The Shops of Shuffle

It is no secret that Pokémon Shuffle on the 3DS is a free-to-play game with optional purchases to be able to get ahead. To that end, Shuffle also contains its own set of shops where certain items can be purchased to aid in gameplay. All the shops can be accessed by the "shopping basket" icon, and once there, players can enter one of three different shops to do different things in each one.

Buy Jewels. While this shop is listed at the bottom, it's actually the most important shop. Jewels are the unit of exchange (that is, currency) for items of special circumstances, including items in the other two shops, and this is where and how players can get more of them than what they've earned otherwise. The shop is connected to the Nintendo eShop, so it uses the balance from that for the purchase of Jewels. Bulk purchase of Jewels carry a bonus of more Jewels, as well as other increased in-game bonuses. This shop may also be accessed from the other two shops from an icon.

Shop. This shop is the basic shop for exchange of Jewels into the basic items of Hearts and Coins. The more Jewels that are exchanged, the greater amount of items that are received, and at a cheaper rate. Only four specific exchange amounts of each are available, however, and they're all-or-nothing. Further, if an exchange amount would put the amount over the maximum (99 spare Hearts, 99999 Coins), the exchange amount is unavailable until enough have been used up to allow the exchange to occur. It's a nice safety mechanism to keep players active.

Special Shop. This shop contains even further specialized items that activate certain conditions and is only periodically available. The conditions affect how Hearts are recovered, in addition to being time-limited and available one at a time, not to mention at limited amounts. They are truly special in that sense because the items may have greater utility and value than directly exchanging for Hearts and Coins, which means it may be well worth it to spend Jewels here rather than at the regular shop.

Enterprising Shuffle players who aren't dodgy about spending their eShop balance will likely find themselves perusing the Shops quite often. It's up to them to decide how many Jewels they need and for what purpose. The approaches of item usages are as varied as the items being offered, and they really do enable players to get ahead in Shuffle for whatever the players choose to spend.