[X] My Assistant

[Mars Adept Enten]

I've had this idea floating around in my head for awhile in all honesty.
I've decided to put all the time I've spent playing the Pokémon-Amie minigames to good use and create a helpful guide for those who, well, let's just say, need a helping hand.

So I've decided to create this thread as a way of helping other out.

First off, some basics:

All the minigames share four difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Unlimited. Most of this advice will be written with Unlimited in mind, but will generally also apply to Easy to Hard as well.

You can get from 0 to 5 stars, with half-star scores also being obtainable. I'll list each minigame in its own post, with the scores and their associated criteria.

Generally, there are set levels for each possible ranking/score. In each minigame post, I'll also detail the bare minimum scores for each star level.

Also, for more general advice, this article is helpful. Also, if you have useful hints or tips, feel free to add them in a post.

Note to mods: Would it be possible to make this a sticky thread?

This post has been edited by Mars Adept Enten: Jan 14 2015, 02:49 PM

[Mars Adept Enten]

Okay, now here we get into the meat of this thread: the minigame help and tips themselves.

Berry Picker

For general information, I used this article.

Basics
In this minigame, you feed your Pokémon Berries by touching, holding and dragging the berries to the Pokémon.

Score-Rankings
0-4.5 stars: Easy: Berry Amateur Normal: Berry Semipro Hard: Berry Pro Unlimited: Berry Elite
5 stars: Easy: Berry Superstar Normal: Berry Master Hard: Berry Grand Master Unlimited: Magnificent Berry Master

Score-Minimums for each rank
0 stars: Easy-Unlimited: 0 picked Berries
1 star: Easy-Hard: 5 picked Berries Unlimited: 10 picked Berries
2 stars: Easy-Hard: 10 picked Berries Unlimited: 20 picked Berries
3 stars: Easy-Hard: 15 picked Berries Unlimited: 40 picked Berries
4 stars: Easy-Hard: 20 picked Berries Unlimited: 60 picked Berries
4.5 stars: Easy-Hard: 30 picked Berries Unlimited: 70 picked Berries
5 stars: Easy-Hard: 40 picked Berries Unlimited: 100 picked Berries

Hints and Tips
Reserved for help

[Mars Adept Enten]

Head-It

For general information, I used this article.

Basics
In this minigame, you touch your Pokemon on the Touch Screen to knock back balls of yarn.

Score-Rankings
0-4.5 stars: Easy: Header Amateur Normal: Header Semipro Hard: Header Pro Unlimited: Header Elite
5 stars: Easy: Header Hyper Master Normal: Eccentric Header Master Hard: Unbelievable Header Master Unlimited: Ultimate Header Master

Score-Minimums for each rank
0 stars: Easy-Unlimited: 0 pts.
1 star: Easy/Normal: 20 pts. Hard: 30 pts. Unlimited 50 pts.
2 stars: Easy: 30 pts. Normal: 35 pts. Hard: 50 pts. Unlimted: 100 pts.
3 stars: Easy: 40 pts. Normal: 50 pts. Hard: 70 pts. Unlimited: 200 pts.
4 stars: Easy: 100 pts. Normal: 110 pts. Hard: 130 pts. Unlimited: 400 pts.
4.5 stars: Easy: 200 pts. Normal: 220 pts. Hard: 240 pts. Unlimited 600 pts.
5 stars: Easy: 300 pts. Normal: 330 pts. Hard: 350 pts. Unlimited: 800 pts.

