Defuse

Yeah information on Colo/XD is so bad it's actually funny. I'll have to double check some time to confirm though. I'll use a save editor or something to look at the happiness values and see if they change after a scent but I'm almost certain they don't help.

You were bang on - cologne doesn't affect happiness at all (or if it does, it's minimal). Gave Bonsly ~10-15 of the vitamins and she evolved. Thanks for the help, can finally continue with the story.

Actually, I just had a look and I'm pretty sure the scents don't affect happiness! It seems this has just been a myth that has been around for years . Try proteins and other medicines instead.

Really? That would make a lot of sense haha. Jeez, even Bulbapedia claims they increase happiness. I'll give the vitamins a go, thanks!

Glad to see I'm not the only one experiencing difficulty. I'm beginning to think it's glitched in ; 120 vivid scents with Soothe Bell attached hasn't risen Bonsly's happiness rating at all (according to the guy in Gateon Port, it wanted to 'be pampered' before the cologne spam, and that's still the case). I do like Sudowoodo, and Rock Head + Head Smash is delicious, but I'm at the end of my tether with the thing.

It is indeed based on happiness

Ah, I was afraid of that. Happiness is excruciating to raise in for some reason. Guess I'll grind for money and ply the thing with vivid scents. Thanks for the response.

Absolutely loving this hack. I actually prefer Colo/XD to the main series games, but I've previously found the Pokemon selection + difficulty a bit lacking after ~10 playthroughs, so this is perfect for me. My only qualm is the name changes, since I've become attached the original, wacky ones, but I can definitely see why you edited them. I have one question - how exactly do you evolve Bonsly? I've tried the move relearner to try and teach it Mimic, but no luck. Is it happiness-based? (pls no, Blissey was tedious enough to obtain).