Happiness Points

We all know that Riolu evolves into Lucario through happiness. But how is happiness defined in Diamond and Pearl, and is there a certain amount that has to be reached in order for the evolution to take place? Yes, and this amount of happiness is determined by something called the Pokemon's Happiness Points.

A handful of Pokemon evolve by reaching required Happiness Points, and the power of Return and Frustration are also dependant on this. We're now going to take a closer look at it, including the different methods of increasing it.

A value ranging from 0 - 255

The total Happiness Points of a Pokemon can range from 0 to 255, although most do not start with 0. When a Pokemon is caught or hatched, it will have it an initial value. Most Pokemon species have 70, while a few others have 0, 35, 100 or even 140. Trading a Pokemon will reset its happiness to its initial Happiness Points, and obtaining it through a trade will do that as well.

All Pokemon that evolve with happiness have one thing in common. The evolution occurs when the Pokemon has obtained a total of 220 Happiness Points or greater, and then gained a level. It must have 220 or over before the level up, otherwise it won't evolve. The Pokemon that evolve through this method are: Azurill, Budew, Chansey, Chingling, Cleffa, Eevee, Golbat, Igglybuff, Munchlax, Pichu, Riolu and Togepi.

In addition, some Pokemon evolutions by happiness only occur, besides acquiring 220 points and a level up, during day or night. The Pokemon who evolve during day, which is from 8 am to 4 pm, are Budew, Eevee and Riolu. Evolutions occur at night, from 4 pm to 8 am, for Chingling and Eevee. Eevee is an oddity here; it evolves into Espeon during day and into Umbreon at night. The ones not previously mentioned are not restricted to evolution by means of time.

Gaining Happiness Points

After some research, I have listed a few methods of increasing happiness, listed to the right. Almost all methods have one thing in common: The happier your Pokemon are, the less Happiness Points it will gain from a certain method. The first Happiness Gain value in the table applies for Pokemon with a happiness between 0 - 99 points, the second 100 - 199 and the third 200 - 255.

Walking 256 steps will increase the happiness of all Pokemon on your party by 1 point. HP Up, Protein, Iron, Calcium, Zinc and Carbos are all classified as Vitamins, and Pomeg, Kelpsy, Qualot, Hondew Berry, Grepa and Tamato belong to the group EV Berries, short for Effort Value Reducing Berries.

There are also two different treatments in Diamond and Pearl that can increase happiness. One is in Veilstone City, where a girl will give your Pokemon massages. The Pokemon getting the massage will have its happiness boosted by 3 points afterwards. The other one is on the second floor of the exclusive Resort Area mansion, where four dudes will give your Pokemon a spa treatment. I have not yet found a pattern, but the happiness gains I've received from the spa are +5 and +10. Both of these treatments can be done daily and free of charge, although the Resort Area treatment requires 10 Ribbons in order to enter the mansion.

The effects of Luxury Ball and Soothe Bell

Whenever Happiness Points are gained, Pokemon caught with a Luxury Ball are awarded with a small +1 bonus. This might not be too useful when the happiness is low, but once it gets over 200 points, the effects are more advantageous since the happiness rewards from the methods that I've listed become less. These balls can be bought in Sunyshore City, or from the Elite Four shop.

Pokemon holding a Soothe Bell have a 50% bonus when gaining Happiness Points. The results are rounded down, and the bonus is applied before the Luxury Ball bonus. For instance, walking 256 steps with a Pokemon caught in a Luxury Ball holding the Soothe Bell will only gain 2 Happiness Points and not 3, because a 50% boost of 1 is 0.5, giving a total of 1.5. It's then rounded down to 1 before the +1 boost from the Luxury Ball, which will add up to a total of 2. The decimals from a previous 50% boost does not add up, a 2.5 boost from a previous action will not stack with another 2.5 boost, hence giving a result of 4. So this means that holding Soothe Bell will have no effect at all if you plan to gain happiness by just walking around. To obtain the Soothe Bell, visit the Pokemon Mansion on route 212.

Finding out the happiness of a Pokemon

There comes a point when you'd be interested in checking the happiness of a Pokemon. You'd probably want to check your progress and see if the points required for the evolution or max happiness are reached. But how's that possible? There are a few methods, but none of them can tell the exact happiness value but a range of the possibilities.

The Poketch has a feature that can give you a hint on the current happiness. That feature is obtainable after talking to a girl in the Pokemon Center of Eterna, as seen below. I got it through flirting though, and it might just be your solution too. Once the feature is enabled, browse to the right section of Poketch, and tap on a Pokemon to get a slight hint of its happiness. The table shows how the different values corresponds to the hearts appearing.

A girl in the Fan Club house, southeast of the Hearthome Pokemon Center, can read the happiness of Pokemon. She will tell you different things depending on its happiness. After pinpointing the comments from her, I have gathered them on a list.

There is also a dude, known as Dr. Footstep, who is able to tell the happiness of a Pokemon by looking at its footprints. He resides in a house on the beach of Route 213. I have chosen to exclude him because his location isn't convenient enough, plus that his lines aren't too interesting. Although if you show him a max happiness Pokemon, you will be awarded a ribbon. Nice, huh?

Return and Frustration

The power of Return and Frustration for a Pokemon depends on its happiness.

The Base Power of Return = Happiness Points / 2.5.
For Frustration, the Base Power = 102 - Happiness Points / 2.5.

As we can see, the max Base Power of both moves is 102. Although the number sounds decent, these moves are less useful in Diamond and Pearl because the introduction of new moves for all other types have made Normal, which cannot hit anything super-effective, less popular. Pokemon that STAB with Return and Frustration, or those that have a small movepool, are still bound to use them.