Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Optimizing Your Join Avenue - BW2

The Join Avenue, located just south of Nimbasa City, is a new addition to BW2 that allows you to set up a maximum of 8 shops, and there are 8 different types of shops to choose from.  So, should you have one of each shop?  Are there shops you should have more than one of?  Are there shops that aren't that useful?

The goal of this post is to give you an idea of what shops to open, depending on your playing style.

 For The Casual Pokémon Gamer:
  • 1 Nursery
  • 1 Market
  • 1 Beauty Salon
  • 1 Cafe
  • 1 Dojo
  • 1 Raffle Shop
  • 1 Antique Shop
  • 1 Florist
Explanation: For the casual player, who doesn't really care about competitive battling, every shop has its use.  The Nursery is a must-have because it can make any egg hatch instantly, and at level 10, the shop will allow you to hatch six eggs per day. A Market is a must-have too, because at max level and after beating the Elite 4, it sells useful things (e.g. max repels) at the best prices in the game.  Plus, it sells items you can't normally buy, like Ethers and PP Max.   The Beauty Salon will increase the happiness of your Pokémon, which can be useful for evolving Pokémon like Togepi, and Chansey.  A level 10 Cafe will raise a Pokémon's level by 8 once a day - that's the equivalent of 8 rare candies a day!  A Dojo is for EV training, just in case you feel like doing it or becoming competitive later.  The Raffle Shop is for the chance of getting a Master Ball.  An Antique Shop has a lot of random goodies, like shards, nuggets, fossils, evolution stones, and even the rare Sacred Ash.  A Florist is recommended for stocking up on berries that will be useful in-game (e.g. Sitris Berry, Lum Berry, Leppa Berry)

Remember that many shops like Markets, Florists and Antique Shops will sell different items/services depending on who you invite.  For example: a florist from White or White 2 will sell Sitris Berries, but a florist from Black or Black 2 will sell Persim Berries instead.

The least useful shops are Raffle Shops because the Master Ball prize is rare, and the other prizes aren't that useful.  Florists also become less useful after you have a large supply of berries.  If you're sure you don't want to EV train, then the Dojo can be replaced with anything else you like.

For The Competitive Pokémon Gamer:
  • 4 Florists (1 from each version) - replace with 4 Dojos later
  • 1 Nursery
  • 1 Market
  • 1 Beauty Salon/Cafe
The 4 Florists (one from each version) are to acquire all the pinch berries, which are unlocked when the shop is at level 8.  You might also choose to stock up on the berries that halve super-effective moves, and the EV-reducing berries.  Once you feel you have enough, you can replace the Florists with 4 Dojos.  The 8 levels/day from the Cafe probably won't entice you as much as being able to reset EVs with the Beauty Salon.

Most of the people you interact with through the Dream World and GTS will be from Black 2 or White 2.  However, the NPC fans that visit daily can open shops from any version, so just keep on inviting them until you get the shop you want.  Remember that what type of Mulch the florist sells at the beginning is an indicator of what pinch berries they'll sell later on:

Stable Mulch - Petaya
Growth Mulch - Ganlon
Gooey Mulch - Liechi, Apicot
Damp Mulch - Salac

Hope this helps.

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