Pokémon Cafe Mix is the newest free-to-play game from the Pokémon Company. Here you play the brand new owner of a cafe whose customers are exclusively Pokémon. You'll begin only with an Eevee as your shop assistant, but as the business grows, so does the demand for more help. Bringing lots of team members on board is important because each one brings a different skill that lets you tackle puzzles easier. Learn the tricks for how to build up your staff with this guide!
You'll have various visitors to the cafe who become regulars and each one comes with a friendship bar. You earn points simply by getting their orders correct and once you accumulate enough points, you'll raise a tier of friendship and that character will join your staff. Certain Pokemon will begin visiting as you add certain items to the cafe, like the Burger Cushion, which initiates Munchlax joining the cafe.
There are some Pokémon who do not need any friendship points and automatically become staff after clearing a certain order number, such as Snubbull and Charmander. This is different from the Pokémon who start to visit post clearing a checkpoint, like Steenee and Bulbasaur. These are the ones whose friendship you need to build up in order to recruit them. Occasionally a puzzle will come with what is called a Friendship Bonus where you get three stars for clearing a challenge, allowing you to raise that Pokémon's friendship faster. Once a Pokémon becomes part of your staff, you'll continue to raise their friendship (and stats in the process) by filling orders from customers of the same species who visit the cafe. The better their stats get, the better they are at solving puzzles.
Occasionally the game will have "Special Customer Events" with a unique Pokémon who can join your cafe. These ones will only be available in the game for a limited amount of time and you have to level up their friendship before their event ends or you can't keep them permanently. Right now that said one is Scorbunny, who is available from now until July 15, so hop to it if you want this cute fire rabbit!
Everyone has a favorite Pokémon that they love and want to prioritize getting in any game. Cafe Mix has the right tool for this via the Pelipper Bell. This feature allows you to invite two Pokemon to your cafe for a party, giving you extra chances to raise their friendship. The catch is that you cannot pick which two will be the guests of honor so if neither are the ones you want, you'll have to use golden acorns to do another roll and so on until you're satisfied. Do note that this is 200 golden acorns per roll.
With a little patience, recruiting Pokémon is pretty simple once you get the hang of the puzzles. Happy cooking, café owners!