Pok¨Śmon Sun and Moon Happiness: How to increase Happiness fast and Happiness checker location
How to easily evolve your prized Munchlax, Type: Null and more.
Pokémon Sun and Moon Happiness and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon Happiness is one of the more obtuse mechanics in the game. While there are many ways for Pokémon Sun and Moon Evolutions to take place, some require you to raise a Pokémon's Happiness to a certain level before it can move onto the next evolution, and so learning how the mechanic works and how to increase it pays off.
There are multiple methods that'll get you your Alolan Persian, Silvally or Snorlax in no time, which we've outlined for you below.
Pokémon Sun and Moon Happiness: How it works, how it's used and Happiness checker location in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
Happiness - also known as friendliness, but not to be confused with 'affection' in Pokémon Refresh - is a hidden stat that determines how close a Pokémon is to its trainer. It's primary use is to evolve certain Pokémon, but it can also change the effectiveness of moves 'Return' and 'Frustration', where high or low friendship will improve their strength respectively.
There's a specific, hidden number for your Pokémon's happiness, starting at zero and up as far as 250 and beyond. Pokémon that require happiness to evolve will do so from when they level up whilst having a happiness of 220 or above - but seeing as this is a hidden stat, there's no way to know exactly how much happiness they have in game.
There are ways to tell your Pokémon's approximate happiness though. For starters, most Pokémon will be caught with a base happiness of 70 (barring some exclusions like Happiny, Chansey and Blissey, which start on 140, or Type: Null and Silvally who start on zero).
Likewise, to check the approximate Happiness of your Pokémon, in both the regular or Ultra versions you can visit the market in Konikoni City where the lady near the TM shop will inform you of its value with a certain phrase. If she says "You clearly love your Pokémon, and you must spend a lot of time together." then the Pokémon is happy enough to evolve, or very close to it, and if she says "My! It feels incredibly close to you! Nothing makes it happier than being with you!" then it'll definitely evolve the next time it levels up.
New Happiness evolutions in Pokémon Sun and Moon are:
- Alolan Meowth to Alolan Persian
- Type: Null to Silvally
Pokémon that require Happiness to evolve from previous generations are:
- Azurill to Marill
- Budew to Roselia (daytime only)
- Buneary to Lopunny
- Chansey to Blissey
- Chilngling to Chimecho (nightime only)
- Eevee to Espeon (daytime only)
- Eevee to Umbreon (nightime only)
- Golbat to Crobat
- Igglybuff to Jigglypuff
- Munchlax to Snorlax
- Pichu to Pikachu
- Riolu to Lucario (daytime only)
- Togepi to Togetic
- Swadloon to Leavanny
- Woobat to Swoobat
How to increase Pokémon Happiness fast in Pokémon Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
The fastest way to increase happiness in Sun and Moon is by catching the Pokémon of your choice in a Friend Ball, which grants a boost of 200 to their base happiness, or a Luxury Ball, which increases the rate at which other happiness-boosting activities will increase your Pokémon's cheer.
If you've already caught your Pokémon though, then the next best option is to get them a Lomi Lomi Massage over in Konikoni City again, which can be done once per day. That, combined with keeping them in your party whilst you walk around Alola and avoiding any chance of them being knocked out should do it for you pretty quickly.
Need more tips? Use our Pokémon Sun and Moon Walkthrough and guide for the main story, our competitive training guide for info on IVs, EV training, Hyper Training and bottle cap farming, and breeding explained, our choice of the best Pokémon Sun and Moon starter from Rowlet, Litten and Popplio, as well as an in-progress list of where to find Zygarde Cells and Cores and our guide to the Battle Tree and both Battling and Trading in the Festival Plaza. We also have a list of QR codes list, Z Crystal locations, Mega Stone locations, Eevium Z Eevee User locations for Extreme Evoboost, evolutions for Alolan Forms and other new Sun and Moon Pokémon and fast way to increase a Pokémon's Happiness, plus how to transfer across Ash-Greninja from the Sun and Moon Demo, where to catch the Tapu Guardians, how to catch the Ultra Beasts, and how to download the Munchlax Mystery Gift.
Other ways to increase Happiness in Pokémon Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
Of course, there are plenty of ways Happiness can be increased outside of those mentioned above, but the easiest and most effective are those below, which have remained largely the same since Generation 6:
- Catching in a Friend Ball - Very high initial Happiness boost (+200)
- Catching in a Luxury Ball - Doubles all future Happiness; you can find one from Malie Garden
- Holding a Soothe Bell - Doubles Happiness gains; from Route 3
- Lomi Lomi Massage - in Konikoni City, provides a decent boost to happiness (+30 if current happiness is below 100, +10 if between 100 and 200, and +5 if over 200)
- Eating certain Berries - Hondew, Qualot, Tamato Berries - Small boost to Happiness (+10, +5, +2)
- Levelling up - Small boost to Happiness (+5, +4, +3)
- Using a Vitamin - Small boost to Happiness (+5, +3, +2)
- Walking 128 steps - Small boost to Happiness (+2, +2, +1)
Note that fainting will decrease happiness, if only slightly, as do certain herbs like the Revival Herb. Also, if you trade a Pokémon away and receive it again later, it'll return to its original state of base Happiness.