Join Avenue

Inside you meet the owner, and he asks you to manage the place for him – saying yes means picking a greeting phrase (be aware that this phrase will be sent to other real-world players you play with, so keep it clean! – after which you pick another phrase for what warms the heart, and then tell the assistants what they are supposed to call you.

The assistants explain to you that part of your duties as manager here are to find people who have dreams and invite them to become resident in the Avenue and open shops...

A trainer passes by and you invite them to join and they do. Opening a cafe called Deli Janus, you can now patronize that business and have your Pokemon fed there! How cool is that?

Another trainer happens by after you talk to the assistants again, and you get to recommend the new shop to them – you are quickly learning the ropes to being a good Avenue Manager! Basically anyone that you have battled, traded with, or done GTS with, as well as any fans you obtained doing movies will eventually show up here, and you can either Invite them to settle here and open a shop, or you can recommend the shops to them.

This is far more important a feature in the game than you probably realize at the moment, but no worries mates, we are about to cover just why that is. First though let's get the rest of the orientation out of the way.

The room on the left is your office, and inside are staff who you can ask about how to do a good job as Manager – you should probably do that... Just saying. There is also a PC in your office so you can manage your Pokemon and do other PC things if you need to.

Now would be a good time to sort out any Pokemon in your Incoming Box...

If you hang around in the hall outside eventually you will see a variety of trainers appear in the hall. These are drawn from a combination of the real-world players that you have met via C-Gear,Wi-Fi and Local battles, as well as the players who you have previously met or traded with via GTS.

In addition to the avatars from the real people/players you have interacted with, you will also see the “Fans” you have collected from Pokestar Studios appear in the Mall as well. You will find even more “Fans” will appear after you beat the Elite Four and become the Regional Champion. For both types - real-world and NPC, you can either make recommendations to them to help boost the popularity of your Avenue or invite them to settle in and open a shop there.

But do not have every one you meet open a shop or you will end up with a lot of the same types of shops!

A good target is to get three shops open, a cafe, a beauty shop, and a Market are good goals to shoot for, but the more advanced shops like the Florist and Dojo will require you to level up your Mall, and you do that mostly by making Recommendations, which you accomplish by listening to what your visitor says, and then directing them to the most appropriate shop in your mall. When you do it right you can pick up 75 points per recommendation.

It is not entirely clear if the Mall itself ranks up along with the shops, but it is well understood that when you make the correct recommendation to a specific shop, the points you unlock from that person are applied to the shop you recommend and, once you obtain enough points (see the chart below) the shop's rank will increment and its available services or goods will expand.

As you rank up each individual shop you receive an increasingly larger discount on goods or services that you purchase from that shop. In addition to that as you gain higher ranks for each shop it is possible to attract “Fans” for the Mall and the shops who will offer to give your character special gifts as a sort of homage to their success. These special gifts (referred to in the game as “Souvenirs”) are based on the major rank levels (20/30/40 etc), and include Potions, Meds, Items, and Pokeballs.

The Shops in your Mall

The first major point you need to understand is that this is nothing like the Pokemarts – the shops here sell a wide variety of items that have special and rare effects, assisting the process of breeding and egg hatching, and increasing the happiness of your Pokemon being just a few, and these rare and special boosting features can have a significant impact on your success, not to mention saving you time.

The process of everything from establishing shops and improving them comes down to how well you rank up the mall, and to do that you have to expand and promote it, which means visiting it every now and then and especially after you have met, battled, traded, or Pal Padded new people. But it is not just the real-world people you can effect, there are also fans and NPC's you meet in the game as well who can and will show up.

When a character appears in the mall who expressly wants to open a shop they will say key phrases that you can interpret to determine what shop type they want to open. That way you can have a little control over what gets added after you have established the basic shops. They key phrases you want to look for are:

Antique Shop (Uncommon): If I were to make my dream come true on this avenue, I would want to collect unique items and surprise everyone!

Beauty Salon (Common/Early): If I were to make my dream come true on this avenue, I would want to make people's Pokemon more beautiful.

Cafe (Common): If I were to make my dream come true on this avenue, I would want to make delicious meals for Pokemon and make them happy.

Dojo (Uncommon): If I were to make my dream come true on this avenue, I would want to train people's Pokemon and make them strong.

