Friendship can be earned with Pelican Town's villagers. As friendships deepen, the villagers' dialogue lines become more friendly, cut-scenes events occur, villagers are more likely to send gifts in the mail, and marriage is possible with any of the villagers that are a marriage candidate.
Mechanics[]
Point System[]
Each villager has a friendship score represented by a ten-heart meter, except the player's spouse or roommate, who has a fourteen-heart meter. A marriage candidate who has not received a bouquet has the last two hearts grayed out. Giving a bouquet means dating the Bachelor or Bachlorette.
Each heart is 250 friendship points. All heart meters can be viewed on the social tab of the game menu, clicking the heart. Clicking on the villager's Social Tab offers information about their reactions to gifts they have been given.
When talking to villagers, a circle will appear next to their portrait. Its color will depend on the number of hearts the player has with the villager. Blue denotes 0-1 hearts, green for 2-3, yellow for 4-5, red for 6-7, purple for 8-9, and at 10-14 hearts a purple star will appear. Hovering the mouse over the circle will display the number of hearts out of 10, if not married.
Friendship points can be increased with each villager by:
- Talking to them once per day (normally +20; otherwise +10 if the villager is in the middle of a special animation, like exercising or using a camera).
- Completing an item delivery quest (+150).
- Giving a gift they love, like, or are neutral towards. (see Universal Gifts)
- Giving the maximum two gifts in one week (+10, awarded on the next Sunday).
- Inviting them to the Movie Theater (+200 if loved, +100 if liked).
- Purchasing a snack for them at the Movie Theater (+50 if loved, +25 if liked).
- Making certain choices in friendship events.
- Kissing your spouse (+10, only for the first kiss of the day); does not apply if Krobus is your roommate.
Friendship points can be decreased by:
- Not giving a daily greeting (see #Decay)
- Giving a gift they dislike or hate
- Hitting them with a slingshot (-30 per hit)
- Making certain choices in friendship events
- Rummaging through a Garbage Can when they're within 7 tiles of the player (-25, except Linus who increases: +5). They will speak to indicate that they have seen them. If more than one villager is within 7 tiles of the player when they rummage, only one will speak and lose friendship.
The player may enter a villager's bedroom when the relevant heart meter reads at least 2 hearts. This level improves access to the villager for talking and gifting. Once opened, the room is permanently unlocked even if the heart meter goes below 2 hearts.
Friendship points can increase up to a maximum of 2749 (one point less than 11 hearts) for non-marriage candidates.
With marriage candidates, the meter pauses at 8 hearts. It will not increase unless the candidate is given a bouquet to indicate romantic interest.. If a player does so, that meter is unlocked and operates as before until ten hearts is reached. (Note that after reaching 8 hearts pre-bouquet, friendship points can continue to rise to just below 9 hearts (2249 points) and will not decay until the candidate is given a bouquet.) It is possible to give a bouquet to any and all marriage candidates, and raise all their friendship levels to 10 hearts, without damage to relationships with other romantic partners, so long as you have not yet proposed. (If you have proposed, are married, or have a roommate, there is a chance your fiancé/spouse/roommate may become jealous.) Breaking up with them will instantly lower the relationship meter to 5 hearts, but it can be increased back to 8 hearts.
Dating all bachelors or bachelorettes may result in a Group Ten Heart event, which does not affect friendship, but may prevent the player from giving gifts to them for one week afterwards.
When you propose marriage, the heart meters of all other marriage candidates convert to the behavior of all other villagers, since none are marriage candidates any longer. However, their entries in the social tab still show whether you have previously given them a bouquet. In addition, after marriage, romantic heart events can still be triggered with other marriage candidates if they have previously been given a bouquet. After the marriage ceremony, your spouse's meter unlocks once again and can rise as far as 14 hearts. Friendship points can then increase up to a maximum of 3749 (one point less than 15 hearts).
Decay[]
Each day, not socializing to a villager will slightly decrease their friendship unless their heart meter is full. If the player is married, decay never stops with their spouse even if the player is at 14 hearts with them. Calling a villager using the Telephone does not count as socializing with the villager.
| Relationship | Decay rate | When decay stops |
|---|---|---|
| Married | -20/day | Never |
| Gave bouquet | -10/day | 10 hearts |
| Pre-bouquet | -2/day | 8 hearts |
| Not romanceable | -2/day | 10 hearts |
Gifts[]
You can give each villager one gift per day, up to two gifts per week, as indicated by the checkboxes in the social tab. You can review the villager's gift preferences by clicking on their row in the Social Tab to open the "Gift Log". This log keeps track of gifts given, and gift preferences learned via Secret Notes and dialogues with their family and friends.
For the purpose of gift-giving, the week begins on Sunday. If you give a villager two gifts in a week, their heart meter will rise by an additional 10 friendship points on Sunday morning when you wake up.
