How to Max Out Happiness Fast in Pokémon Legends Z-A (2-Minute Method)

Need to evolve friendship-based Pokémon in Legends Z-A? Learn the fastest way to increase happiness in under 2 minutes using cafes, plus all friendship evolution requirements.

Understanding Happiness Evolutions in Legends Z-A

Not every Pokémon in Legends Z-A evolves by simply hitting a level threshold. Some species require something more personal: happiness (also called friendship). These Pokémon need to genuinely like you before they’ll evolve, which traditionally meant hours of grinding battles, walking around, and using items.

The Lumiose Pokédex might be smaller compared to mainline games, but there are still several beloved Pokémon that require high friendship to evolve—including all the Eevee evolutions that don’t use stones, fan favorites like Lucario, and adorable babies like Pichu and Riolu.

The good news? Legends Z-A has completely streamlined the friendship system. You can max out a Pokémon’s happiness and trigger its evolution in literally under two minutes. No more walking 10,000 steps or grinding battles for hours. Just money, tea, and a little patience.

The Ultimate Friendship Speed-Run Method

Forget everything you knew about raising friendship in previous Pokémon games. Legends Z-A introduces a beautifully simple mechanic: hanging out at cafes and food trucks dramatically boosts happiness.

Here’s the exact method that works like magic:

Step-by-Step Happiness Grinding

1. Position your Pokémon correctly Put the Pokémon you want to evolve in slot 1 of your party. This is critical—the happiness boost only applies to the Pokémon in the first slot when you order drinks.

2. Find any cafe or food truck Lumiose City has multiple cafes and food trucks scattered throughout. Any of them will work—you’re not looking for a specific location, just the nearest one.

3. Order Roserade Tea When you sit down, order a cup of Roserade Tea (costs 350 Pokédollars per cup). This specific drink seems to provide one of the strongest friendship boosts available.

4. The instant exit trick Here’s where the speed comes in: immediately press B after ordering and select “Yes” to leave the table. You don’t need to sit through any animations or wait for your Pokémon to finish drinking. The happiness boost applies instantly when you order—the rest is just fluff.

5. Rinse and repeat Go right back to the same cafe and repeat the process. Order tea, leave immediately, order again, leave immediately. You’ll look ridiculous speed-running a cafe, but it works.

The magic number: Testing shows that four cups of Roserade Tea are typically enough to take a Pokémon from zero friendship all the way to evolution-ready status. That’s 1,400 Pokédollars total—pocket change by mid-game standards.

Total time investment: Approximately 90 seconds to 2 minutes from start to finish. That’s it.

Visual Evolution Indicator

You’ll know your Pokémon is ready to evolve when a small white arrow appears above its icon on the party menu screen. This is your signal that happiness has been maxed and evolution is available. Just level it up once (even through experience from clearing purple sludge works), and it’ll evolve immediately.

All Friendship-Based Evolutions in Legends Z-A

Here’s every Pokémon that requires high happiness to evolve, along with their specific requirements:

Eevee Evolutions (Time and Move-Dependent):

• Eevee → Espeon – Requires high friendship + evolution during daytime hours. Make sure it’s actually daytime in-game before you level it up, or you might accidentally get Umbreon instead.
• Eevee → Umbreon – Requires high friendship + evolution during nighttime hours. Same warning applies—timing is everything with Eevee.
• Eevee → Sylveon – Requires high friendship + Eevee must know at least one Fairy-type move. Teach it something like Charm or Baby-Doll Eyes before evolving. Time of day doesn’t matter for Sylveon, but that Fairy move is mandatory.

Baby Pokémon Evolutions:

• Pichu → Pikachu – Just high friendship, no other requirements. Pichu is one of the easiest friendship evolutions since there are no additional conditions.
• Cleffa → Clefairy – Same deal—pure friendship evolution with no time requirements.
• Budew → Roselia – High friendship + evolution during daytime. Budew is picky about when it evolves, so make sure the sun is up.

