Riolu is the baby form of Lucario, one of the most powerful Pokemon the series has ever seen. It's a dual Fighting and Steel type, which makes it incredibly versatile in combat. However, to evolve the Riolu into Lucario, players need to work their legs.
Evolve Riolu in Pokemon Shining Diamond and Shining Pearl
Once you have Riley's Egg in your possession, you will need to walk/bike with him in your party for a while to hatch him. This will reward you with a level one Riolu. To be able to evolve towards Lucario, additional work is necessary.
Riolu evolves by friendship, like the other Pokémon in Sinnoh. However, unlike these other monks, Riolu does not need to be at maximum friendship to evolve. Instead, it only needs a friendship level, which you can check with a specific Pokétch app.
The easiest way to gain a friendship level with Riolu is to walk around with him. You can find out how to walk with any Pokémon in one of our previous guides. You can also give Riolu the Soothing Bell, a held item that boosts friendship.
After walking with Riolu, you need to upgrade it once. You can simply put Riolu at the front of the party, encounter a wild Pokémon, extinguish it, defeat the wild Pokémon, and then Riolu will earn the XP needed to level up.
If he has a friendship level, then he will evolve into Lucario on the spot. This means you can have a very low level Lucario ready to train in Pokémon Sparkling Diamond and Sparkling Pearl.
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Image courtesy of Nintendo/The Pokémon Company.
