Which Hello Kitty Island Adventure Characters to Befriend First

Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a relaxing getaway to an island paradise with your favorite Hello Kitty characters. It’s also gamefied to the gills with story progression and new areas to unlock via its core gameplay feature: making friends! As you give lovely island crafts to your fellow island residents, your growing friendship will also expand your list of things to do in Island Adventure. In this sense, not all friends are equal. Some of the island’s guests are more valuable for progress and convenience. As such, it may benefit you to know which Hello Kitty Island Adventure characters to befriend first. Here’s a list of the best characters to make friends with, from least to most important.

Which Hello Kitty Island Adventure Characters to Befriend First

Chococat

Often overlooked, Chococat’s friendship is the secret trick to bursting through Island Adventure’s quest objectives. Besides being the only way to obtain Gizmos, an item you need to make Mechanisms, which in-turn are needed to complete many quests, Chococat’s companion ability is one of the most powerful in the game. “Master Crafter” is unlocked at level five, and gives a 30% chance to craft an extra item for every item you craft at the Crafting Table.

This ability is often missed by early-game players due to the volume of features being introduced during their first couple of play sessions. Unlike other abilities that get upgrades later-on to remind players they exist, “Master Crafter” never gets one. This unintentionally sweeps it under the rug. Because materials are harder to collect early-on and quest items need a large amount of them, Chococat’s ability mellows out those harsh requirements. He improves the longevity of your inventory, and helps maintain a solid surplus of items! Even though most of Chococat’s favorite items are only available in the mid-to-late-game, it doesn’t take much to reach level five. He’s easily one of the first characters you should become friends with.

Kuromi

Kuromi isn’t the most obvious of first choices on this list. Her companion abilities aren’t very useful in the early-game. The potions you can learn to make with her are great for traversal, but overshadowed by other companions’ abilities you can start unlocking around the same time. However, Kuromi holds the keys to one of the island’s biggest and most plentiful biomes: Rainbow Reef. Within Rainbow Reef is another cooking station, another island resident you can’t meet otherwise, and more than a few valuable materials. However, you can’t access any of these without the Snorkel. This tool gives you the ability to dive underwater in order to explore the Reef’s contents. The quest for the Snorkel, “Deep Diving,” unlocks by reaching Friendship Level Six with Kuromi. Unlocking an entirely new biome- an expansive and valuable one at that- is enough to make Kuromi a top priority on your “make friends” list. Pro-tip: She loves Jack-O-Lanterns.

Pompompurin

Similar to Kuromi, Pompompurin is an unassuming island companion with powerful unlocks. Reaching Friendship Level Four with him unlocks the “Dessert-ed Boat” quest. Completing this quest will fix the Dessert Machine! At Friendship Level 13, Pompompurin upgrades the Dessert Machine, expanding your list of possible recipes. The Dessert Machine is essential for crafting gift items for many of the characters on the island, and completing important quests. This is especially true in the late-game, with a couple of unlockable characters highly valuing Starry Skies Shakes. Beyond this important unlock, Pompompurin’s companion abilities are great for island challenges. “Slow & Steady” adds extra time to every island challenge timer, giving you more than enough time to earn those golden trophies! “Pudding Pants” increases your jump height, helping you access high-up areas easier. All in all, Pompompurin is an important friend to make. Once you unlock the Dessert Machine, mix a Banana with Coral Milk to make his favorite gift item!

My Melody

My Melody is an early-game powerhouse. Her “Big Smile” ability increases the odds of receiving extra materials from island residents whenever you give them gifts! Some materials, such as the Gizmo, are exclusively collected via gift giving, making “Big Smile” an important ability to have unlocked as soon as possible. This ability is available at Friendship Level Four with My Melody, so it’s incredibly easy to acquire and utilize within your first or second day of playing! Her second ability, “Handy Helper” lowers the Strawberry Crate cost of repairing visitor cabins by one. Not a big deal- until you learn that Strawberry Crates are limited resources you can only accrue through daily login bonuses. “Handy Helper” has a great return on investment. For example, the eight visitor cabins in Seaside Resort cost three Strawberry Crates each. With My Melody in tow, this brings it down to just two! Mathematically, this means you can repair four of the Seaside Resort cabins for one less than it would normally cost to repair three!

My Melody’s usefulness extends far into the mid-game as well. Just like Kuromi and Pompompurin, befriending her changes the island in important ways. The story quest, “Revive the Oasis,” will change Gemstone Mountain to allow more fish and materials to spawn in the biome. “Flower Power” unlocks the Watering Can tool, allowing you to water the purple gift flowers all over the island. Both of these quests are unlocked when your friendship with My Melody has reached level eleven and fourteen, respectively. Keep My Melody in mind when you’re making your rounds around the island. She loves Strawberry and Strawberry-related items!

Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty is the gift that keeps on giving. Despite having one of the highest friendship levels to max out, she’s also in possession of the earliest companion ability you can unlock. It’s one of the best companion abilities in Island Adventure. “Sous Chef” is unlocked at friendship level two. When Hello Kitty is hanging out with you, she has a chance of cooking duplicates of any items you make from a cooking station. The odds of this happening increase to 50% at friendship level five, with two more upgrades available at level 13 and 21. A 50% chance of duplicating all food items crafted is a tremendous boon when making gifts for your island residents. It drastically reduces material cost, and you’ll have extras for days!

Yet, Hello Kitty possesses an even better companion ability. At level 12, she acquires the “Everyone’s Friend” ability. This increases the friendship points you gain from giving residents gifts by 10%. Later friendship levels require a great many more points to reach, but “Everyone’s Friend” accelerates the process substantially. At a 10% increase with a three-gift daily limit per NPC, this equals a 30% total friendship point increase per-day. This bonus equates to giving ten gifts for the price of nine! During the end-game, when friendship levels can take multiple sessions to level-up, this can actively reduce the time it takes to max out those friendships by days. Faster friendships make for faster quest unlocks and therefore faster progress through the storyline. Make an effort to level-up Hello Kitty as fast as you can. She’ll make the process of befriending everyone else exponentially easier.

Make Friends With Them All

The gameplay of Hello Kitty Island Adventure allows you to befriend multiple friends all at once. There’s really no reason why you can’t befriend them all at the same time! However, when materials are scarce early-on, and you’re limited more by the amount of items you have as opposed to the amount of gifts you can give in a day, pay more attention to the folks on this list. Doing so will ensure you can get into a comfortable routine and boost those friendships with everyone overall.

Some of these friends are tucked away in different biomes. It may be hard to reach them when you start Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Ziplines will make it much easier. Check out our list of All Hello Kitty Island Adventure Zipline Locations for more information on those. Leveling-up friendships is strictly limited by the number of gifts you can give every day, but there are workarounds. Check out How to Get Friendship Bouquets in Hello Kitty Island Adventure to learn how to give more gifts on any given day.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure is available now on iOS, Apple Arcade, Nintendo Switch, and PC.