Fighting-Type Favorites:

• Riolu → Lucario – High friendship + evolution during daytime. Lucario is immensely popular and useful throughout the game, so prioritize getting Riolu evolved early.
• Buneary → Lopunny – Pure friendship evolution, no time restrictions. Buneary is notoriously grumpy in traditional games (starting with low base friendship), but the cafe method bypasses that entirely.

Why This Method Changes Everything

Traditional friendship grinding in Pokémon games was tedious. You’d battle endlessly, give vitamins, use Soothe Bell, walk specific step counts, and still wait forever. It was one of the most time-consuming mechanics in the series.

Legends Z-A’s cafe system is a brilliant quality-of-life improvement that respects your time. The cost is negligible—1,400 Pokédollars is earned from a couple of trainer battles. The time investment is minimal. And the method is available immediately once you have access to cafes, which happens very early in the story.

Additional friendship-boosting methods (slower but worth mentioning):

• Keeping Pokémon out of their Poké Ball – Passively increases friendship as you walk around, but it’s much slower than the cafe method
• Using them in battles – Winning battles grants small friendship increases, but again, nowhere near as efficient as tea chugging
• Not letting them faint – Fainting decreases friendship, so keeping them healthy helps, but isn’t a primary grinding method

Honestly, there’s no reason to use any method other than the cafe spam. It’s faster, more reliable, and you can target exactly which Pokémon gets the boost.

Money-Making Tips for Cafe Runs

If you’re early in the game and worried about affording four cups of tea at 350 Pokédollars each, here are some quick money-making strategies:

• Battle every trainer you see – Trainer battles give substantially more money than wild encounters
• Pick up the Gold Canari Plush – As covered in our Colorful Screws guide, this plush increases prize money from battles
• Sell items you don’t need – Mushrooms, extra healing items, and duplicate TMs can be vendored for quick cash
• Don’t worry too much – By the time you’re at the stage where you need friendship evolutions, you’ll likely have plenty of money naturally

Strategic Evolution Timing

Pro tip for Eevee trainers: Decide which Eeveelution you want BEFORE you start the friendship grind. There’s nothing worse than accidentally evolving your Eevee into Espeon when you wanted Sylveon because you forgot to teach it a Fairy move first.

Checklist before evolving Eevee:

• ✓ High friendship achieved (white arrow visible)
• ✓ Correct time of day (day for Espeon, night for Umbreon, doesn’t matter for Sylveon)
• ✓ Knows a Fairy move if you want Sylveon
• ✓ You’re absolutely sure about your choice (no take-backs!)

For Riolu and Budew: Make sure you’re evolving during daytime. The game’s day/night cycle is tied to real-world time in some versions or in-game clock in others, so check your surroundings. If you see sunlight and daytime lighting, you’re good to go.

The Bigger Picture: Quality of Life in Legends Z-A

The streamlined friendship system is part of Legends Z-A’s broader philosophy of respecting player time. Between the simplified sludge clearing (covered in our purple sludge guide), the accessible Alpha Pokémon hunts, and now instant friendship grinding, the game removes archaic tedium while keeping meaningful gameplay intact.

You’re still making strategic decisions—which Pokémon to evolve, which Eeveelution to choose, when to trigger the evolution—but you’re not wasting hours on busywork. It’s a design philosophy that more Pokémon games should embrace.

For more information about Pokémon Legends Z-A’s mechanics and features, visit the official Pokémon Legends website. You can also pick up the game from the Nintendo Store if you’re ready to explore Lumiose City’s urban redesign.

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Bottom line: Friendship evolutions in Legends Z-A take about 90 seconds and 1,400 Pokédollars using the Roserade Tea spam method at any cafe. Put your target Pokémon in slot 1, order tea four times while immediately exiting after each order, watch for the white arrow indicator, then level up to evolve. It’s the fastest friendship system in any Pokémon game, and there’s zero reason to grind battles or walk around for hours when tea does the job instantly.