Pokémon Legends: Arceus features many fan-favorite Pokémon and one of those is definitely Lucario, so you're going to want to know just how to evolve Riolu into Lucario in the game. Like the rest of the series, there are many ways to evolve Pokémon besides the basic level up to evolve them. Evolving Riolu into Lucario falls into this category of different ways to evolve as well, which will require you to take great care of your Riolu to evolve it.
Updated by Dean James on October 21, 2022: A brand-new Pokémon game is on the horizon with the upcoming release of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which looks to push the series forward in a number of new ways. It's rare to have two new releases from Game Freak proper in one year, but that is the case with 2022 as Pokémon Legends: Arceus released earlier this year as well. Pokémon Legends: Arceus took some ambitious steps that it looks like Scarlet and Violet are going to be building on in some ways. As people might be jumping back into Pokémon Legends Arceus ahead of that game's release, knowing how to get a Riolu and evolve it into Lucario is very important.
Raise Riolu's Friendship To Evolve It Into Lucario
As we said above, there are many ways to evolve Pokémon and this one is not a result of just simply leveling up. But before you even worry about doing that, you need to find a Riolu first, which is not that easy of a task in Pokémon Legends Arceus.
Riolu is definitely one of the rarer spawns in the game, as it only appears in one area within the final area of the game known as Alabaster Icelands. More specifically, you need to head to the Icebound Falls part of this area which is found in the southeastern corner of the map.
Tips On How To Raise Riolu's Friendship Level
To evolve Riolu into Lucario, you will have to raise its friendship level to be very high. Once this happens, it will be able to evolve into Lucario the next time it grows a level. To raise Riolu's friendship level, here are a few tips to help you out.
- Always keep Riolu at your party
- Use Riolu in battle a lot
- Avoid letting Riolu faint
- Feed Riolu EXP Candy
- Use Riolu to gather materials
The evolution of Riolu into Lucario is just like in past games, though the methods of raising friendships are slightly different here. In those games, you would need to raise the friendship to a certain level, and eventually, it would evolve when its next level up, but it had to be during the daytime. Evolving Riolu to Lucario is even easier than ever in Pokémon Legends Arceus though, as there are no requirements for it to be daytime here. This means you can feel free to work on evolving your Riolu at any time while raising its friendship level, regardless of the time of day.