa for 5,000 Pokedollars. If a Pokémon is holding a Soothe Bell, increases to its friendship are boosted by 50%. This also counts towards merely walking around. But this will take quite a few steps if this is your primary method for increasing your Pokémon’s happiness. It’s estimated that 20,000 total steps are necessary to max out your Pokemon’s affection with a Soothe Bell.

Related: How to Find Razor Claw in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

For a faster approach, you can give your Pokemon stat boosting items, like Carbos and Zinc. For every Vitamin that you give your Pokemon, you get +5 happiness. But medicine isn’t the only thing your Pokemon can consume to increase the joy in its heart.

By hosting picnics, you have the opportunity to talk and play with your Pokemon. While we don’t have the hard numbers on how much this increases affection, it’s likely that feeding them, playing ball with them, and washing them all increase happiness.

With a combination of this hold item, battling, medicine, and sandwich binges, your Pokemon should be max happiness in no time.

Good luck making friends, Trainer!