Every Mii has their own happiness gauge. Feeding them foods they like, giving gifts and clothes they enjoy, solving their problems, patting them and helping them build relationships all fill it. When the gauge is full, the Mii levels up: you get a large batch of Warm Fuzzies and can choose a level-up gift for them. Each new level needs more happiness than the last, and the only thing that actively lowers happiness is giving a Mii something they dislike.
Happiness is the engine behind almost everything in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. It levels up your residents, generates the Warm Fuzzies that rank up the Wishing Fountain and, through the fountain, unlocks new goods, decorations, quirks and travel tickets. Understanding how happiness works – what raises it, what lowers it and what you get when a Mii levels up – makes every session more productive.
Happiness is tracked for each Mii individually, not for the island as a whole. Every resident has a gauge that fills as you look after them. When it’s full, that Mii levels up, the gauge resets and the next level begins. Higher levels require more happiness to fill, so a brand-new resident levels up quickly while a long-time islander needs more care to reach the next milestone.
Your island also has an overall level that rises as your residents’ happiness grows, and with it come new amenities, quirks and activities. In other words, every happy moment you create for a single Mii also pushes the whole island forward.
| Action | Effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Feeding a favourite food | Very large | The biggest repeatable boost, especially early on |
| Giving a liked treasure | Very large | A big one-off boost; best saved for higher-level Miis |
| Sending a Mii on holiday | Large | Also strengthens relationships between travellers |
| Solving a thought bubble | Medium to large | Available every session, often with Warm Fuzzies on the spot |
| Clothes they like | Medium | Usually less than a favourite food |
| Friendships and romance | Medium | Cutscenes between residents add extra happiness |
| Head pats | Small | Free and always positive, so do it every visit |
Every Mii has foods they love, like and dislike, and preferences are individual. A favourite food gives the largest regular boost, and because you can feed a resident every time they’re hungry, it’s the most dependable way to fill the gauge. Once you’ve found a Mii’s favourite, it’s highlighted in their profile. The best way to discover favourites is to keep buying new dishes from Fresh Kingdom’s Daily Specials and the Marketplace and test them on different residents. Our guide to the best foods for every Mii has more ideas.
Treasures you win from minigames and dreams give a large boost in a single action, which makes them ideal for residents whose higher levels need a lot of happiness. Travel tickets from the Wishing Fountain send Miis on holiday, which raises their happiness, improves relationships with whoever travels with them and brings back an exclusive souvenir.
Each thought bubble is a ready-made opportunity to raise happiness; our guide to thought bubbles explains what each colour means. Head pats are small but free, and they add up when you give one to every resident during each visit.
The game is forgiving. Giving a Mii something they dislike – most notably a food they don’t like – is the main thing that actively lowers happiness, and even then it can be raised again with better choices. Refusing a resident’s request, such as a decor idea or a romance you’d rather not see, doesn’t make them unhappy. What does hold residents back is leaving things undone: unresolved problems pile up, hungry Miis wait for a meal and a resident who gets no attention simply stops progressing towards their next level.
A disliked food still completes a hunger request, so it’s easy to make this mistake without noticing. Check a resident’s reaction after feeding them and avoid repeating anything that made them grimace.
A level-up is a small celebration. You receive a considerable amount of Warm Fuzzies, which go straight towards your next fountain rank-up and therefore your next Wish. You also choose a gift for the Mii. The goods and Little Quirks you unlock in the Level Up category of the Wishing Fountain – items like a camera, a guitar or a new walking style – are what you can give at this moment.
As residents climb higher, more gift types appear. From level 10, options such as pocket money and clothing become available. Pocket money comes out of your own wallet and goes into the Mii’s savings, so it’s not a way to earn cash. Some rarer gifts change a Mii more dramatically: adults can be offered a Kid-O-Matic that turns them into a child, and children can receive an Age-O-Matic that makes them an adult.
Before accepting a Kid-O-Matic for an established resident, think it through. Turning an adult into a child ends their adult relationships, and Miis who already have a partner will refuse it.
Level-ups also count towards the standard trophies, the last entries in your treasure collection. You earn the Bronze Trophy after raising Mii happiness levels 10 times, Silver after 20, Gold after 50 and Platinum after 100. Level-ups count across all of your residents, so a larger island reaches these milestones much faster than a small one.
By filling their happiness gauge. Food they like, gifts, solved problems, head pats and relationships all add happiness, and a full gauge triggers a level-up.
Mainly giving them something they dislike, especially a disliked food. Refusing their requests doesn’t make them unhappy.
A large amount of Warm Fuzzies and the chance to give the Mii a gift, such as goods and Little Quirks unlocked at the Wishing Fountain or, at higher levels, pocket money and clothing.
No. Each resident has their own gauge, although the island’s overall level rises as residents become happier.