Join Avenue is a massive new facility in the heart of Unova that can offer a number of incredible services for Trainers. This place includes Flower Shops that sell Berries, Dojos that will help train your Pokémon, and Antique Shops that will appraise mysterious items you find, as well as many other useful stores.

While there’s a lot to see and do in Join Avenue, it can also be a little bewildering. If you’re not sure how to add and improve shops, or confused about what kinds of benefits Join Avenue can provide, you’ve come to the right place.

Visitors Welcome!

When you take over the management of Join Avenue, it’ll be pretty much empty, except for an office. It’s your job to seek out people who will open up shops and services. To recruit these entrepreneurs, you’ll have to meet up with other Trainers playing Pokémon Black Version, Pokémon White Version, Pokémon Black Version 2, or Pokémon White Version 2.

When you battle or trade with another player, or register someone else on your C-Gear’s Tag Log, they might show up as visitors the next time you visit Join Avenue. You don’t have to meet someone in person, either—a trade via the Global Trade Station will invite the person you traded with to stop by your Join Avenue.

One important note: you aren’t required to connect with other players to have visitors stop by your Join Avenue. A few times a day, non-player characters will pass through, whom you can invite to open shops, as well.

Business or Pleasure?

When you talk to a visitor in Join Avenue, he or she will offer to open a shop (you can have a maximum of eight shops open at any given time). There are eight types of shops available, including a Café, Beauty Salon, and Raffle Shop. There’s even a Nursery where you can leave a Pokémon Egg to have it hatch, which you can open after you’ve met certain criteria.

You can also ask visitors to go to a store to improve its rank. Every store has a ranking, which affects what items are sold, the effectiveness of its services, and the like. When it’s first built, its ranking is 1; as you get more people to visit, the ranking will climb toward a maximum of 10.

Meet Market Demand

With eight types of stores available and eight vacant spots in Join Avenue, it might seem natural to open one of each service. And that’s just fine—you’ll get to sample a little of what every type of shop has to offer. But you can open two of the same type of shop if you’d like, and for good reason. Many of the shops offer products and services that vary depending on the visitor that opened them. More specifically, it depends on the game the Trainer was playing when you interacted with him or her.

For example, the florist will carry a different inventory of Berries and Mulch, and the Dojo will specialize in certain stat training depending on the game that the original store-opening visitor came from. You could also open two (or more) Raffle stands, and get to spin the wheel for a cool prize at each one, each day!

If you filled up your Join Avenue and decide you want to change one store for another, go right ahead. Even if all your storefronts are full, the people that visit will offer to open new stores. If you take a visitor up on his or her offer, you’ll have to choose a store to close down before the new visitor can open. In fact, there are Medalsfor opening up a lot of shops in Join Avenue, so having somewhat frequent turnover of the available shops is a good idea if you’re Medal hunting. But remember, when you boot one store to open another, the new store will start at the lowest ranking, and you’ll need to keep inviting people into your Join Avenue to increase its rank.

Join Avenue is a great place to help raise your Pokémon and get good items, but the journey to creating a cool place full of shops is itself a lot of fun. So, go meet as many other Trainers as you can, and you’ll develop Join Avenue into place you’ll want to visit over and over!