POKEMON RUBY, SAPPHIRE AND EMERALD CONTEST GUIDE

Contests are optional events in the game that add a bit more realism to the Pokemon Care aspect. You enter a Pokemon into a contest, and its appearance and attacks will be judged accordingly. The winner of the contest recieves a ribbon; after winning a certain number of contests, that Pokemon moves up in rank. First of all, you'll need some basic items. Go to Slateport City and get a PokeBlock Case from the little girl in the contest foyer. Next, collect a contest pass from the Verdanturf contest hall. Throughout the game, pick up (and plant) some berries. You'll want to make these into PokeBlocks when you have some spare time.

PokeBlocks:

PokeBlocks are "candies" that you feed your Pokemon in order to enhance their contest characteristics - there are five characteristics that each Pokemon has: Cool, Beauty, Cute, Smart and Tough.

PokeBlocks are named according to colour - Red, Blue, Pink, Green, Yellow, Purple, Indigo, Brown, LiteBlue, Olive, Grey, Black, White and Gold. Each coloured PokeBlock will give an indication of what characteristics it will raise - see our PokeBlock page for a full run-down of effects. Along with colour, two numbers are associated with PokeBlocks - feel and level. The lower the feel number, the smoother the PokeBlock - Pokemon can eat more PokeBlocks if they are smoother. If there are more people at the Berry Blender, the PokeBlock will generally be smoother. The higher the level number, the greater a effect the PokeBlock has on a characteristic - levels range from about 11 to 64 or so. Your Pokemon's stats will also increase more if they like the taste of the PokeBlock, and won't increase as much if they don't like the taste of the PokeBlock.

In order to make a PokeBlock, fly to one of the contest foyers and examine one of the grey machines (Berry Blenders) with people standing around them. Alternatively, if you've got a Link Cable, you can Berry Blend with your friends - just examine an empty blender and you'll link. In any case, start up the machine, and select a berry. The machine will start, and when the arrow comes to your mark, hit A. Direct Hits cause the machine to accelerate, and the RPM will increase giving a smoother PokeBlock. However, misses will slow the machine down. At then end, the number of Misses , Close Hits , and Direct Hits are tallied.

To access your PokeBlocks, go to the menu, access the Key Items in your bag, and find the PokeBlock case. You can also use PokeBlocks to attract Pokemon in the Safari Zone. The PokeNav will give you an indication on how your Pokemon's characteristics compare. The greater the area covered by the green polygon, the higher your stats are. The number of stars around your Pokemon are an indication of how many PokeBlocks it has eaten.

Contests:

There are four ranks for Pokemon Contests based around the world: Normal (Verdanturf), Super (Fallarbor), Hyper (Slateport) and Master (Lilycove). After winning a certain number of contests, your Pokemon will move up in rank. In addition to having the Master Rank in Lilycove, you can choose to link with other GBA's and hold a contest using your friends' Pokemon. Each Pokemon Contest is again divided into five categories, each one matching the five characteristics - Cool, Beauty, Cute, Smart and Tough. In each category, there is also some sub-categories where your Pokemon will not be penalised for using an incompatible move in the second round.

In each contest type, the judges will be looking for how well your Pokemon's characteric compares with other Pokemon, so you'll want to enter a Pokemon with a high Cool rating into the Cool Category, and you'll also want to make sure it has at least two Cool moves (Viewable as the fourth status screen in its Summary).

In the first round of the contest, the crowd will vote for accordingly for the Pokemon with the most of that characteristic. This is simply a matter of how many PokeBlocks you've fed your Pokemon, and how much the characteristic has increased as a result of this.

The real skill of the contest comes in the second round. Here, you'll appeal to the crowd by making your Pokemon do one of its attacks. Try to use a move that matches either the primary or secondary type of the contest. Read the sub-text window to see any additional effects of the attack. Avoid using the same move twice in a row (Greyed-out moves), but if one of the moves is coloured red, it will double your points (This occurs as part of a combo - see the contest combo list). The scoring goes as follows:

• You will receive points depending on how many red hearts appear under "Appeal" for that move
• Your opponent's appeals will decrease depending on how many black hearts appear under "Jam" for that move
• An additional bonus will be awarded if you impress the crowd - this usually occurs if you've used a smart move, as well as matched the move characteristic with the contest type, or performed a combo.

This will repeat for five turns. After that, Round 1 and Round 2's scores will be added to give an overall score. The winner receives a ribbon which will be awarded to the Pokemon. The number of ribbons can be viewed in the second screen in the Summary. In addition to this, if your Pokemon has scored five or more hearts in a Master Rank contest, you'll get a portrait of your Pokemon which will go to the Lilycove Museum.