Florist (Uncommon): If I were to make my dream come true on this avenue, I would want to help everyone relax with beautiful flowers.

Market (Common): If I were to make my dream come true on this avenue, I would want to collect a lot of things and surprise everyone.

Nursery (Uncommon): If I were to make my dream come true on this avenue, I would want to spend my days helping Pokemon Eggs hatch.

Raffle Shop (Uncommon): If I were to make my dream come true on this avenue, I would want to make everyone excited.

Obviously if the character wants to open a shop that you need you should allow it, but if you already have one or more of the more common shops, making a Recommendation makes more sense in the end.

Shop Types

The following shops can be established in your mall – and a lot will depend on how well you have promoted and leveled the mall as far as which shops will be opened, but they can be any of the following:

Antique Shop: Offers a mix of items like Pokeballs and Type Stones.

Sample Items or Services include: This shop features a selection of items that more or less qualify as mystery boxes or mystery chunks. Seriously... Once you buy one you get to discover what it is.

When the item you bought cleans up it will turn out to be, depending upon its subtype, something that is generally useful to you, from Type-Stones to Pokeballs, and the full range of valuable sell-for-cash items like Big Nuggets, Nuggets and the like. While there is no real way to ensure that you get a specific item, as most of the items are fully worth what you pay, the odds are in your favor -- just saying...

Beauty Salon: These offer Happiness services for your Pokemon.

Sample Items or Services include: Sells a variety of Makeup Kits that provide both stat and mood boosts for your Pokemon. In addition to Makeup Kits, this shop also provides special services that include Brushing, Shampooing, and Cutting/Grooming. While the services provided by this shop are identical between both versions of the game, the Makeup Kits are different, with each version having a focus upon specific stat/mood targets.

Cafe: Offers food items to increase Level and Stats.

Sample Items or Services include: The primary focus for the goods and services that are provided by the Cafe Shops pertain to Pokemon Level and Stats, consisting of a mixture of items that are common to both game versions, like drinks and lunches that will boost your friendship level with your Pokemon.

The notable differences between the two game versions occur in the two most expensive categories of goods, the “Power Lunch” and the “Off Menu” items, with each grouping providing results that are tailored to the focus for each game version. The major boosting menu items such as the Wonder Brunch, Dinner, and Desert are identical between the versions.

Dojo: Increase your Pokemon's Level and Stats.

Sample Items or Services include: Unlike most of the other shops, which have their menu of goods and services divided between the two base game versions (meaning Black/Balck2 and White/White 2) the Dojo actually differs based upon the specific version of the game, with a different menu offered for Pokemon Black, Black 2, White, and White 2 (meaning four variations).

The goods and services that are offered by the Dojo largely restrict their impact to boosting specific Stats and increasing the Level for the Pokemon you select to apply the training to. In addition to level boosts, the Dojo provides tailored training to increase the individual Pokemon's Attack, Defense, Special Attack, and Special Defense Stats, as well as their Speed and HP Stats.

Florist: Specialize in Berries.

Sample Items or Services include: A more accurate assessment of the Florist is that they specialize in selling berries and mulch, though due to the lack of soft soil and grow pots in the Black and White game generation, the value of Mulch is significantly diminished, with its only verifiable function being that it can be purchased at the Florist and then resold for a profit to the Pokemon Breeder NPC who can be found at the far end of the airport runway in Mistralton City.

The Florist sells a specific selection of berries, which for White 2 includes: Aspear, Babiri, Bluk, Charti, Chesto, Kelpsy, Leppa, Lum, Pecha, Pomeg, Qualot, Rindo, Salac, Shuca, and Sitrus Berries.

There are notable missing berries in the list above, a few of which may be obtained via Funfest Missions, however the most reliable sourcing appears to be trading for them via the versions of the game in which the berries appear as part of their version-specific list, examples of which include Cheri, Chilan, Coba, Grepa, Hondew, Kasib, Occa, Oran, Persim, Petaya, Rawst, Tamato, and Yache Berries, which are specific to the Black/Black 2 versions. Obtaining some of the rarer berries for each game version is best accomplished by trading them as held items while trading Pokemon back and forth between the games.

Market: Offer you resource items, potions, healing and etc.

