Friendship
| Friendship | |
|---|---|
| Type | Collection |
Friendship is the number behind every relationship in Pelican Town, counted in points and shown as a row of hearts on the social tab. Hearts change how villagers talk, open their bedrooms, bring gifts through the post, trigger the little scenes called heart events, and eventually make marriage possible. Points come in from a daily hello, from a couple of well chosen gifts a week, from delivery quests, from a trip to the cinema and from the right choices during a festival. They also drain away quietly: a villager who is walked past without a word loses a little every day, which makes friendship as much a matter of routine as of generosity.
Overview
Every heart is worth two hundred and fifty points. Ordinary villagers stop at ten hearts, while a spouse or a housemate has a longer meter that runs to fourteen. Anyone who can be married keeps their last two hearts greyed out until they have been given a Bouquet, so courting is a deliberate step rather than something that happens by accident. The social tab shows every meter, and clicking a villager's row opens the gift log, which records what has already been given and what their tastes turn out to be.
Earning points is mostly a matter of habit. Saying hello once a day is the baseline, and it is worth half as much if the villager is busy with an animation when spoken to. An item delivery from the Help Wanted board is worth a great deal more, enough on its own to move a meter visibly. A film at the Movie Theater pays well when the villager loves what is showing, and a snack from the counter adds a little on top. Married farmers get a small amount for the first kiss of the day. A few heart events offer a choice of reply, and the kind answer is usually the one that pays.
Losing points is just as easy. A disliked gift costs, a hated one costs twice as much, and firing a slingshot at a villager is both rude and expensive. Rummaging through a bin while somebody is standing nearby annoys them, and they will say so, although Linus approves of the practice and gains friendship from it. The daily drain depends on the relationship: it is slow with a plain acquaintance, faster with somebody who has accepted a bouquet, and fastest of all with a spouse, where it never stops even at the top of the meter.
Gifts are governed by a weekly allowance. One a day and two a week is the limit, with the week turning over on Sunday, and giving the full two earns a small bonus on the Sunday morning afterwards. A birthday present is always allowed on top of that allowance, which is worth remembering because birthday gifts count for eight times their usual value. The gift at the Feast of the Winter Star is worth five times the usual friendship. Loved gifts are worth far more than liked ones, neutral gifts barely register, and the quality of the item adds a further bonus on anything liked or loved. Even so, a plain loved item always beats an iridium one the villager merely likes. The largest single swing available is an iridium quality loved gift on a birthday, which lands just short of four whole hearts in one go.
Learning what people love takes a while, and the game offers help. A villager at a heart or more will sometimes mention what a relative or close friend adores or cannot stand, and Secret Notes spell out other tastes outright. Everything learned that way is written into the gift log. Reading Friendship 101 raises every friendship gain by a tenth for the rest of the save, which is a quiet but permanent improvement.
Romance has its own ladder. Eight hearts with a marriage candidate allows a Bouquet, which unlocks the last two hearts, and ten hearts allows a Mermaid's Pendant and a proposal. Krobus takes a Void Ghost Pendant instead and moves in as a housemate. Either way the farmhouse has to have been upgraded first. Once somebody has moved in, their meter stretches to fourteen hearts, and passing the middle of that extended stretch earns a Stardrop. Courting several candidates at once is possible before any proposal, with the risk of a group scene that leaves everybody refusing gifts for a week, and a break-up drops the meter straight back to five hearts.
Some rewards arrive in bulk. The introductions made in the first week give everyone a small head start. Completing the Bulletin Board bundles adds two hearts with every non-datable villager who has actually been met, applied the moment Mayor Lewis's letter is opened. The partner chosen at the Flower Dance gains a full heart, and the ingredient added to the Luau soup moves nearly every meter in town at once, up or down.
Notes
Phone calls do not count as talking. A villager reached on the Telephone is useful for checking shop stock, but the day's greeting still has to be given in person.
Bedrooms open at two hearts and stay open afterwards, even if the meter later slips. That matters more than it sounds, because a villager asleep or sulking in their room is otherwise impossible to greet or give a gift to.
Stardrop Tea is the shortcut for a stubborn meter. Given as a present it is worth a full heart, three on a birthday or at the Winter Star, and it sits outside the weekly gift allowance entirely, so it can be handed over on top of everything else.
All Collections
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
