Boosting familiars

There are several different methods to boost your familiars, each with its own requirements and benefits.

Evolving familiars (Boosting star level)

Familiars can be evolved once it reaches level 30. Each evolution boosts its star level by one, to a maximum of 6*. Familiars of all rarities can be boosted to 6*, but the material and gold investment for it makes for diminishing returns for 1* or 2* familiars.

Evolving a familiar will increase its base stats and reset its level to 1, so you can level it up some more and continue to boost its base stats.

Because familiars can slot toys based on their star level, evolving familiars is how you can increase a familiar's available toy slots.

Note that unlike in Ni no Kuni 1, evolving a familiar will not change its outward appearance, nor teach it any new skills.

Strengthening familiars

Strengthening familiars boosts their base stats in one specific area.

You can acquire 3 types of gummies, which will boost attack (orange gummy), defense (blue gummy), or HP (green gummy). Each gummy will boost the base stat by 1, and you can add up to 100 of each type to a familiar.

Strengthed familiars with have a little yellow number with the total value of the strength bonuses on their inventory icon.

Gummies are typically acquired as quest rewards, and you can buy a few daily in your kingdom shop. Some gummy boxes let you choose the gummies, while others will roll them randomly.

Transferring strengthed level

You can transfer the strengthed level of one familiar to another. You can only transfer levels from a familiar that is not equipped or in a deck.

Awakening

Awakening is a method that uses duplicate copies of a familiar to boost your original one by upgrading its base stats and skills. This is the only way to boost a familiar's skill abilities.

A familiar can have an awakening level between 0 (unawakened) and 10 (fully awakened). Increasing the awakening level will not increase the skills equally; check the awakening info screen to see exactly how skills will be boosted between levels.

Awakened familiars will have a dark blue circle with the awakening level value on their inventory icon.

Adding the first awakening level on a familiar will have 100% success rate with one base copy. After that point, awakening will have a chance to fail. You can improve the odds to 100% by including more copies of the base familiar. The number required depends on the initial star level/rarity of the familiar. 1* and 2* familiars need increasing number copies of the base familiar for almost every awakening level. In contrast, 4* familiars generally only need one copy to increase level until you reach level 6; to get to level 7 you will start needing more.

You do not need to boost your success rate to 100%; however, if you fail, you lose all the base copies of the familiar and the gold you spent on it, and only gain a lucky clover or two as compensation. Particularly for higher rarity familiars, you will want to make sure you have enough copies for 100% success before increasing awakening level.

Note that even if you have boosted the star level of a familiar, you can use base copies of that familiar for awakening. For example, if you boosted your 2* Bone Baron to be a 3* Bone Baron, you can still use base 2* Bone Barons as awakening fodder to boost its level.