Sample Items or Services include: Depending upon the actual shop rank at any given time the selection of goods on offer can vary tremendously! Due to the importance of many of these items rather than summarize a listing you will find below the complete listing of goods (with required shop level noted) for the Market, but only for Pokemon White 2.

Depending upon the version of the game you are playing this list can and does vary significantly:

Battle Set D (L3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10) $4950

Battle Set H (L4/5/6/7/8/9/10) $3150

Ether (L4/5/6/7/8/9/10) $1500

Full Heal Set 1 (L1/2/3) $5,400

Full Heal Set 2 (L4/5/6/7) $10800

Full Heal Set 3 (L8/9) $16200

Full Heal Set 4 (L10) $21600

Honey Set 1 (L2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10) 6300

Max Revive (L10) $5000

Medicine Set 1 (L1/2/3) $10,800

Medicine Set 2 (L4/5/6/7) $21600

Medicine Set 3 (L8/9) $32400

Medicine Set 4 (L10) $43200

Milk Set 1 (L1/2) $6,000

Milk Set 2 (L3/4) $12000

Milk Set 3 (L5/6) $18000

Milk Set 4 (L7/8/9/10) $24000

Old Gateau (L8/9/10) $1000

PP Up (L9/10) $12500

Repel Set 1 (L1/2/3) $6,300

Repel Set 2 (L4/5/6/7) $12600

Repel Set 3 (L8/9) $18900

Repel Set 4 (L10) $25200

Revive Set 1 (L1/2/3) $13,500

Revive Set 2 (L4/5/6/7) $27000

Revive Set 3 (L8/9) $40500

Revive Set 4 (L10) $54000

Sp. Attack Set (L6/7/8/9/10) $99960

Sp. Defense Set (L7/8/9/10) $99960

Speed Set (L5/6/7/8/9/10) $99960

Water Set 1 (L1) $2,400

Water Set 2 (L2) 4800

Water Set 3 (L3) $7200

Water Set 4 (L4/5/6/7/8/9/10) $9600

Note: The use of the phrase “Set” as in “Water Set 1” generally indicates that the item being sold is a dozen-count of that item. For example the above referenced example, “Water Set 1” actually consists of a set of 12 bottles of Fresh Water, which is a Healing Drink that restores up to 50HP for each bottle used on a Pokemon. Note that the cost of “Water Set 1” is $2400, which works out to $200 per bottle; the cost to purchase a single bottle of Fresh Water from one of the Vending Machines that are situated throughout the lands is actually $200 so there is no initial savings at Shop Level 1.

Once you have succeeded in gaining several levels for the Market Shop however the benefits of purchasing from the Market becomes very apparent indeed, since the discount percentage grows with each level and quickly reaches the point where making your healing item purchases from the Market provides significant savings.

Nursery: Offers Egg-related items to facilitate hatching.

Sample Items or Services include: This Shop does not appear until you have beaten the Elite Four and your Mall has reached Level 15. It offers a Number of different variates of Warm items that make it easier and faster to hatch the eggs you breed at the Daycare Center on Route 3 (you also have to have beaten the Elite Four before you can gain access to this facility).

Raffle Shop: Offer raffles with special prizes (including Master Balls).

Sample Items or Services include: It is a bit misleading to call this a Shop as it is really more like the lottery counter in the previous generation of the series, though in place of the Trainer ID Number that was drawn in previous versions in Black2/White2 it is a purely random draw with a total of 10 possible prizes, which include:

1st: A Master Ball (Capture any Pokemon in one toss)

2nd: A Rare Candy (Raise any Pokemon one full level)

3rd: A PP Max (Maxes out any Pokemon's PP)

4th: A PP Up (Raises any Pokemon's PP)

5th: A Max Revive (Revives any incapped Pokemon with full HP)

6th: A Max Elixir (Fully restores the PP of all of a Pokemon's Moves)

7th: A Max Ether (Fully restores the PP of any one of a Pokemon's Moves)

8th: An Ultra Ball (A Pokeball with a better than average chance at capture)

9th: A Full Heal (Fully heals a Pokemon)

10th: Berry Juice (Restores 20 HP for a Pokemon)

As you can see none of the prizes suck, but clearly getting first prize in this lotto would be a very tasty score!

