How Do You Restore PP (Psychic Points) in Earthbound?
This post may contain affiliate links. If you buy something we may get a small commission at no extra cost to you. (Learn more).
Psychic Points are essentially Earthbound’s Magic Points, and are vital for using PSI abilities.
There are a number of ways to restore your character’s PP:
Sleep in a hotel
PP Recovery Items (such as Magic Pudding & PSI Caramel)
Touch a Magic Butterfly (this can spawn in random locations)
Use PSI Magnet to drain PP from enemies
Let’s take a look at detail for each of these methods, along with how PP works in-game.
What is PP in Earthbound?
Jeff’s status screen showing PP as well as other stats
PP stands for “Psychic Points “. And simply put, without PP your party members (and enemies) wouldn’t be able to use PSI abilities.
Just like with HP, PP works on a rolling meter.
Whenever a PSI ability is used, the meter will roll down rather than immediately subtract the relevant amount of PP used to cast the ability.
Unfortunately, there’s seemingly no positive or negative way to exploit this like there is with HP – because ability animations are too long to gain any sort of advantage of the meter.
What’s The Best Way To Restore PP?
By far the most reliable method is to use PP-restorative items.
These range in usefulness, cost, and rarity.
In the town of Summers you can buy Magic Tarts for $480, which restore 20 PP for a single character. These are worth stocking up on (if you can afford them).
Using a PSI Caramel to restore PP
Another PP healing item is PSI Caramels – but these cannot be purchased, and they’re only dropped by enemies in Earthbound. These also restore 20 PP.
Later in the game you’ll be able to buy Magic Puddings and Brain Food Lunch, which restore 40 PP and 50 PP respectively.
Brain Food Lunch will also fully restore Poo’s PP.
These can be purchased in Dalaam for $800 each.
If you enjoy relying on pure chance for some reason, then you can try your luck with a Lucky Sandwich. You can buy one of these from multiple locations around Earthbound, but their effect is determined by RNG at the point of purchase.
Lucky Sandwich effects range from a measly 5 PP restore, up to a full HP/PP restore.
Other Methods for Restoring PP
These alternate methods are either not as practical to use at any point, or they can take a while to unlock/find.
But all of these methods are also valid ways to recover your party’s PP.
Magic Butterflies
Touching a Magic Butterfly
Magic Butterflies spawn at random in Earthbound, usually on the overworld or in dungeons (see the screenshot above).
They’re small but easy to spot, resembling a small shiny fairy that floats up & down.
When touched, they restore 20 PP to the entire party and then disappear.
Staying at Hotels
Outside the Hotel in Threed Town
Hotels can also be found in most towns in Earthbound, so they’re another great method for PP restoration.
They’re fairly cheap to use & will restore your entire party’s HP and PP, although hotels won’t revive KO’ed characters.
PSI Magnet
Paula using PSI Magnet in battle
There’s only one PSI ability in the whole game that can restore PP – and that’s PSI Magnet.
PSI Magnet is only usable by Paula and Poo, and it does not require PP to cast.
The way it works is by absorbing PP from enemies & restoring your own.
And there’s two different versions to consider:
PSI Magnet α will drain between 2-8 PP from an enemy (provided the enemy has PP to begin with)
PSI Magnet Ω is the upgraded version, which has the same effect, but it will hit all enemies
