How can I lower my pokemon's affection?

Question

I did not know that raising a Pokemon's affection above 2 hearts in Pokemon-Amie gave it a exp boost and battle benefits until I noticed that my Marshtomp with 2 hearts grew much quicker than my other Pokemon.The thing is, I don't WANT any of the Affection benefits, because I think they make me too overpowered. Is there any way at all to lower Affection? I've brainstormed some ways, so please tell if they work or not:

• Making the Pokemon faint a lot, or keeping it fainted for a long time
• Storing the Pokemon in a PC
• Never interacting with the Pokemon (What would this include? Not doing anything Amie-related? Not battling with it? Not having it in your party at all?)
• Poking or hitting the Pokemon in Amie
• Getting out Pokepuffs in Amie for the Pokemon, then dropping them
• Trading the Pokemon do a different Trainer, then trading it back
• Putting the Pokemon in Pokemon Bank
• Hacking the game to change Affection values, or uploading the game to a computer and messing around with the code (is that even possible?)

Will any of these methods lower Affection? Does anyone else know another way to lower Affection? Do I just have to restart the game if I want to get rid of the Affection hearts?

Also, assuming I can lower Affection, how do I keep it Affection lowered? I do like to feed my Pokemon Pokepuffs and to let them run around on the Pokemon Amie screen while you walk around, but will this increase Affection?

Answer 1

No. Unlike Friendship/Happiness there are no methods to decrease Affection.

• Causing one of your Pokemon to faint will only lower Friendship, not Affection. Keeping it fainted alters nothing.
• Storing a Pokemon in the PC will not alter Affection.
• No, Affection will not decrease over time no matter how little attention you pay to your Pokemon.
• No, this just decreases their 'enjoyment' (the musical notes in the Amie). You gain enjoyment by playing Amie games, and then when you pet them they gain affection at the cost of enjoyment. The only thing 'hitting' or petting them in an unfavourable location only decreases their enjoyment without giving affection, but does not decrease affection.
• Dropping a pokepuff just destroys the pokepuff, it has no negative effects on your Pokemon (though it does confuse them).
• Trading the Pokemon does reset it's affection to 0. However, if it is traded back to it's original trainer, it's affection is restored to what it was before it was traded.
• If you deposit a Pokemon into the Pokemon Bank, it will retain it's affection (apparently even if it is sent to a different version).
• Conceivably, it might be possible to use hacking tools like the Action Replay, but I'm not touching this with a 10 foot pole (If you go this route and are not careful, your edited Pokemon may trip the hack-detection which may prevent them from being used online)

Per the chart on Bulbapedia's Affection page I've linked to, you can safely walk around with the Amie open and have the active Pokemon frolic from side-to-side without raising affection. But petting them and feeding them Pokepuffs is right out if you do not want that affection bonus XP. (Also, if you are their original trainer, having a Pokemon participate in the contest halls raises affection.)

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Since level growth rate is your main issue; if you haven't already, I'd recommend turning off EXP-Share and just not use your Marshtomp as often, put him at the back of your party and focus on leveling everyone else. Or raise everyone else's affection to 2 hearts so it balances out.

Because the only way I can figure to legitimately lower a Pokemon's affection is to trade it to a friend, restart your save game (either using the Bank, or the same friend to hold onto any other important Pokemon), and then trade back on a new save-game. But in this case, though you'd lose the 1.2* XP gain from affection, you'd gain a 1.5* XP gain from not being the original trainer.