Pokémon Refresh is a little mini-game that allows you to care for your Pokémon, in a very personal manner, by feeding them and stroking them, etc. If you used Pokémon Amie in the previous games, it’s essentially that. You can access it via the X button menu, while on the field.

Aside from the blatant cuteness, Pokémon Refresh has a surprisingly large amount of in-game benefits too, such as boosted experience gain, increased critical hit rate, and even allowing you to clear status conditions after a battle! You’d be silly to not at least give it a cursory glance!

Compared to Pokémon-Amie, Pokémon Refresh has a few differences. The in-game battle benefits have been expanded upon, but there are no more minigames or facial recognition games. Additionally, Poké Puffs have been replaced with Poké Beans, but they do the same thing.

Playing With Your Pokémon¶

Inside Pokémon Refresh, your Pokémon will appear in the center of the bottom screen. Sometimes, after not using Pokémon Refresh for a while, your Pokémon may be facing away from you–in which case, you should prod them to get their attention. Once you have their attention, you can rub your stylus on their body to pet them.

In the top-left corner, there’s a button to open the Poké Bean menu, where you can grab a Poké Bean and feed it to your Pokémon. Poké Beans can be obtained by visiting the café in any Pokémon Center, or by shaking the beanstalk in Poké Pelago’s Isle Abeens. Each Pokémon has a specific color of beans that they prefer.

Meanwhile, in the bottom-right corner is a button that lets you change the current Pokémon to another one in your party. Finally, the bottom-left button takes you back outside. As you play with your Pokémon, there are three stats specific to Pokémon Refresh that you should keep in mind. These stats are shown in the Pokémon-changing menu.

Increasing Affection¶

When a Pokémon is petted, cured of a status condition, or fed, you will see small hearts pop out of it. These hearts are actually very relevant. The number of hearts your Pokémon sends your way will indirectly show you its Affection. If musical notes appear instead, that means your Pokémon is gaining Enjoyment.

At certain small heart milestones your Pokemon will suddenly make its happy gesture twice in a row and sparkle. When this happens, this means its Affection has gone up a level! The following table shows you how many small hearts in total your Pokemon needs to produce in order to reach each level of Affection.

Post-Battle Care¶

Occasionally after battle you’ll see on the touch screen a hairbrush icon with the prompt to press the Y button. This means that your Pokémon is afflicted with a status condition (Poison, Paralysis, Burn, Sleep, or Freeze) or that it got a bit dirty during its battle (awww).

You will then see a special care kit menu show up instead of the Poké Beans menu, allowing you to cure your Pokémon of status conditions and get it cleaned up. After tending to your Pokémon, you’ll be rewarded with a cured Pokémon and extra Affection points!

Here are all the care items you can use and what they do.

In-Battle Benefits¶

After making the effort to care for your Pokémon, you’ll be rewarded with some cool benefits during battle. The level of benefits depends on your Pokémon’s Affection level.