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up vote 7 down vote favorite

I noticed that I get Play Coins when I walk around with my 3DS on.

What are they good for? I know that Nintendo mentioned you would be able to possibly use them in games to unlock things - are there any games out now that use them? What sort of things do they do?

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Hopefully it means next gen pokemon won't have a stupid separate pokewalker for me to break in the washing machine... – Ben Brocka Mar 27 '12 at 20:00

5 Answers

up vote 9 down vote accepted

For built-in software, they're used in:

  • Streetpass Quest I and II: Two coins apiece for a "wanderer", random color, level 1 or 2, that goes along with miis you've met. It's usually a good idea to max out to have 10 characters in the party whenever you "venture forth". In quest 2 you can also spend 2+level coins to have previously met miis rejoin even without meeting them again.
  • Streetpass Puzzle: 2 coins get you a random blue piece of any panel that you've started but not yet finished. Note that this may be a piece you already have.
  • AR Games: Unlock game modes and other extras.
  • Swapnote / Nintendo Letter Box: Pay 5 coins for stationary.

Additionally, any game can use play coins for in-game unlocks. For example, in Street Fighter IV you can use them to get a random figurine; in Kid Icarus: Uprising you can use them for idol toss eggs.

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Are the stationeries in Swap Note unlocked permanently or is it a per letter thing? – CyberSkull Apr 1 at 10:10
Permanently. Once you pay for it, you can use it as much as you want. – MaHuJa Apr 6 at 22:15
up vote 4 down vote

Additionally to MaHuJa's usages I could use play coins to buy weapons in Raid-mode in Resident Evil: Revelations. I think they were usable in Street Fighter too, but I can't remember properly (and sold the game).

Seems that any 3DS game can use play coins, so it's up to the game-makers to include them.

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up vote 2 down vote

For Swapnote/Nintendo Letter Box, you can buy a background for five Play Coins and save a photo for ten (a bit expensive).

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Nintendo letter box? – Ashley Nunn Mar 27 '12 at 19:45
1  
@Ashley Nunn: Nintendo Letter Box (and various localizations, e.g. Nintendo-Briefkasten) is what Swapnote is called in Europe. – Joe Wreschnig Mar 27 '12 at 21:24
@JoeWreschnig Okay, that makes sense. :) – Ashley Nunn Mar 27 '12 at 21:26
up vote 1 down vote

Another use I know of is to unlock additional features and stationery in the Message Box/Swapnote application

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up vote 1 down vote

There are a lot of uses for them, as others have detailed above. I think many (though not all) 3DS games utilize them in some way as well. I know with Pokemon Rumble Blast you can pay to have visitors to your shop (basically earn extra in-game money) in lieu of waiting to streetpass with someone with the game. I think you will continue to see more and more games using them. I think its in particular games that also use Streetpass/Spotpass (although Mario Kart 7 does not use coins). I most often use them for the Streetpass Mii Plaza games and stationary in Swap Note.

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