Hints and Tips
1. (Applies to all difficulties) Go for big combos! This is the best way to get high scores on any difficulty.
2. (Applies to all difficulties) Catch the Fever Mode! Fever Mode doubles the amount of points you get for knocking back yarn balls.
3. (Applies to all difficulties) Note the yarn balls' speeds! Yellow yarn balls travel the slowest, and purple yarn balls the fastest. Pink and blue yarn balls are about medium in speed. Also, the smaller tangled balls travel at about half the normal speed for that color.
4: (Applies to all difficulties) Aim for the sweet spots! In the Easy and Normal difficulties, this is easy to see; just look for the star icon on your Pokémon. On Hard and Unlimited, it's harder to tell. If you've hit the sweet spot, you'll see two stars upon hitting the yarn ball back and a metallic 'thunk' sound will play. If you haven't activated Fever Mode, it'll be more of a metallic "poof" instead. But if you're off, you'll get a metallic "clink" in Fever Mode or a less-metallic "poof" if you haven't activated it yet. Related: You get 1 point if you get the timing of the hit wrong, but 3 if you hit the sweet spot. In Fever Mode, these amounts get doubled to 2 and 6 points respectively!
5. (Applies to Easy-Hard) Go for the Big Yarn Bonus! A successful well-timed hit will net you a 50 point bonus. That could mean the difference between a higher ranking on the difficulty you chose.
6. (Applies to Unlimited) Don't get caught off-guard! The larger your combo gets, the higher the chance of the game trying to throw you off by suddenly throwing you a slower or faster yarn ball.

This post has been edited by Mars Adept Enten: Jan 14 2015, 02:48 PM

[Mars Adept Enten]

And here we are, at the final minigame in Pokémon-Amie.

Tile Puzzle

For general information, I used this article.

Basics
In this minigame, you attempt to complete a puzzle by tapping a piece then tapping the piece you wish to swap it with.

Score-Rankings
0-4.5 stars: Easy: Puzzle Amateur Normal: Puzzle Semipro Hard: Puzzle Pro Unlimited: Puzzle Elite
5 stars: Easy: Puzzle Wizard Normal: Puzzle Champion Hard: Puzzle Hotshot Unlimited: Puzzle Legend

Score-Minimums for each rank
0 stars: Easy: 1+ min. Normal: 2+ min. Hard: 3+ min. Unlimited: See "Unlimited Differences" section below.
1 star: Easy: 51 sec.-1 min. Normal: 1 min. 31 sec.-2 min. Hard: 2 min. 1 sec.-3 min. Unlimited: See "Unlimited Differences" section below.
2 stars: Easy: 41 sec.-50 sec. Normal: 1 min. 1 sec.-1 min. 30 sec. Hard: 1 min. 41 sec.-2 min. Unlimited: See "Unlimited Differences" section below.
3 stars: Easy: 31 sec.-40 sec. Normal: 51 sec.-1 min. Hard: 1 min. 21 sec.-1 min. 40 sec. Unlimited: See "Unlimited Differences" section below.
4 stars: Easy: 21 sec.-30 sec. Normal: 41 sec.-50 sec. Hard: 1 min. 11 sec.-1 min. 20 sec. Unlimited: See "Unlimited Differences" section below.
4.5 stars: Easy: 16 sec.-20 sec. Normal: 31 sec.-40 sec. Hard: 51 sec.-1 min. 10 sec. Unlimited: See "Unlimited Differences" section below.
5 stars: Easy: 15 sec. or less Normal: 30 sec. or less Hard: 50 sec. or less Unlimited: See "Unlimited Differences" section below.

Unlimited Differences
Unlike Easy to Unlimited not having many differences with the other two minigames, Unlimited Tile Puzzle is quite different from the difficulties that precede it. In Unlimited difficulty, it's basically how MANY puzzles you complete that decide your ranking as opposed to how FAST you complete them. Here's the different criteria Unlimited uses:

0 stars: 0-1 puzzle
1 star: 2 puzzles
2 stars: 3-5 puzzles
3 stars: 6-8 puzzles
4 stars: 9-12 puzzles
4.5 stars: 13-16 puzzles
5 stars: 17+ puzzles

Hints and Tips
1: (Applies to all difficulties) Go for the border! Filling the border tiles first will be helpful in getting better times or more puzzles solved.
2. (Applies to Hard and Hard-level puzzles in Unlimited): Memorize troublesome portions! Say you have trouble with certain parts of the puzzle. Memorize those portions and the order the pieces in those portions go in to get better times or another puzzle solved.
3. (Applies to Hard and Hard-level puzzles in Unlimited, goes with the above): Beware tricky parts of puzzles! Depending on the background for the picture that the completed puzzle shows, it might be hard to figure out where pieces go. A good example would be the forest background. The dark upper portions of the trees are sometimes hard to complete. Try to match up similarly-colored pieces to circumvent this difficulty. Like, if it goes from black to a lighter brown, try to arrange pieces with those colors next to each other.