Pokémon Camp

The player can call, chat, and take out a toy to play with their Pokémon. Calling a Pokémon can awaken a sleeping Pokémon. Playing with a Pokémon will gradually lower its playfulness.

Playing with Pokémon can increase the Pokémon's friendship and its experience. In the Wild Area, the player can earn Watts as well. The more a Pokémon is played with, the more friendship will be increased. Higher-level Pokémon will also earn more experience this way. However, when a Pokémon is not feeling playful, no experience or friendship can be gained by playing.

There are eight available toys to play with: a Poké Toy and various toy balls.

Image	Name	Location
	Poké Toy	Initial
	Practice Ball	Initial
	Fresh Ball	Reward from Camping King if the player has made 5 types of curry
	Weighted Ball	Reward from Camping King if the player has made 10 types of curry
	Soothe Ball	Reward from Camping King if the player has made 15 types of curry
	Mirror Ball	Reward from Camping King if the player has made 30 types of curry
	Tympole Ball	Reward from Camping King if the player has made 50 types of curry
	Champion Ball	Reward from Camping King if the player has made 80 types of curry

Main article: Curry

The player can cook curry, check their ingredients in the Bag, and check their Curry Dex. Cooking and eating curry will increase a Pokémon's sociability and restore a Pokémon's playfulness.

The player can change the color of their tent to match one of the types of the player's lead party Pokémon by talking to the Camping King in East Lake Axewell outside of Motostoke.

Main article: Friendship

Friendship is the friendship stat that has appeared in previous games. It ranges from 0 to 255, and has levels that provide bonuses if a Pokémon's friendship is above a certain threshold. Affection no longer exists in Pokémon Sword and Shield; instead, bonuses that were determined by affection in previous games are now determined by friendship in Pokémon Sword and Shield.

A Pokémon with a high level of friendship will gain certain bonuses in battle and will interact with its Trainer in unique ways. These in-battle bonuses do not apply in link battles or battle facilities.

• At friendship level 1 and higher, a Pokémon may find items after cooking curry.
• At friendship level 3 and higher, a Pokémon may endure attacks that could otherwise make it faint, surviving with 1 HP.
• At friendship level 4 and higher, a Pokémon gains boosted experience from battles, and may recover from status conditions at the end of a turn.
• At friendship level 5, a Pokémon may dodge attacks and has an increased critical hit ratio.

Sociability is a stat exclusively used in Pokémon Camp. It ranges from 0 to 255 and is not reset when traded.[1] Sociability affects how much a Pokémon wants to interact with other Pokémon. Cooking curry with Pokémon increases their sociability.

If the player's party has an average sociability of at the least 200,[2] after cooking curry there is a chance (depending on the rank of the curry made) to attract a wild Pokémon from the current location's random encounters, who then requests to join the player. If the player accepts, it joins the player without battling, using a Poké Ball from their Bag. This cannot occur in the Wild Area, Isle of Armor, Crown Tundra, or any location that does not have any land wild encounters.

If cooking with another Trainer (an NPC or player), that other Trainer's Pokémon may give the player an item after cooking curry if they have high sociability.

Playfulness limits how much the player can do to increase the Pokémon's friendship.