Building unbreakable bonds in Pokémon Legends: Z-A just got faster! Discover the secret strategies to boost friendship with your Pokémon in record time and unleash their full potential in battle.
How to raise friendship quickly in Pokémon Legends: Z-A
To raise friendship quickly in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, focus on consistent positive interactions with your Pokémon. Feed them their favorite berries or Poké Puffs, use healing items to restore their health, and keep them in your party during battles while avoiding fainting. Additionally, giving massages or playing mini-games that involve your Pokémon can boost their affection and friendship levels swiftly.
There are four ways to raise friendship in Pokémon Legends: Z-A:
- Get a drink from a café with your Pokémon.
- Hang out with your Pokémon at a bench.
- Level up your Pokémon.
- Use an item on your Pokémon.
The best way to raise friendship quickly for a single Pokémon is to get drinks at a café. Drinks in Pokémon Legends: Z-A will increase your friendship level at the same rate,regardless of the cost, so we’ve found that the most efficient location is at Nouveau Café, which is found in the southeastern portion of central Lumiose.
Nouveau Café offers Fresh Water and Sparkling Water for $100, and they’ll increase your friendship just as well as any other coffee or tea. Buneary, who starts with a friendship level of zero, requires six outings at a café, so it will cost, at most, $600 to raise your friendship levels.
To speed up the process even more, we recommend equipping your Pokémon with the Soothe Bell, which you’ll get as a reward for completing Side Mission 36, “Some Friendly Competition.” This side mission is unlocked during Main Mission 14, and can be started by interacting with Chou, the lady with the Clefairy and Lopunny, outside of Café Rouleau on Estival Avenue in the Bleu District.
If you’re looking to raise friendship for multiple Pokémon at once, it may be best to hang out with your Pokémon at a bench. According to X user Twitter hanging out with your Pokémon on a bench for at least 10 seconds at a time, will increase the friendship levels for all of the Pokémon in your party. We really only recommend this method if you have almost a full party of Pokémon that need high friendship levels, otherwise, stick to the cafés!
Where to find the friendship checker in Pokémon Legends: Z-A
In Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the friendship checker can be found in a key location within the game where players often visit during their journey. Typically, this feature is accessible through an NPC or a specific building that allows you to gauge your Pokémon’s friendship level quickly. Using the friendship checker helps trainers monitor progress and decide which methods to use to raise friendship efficiently.
There is an NPC who will check how close you are with your Pokémon at Café Pokémon-Amie on Autumnal Avenue. She will only show up after clearing Side Mission 25, “Trubblesome Patrons,” which should appear after you clear Main Mission 9.
Best cafes in Lumiose City for fast friendship boosts
The best cafés in Lumiose City for fast friendship boosts in Pokémon Legends: Z-A are generally all cafes as they provide the same friendship increase per drink regardless of location or price. However, one especially recommended spot is Nouveau Café in the southeastern area of central Lumiose City, where you can buy affordable drinks like Fresh Water or Sparkling Water for $100 each that grant the usual friendship points efficiently.
Other notable cafés include Café Rouleau in the Magenta District 4 area, which features in side missions and offers good opportunities for raising friendship. Any café you visit and buy drinks from will prompt your selected Pokémon to sit with you, increasing its friendship by a fixed amount (about 30 friendship points per drink). Typically, about 3-8 visits to any café are enough to max out friendship, depending on whether the Pokémon holds a Soothe Bell to boost friendship gains.
Drinks at any café yield the same friendship increase, so proximity and accessibility might guide your choice. As a tip, unlocking all café locations early by running near them helps easy access, and Nouveau Café is a favorite for cost efficiency and convenience.
Summary:
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Nouveau Café: Recommended for affordable drinks and easy access.
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Café Rouleau and other cafés: Equally effective for friendship gains.
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All cafés give the same amount of friendship per drink.
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About 3-8 visits per Pokémon usually required (fewer if holding Soothe Bell).
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Buy any affordable drink for consistent friendship boosts.
This will allow you to boost friendship quickly and efficiently to evolve friendship-based Pokémon in the game.
Which cafes unlock earliest in Lumiose City
The earliest cafés you can unlock in Lumiose City in Pokémon Legends: Z-A are those that require simply walking near their entrance where the barista stands. Unlike restaurants where you must enter fully, cafés unlock their fast-travel waypoints just by running past the entrance door.
From early in the game, the southern and central areas of Lumiose City’s hub have several cafés accessible this way, including notable ones such as:
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Nouveau Café (southeast of the central plaza), convenient and affordable
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Lysandre Café (near Magenta Plaza in the northwest section)
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Café Cyclone (in Vert Plaza near South Boulevard)
You do not need to interact deeply to unlock these cafés, just approach their entrances to activate their map waypoints. As you progress, additional cafés in more peripheral sectors unlock as you explore the city streets. A hidden café is unlocked only upon reaching Main Mission 25 in the story.
Therefore, the cafés in regions like South Boulevard and Centrico Plaza unlock earliest simply by passing near them on foot and are your first options for raising friendship quickly through café drinks.youtube
