i’ve decided to train my dear sylveon and minccino to become cute contest masters! do you have any tips, such as what kinds of berries make the most effective sweet poffins and pink pokeblocks, special training techniques for cute contests, places where i can find high-quality cute contest costumes? thank you so much!!

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Lanette! Help!

LH: Honestly, Bill it wouldn’t kill you to learn a little more about training besides care and mechanics.

But fine.

Anonymous, to answer your questions in order:

• The best pokéblocks are made with high-quality sweet berries, such as watmel, custap, and liechi. These berries may also carry other qualities (such as spicy, in liechi’s case), but don’t worry. So long as it’s also strongly sweet, they’ll still be effective.
• Unlike poffins (see below), you must use high-quality sweet berries. Most of a pokéblock’s quality depends on the sweetness of the original fruits used, so although high-quality sweet berries are expensive and difficult to import, they’re worth it if you can get your hands on them.
• Of course, a little-known secret to making pokéblocks: you can used store-bought or canned berries, and the result will be the same. These may be easier to obtain than fresh.
• Poffins, meanwhile, can be made with the same berries, but because a poffin’s quality relies a little more on technique than specific flavor, you can get away with substituting lower-quality and thus easier-to-obtain-or-grow berries such as mago or magost. Just be extra careful in stirring and cooking; you’ll need near-perfect technique if you’re going to get a poffin made with a lower quality berry to taste like one made with a higher quality berry.
• Cute contests, like beauty and cool contests, rely almost entirely on appearance (as awkward as that is to say out loud). So it’s important to focus on perfecting cute moves, such as Attract, Draining Kiss, or Tickle. That means not only getting their basic execution down but also training your pokémon to use them as cutely as possible. Emphasize body language as much as raw technique, in other words. (A secret: I’ve always found that watching romantic comedies with my pokémon and having them emulate some of the “techniques” their characters use heighten the effectiveness of our performances, but be as creative as you’d like!)
• Despite being home to performances and not contests, the best accessories and costumes are actually found in the boutiques of Lumiose City. Many of these have online stores that will ship to pokémon centers around the world, and contrary to popular belief, the prices are fairly reasonable. So as much of a hassle as that sounds, it’s actually a pretty viable option, especially if you’re looking for something cute but elegant. Otherwise, if you’re participating in the Hoenn contest circuit, go to Lilycove Department Store for cheap but high-quality items. Coordinators of the Sinnoh contest circuit swear by the indie shops of Hearthome City.

Hope this helps, anonymous! Good luck!