Some of these shops will become critical to you late in the game, particularly if you plan on breeding your Pokemon, which is something to keep in mind and a very good reason for making it a point to rank-up the shops and mall as best you can.

Ranking Up

For the most part you are going to rank up each shop as the direct results of referring (providing the visitors to the mall with your recommendation) visitors to the shop that can best serve their needs at that moment.

While there are no fixed Rewards for every rank increase, there are specific rewards for key rank levels, including the following significant rewards:

Level 02: Gain one new Mall Assistant* for the Mall Office.

Level 04: Gain one new Mall Assistant* for the Mall Office.

Level 10: Join Avenue formal name can be edited.

Level 15: The Nursery Facility is added to the Mall(!)

Significant Note: After your shops reach Level 21, for each additional level for each shop you will receive a Stardust as a special reward; for each ten levels thereafter, you will receive a Rare Candy as a special reward.

Comet Shard Reward: When each of your shops reaches Level 100 you will receive an uber special reward item called a Comet Shard.

Although this item has no special powers and it does not grant any special ability to your Pokemon as a held item, what it does do is provide you with a most excellent infusion of cash!

Part of the official description of the item includes the observation that a treasure maniac will pay a high price for it. Specifically the Treasure Maniac in Icirrus City will pay you $60K for it...

In addition to obtaining this item as a special reward for your shops reaching Level 100, you can also obtain Comet Shards by stealing them from wild Clefable, Clefairy, Cleffa, Lunatone or Solrock using the Dark-type move Thief. They can also sometimes be found in The Giant Chasm.

There is a rumor that purchases of goods and services from each shop has a very minor impact on the shop rank, and while this has not been confirmed by Game Freak or Nintendo, when it comes to items that you may use often it couldn't hurt for you to make it a point of purchasing the resource from your shops in Join Avenue...

Mall Assistants

When you first arrive at the mall you will meet the owner, who is surrounded by a group of his personal business Assistants, among whom are the two default Assistants who are already assigned to the Mall Office. It quickly develops that the Mall Assistants are more than just a few pretty faces, as they initially provide some important functions and, as you rank up your Mall and gain new Assistants, you will discover that each of those new Assistants offers you expanded services and functionality as well...

First Assistant Future: They come with your new position as the active manager of Join Avenue and in addition to offering you unsolicited advice they will also suggest what the next shop type should be to help you in improving the services and goods offered in the Mall.

Second Assistant Jacci: They come with your new position as the active manager of Join Avenue and in addition to some helpful advice she can be consulted on a Number of matters, including checking the status of the mall (she tells you the Avenue's Level, repeats its name to you, and informs you of how many points are required to reach the next mall level), as well as assisting you in changing your personal title as the on-site manager, changing your favorite phrase, and changing the expression you offer whenever you are impressed by someone/something.

Third Assistant: In addition to assisting you in changing the roles played by each of the other Assistants, they will provide you with access to the various records for players you have recorded via the Pass System, as well as the records for anyone who you have traded with, battled, or encountered via GTS/Funfest and etc. That is an important role since it is invaluable for getting to know the details for these players that are required in order to effectively make recommendations based upon the requests that you receive.

In addition to the above very valuable services your Third Assistant will also change the color of the ceiling for you at your request and to your specifications, and will cheerfully help you reorganize the shops in Join Avenue should you feel the need to do so.

Fourth Assistant: Providing the very useful bonus of permitting you to recruit “Fans” as additional Join Avenue Assistants, the Fourth Assistant in the Mall Offices also fills the role of Pokemon Doctor, allowing you to heal-up your Team without having to return to the city.

NPC Visitor Phrase-to-Shop List

If you have trouble figuring out which shop your visitors would be best served by, and thus should be recommended to, use the following phrase list and destination key:

Antique Shop:

1. I want to find a rare treasure.

2. I want to get a good deal.

3. I want to go shopping!

4. I want to go to a shop with a cool and mature look.

5. I want to win prizes.

6. Is there a place where I can test my intuition?

7. It's a wonderful avenue, please take me to a shop you recommend!

Beauty Salon:

