If you've been journeying in the Alola region, you've probably made a trip to Festival Plaza, accessible via the X menu. Festival Plaza is full of valuable and fun features that can help you in all kinds of ways. There's a lot happening, so if you've had trouble understanding everything going on, this article will give you a hand. Helping Sophocles expand Festival Plaza can be one of the most rewarding activities you'll encounter during your adventures in the Alola region.

The most prominent features of Festival Plaza are certainly the facilities you can visit. We'll dive into those first, and then go over some of the other functions of Festival Plaza later.

Get Acquainted

When you visit Festival Plaza, you'll notice a variety of facilities you can walk to that provide different services. The facilities in Festival Plaza are varied in what they offer, from stores where you can purchase rare items, to amenities for powering up your Pokémon, to places where you can change the look of your character's clothing.

Your Festival Plaza only holds seven facilities at any given time. To add a new one, you have to replace a facility. You can mix and match these facilities as you please, including hosting multiple instances of the same facility at the same time.

Some Festival Plaza facilities are exclusive to Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Sun or Pokémon Ultra Moon and Pokémon Moon. However, you can get facilities from other games with help from your friends. When a guest visits, you can add the first facility in their Festival Plaza to your game if your Festival Plaza has reached level 8. Coordinate with a pal to add version-exclusive facilities to your game. To get the most out of your Festival Plaza, read on to figure out which facilities most appeal to you and to track down versions with lots of stars. The more stars, the higher level the facility is.

Coin Collection

Before going into how the particular facilities work, let's first go over Festival Coins (FC), the currency of Festival Plaza. You'll need them to use most of the facilities and to purchase items. Additionally, as you earn Festival Coins, the overall level of your Festival Plaza will increase. Sophocles, the head of Festival Plaza, will normally offer you a new facility when you level up, and sometimes you'll unlock other perks instead. The key to building a bustling Festival Plaza is to level it up as much as possible!

The easiest way to earn Festival Coins is to talk to the people that pop up around Festival Plaza. Sometimes they'll have a request and will show their appreciation to you for completing it by handing over a few Festival Coins. The fastest way to earn heaps of Festival Coins is to participate in global missions, which we'll talk about a little bit later.

Another way to earn Festival Coins is to participate in missions, where you'll cooperate with fellow players around you to reach a goal. If you connect to the internet, you can work together with Trainers from all over the world. The goal may be to talk to players who speak a certain language, or to answer questions about type matchups correctly. As you can see, missions are a little more challenging than simply talking with your guests in Festival Plaza, but you can potentially earn a far greater number of Festival Coins. To join or host a mission, talk to the lady in the turquoise dress at the Festival Plaza entrance. She'll give you Festival Tickets that you can use to host missions.

VIP Access

You can register your favorite Festival Plaza visitors as VIPs by selecting the option “I’ll register you as my VIP!” You can then page those visitors in your castle to have them come back and visit you anytime. You’ll probably see your VIPs around your Festival Plaza quite a bit, too. Making your friends VIPs is a great way to stay connected, and you’ll enjoy lots of benefits.

If you decide you want a VIP’s facility or outfit after your initial meeting, you can call them to your castle and make the purchase. VIPs give you more FC when you fulfill their requests than other visitors to your Festival Plaza. You’ll also want to register VIPs who have powerful Pokémon to help you out in the Battle Agency.

The Various Facilities

Now that you have a good idea of how to earn Festival Coins, let's take a closer look at the variety of facilities you can have in your Festival Plaza. Facilities can give you benefits you won't receive anywhere else, so think carefully about which ones you want to keep.

Shops

There are several types of shops available, and the higher a shop's level, the more items you'll be able to purchase. The currency in these stores is Festival Coins, and some of the rarer items can be quite pricey. The stores include the Battle Store for items that provide temporary stat increases, the Pharmacy for permanently improving stats or curing health and status conditions, the Soft Drink Parlor for a variety of drinks such as Moomoo Milk, and the Ball Shop, which purveys an assortment of Poké Balls. There's also a General Store that sells a mix of useful items.

Haunted Houses

Drop one of your Pokémon off at a Haunted House, where it'll have a spooky good time! Plus, there's a chance that it will come out with several items. The items your Pokémon may find will be a surprise. Commonly found items include Hard Stones and Full Heals, but if you're lucky, you might walk away with a Patterned Bean, a Bottle Cap, or even a Sacred Ash. You can use each Haunted House once per day for just 10 FC. And don't worry about sending your Pokémon into the Haunted House—their frightful fun has no effect on their stats or anything else.

Lottery Shops

Each lottery shop you host can be visited once per day to try to get one of 10 prizes. You won’t have to pay anything to participate and you’ll win a prize every day, but you'll have to be lucky to receive the top prizes. The type of prize you get is partially determined by the type of lottery shop. At Big Dreams, you may win rare items; at Gold Rush, you could win items with high resale value; and at Treasure Hunt, you could get items to help out your Pokémon, including prized Gold Battle Caps. The higher the lottery shop's level, the more likely you'll get rare items. Good luck!

Bouncy Houses

If you're looking to boost your Pokémon's base stats—the underlying numbers that govern the stat growth of your Pokémon—let them loose in a bouncy house. The more stars a course has, the higher your Pokémon's base stats will climb. Stomp-Stomp House is a bouncy house available in each game, and there your Pokémon can increase its HP and Speed (though the highest-level course is exclusive to Pokémon Ultra Moon and Pokémon Moon). The highest level of Thump-Bump Park is exclusive to Pokémon Ultra Moon and Pokémon Moon, and it offers courses that will increase your Pokémon's Attack and Special Attack stats. The highest level of Clink-Clunk Land is exclusive to Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Sun, and it can boost your Pokémon's Defense and Special Defense. Like most other facilities, you can use the courses of each bouncy house only once per day.

Food Stalls

Feed your Pokémon the meal of their dreams at food stalls in your Festival Plaza. Serving your Pokémon a meal can have all kinds of effects, including leveling up your Pokémon or boosting its base stats. The higher the level of the food stall, the stronger its effect or its likelihood to work on higher-level Pokémon. For example, a Rare Breakfast at a Rare Kitchen ★ will increase a Pokémon's level by one only up to level 30; the Rare Dessert at a Rare Kitchen ★★★★ will work on Pokémon up to level 60. If you're looking to raise your Pokémon to level 100 for Hyper Training, feasting at Rare Kitchens can save you tons of time.

Expert Trainers will also appreciate the effect of the other offerings at food stalls to reset base stats so you can dial in exactly how you want your stats balanced. These special lunches and sweets have the bonus effect of raising your Pokémon's friendship.

As with most other facilities, the items sold at a food stall can only be purchased once daily. Plus, some food stalls aren't available in each version of the game. Work with your friends to get a complete taste of what food stalls have to offer!

Dye Houses

Add a little flair to your wardrobe when you visit dye houses. These facilities let you dye your white fashion items into an array of colors. It costs 100 FC to dye a white item, and another 10 FC to remove the color. Alternatively, you can use Berries to dye your apparel. For some of the colors, you'll need a pretty good inventory of Berries, so start farming them in the Poké Pelago to have plenty on hand. Note that some of the dye houses are exclusive to Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon or Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon, but you can use Festival Coins to buy your guests' clothing if your Festival Plaza is at least level 10. Give your Trainer a unique look with dye houses for all of your apparel!

Fortune-Teller Tents

For only 10 FC, you can have your fortune told at a fortune-teller tent. If you're really lucky, you might find out that your good luck will pay off elsewhere in Festival Plaza, such as at the lottery shop or haunted house, so be sure to check out one of these other shops if you receive a matching fortune. Additionally, you'll be given a phrase that will be added to the list of phrases you can use to customize your messages, including such gems as “You're 10,000 light-years from facing Brock!”

Beyond the Facilities

The facilities make up a large part of what there is to do in Festival Plaza, but there are still more features accessible via the lower screen to discover and take advantage of. You can access these features virtually any time in Festival Plaza.

The Battle button lets you have Link Battles with folks around you or on the Battle Spot. You can also download rules that allow you to try out different battle formats, such as the 2018 Video Game Championship Series format.

Tapping the Trade button gives you access to several cool trading features. The simplest method of trading is Link Trade, which will connect you with other nearby Trainers. You can also connect to the internet and trade with players around the world using the Global Trade Station (GTS), where Trainers offer up their own Pokémon for other Pokémon they seek. And finally there's Wonder Trade, where you can trade away one of your Pokémon to a Trainer—what Pokémon you'll get back is a total mystery!

The lower screen is also where you can see a list of people you've interacted with recently, either by trading or battling with them or via StreetPass. As more people visit, people you haven't seen in a while will fall off the list. If you'd like to keep some people around, add them to your VIP list so they'll always be hanging out in your Festival Plaza.

Battle to the Top

The exciting new Battle Agency is exclusive to Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon. By competing in three-on-three Single Battles at this facility, you can earn FC and rare items like Rare Candy and Gold Bottle Caps. There’s one big catch, however; you won’t be able to use your own Pokémon to compete! You’ll need to borrow one Pokémon at the reception desk and the other two from fellow Trainers in Festival Plaza.

You’ll battle various Trainers consecutively, and if you get a win streak, you’ll earn Festival Coins and rewards. Three consecutive wins are counted as one successful challenge. If you keep succeeding, your grade will go up. The higher your grade gets, the stronger the Pokémon you’ll be able to borrow from the reception desk. Keep winning, raise your grade, and go all the way to the top at the Battle Agency while earning great prizes!

Festival Plaza’s newest facility can make your trek a little easier. The exchange center allows you to shuffle the Pokémon available to you in the Battle Agency, giving you up to three new Pokémon to choose from. Depending on the number of ★ the facility has, you’ll be able to switch up the Pokémon one, two, or three times per day.

Insider Info

Be sure to look around inside the castle in the middle of Festival Plaza. There you'll meet a number of attendants who can help you out. The attendant on the left as you enter is particularly valuable—she'll answer all kinds of questions about Festival Plaza in case you need a reminder. The attendant on the right will help you join global missions—worldwide objectives you can work on that can set you on the path to all kinds of cool prizes. Learn more about global missions, and be sure to sign up and help out for huge Festival Coin rewards. Next to her, you'll find a PC where you can watch previous Battle Videos and use Game Sync to sync your game to the Pokémon Global Link.

Further back in the castle, the attendant on the left can help you page a visitor in Festival Plaza to get their attention. The attendant on the left is the person you need to talk with to rearrange your Festival Plaza's facilities. And the person alone on the dais to the left will trade shards you've collected for Bottle Caps. If you've been obtaining a lot of them from Isle Aphun in the Poké Pelago, exchange them here!

Finally, when you've earned enough Festival Coins to level up your Festival Plaza, head into the castle to meet Sophocles. He'll let you know whether you've earned any upgrades and how to access them.

As you can see, Festival Plaza has an enormous variety of features to help you and your Pokémon, from amazing facilities, to fun ways to battle and trade, to special activities inside the castle. Spend time exploring and participating in all of the cool Festival Plaza features to discover more. And keep checking Pokemon.co.uk/Strategy for more Pokémon video game strategy and analysis!