You can always give a birthday gift to a villager, even if you've already given them two other gifts that week.
You can give your spouse one gift every day of the week, but any friendship gain or loss is halved.
Each villager has individual likes and dislikes, which affects how many friendship points are gained or lost when you give them a gift. The friendship points are multiplied on their birthday (×8) and Feast of the Winter Star secret gifting event (×5):
| Gift Taste | Normal | Winter Star (×5) | Birthday (×8) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Love | +80 | +400 | +640 |
| Like | +45 | +225 | +360 |
| Neutral | +20 | +100 | +160 |
| Dislike | -20 | -100 | -160 |
| Hate | -40 | -200 | -320 |
If a gift is liked or loved, the points gained will be further affected by the quality of the item:
| Quality | Multiplier | Effect | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | ×1 | +0% | |
| Silver | ×1.1 | +10% | |
| Gold | ×1.25 | +25% | |
| Iridium | ×1.5 | +50% | |
On any given day, gifting a normal quality loved item always gives more points than gifting an iridium quality liked item to a given villager.
For liked or loved gifts, the equation is Event Multiplier × Preference × Quality Multiplier, where Event Multiplier is 1 (any day), 5 (the player's Winter Star recipient), or 8 (their birthday), Preference is 80 (loved gifts) or 45 (liked gifts), and Quality Multiplier is 1, 1.1, 1.25, or 1.5. (For neutral, disliked, or hated gifts, the equation is simply Event Multiplier × Preference.) The highest friendship points possible from a single gift would be to gift someone an iridium-quality loved gift on their birthday, which would yield 960 points, just short of 4 hearts.
Gift Preference Dialogues[]
If the player's friendship level with a villager is at least 1 heart, the villager may display a dialogue about a gift that is hated or loved by a family member or friend. Shown below is a collapsible table of all family and friends for whom a villager may show a gift preference dialogue. Villagers not included in the table will never show a gift preference dialogue.
| Villager | ExpandMay display dialogue for: | |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Non-family | |
Note that stone may be included in a gift preference dialogue, despite the fact that it is disliked, not hated.
Events[]
Gaining friendship with each villager will unlock unique friendship events (see each villager's article for the requirements). It's possible to permanently miss some events, though most events can be viewed anytime (with some time restrictions) or out of order. In some friendship events, it is not possible to increase or decrease friendship with anyone, even if dialogue choices are available. However, in certain heart events, making certain choices can either increase or decrease friendship with the villagers involved. The maximum possible friendship points that can be earned in one single heart event is +250 from Linus' 8 heart event, while the maximum possible friendship points that can be lost is -1500 from Penny's 8 heart and 10 heart events.
Romance[]
- See Marriage for more information.
Some villagers can be romanced by the player (see marriage candidates). Once the player has reached eight hearts with an eligible villager, the player can give them a bouquet to unlock the ninth and tenth hearts. Once the player has reached ten hearts with an eligible villager, the player can give them a Mermaid's Pendant to propose marriage, which the villager always accepts. Alternatively, at 10 hearts, the player can give Krobus a Void Ghost Pendant to indicate they'd like to move in together as roommates, which Krobus always accepts.
After becoming the player's spouse or roommate, the villager moves into the player's house and their friendship meter expands to fourteen hearts. After reaching 12.5 hearts (3125 points), the villager will give the player a Stardrop if the player has not received a Stardrop in this manner previously.
Quests[]
The game-opening Introductions quest, when completed, increases by 100 the player's friendship points with each of the initial 28 villagers. (The Wizard is not included among them).
Some Story Quests and Special Order Quests will raise friendship with certain villagers.
Completing an tem delivery Quest from the bulletin board outside of Pierre's General Store awards 150 friendship points with the requesting villager.
Festivals[]
20 friendship points are earned for speaking to villagers at festivals, the same as any non-festival day. Three festivals can have special effects on friendship points with villagers:
- The Flower Dance increases friendship by 250 points (one heart) with the player's dance partner.
- The Luau can increase or decrease friendship points with all villagers except Sandy, the Wizard, Krobus, and the Dwarf. This depends on the ingredient that was added to the soup.
- The player's gift to their secret friend at the Feast of the Winter Star is worth 5x the normal amount of friendship points.
In addition, giving gifts to villagers at the Night Market will increase friendship with them, in the same way as it does outside of festivals.
Bulletin Board Bundles[]
Completing all bulletin board bundles improves the player's friendship rating with non-datable villagers by two hearts (500 points). Note that this applies only to non-datable villagers whom you have met in person. Villagers who do not show on the "Social" tab of the player menu and villagers whose names appear as "???" will not receive 500 points.
The player does not have to understand Dwarvish for the Dwarf to receive 500 points. In contrast, they do have to understand Dwarvish for gifts to affect friendship with the Dwarf.