Pokemon Sun and Moon Guide: Getting the Most out of the Festival Plaza

The Festival Plaza is where all the online and multiplayer features take place in Pokemon Sun and Moon. There is much more that you can do in the Festival Plaza, however, and it can greatly help you in many ways throughout your game.

We’re going to go over everything you can do in the Festival Plaza, as well as some tips at using it effectively.

And be sure to check out our other guides for Pokemon Sun and Moon! 

• Pokemon Sun and Moon Guide: How to Unlock Extra Throwing Styles
• Pokemon Sun and Moon Competitive Guide: Breeding
• Pokemon Sun and Moon Competitive Guide: EV Training
• Pokemon Sun and Moon Guide: How to Get Type: Null and Cosmog

• Pokemon Sun and Moon Guide: Getting the Most out of the Festival Plaza

So What is the Festival Plaza? 

The Festival Plaza is a place you can visit anytime by opening your menu and selecting Festival Plaza. This is where you go to use Pokemon Sun and Moon’s multiplayer features, such as battling and trading. The first time you go to the Festival Plaza, you will get a short tutorial that explains the area’s basics.

You will get seven random facilities at the beginning, which is the total you can have at one time.

• As you level up the Festival Plaza, you can get more facilities, but since you can only have seven at a time, you will need to replace one of your current facilities.
• You can also choose not to replace, and just keep your current facilities.

Leveling the Plaza and Earning Festival Coins

You can level up the Festival Plaza and unlock more features and shops by gaining Festival Coins (FC). This can be done in a number of ways.

• When you connect to the Pokemon Sun and Moon to the internet, or pass by people in the real world, NPC versions of those players will appear in your plaza.
• When chat bubble for these NPCs has a red color, talking to them will cause an event that gives you FC.

• Wonder Trading will cause the player’s NPC to appear in the castle. Go talk to them to earn FC.
• Completing Missions — Hang on, more details on that later.

You can keep leveling the Festival Plaza as much as you want, but the amount of FC you need to level will start to increase. Below is a list of bonuses you get at certain Festival Plaza ranks.

• Rank 4 – Unlocks Missions.
• Rank 8 – Can talk to players to get stores.
• Rank 10 – Can order clothes from players.
• Rank 20 – Can change the name of the Festival Plaza.
• Rank 30 – Unlocks enhanced services in shops.
• Rank 40 – Unlocks ability to change Festival Plaza music.
• Rank 50 – Unlocks the Glitz theme for the castle.
• Rank 60 – Unlocks the Fairy Tale theme for the castle.
• Rank 70 – Unlocks the Subdued theme for the castle.
• Rank 100 – Unlocks the “I reached Festival Plaza Rank 100!” greeting.

Missions: Adventuring for Festival Coins

When you connect Pokemon Sun and Moon to the internet, you will sometimes see a “Mission Started” message come across the top of the touch screen.

You can also join missions by talking to the woman outside of the castle entrance. Talking to her once a day gives you Festival tickets, which are required if you want to host a mission, although you can join any mission for free, which are the best ways to get FC — especially if you get a lot of people on the same mission. 

There are several missions you can choose from, like one that involves talking to the person that is speaking a specific language.

For example, if you do the Japanese Lesson missions, walk up to NPCs to see what they say in their chat bubbles. You’ll be looking for Japanese words, like Konnichiwa. Talking to these NPCs will earn you points in this specific scenario.

Note: The more points you and all a mission’s participants get, the more FC you will earn when the mission is over.

Festival Plaza Shops

There are seven types of shops in the Festival Plaza, and you can have a maximum of seven in your Plaza at one time. You can have multiples of the same shop if you choose, but only seven total. Below is a list of each shop and what it offers.

• Lottery – Draw for a random prize once a day.
• Bouncy House – Boosts Stats (EVs) once a day.
• Haunted House – Send one of your Pokemon out to get items once a day.
• Store – Purchase various items using FC.
• Restaurant – Purchase meals for your Pokemon to raise happiness stat.
• Fortune Teller – Gives you hints of which shops you should visit.
• This gives a chance for you to collect rare items, can give more FC and can unlock extra phrases to say in the Festival Plaza.
• Dye Shop – Lets you dye white clothes.

GameSkinny’s Suggested Shops

The shops that help the most, especially if you want to do competitive battling, are the Bouncy Houses, Restaurants and Stores.

There are three types of Bouncy House and each can raise two stats. All of them can be rank 1-5, but the higher ranked ones are exclusive to either Sun or Moon. You can only get higher Bounce House ranks from interacting with players with the opposite version of your base game.

Let’s look at what each Shop provides. 

Bouncy Houses

• Thump-Bump Park – Raises Attack and Special Attack.
• High ranks are exclusive to Moon.
• Clink-Clunk Land – Raises Defense and Special Defense.
• High ranks are exclusive to Sun.
• Stomp-Stomp House – Raises HP and Speed.
• The 5 star version is exclusive to Moon.

Restaurants

• Friendship Cafe/Parlor – These will increase a Pokemon’s happiness, but also lower EVs.
• This is helpful for getting a Friendship boost, or if you want to reset your EVs.
• Rare Diner – These shops sell meals that will level up your Pokemon.
• Battle Table – These shops sell meals that will raise your Pokemon’s stats.

Stores

• Pharmacy – The three-star versions, which are exclusive to Sun, sell Vitamins that boost EVs up to 100.

We would suggest getting one of each type above, but the Pharmacy can be substituted for whatever you want, if you don’t mind buying the vitamins from the Pokemon Center.

Festival Plaza Multiplayer Options

Finally, the multiplayer. The Festival Plaza is where you must go if you want to battle or trade with other Pokemon Sun and Moon players.

You can talk to any of your guests in the Plaza, then select them as one of your VIPs. This adds them to a list so that you can see them whenever you want, even if they aren’t on your guest list.

Note: Think of it as a Friends List.

When you go to the Plaza, just touch the Battle or Trade icon on the touch screen to interact with these players. 

Battling in the Festival Plaza

There are three different battle modes you can choose from: 

• Link Battle – This lets you compete in a Single, Double, Multi or Battle Royal battle against people on your guest or VIP List.
• Battle Spot – This is the main battle and matchmaking option.
• This option randomly matches you with other players for a Free Battle, Rating Battle, Online Competition or Friendly Competition.
• There are specific rules for Rating Battles and Competitions, so pay attention to them before you begin. 
• Download Rules – This lets you download specific rules for battling.

Trading in the Festival Plaza

There are two different ways to trade in the Festival Plaza: 

• Link Trade – This lets you trade with anyone on your guest or VIP list.
• GTS – You can deposit a Pokemon here and ask for a particular Pokemon in return. 
• When someone fulfills the requirements you set, your Pokemon will automatically be traded and you can pick up your new Pokemon whenever you check the GTS again.
• You can use the GTS to “Seek Pokemon,” or see what other Pokemon people have deposited.
• If you have their desired Pokemon, you will trade automatically when you select it.

There are a lot of features in the Festival Plaza, but this should cover everything you need to know to be a great trainer! Now you can build up your Plaza and fully enjoy all of the multiplayer options Pokemon Sun and Moon has to offer.

What’s your favorite things about the Festival Plaza? Let us know in the comments below!