Bottle Cap & Festival Plaza Guide, of sorts

When I went to the Internet to seek the information I wanted to know about Bottle Caps, Festival Plaza and how to get the most FC, everything seemed rather vague and scattered.

So, I thought I'd put together the things I've found and heard to make the process that was hard for me a bit easier for you.

That being said, I still don't understand all the aspects of Festival Plaza, so if my questions can be answered and your questions can be answered, this should be helpful for everyone : ]

OK, let's start

First and foremost, a Bottle Capis this super awesome item introduced in Gen 7 that makes a non-31 iv stat of a Pokémon act like it has the perfect 31 ivs, if that makes sense. This is great for breeders and for shinys, where you can now just Bottle Cap that missing iv instead of breeding more eggs, or finally put that trophy shiny with a good nature to battle.
Because the stat you Bottle Capped only acts as if it has 31 ivs, you cannot breed them down to future offspring, and, Bottle Caps only work on Level 100 Pokémon.
Now, yes this is an amazing item, but it is super rare. There are easy ways and hard ways of getting them tho.....

Magearna event = When you scan that Magearna QR code, it will be holding a Bottle Cap when you receive it!
Defeat Mina in Poni Gauntlet = After you defeat her, she'll reward you with a Bottle Cap!
Fishing in Seafolk Village = Go into the Steelix boat and leave thru the other exit, there is a Fishing Spot that has a rare chance of a Bottle Cap being pulled up! Also the TM for Flash Cannon for that Magearna
Get a 30 win-streak at the Battle Tree = Do this, and go back the next day for a Bottle Cap!

Those are the other options that you should do if you have not, but
The best way to get consistent Bottle Caps, is w/ Festival Plaza!

*What you want to do first is reach Rank 8 so you can ask people online "Do you know any good facilities?"
-The best way to get FC is to join popular missions, such as Type Matchup Test. Not only do you have to do good but the more participants there are means the more FC you can get. I don't know how to host a mission, so if someone can enlighten me that'd be awesome
*Ask a bunch of trainers in your plaza this question, and if one responds with the facility "Treasure Hunt 2 stars," then your golden
<-- Treasure Hunt 2 stars
*Immediately make them one of your VIPs, as it is crucial for later
-The tricky part is that I believe they have to be online in order to register them as VIP, which is why you may get something like "Registration Failed" half the time. My advice is to go on Wondertrade if you're having trouble finding someone. There, you can not only collect 2 FC from them, but also guarantee them to be online
*Install this facility to your plaza for 100 FC, and you automatically get the No. 2 prize, a Bottle Cap, for the first time you interact with the facility

Now here's where the exploiting comes in...
*Every time you rank up your plaza, Sophocles will most of the time reward you by introducing you to a new facility, FOR FREE
*SO, when this happens, replace Treasure Hunt 2 stars with that new facility, and then call up that trainer that's your VIP that suggested Treasure Hunt by going to the lady at the left, middle table, in the tux, inside the castle

*Your VIP will reinstall it again for another 100 FC
***And so when you go to the newly reinstalled Treasure Hunt 2 starts, you will again get the automatic No. 2 prize for your first time at the lotto, which is a Bottle Cap***

Essentially, Bottle Caps = 100 FC, guaranteed
*But, if you don't want to wait for a Rank up, you can always scope out trainers in your plaza, and find one that will recommend a 1 star facility
*It will cost 50 FC for that, but after you've replaced your Treasure Hunt 2 star with it, call up that VIP and have him reinstall it for 100 FC, and get your Bottle Cap
**That method will make Bottle Caps = 150 FC, guaranteed**

There's also one other thing, there is a man at the top left corner inside your castle that will trade you
30 shards of one color for a Bottle Cap
And the only way to get consistent shards brings us to

Poke Pelago
*This method is a lot slower than the Treasure Hunt 2 star strat, but it can be done in the background when you're not in the plaza
*So, the isle that is most important for shards and Bottle Caps is Isle Aphun
*Much like Festival Plaza, you're going to want to rank up this isle for this method, but getting Pokémon in the pc and tapping beans that fall on Isle Abeens is a lot easier than getting Festival Coins, imo
*Rank 2 will actually be enough, which requires 30 PC Pokémon and 60 beans
*The two explorations/missions that you want to do are "Path to Odd-Shard Hunting!" and "Path for Rare-Treasure Hunting!"
<-- Rare-Treasure Hunting
*Odd shard hunting is what you need to eventually get 30 shards for that Bottle Cap, but it provides like 1 shard per color, and you can only do this mission once a day, which is super slow but still an option
*If you really want to test your luck, send your Pokémon on the "Path for Rare-Treasure Hunting" for a chance at a Gold Bottle Cap , which I have only gotten once

A Gold Bottle Cap makes it that all the stats of one of your Pokémon increase as if they had 31 ivs, basically you can make a mon with 6iv stats but they don't actually have the perfect 31 in each stat.


So there you have it, the best way and other methods on how to get Bottle Caps and how to use Festival Plaza to get a bunch!
I can definitely see a patch for this in the future, so I encourage you to try it out before its inevitable fix.

I hope this was helpful, sorry if it was a bit long, and go get those caps