After a long day of battles in Pokémon Sword & Shield, it’s important to take a break, set up camp, and give your Pokémon some R&R – and also eat curry, since curry is delicious. Here’s how you can get the most out of your breaks and increase your Pokémon’s friendship.
Sword & Shield adds Pokémon Camp to the list of things you can do with your Pokémon. As the name implies, you essentially set up a little campsite and let your team out of their Poké Balls to stretch their legs, wings, tails, or whatever other appendages they happen to have.
Pokémon Camp is also where you can interact with your Pokémon directly. Much like Pokémon-Amie or Pokémon Refresh from X & Y and Sun & Moon, respectively, Pokémon Camp lets you play with your Pokémon to make them friendlier. Increasing your Pokémon’s friendship has an incredibly beneficial effect in battle, allowing your Pokémon to endure attacks that would otherwise cause them to faint, avoid critical hits, increase their critical hit ratio, and even recover faster from status conditions like sleep or poison.
Setting up camp also lets you cook curries, which for some reason refreshes your Pokémon even though they’re not the ones eating it. Anyway, let’s go over how you can get the most out of your pit stops.
Playing With Your Pokémon
With your Pokémon out of their balls, you can now play with them. Playing with your Pokémon will increase their friendship levels which can give them special bonuses in battles. Playing also gives them EXP, so it’s not a bad way to level-up your Pokémon.
To play with a Pokémon, look at the ‘Mon you want to engage with and then press A to get their attention. Once they come near, take out a toy using the Y button and then press A to use that toy.
If you see an exclamation point pop up over your Pokémon’s head, then you know they’re interested in playing. Press the A button to play with your little monster until they get bored and wander off. When you see little hearts or music notes appear around their heads you’ll know you’re increasing your friendship levels.
You start the game with two toys: a rubber Poké Ball you can play fetch with and a Poké Toy you can shake like a cat toy. You get more toys for making different types of curries. Just like real pets, you’ll want different types of toys to keep your Pokémon interested in playing.
Playfulness And Curries
Pokémon won’t want to play forever, though. After they’ve had their fill of playtime, they’ll wander off and you won’t be able to play with them again until the next time you set up camp. Or, you could cook curry to restore that Pokémon’s playfulness.
Why does the trainer’s consumption of curry cause a Pokémon to want to play again? Nobody knows. There seems to be some sort of mystical connection between trainer and Pokémon here, but science has yet to understand it.
In any case, making and eating curry will restore a Pokémon’s playfulness and allow you to keep playing. It will also increase their sociability, which will let them play nice with other Pokémon.
What Friendship Can Do For You
Besides giving you that warm and fuzzy feeling from having a Pokémon that loves you unconditionally, increasing your ‘Mons’ friendship can net you some sweet perks.
At friendship level 1, a Pokémon might find an item in the grass and bring it back to you after cooking curry. At friendship level 3, your Pokémon might endure an attack that would otherwise knock them out. At friendship level 4, Pokémon will gain more EXP in battles and will recover from status conditions at the end of their turn. And at friendship level 5, your Pokémon might dodge an attack entirely and it will have an increased critical hit ratio.
Increasing a Pokémon’s sociability will also have beneficial effects. When camping and cooking at campsites owned by NPCs or other players, Pokémon with high sociability might convince the NPC or player to part with an item after cooking curry. High sociability might also attract wild Pokémon from around the area.
