Part 88: Side Note #09: If You're Happy and You Know It, Use Return

Sides Notes 09: If You're Happy and You Know It, Use Return

Something we saw a lot in this update is Happiness, or Friendship. This was a feature that was first in Pokemon Yellow, but I, uh, kinda forgot to go over it. Well, I'm fixing that now. The system is very similar to how it works in Gen 2 onwards, it ranges from 0-255 and depending on how much Pikachu like you determines a few things.

Firstly, it has a number of ways to emote if you turn to talk to it. I believe we saw all but the very last one, when it's at maxed happiness, but doing that in the end game is tricky when it keeps fainting. It starts off with a base happiness of 90 and can increase or decrease depending on how well you treat your Pokemon. It's pretty simple, as this chart shows:



There's not much to it and there's the usual diminishing returns as its happiness increases. Friendship isn't tracked across the Gen 1 games and you can only test it on your own Pikachu, as in, one with the same OT and Trainer ID as the player. Overall, it doesn't really matter to the overall story, as the only thing that affects high friendship is getting the Bulbasaur in Cerulean: you need 147 or more, which is easy enough. If you're not that high, then the quickest way is using a glitch. Giving Pikachu a Potion at full health will always increase happiness. That was fixed in Gen 2.

And there's our segway. Friendship was expanded and tracked for every Pokemon in the game, though it's still pretty simple. For example, Pokemon don't have individual base happiness, they're either at 70 when you catch them, or trade them over, at 120 if they're hatched from an Egg, or 200 if you catch them in a Friend Ball. This can be useful to evolve certain Pokemon through happiness, as they require 220 or more. And with eight Pokemon evolving in this way, you'll need ways to do this. Thankfully, four of these are obtained through Eggs, so unless you want to evolve the babies, then there's no need to. So, friendship is affected in these ways:



The main additions are certain NPCs who increase happiness daily, as well as the various herb items that decrease it. Aside from using those NPCs, there aren't many ways to increase it consistently, so the best way might be to just walk around, level it up and use vitamins, but maybe those on your actual team might have better use for them. The best way to circumvent all this is to use a Friend Ball, however, only two Pokemon that evolve via friendship can be caught in Friend Balls, but they can all be obtained in Eggs, so that gives you a bit of a boost.

So what does happiness do for your Pokemon? Ehhhhhh, the main draw is the move Return, which is a very good move for any Pokemon that you are intentionally raising its happiness for. And of course, there's the happiness evolutions, but really, that's about it. A lot more features will be introduced in the next few generations, but right now, it's nothing you really need to consider in most cases. A bit of a shame, but hey, the more mechanics the merrier.

As an aside, if you're ever curious how much a Pokemon likes you, then there is that NPC in Goldenrod City that tells you how happy your Pokemon is. The results may surprise you: