Festival Plaza

Festival Plaza (Japanese: フェスサークル Festival Circle) is a location in Pokémon Sun and Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon that collects most of its communication features, such as connecting to the Pokémon Global Link and battling or trading with other players, into one place. It is owned by Sophocles and has similarities to features from the Entralink (missions) and Join Avenue (shops) in Generation V.

Festival Plaza can be visited by selecting it from the menu, but it is not present when the game is first started. It is unlocked when Lillie introduces the player to their first Pokémon Center on. If the Festival Plaza icon has a green "!", this means there are people in Festival Plaza with requests for the player.

When the player first visits Festival Plaza, Sophocles greets them and recruits them to make other visitors feel welcome at Festival Plaza. Satisfied visitors will reward the player with Festival Coins (abbreviated as FC), which can be used at any of the seven shops that ring Festival Plaza. As the player earns more Festival Coins from visitors, their Festival Plaza Rank will go up, which will unlock certain features and allow the player to replace old facilities with new ones. The player can also participate in missions to earn Festival Coins.

A purple button at the bottom edge of the lower screen allows the player to set options specific to Festival Plaza and communications. These include accepting battles, trades, or missions and communicating with friends, VIPs, or guests. It also includes customizable messages (selectable from set phrases) to be used in other players' Festival Plazas for greeting, parting, and more.

Steps are not counted in Festival Plaza, so Pokémon Eggs will never hatch and repels will never wear off there.

Communication features
The bottom screen while in Festival Plaza shows two large buttons: Battle and Trade. Battle leads to the options Link Battle, Visit the Battle Spot, and Download Rules, while Trade leads to Link Trade, GTS, and Wonder Trade.

If the player connects to the Internet, the game will grab a list of other players to be new guests in the player's Festival Plaza. The oldest guests previously in the player's Festival Plaza will be replaced with the newer guests; any VIPs the player has registered will remain as VIPs regardless. The player can register a guest as a VIP by finding them outdoors in Festival Plaza or by paging them indoors courtesy of the woman in the back-left of the castle, and then speaking to them. The guest and VIP lists each have a maximum of 50 people. Up to 100 people can also be placed on a block list.

The computer just inside the castle also allows the player to view Battle Videos and perform Game Sync.

Rank
The player's Festival Plaza Rank goes up as they earn Festival Coins from visitors or missions. The amount of Festival Coins required for each Rank depends on the total amount the player has earned, not what the player currently has; that is, Festival Coins the player spends will not delay the point when the player will gain their next Rank.

When the player gains a new Festival Plaza Rank, Sophocles will visit the castle to present the player with a reward. Usually he will offer a new, random facility, with the "level" of the facility, as seen by the number of stars (★), gradually increasing with higher Ranks. If the player gains two Ranks that would each offer a new facility, the player will only be offered one.

Sophocles will introduce other new features instead of offering facilities at certain Ranks:


 * At Rank 4, missions become available
 * At Rank 8, visitors are able to introduce the player to a facility that can be placed in the Plaza for a fee
 * At Rank 10, the player can order fashion items from visitors
 * At Rank 20, the name of the Plaza can be changed
 * At Rank 30, if the player has entered the Hall of Fame and become the, special "premium" purchases are unlocked at bouncy houses, food stalls, and goody shops
 * At Rank 40, if the player has entered the Hall of Fame and become the Champion, the song playing may be changed
 * At Rank 50, the "Glitz" theme becomes available
 * At Rank 60, the "A fairy tale" theme becomes available
 * At Rank 70, the "Subdued tone" theme becomes available
 * At Rank 100, "I reached Festival Plaza Rank 100!" message becomes available

If the player declines to host one of the facilities that Sophocles offers, he will present the player with an item tied to the facility's level. The player can only receive Festival Tickets for 1-star facilities if they have previously spoken to the outside the castle and received their first Festival Tickets.

When the player reaches Rank 40 and has become the Pokémon League Champion, the option to change the music that plays at the Festival Plaza becomes available. This can be done by speaking to the in the castle. Among the choices, the music currently selected is colored blue, and the Worker will provide a sample of the selected music before prompting the player to confirm. Music corresponds to current time of day.

In, an additional piece of music is unlocked after forcing Team Rainbow Rocket out of the plaza.

In addition to the above, some unannounced changes also occur at certain Ranks. Certain visitor requests may only appear once the player reaches a certain Rank. Starting at Rank 11, the number of visitors in Festival Plaza who can have requests for the player to fulfill grows from five to six.

Facilities


There are seven types of facilities the player can host in Festival Plaza: lottery shops, bouncy houses, haunted houses, food stalls, goody shops, fortune-teller tents, and dye houses. There are multiple different varieties of each type of shop as well, generally offering slight differences in their services, and each of those varieties comes in up to five different "levels" indicated by a number of stars (★). Every shop is run by a different, random person; two shops with the exact same name may even be run by different people.

Facilities can generally be patronized once a day. For goody shops, food stalls, and bouncy houses, this means that each item or service they offer can only be purchased once a day.

At first, Festival Plaza is populated by seven facilities (with the seventh being added by Sophocles after the introductory Rank is completed). These initial facilities come in pairs, such as two food stalls, two lottery shops, and two fortune-teller tents, with an extra facility of another type in the last spot. As the player earns Festival Coins and Ranks, Sophocles will offer new facilities as rewards. These facilities can replace any of the seven existing facilities. Starting at Rank 8, the player can ask visitors if they know any good facilities, and they will respond with their favorite facility, which they will introduce to the player for a fee. In order to place a facility introduced by a visitor, the player must save the game. Facilities hosted by introduction will greet the player the same way the person who introduced the facility does and comment that they are highly recommended by the person.

Inside the castle in the center of Festival Plaza, the player can talk to the man in the back-right to remodel Festival Plaza. This allows the player to swap the positions of shops. The facility that appears first (rightmost from the castle entrance) is classified as the player's favorite and thus will be recommended to other players if they ask about any good facilities.

Lottery shops
At lottery shops, the player can draw a lottery ticket to win a random prize. Drawing a lottery ticket is free. It is also possible for the player to randomly earn a bonus drawing, resulting in two prizes. The outcome at lottery shops is affected by the shop's rank (★ to ★★★★★) and may be affected by fortune tellers' fortunes.

Prizes numbered 3 through 10 are the same across all lottery shops, while the number 1 and 2 prizes are different based on shop name.

Lottery shops come in four color variations which are chosen randomly, with the leftmost below being most common and the rightmost being rarest. It is unknown whether the colors alter the shop's outcomes.

Bouncy houses
At bouncy houses, the player can let a Pokémon play to train, increasing its s. Bouncy houses may offer multiple courses, but each course can only be played once a day.

Courses 6★ and 7★ are premium purchases that are only unlocked after the player enters the Hall of Fame and their Festival Plaza reaches Rank 30.

Bouncy houses come in four color variations which are chosen randomly, with the leftmost below being most common and the rightmost being rarest.

Haunted houses
At haunted houses, the player may pay an admission fee of 10 FC to send their Pokémon through the house. Somewhere in the house, the Pokémon will pick up a random item which it will give to the player once it emerges. The Pokémon may pick up more than one item. The outcome at haunted houses may be affected by the house's rank (★ to ★★★★★) or fortune tellers' fortunes.

The items below are ordered in descending order of rarity.

Haunted houses come in four color variations which are chosen randomly, with the leftmost below being most common and the rightmost being rarest. It is unknown whether the colors alter the house's outcomes.

Food stalls
At food stalls, the player can buy meals for their Pokémon. Each stall has a limited availability of meals, but some may have multiple of the same meal available. A meal can only be fed to a Pokémon that will feel its effect. A Pokémon that would evolve or learn a new move upon level-up will not do so after eating a meal from Rare Kitchen or Battle Table.

Rows on a light yellow background are premium purchases that are only unlocked after the player enters the Hall of Fame and their Festival Plaza reaches Rank 30.

Food stalls come in four color variations which are chosen randomly, with the leftmost below being most common and the rightmost being rarest.

Goody shops
At goody shops, the player may purchase items. Each shop has a limited daily stock, but some may have multiple of the same item in their inventory.

Rows on a light yellow background are premium purchases that are only unlocked after the player enters the Hall of Fame and their Festival Plaza reaches Rank 30.

Goody shops come in four color variations which are chosen randomly, with the leftmost below being most common and the rightmost being rarest.

Fortune-teller tents
At a fortune-teller tent, the fortune teller can suggest a place where the player may have "luck". This may be described as "decent", "good", or "pretty good" luck. If the fortune teller says the player will have luck at a lottery shop or haunted house, then if they visit the suggested location, they may receive a better outcome than they would have before hearing it. For example, if the player may have luck in a lottery shop, the prize may turn out better or the player may get a bonus drawing. The fortune teller can also say the player will have luck in Festival Plaza itself; this will increase the amount of FC the player receives for completing requests, either doubling (for decent luck), tripling (good luck), or quadrupling it (pretty good luck). Luck in the GTS or Wonder Trade will similarly multiply the reward for talking to a person (at the right table inside the castle) after doing one of those trades.

The fortune teller will also give the player a phrase to "bring you luck". This phrase will be added to the player's repertoire of phrases they can use to customize their messages in their Festival Plaza profile settings. They are added into the Common Phrases category.

The player can only have their fortune told once a day, but if they return to the fortune teller, they may rehear their fortune.

Fortune-teller tents charge 10 FC for their services.


 * Tents
 * Kanto Tent
 * Johto Tent
 * Hoenn Tent
 * Sinnoh Tent
 * Unova Tent
 * Kalos Tent
 * Pokémon House

All tents have three levels: ★, ★★★, and ★★★★★.

Fortune-teller tents come in four color variations which are chosen randomly, with the leftmost below being most common and the rightmost being rarest. It is unknown whether the colors alter the tent's outcomes.

Dye houses
At dye houses, the player can dye their white fashion items different colors. The player can use the shop's dyes, or they can use Berries from their Bag to create a dye to use. The player can also redye any item they have previously dyed.


 * Dye houses
 * Team Red
 * Team Yellow
 * Team Green
 * Team Blue
 * Team Orange
 * Team Navy Blue
 * Team Purple
 * Team Pink

All dye houses are offered in three levels: ★, ★★★, and ★★★★★.

Using Berries from the player, dye houses can dye any white or dyed clothing any color in a pastel or dark shade (depending on the house's level). The table below shows the Berries needed to dye clothes different colors.

Each dye house has a color scheme matching its dyes, as shown below.

Switcheroo
Exchange centers only appear in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. They shuffle the rental Pokémon available for the Battle Agency. Each rank increases the number of times per day that a shuffle can occur, and it costs 10 FC to shuffle.

Exchange centers come in four color variations which are chosen randomly, with the leftmost below being most common and the rightmost being rarest.

Introduction costs
The table below describes the costs, in Festival Coins, to have a visitor introduce a given facility to the player's Festival Plaza. If the player already has a given facility, its introduction cost will rise, costing double for the second one, triple for the third, and so on.

Requests
Among the visitors normally in Festival Plaza at any one time, there will be a handful who need something from the player. This may be some request or question, or they may simply wish to share some information. Initially, five visitors in Festival Plaza will have some request for the player, but this grows as the player's Rank increases.

All visitors in Festival Plaza show a whisper when the player is near enough to them, but for those with requests, the whisper is colored purple. These requests last for an hour from when the game created them, which is either immediately when a previous set of requests expired or when the player last loaded the game. The visitors who will have requests are selected at random each time.

Upon completing a request, the player will be rewarded with Festival Coins. Different requests may yield different amounts of coins, and VIPs will give more coins than guests will. If the same people remain in the player's Festival Plaza for an extended period of time, after a while they will give half the normal reward, and a while after that they will give a quarter of the normal reward (rounded to the nearest number). Fortune tellers' fortunes may also affect the amount of coins gained. Additionally, aside from guests and VIPs, immediately after the introductory Rank is completed, there will also be a handful of default NPC visitors in Festival Plaza; these visitors only give the player rewards of 4 FC for most requests or 8 FC for requests with the whisper "Tell me! Tell me!".

The table below summarizes all of the possible requests by their whisper and the rewards earned for completing them.

Recommendations
This group of requests requires the player to direct the requestor to a satisfactory facility in their Festival Plaza. Seven of these requests have fixed responses. The table below describes these requests and the acceptable responses.

For the "Take me to a place you think I'd like!" request, the right and wrong answers depend on the gender of the person who owns each facility. That is, if two facilities are owned by females, then the current requestor will either like or dislike both, and the opposite will be true for the rest that are owned by males. It is unclear what influences which gender is the correct one for each request.

The player can back out of any recommendation request without exhausting it, meaning they can speak to the person again later to complete the request.

Questionnaires
The whisper "Tell me! Tell me!" comprises 16 different requests, all of which are questionnaires the player must answer. Each request has a number of custom responses, as well as a standard "No comment" response. If the player answers "No comment", they will not receive Festival Coins and the request will be exhausted. Any other answer is rewarded.

These questionnaires are always asked in order. That is, if two people are whispering "Tell me! Tell me!", whichever person is asked first will ask the next question. After the player answers the last questionnaire, the next requestor will start with the first questionnaire again.

The player's responses to these questionnaires appear in their profile when they are visitors to other players' Festival Plazas.

Sharing
The sharing requests simply require the player to listen to something the requestor wishes to share. The "Listen! Listen!" whisper can lead to two different kinds of requests. In one, the requestor will share one or more of their records at random. Sometimes, this request may come prefaced with a warning that it may mention things the player has not seen in their game yet; if the player backs out of the request in response to this, the request will be exhausted. For the other type of request, the person will start by asking, "Will you listen to the story about my Festival Plaza?" If the player declines at this point, the request is not exhausted. At the end of both of these types of requests, the person will solicit the player's opinion on their records, but this answer ("Great!" or "Could be better.") does not change whether the player is rewarded.

In the case of the "Do you want to know a secret?" whisper, the requestor will offer to share their secret with the player. However, if the player has not set an answer for their own secret in their profile, the person will back out until the player has set it. Whether the player has not set their own secret or they answer that they do not want to know the person's secret, this request is not exhausted.

Challenge
These requests challenge the player regarding records and rankings. These are shown in the guests' and VIPs' profiles in the guest and VIP lists.

The "I want to meet! I want to meet!" whisper is followed by a request of the form, "Among the people in Festival Plaza, I’d like to meet one with awesome [some records] and high [some Rank]." The player is shown a selection of guests and VIPs to browse, check records (with their rank visible as "No. X" on the left side of the rankings), and eventually select from; however, this selection does not comprise all people in Festival Plaza and if the player backs out and speaks to the requestor again, the selection can change. If the player selects someone with a rank of 1-9, they will be rewarded with 30 FC if the requestor is not a VIP; if they select someone with a rank of 10-25, they will be rewarded with 15 FC; otherwise they will receive 5 FC. If enough visitors are tied that only high ranks are possible, then if the selected person has a rank that is the worst possible rank, the player may receive a smaller reward. This request is not exhausted if the player backs out of it before selecting a person.

The "Do you understand/know?" whisper can lead to two different kinds of requests. The first is somewhat similar to the "I want to meet! I want to meet!" whisper, asking, "Is my [Something] Rank higher or lower than the midpoint among your [guests/VIPs]?" This may also be using the same basic criteria as the request above, meaning that it is asking how the value of their ranking compares with the value of half of the total number of guests or VIPs (depending on which the person is). This request cannot be backed out of after speaking to the requestor. For the other type of request, the requestor will ask the player to correctly guess their answer to a questionnaire. This kind of request is not exhausted if the player backs out of it before selecting an answer.

The "Battle! Battle!" whisper is followed by, "Let's have a record battle among these three, shall we?", and the person presents the player with three different types of records. The player is also given an option to see their accomplishments for the three records in question. When the player chooses a record to battle with, if their record is higher than the requestor's, they are rewarded with Festival Coins. A tie does not earn a reward. Backing out of this request does not exhaust it.

Missions
After achieving Festival Rank 4, players are able to create cooperative missions to complete with visitors. Mission objectives include catching Pokémon and answering specific types of questions asked by guests.

The player may play a mission alone or cooperate with other players using communication features. To host a mission, the player must use a Festival Ticket and speak to the Dancer by the castle's bridge. Once a day, she will give the player three Festival Tickets. If the player is online, they may join another player's mission in progress either by tapping the red marquee that appears on the screen or by speaking to the Dancer and selecting from the list of ongoing missions.

When the time is up, the participants' scores are totaled. If the goal was reached, the player receives FC. The maximum score is 10 stars (★). Each mission defines the minimum and maximum amounts of FC that can be earned by completing it. The FC the player earns is calculated by multiplying the minimum FC by the number of stars earned in the mission.

Normal missions
When the player chooses to play a mission, they are initially presented with a list of nine missions they can host, pulled from the list below. Certain of the missions below, such as "Find fans!" and "Big costume contest!" have contradictory goals and will never appear together in the same list.

In the type enthusiast, true selves/disguises, and color research missions, the game will only have two, five, or five (respectively) people that fulfill the mission's objective in the Festival Plaza at the same time.

Global missions
Global missions are held at certain times, which all players around the world work together to complete. If the mission's goal is met, every participating player receives the reward. Players receive a consolation prize if the goal is not met. Both the reward and the consolation prize are doubled if the player has registered their Game Sync ID at the Pokémon Global Link.

Pokémon Sun and Moon
Starting with the third global mission, players with a linked PGL account will receive five Rare Candies if they add a certain number of points towards the goal. If they do so and the mission's end result is at least twice the amount of the goal, they will receive an additional variant.

Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
A new set of Global missions for were revealed on November 8th, 2017. Unlike Pokémon Sun and Moon, these were revealed on a set schedule. It is unknown if these missions will stop after the last one, rotate back to the beginning, or if a new set will take its place.

Episode RR
In the prologue to Episode RR, Team Rainbow Rocket hacks into Festival Plaza, taking it over and changing its appearance. The player, accompanied by Sophocles, arrives to realize they have been prevented from using their own Pokémon. To combat this, the player battles a with three rental Pokémon from the Battle Agency. While Team Rainbow Rocket is occupied, Sophocles overrides the hack and restores control, booting the Grunts from the plaza. He then gives the player an Eject Button as thanks, as well as giving them the ability to remodel the Festival Plaza to resemble its appearance under Team Rainbow Rocket's control.