1. I want to find a service that makes my Pokemon great!

2. I want to go to a cute shop.

3. I want to go to a place where Pokemon are.

4. I want to make my Pokemon more beautiful.

5. I want to see the craftsmanship of a person in a shop.

6. Is there any place where girls will be thrilled?

7. It's a wonderful avenue, please take me to a shop you recommend!

Cafe:

1. I want my Pokemon to eat a delicious meal.

2. I want to find a service that makes my Pokemon great!

3. I want to go to a place where Pokemon are.

4. I want to go to a shop with a country look.

5. Is there any place where girls will be thrilled?

6. Is there a place where I can be less stressed?

7. Is there a place where I can lounge around?

8. Is there a place where I can relax?

9. Is there a place where I can warm up?

10. It's a wonderful avenue, please take me to a shop you recommend!

Dojo:

1. I want to find a service that makes my Pokemon great!

2. I want to go to a place where Pokemon are.

3. I want to go to a shop with a cool and mature look.

4. I want to train my Pokemon to make it strong.

5. Is there any place where boys will be thrilled?

6. Is there a place where I can be less stressed?

7. Is there a place where I can warm up?

Florist:

1. I want to get Berries.

2. I want to go shopping!

3. I want to go to a shop with a country look.

4. Is there a place where I can enjoy window shopping?

5. Is there a place where I can lounge around?

6. Is there a place where I can relax?

7. It's a wonderful avenue, please take me to a shop you recommend!

Market:

1. I want to buy a lot of items that only Trainers can use!

2. I want to get a good deal.

3. I want to go shopping!

4. I want to go to a flashy shop.

5. Is there any place where boys will be thrilled?

6. Is there a place where I can enjoy window shopping?

7. It's a wonderful avenue, please take me to a shop you recommend!

Nursery:

1. I want to find a service that makes my Pokemon great!

2. I want to go to a cute shop.

3. I want to hatch an Egg.

4. Is there any place where girls will be thrilled?

Raffle Shop:

1. I want to get a good deal.

2. I want to get excited about something!

3. I want to go to a flashy shop.

4. I want to win prizes.

5. Is there any place where boys will be thrilled?

6. Is there a place where I can test my intuition?

7. It's a wonderful avenue, please take me to a shop you recommend!

General Conditional Recommendation Requests:

1. Do you know of any great shops that opened recently? = Most recently established shop.

2. Frankly, the place I want to go is there! = A shop staffed by a female.

3. I want to go there... You know! There! = A shop staffed by a male.

4. I've decided where I want to go! Now, please take me there! = A shop staffed by a male.

5. If there is a shop with a female clerk, I want to go there. = A shop staffed by a female.

6. If there is a shop with a male clerk, I want to go there. = A shop staffed by a male.

7. Now, where do you think I want to go? = A shop staffed by a female.

8. Take me somewhere! Anywhere! = A shop staffed by a male.

9. Take me where I want to go! With your intuition! = A shop staffed by a female.

Specific Conditional Recommendation Requests:

1. Feeling-based Conditional Requests: You will need to become familiar with the bio for each of the shop clerks in order to effectively make correct recommendations for this sort of request.

2. Friend-based Conditional Requests: You will need to become familiar with the staff at each shop in order to effectively make correct recommendations for this sort of request.

3. Nature-based Conditional Requests: You will need to become familiar with the nature for the different shop staff in order to make correct recommendations for this sort of request.

4. Trainer-Specific Conditional Requests: You will need to be familiar with the details for each of the real-world players who you have mixed records with / Pal Padded / Traded / Battled / etc. in order to properly make recommendations for this type of request.

Item and Shop Services Expansion

As you rank up the mall you will find that the items on offer expand, and ranking up your mall is absolutely required to get some of the Uncommon stores in it. Once you get the full selection of shop types in place you will have an incredibly large and diverse selection of items available covering almost every aspect of game and Pokemon development – review the samples listed above by shop for a better idea of how useful these resources can be and to help motivate you to

Many of these special and rare items were formerly only available either as special gifts and prizes or from the mini-games, making this a very important resources for you to evolve. Join Avenue is so large and all-encompassing that guides dedicated to it have been written. Covering the items in detail is outside the scope of this walkthrough, but one thing that should be said here with emphasis is that your Join Avenue Mall is where you are going to want to go when you need to evolve a Pokemon using Friendship or Happiness, since you can directly influence that using the items and services that are sold here.