Friendship, favourites & trading
Two separate meters, one shared shortcut: give them what they like.
Friendship
Friendship is tracked separately from Comfy Level, though the two feed each other. Completing a Pokémon's request, giving it a gift, or playing one of its games all raise it. Games include quizzes about a friend of theirs and Look This Way, a three-round guessing match — you gain friendship for playing and more for winning.
As friendship climbs, Pokémon start giving you materials unprompted. At maximum they announce that you are Best Friends, start calling you by your name instead of "Ditto", and get a special mark on their Pokédex entry.
The five stages, and what each one brings
The game shows friendship as a gauge, not as a numbered level, and no official source publishes the underlying values. What it does describe is a fixed order of milestones, and every Pokémon walks the same five stages: (1) Just met — it keeps its distance and asks for things. (2) Warming up — it starts proposing games, quizzes about a friend of theirs and Look This Way. (3) Friendly — it looks pleased to see you and begins handing over materials it has found, without being asked. (4) Close — it drops the nickname and starts calling you by your given name instead of "Ditto"; the fifteen Pokémon with an emote to give hand it over around here. (5) Best Friends — it comes to you and says so, a Best Friend mark appears on its Pokédex entry, and it is always happy to see you.
Two honest caveats. The stage boundaries are not numbered on screen, so "stage 3" here means "the point at which the unprompted gifts start", not a value you can read anywhere. And no official source gives a rate for those unprompted gifts — how often a given Pokémon walks up with something is undocumented, so this wiki does not quote a number for it. The gifts that *are* pinned down — the Litter drops, the emotes, the once-a-day Dream Island run — are listed on the Gifts page.
What each Pokémon gives you
Three channels are documented species by species, and they behave very differently. Litter is the reliable one: 41 Pokémon carry the Litter specialty and drop one fixed material near their home, again and again, for as long as they live there — Combee drops Honey, Jirachi drops Stardust, Shellder and Cloyster drop Seashells. It runs off the specialty, not off friendship, so it starts the day they move in. Emotes are the opposite: fifteen species hand over one specific emote, once, as a high-friendship gift, and that is the end of it. And a story character can give a fixed item — Chef Dente's three PP-restoring candies are the only case.
Everything else a Pokémon hands over is a specialty doing its job rather than a gift: Gather Honey trades special furniture for honey you bring, Collect turns Rainbow and Silver Feathers into rare goods at Gimmighoul and Gholdengo, Trade runs the scale at a cash register, and Rarify turns Star Pieces into Pokémetal. Those are exchanges — you put something in first.
Favourites
Every item in the game belongs to several of 43 "favourite" categories — Round stuff, Shiny stuff, Wooden stuff, Ocean vibes, Spooky stuff and the rest. Each Pokémon likes exactly five of them, plus one of the five flavours and one of the six ambiences (its ideal habitat: Bright, Warm, Humid, Dry, Cool or Dark). Giving or placing matching items raises friendship and Comfy Level much faster, and you can spot it working: a matching item lays down with a bigger sparkle. Every Pokémon page lists its own seven, with the items in each category.
Trading
A Pokémon with the Trade specialty will set up shop wherever there is a powered cash register and a table — the PokéMart, or the Pokémon Center when no event is running. The bigger the countertop, the more stock appears. Each trader brings a signature item (Lum Berry from Zorua, Rawst Berry from Chansey) alongside materials, crafted goods and even some Lost Relics.
Trades are weighed on a scale: match or exceed the asking value using up to four different item types. Here is the trick — if an item matches the trader's favourites, its value goes up 50%, shown in orange. An Eevee Doll worth 1,000 points to most Pokémon is worth 1,500 to Chansey, who likes fluffy and round things. Check the trader's likes before you open the scale.