Follower Item Gifts

In Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu and Pokémon Let's Go, Eevee, there is a minor feature where your following Pokémon can give you an item as a gift when you talk to it. Note that this is distinct from your following Pokémon finding items in bushes and craters, and does not include your partner Pikachu or Eevee. Simply talking to your follower is enough for this event to happen. Serebii has some initial information about this.

SBCoop told me that he had been approached about this feature and wanted more information. Some preliminary testing has revealed that the item pool is location-dependent and is typically berries, the Pokémon evolution stage does not matter, and at least some ride Pokémon (e.g. Starmie) may not be able to give an item at all.

Spirit and Mood

I was able to find that LGPE tracks two hidden fields on a Pokémon to determine a Pokémon's mood. They seem to correspond to what the guidebook calls "Spirit" and "Mood". The Spirit stat determines when you can receive a gift. Both Spirit and Mood range from 0-255.

^{Guidebook image thanks to Etchy.}

Gift Eligibility

What happens when you speak to a following Pokémon?

• Each species of Pokémon has a different list of possible reactions when you speak to it. Each response has a certain chance of being selected, and certain conditions can enable or disable a reaction. The game goes down the list and rolls a rand100 versus each reaction one after the other until one is selected. The last reaction has a 100% chance as a catch-all.
• The location you are in makes certain reactions available, such as noticing the Cerulean City fountain.
• The game appears to have some behavior to avoid selecting the same reaction after it was already selected.
• Each reaction raises Spirit and Mood a different fixed amount, typically in the 3-10 range.
• Most reactions do NOT raise friendship. I was able to find that one interaction where it asks if you want to give your following Pokémon attention granted 2 friendship, and finding an item granted 1 friendship.

What makes the item gift reaction possible then?

• I found that the item gift reaction became possible once a Pokémon reached 200 Spirit.
• The reaction itself has a 20% chance of being chosen. However, the true chance of this being chosen depends on how many reactions are attempted before it, which may vary depending on the species.
• Once the item gift reaction is chosen, the Pokémon's Spirit drops by 150 and Mood increases by 10.

Here is an example of how the game selects a reaction.

As an example, here is a Meltan with 0 Spirit and 200 Mood. I talked to it once and this is how the decision for which reaction to choose was made.

Reaction 1 = 0% chance
Reaction 2 = 30% chance
Reaction 3 = 80% chance
Reaction 4 = 80% chance
Reaction 5 = 0% chance
Reaction 6 = 40% chance
Reaction 7 = 0% chance
Reaction 8 = 0% chance
Reaction 9 = 0% chance
Reaction 10 = 10% chance
Reaction 11 = 0% chance
Reaction 12 = 10% chance
Reaction 13 = 0% chance
Reaction 14 = 0% chance
Reaction 15 = 5% chance
Reaction 16 = 5% chance
Reaction 17 = 10% chance
Reaction 18 = 40% chance
Reaction 19 = 40% chance
Reaction 20 = 80% chance
Reaction 21 = 10% chance
Reaction 22 = 0% chance
Reaction 23 = 0% chance
Reaction 24 = 100% chance

The game will first try Reaction 1, but since it has 0% chance to be selected, it will always fail the check. Then it will try Reaction 2 at a 30% chance. If this is not chosen, it then goes on to Reaction 3 at an 80% chance. And so on until one is selected.

Once my Meltan reached 200 Spirit, Reaction 3 became a new one that had a 20% chance to be selected, and it gave the item reward.

Since each Pokémon has a different list of reactions that could depend on factors such as location, and the item gift reaction can be inserted at a different spot in the list for each Pokémon, it is difficult to say what is the exact chance of obtaining an item.

What else affects Spirit and Mood?

I did not thoroughly research actions that raise and lower these two stats in great detail and leave this to the public. I did find the following information about these stats just through initial testing. I am not certain about the exact numbers for the battle-related actions since multiple things may have occurred to change the value in one battle. I also believe that there are actions that affect the partner Pikachu/Eevee differently from a regular follower Pokémon.

• Pulling a Pokémon from the box to your party sets both Spirit and Mood to 100.
• Unsetting a Pokémon as your follower does not alter Spirit and Mood as long as it stays in your party.
• Walking reduces Mood by 5 every 255 (?) steps.
• Using a healing item reduced Spirit by 15 and raised Mood by 10.
• Losing a battle reduces both Spirit and Mood by 30 (?).
• Starting a battle increases Spirit and Mood for your partner Pokémon and the follower, and gym battles increase this by more (?).
• Winning a battle increases both Spirit and Mood (?).

Here is the spreadsheet I used to log some of my interactions and how these values changed.

The ability to view Spirit and Mood has been added to PKHeX to help with testing.

Who are you?

This writeup belongs to Anubis