Hoenn

Games: Ruby / Sapphire / Emerald (Generation 3)

New ribbons: 25

Total ribbons: 27

Effort Ribbon

How to Obtain:

  • Talk to the NPC in Slateport Market when your lead Pokémon has maximized EV’s.

EV training is really useful for making your Pokémon stronger which will be helpful for all of the battle towers we will have to do. You can grab a ribbon for this as an added bonus.


Here is a guide on EV training locations in R/S/E.

Battle Tower Ribbons (2)

How to Obtain:

  • Win 56 consecutive battles in the LV50 Battle Tower

  • Win 56 consecutive battles in the LV100 (R/S) / Open Level (E) Battle Tower

You can attempt these battles in sets of 7, losses will reset the streak and you can change your team at the end of every set.


Unlike newer games, Gen 3 does not have level scaling for towers, so be careful not to go over LV50 without obtaining the LV50 Ribbon first.

(This part of the guide assumes you have read the "General Battle Tower tips" section on the Starting Tips page)


The R/S/E Battle Tower is one of the harder towers in the series, this is mostly due to the sets that opponents will use, things such as OHKO moves and Evasion boosting are common here, and even if these sets don't win all too often, it only takes one loss to end your streak.


There are version differences between the R/S and E towers, ultimately they are pretty similar but I personally found that the R/S tower was easier because the AI felt worse, but you will need to level your Pokémon up to 100, where in Emerald you only need to level to the Open Level which is 60. Playing on Emerald will also give you access to move tutors which may improve your team.


You can find the sets used in the tower here:

Champion Ribbon

How to Obtain:

  • Defeat Steven (R/S) or Wallace(E) at the Pokémon League.

This is the first of many ribbons you get for defeating the champion of a game, these types of ribbons will likely be very easy to obtain, so I won't be giving tips on how to beat them.

Contest Ribbons (21)

How to Obtain:

  • Win Pokémon contests in each of the 4 ranks, for each of the 5 categories.

  • Perform exceptionally well in one of the Master Rank Contests.

There are a total of 20 contests that you need to win in order to get all the ribbons in this category. Contests are broken down into two equally important stages in gen 3:

Stage 1: Contest Condition

The results of this stage are based on your Pokémon's condition, which is obtained by feeding them PokéBlocks. To create a PokéBlock you need to play a minigame after providing a berry to a machine in the contest hall.


In gen 3 there is a limit to how many PokéBlocks you can feed before your Pokémon can be fed no more, this means that you cant just randomly make blocks unless you want to make the contests a lot harder. That being said, you do not need perfect condition to win the contests, and perfect condition can be obtained in gen 6 with ease, so there is no need to reach that perfect mark (which is good cause it's very tricky in this gen)


Below are a few sample plans that you could use for a well rounded contest condition:

++ Berry Blending Plans

Here are some notes that apply to each of the plans:

  • Make sure to blend with 3 other NPC’s (unless otherwise stated), this essentially makes your PokéBlocks more efficient.

  • The order that you feed the PokéBlocks does not matter, with the exception being the last one, make sure you only feed that one after all others have been fed.

  • If you are playing on Emerald the final PokéBlock in the order is made much better if you make it with the Blend Master.

  • Your Pokémons nature and the RPM of the blend do have an effect on the result, but it is minimal, all the options below work with any nature/RPM.


  1. Using 2 Berries from the GC Games (Salac and Petaya)

    • Berries Used: 1 Salac, 3 Petaya, 5 Kelpsey, 1 Hondew and the final berry being an extra Salac.

    • This is the plan I went with for my ribbon masters, I used Mt. Battle for levelling and in the time it took me to get my team from 50-100, I had enough PokéCoupons for 2 berries, it is worth noting that using more than 2 does not give that much of a boost to condition, so unless you really want higher stats I wouldn't recommend it.

  2. Using all berries from the GC games (Salac, Petaya, Ganlon and Apicot)

    • Berries Used: 3 Salac, 1 Ganlon, 1 Apicot, 2 Petaya and the final berry being an extra Ganlon (use 2 NPC blending for both Petaya)

    • This option gives the most condition from single player blending, but honestly it is not worth the time. Choose this if you already have all the berries or really want to have high condition.

  3. Using only GBA Berries

    • Berries Used: 4 Grepa, 3 Hondew, 2 Pomeg, 2 Kelpsey, 2 Qualot and the final berry being a Spelon

    • This option is the easiest to do, but it makes your condition much worse, wouldn't personally recommend unless you really don't want to grind Mt. Battle for PokéCoupons

    • This option is probably the most viable if your R/S/E battery is dead as all the berries can be found and harvested, and no extra need to be grown. (you might need to reset your game if you have already used these berries however)


I have written a much more detailed guide about Single Player Berry Blending if you are interested in learning the mechanics in more detail. Having multiple GBA’s will allow you to make better blends (but the options above are there because I assume most people don't have access to extra GBA)

Make sure to also make use of Scarves, they also boost your contest condition by a nice amount.


A quick way to get all 5 scarves is to get 3 random Pokémon and feed them Pokéblocks blended with 3 NPC using:

  • Pokémon 1: 10 Pomeg

  • Pokémon 2: 10 Kelpsey

  • Pokémon 3: 10 Qualot


You can also transfer these Pokémon into gen 4 to get another set of scarves for free.

Stage 2: Contest Appeal

The results of this stage are based on the hearts that your Pokémon earns during the contest mini-game itself.


This part is a lot more simple than Stage 1, just choose Pokémon moves that give lots of hearts when performed that are ideally of the same contest category (Cool, etc.), and do your best to beat the competition.

A really solid way to do well in the appeal stage without changing moves constantly is to use Contest Combinations, this is when two specific moves are used in order, this will DOUBLE the hearts the second move earns. Having a good combination can often be enough to win even Master contests of another category so it’s worth it to bring a combination into a contest. Here is a list of Contest Combinations (don't scroll too far down as this page includes gen 6 combinations), a good example of a combination that most Pokémon get access to is Rest + Snore / Sleep Talk.

The Artist Ribbon

This is an extra ribbon that you acquire if you perform exceptionally well in any master rank contest. Make sure you first speak to the director at Lilycove Museum or else you won't be able to get it, even if your score was good enough.


There aren't really any tips from me for this one, you are likely to get it from at least one of the 5 Master Rank contests you partake in, and if you don’t you just have to try again!