In Shining Nikki, you will come across styling battles quite frequently in the main story mode. Tap on Start Journey > Main Story and then tap on a stage. Next press “Start Story”, read the dialogues or skip them. You will be taken to the dress up screen, where you will have to equip high-scoring clothes and accessories to your character to get the highest battle rating. A higher battle rating will secure victory.
When a styling battle begins, each clothing item equipped to Nikki will be rated, i.e. given points. The total points of all rated items will be displayed on the top of the screen. The total score at the top is your styling power. Our Shining Nikki tips, tricks and strategies will help you achieve max styling power and also provide tips to increase rating for each clothing item during a styling battle.
Table of Contents
Battle Rating
During styling battles, the top yellow bar displays your battle rating and the score suggests your total styling power. Battle rating increases (fills up) when you equip high-scoring dresses and accessories to Nikki. Battle Ratings are based on grades, with C being the lowest rating and S being the highest rating. There are 4 grades in a battle – C, B, A and S. Your goal should be to get “S” rating, which shows that you have reached the highest score or “styling power”.
In versus styling battles, there will be two bars on the top of the screen – yellow and blue. Blue is your opponent’s bar. If your battle rating, i.e. the yellow bar occupies more space on the top bar than the opponent’s blue bar, you win. Again the goal would be to get an “S” rating, which means highest score in a “Vs.” styling battle. Check out our video walkthrough below to get an example of “versus” styling battle:
Now let’s find out how to reach “S” rating/obtain the highest styling power in any battle:
Colored Styles
A styling battle requires a certain style to begin with. While dressing up Nikki, you must use clothes and accessories that match the required style. There are five color-coded styles – yellow, green, red, purple and blue. Each style indicates the current mood of the battle – For example: “Fresh” style has the color green. The screenshot below shows the five colored styles:
In the main story mode, tap on a chapter/stage to open the information screen. The info screen displays the rewards you will be earning if you win the style battles. The required style is displayed on the top-left corner of the stage information screen.
A particular chapter stage in the story mode begins with dialogues, you can read or listen to them or press the skip button to jump right into the styling battle.
Clothes and Accessories Should Match the Required Style
Before a styling battle begins, you will have to equip the best cloth pieces and accessories in the preparation screen.
In the battle preparation/dress up screen, you can see the required colored style on the left side of the screen under “styling power”, as shown in the screenshot below:
Increase the styling power by equipping the right clothes matching with the required colored style. According to the above screenshot, I should equip only those clothes that have the yellow colored style. Thankfully, the game filters clothes, hairstyles, shoes and accessories only by the matching style (in this example, its yellow). In another battle, the required style color would be different. Always pay attention to the style color before equipping clothes to your character.
To equip a hairstyle, dress, coat, top, bottom, shoes and accessories to Nikki, tap on each category on the right side of the screen and then select the item that has the highest styling power.
Increasing Styling Power
Now that you know what required style is, let’s find out how to increase the “styling power” (SP). The styling power is the total score of your character’s outfit. Equip hairstyles, dresses, cloth pieces, shoes and accessories
The current styling power is displayed on the top-left corner of the screen. The score is low because I haven’t equipped clothes and accessories to my character.
On the right side are categories, such as Hairstyle, Dress, Coat, Top, Bottom, Hosiery, Shoes, and Accessories etc. Tap on each category to reveal clothing items. Each clothing item carries rarity and points, aka styling power.
Choose a clothing item with the highest score. In the screenshot below, I have selected the “Diving Anthem” dress as it carries the highest points than the others.
Continue choosing items in each category, but make sure you choose an item with the highest score.
When tapping on hairstyles, accessories and clothing items, you might have noticed grades on their pictures. These grades are R, SR and SSR. The higher the grade of an item, the more points it carries. R is the lowest grade of a clothing piece and SSR is the highest grade.
When dressing up Nikki, always choose clothing items, hairstyles and dresses that belong to at least SR or SSR grade to get maximum styling power. Remember that the aggregate value of all clothing items, from head to toe, will be the total styling power. In case you don’t have SSR grade clothing, you can purchase it at the “Store”. In the next section we will learn more about this store.
Obtain Cloth Pieces and Dresses from the Store
While dressing up Nikki before a styling battle, your objective should be to obtain maximum styling power from all clothes, and as explained in the previous paragraphs, you should have SSR or at least SR grade clothing items to increase the styling power.
If you don’t have SSR grade clothing items of a matching color style, you can purchase them at the store.
You will see a link to the store while dressing up your character in the styling battle preparation screen. The store link is located on the left side of the screen and has a blue background color. You can also access the store from Home > Design Center > Apple Apparel, but that would mean leaving the story mode. There’s no need for that as there’s a shortcut in the dress up screen.
The store displays clothing items under each category – hairstyles, dresses, coats, tops, bottoms, hosiery, shoes etc. You will need gold to purchase clothing items. Tap on a clothing item and the tap on the “Buy” button to purchase it.
You can easily obtain gold from main story stages. Other ways to obtain gold is to claim them from the home screen:
1. 7 Day Tour on the left side of the screen
2. Benefits > Daily Login. Play the game every day to claim login bonuses, including gold on certain days.
3. Tasks > Main Journey/Achievements
4. Chapter packs. In the main story mode, you will see a tiny “chapter pack” on the top-right corner of the stage selection screen. Tap on it to know how to obtain a chapter pack. For example, in the second chapter, you will have to get at least 5 “S” battle rating in styling battles to obtain 10K gold and other rewards.
5. You can also replay previous stages to obtain some gold and other rewards.
You will need gold to buy cloth pieces from the store. Once you head to the store, make sure you purchase only those items that match with the current styling battle’s style color. I have explained more about style color in detail in “Color-Coded Styles”. Besides matching style color, purchase items that are of SR or SSR grade.
Dressing Up Nikki
Now that we have the required higher-grade clothing items, it’s time to dress up Nikki. Just tap on each category (hairstyle, dress, coat top, etc.) and wear the highest-grade item.
If you have chosen a “Dress” for your character, then just ignore “Top” and “Bottom” clothing pieces as they will replace your dress and lower points. A high grade dress usually carries more points than individual tops and bottoms.
Under “Accessories” category, you can equip up to 5 accessories to your character. Since there will be nine accessories to choose from, select only those that carry highest points to increase style power.
Using Designer’s Reflection
After you have finished dressing up Nikki, press the “Next” button and select a “Designer’s Reflection”. In Shining Nikki, a designer’s reflection is a skill card that gives a nice little score boost to your total score or “styling power”.
For example: The first designer reflection card named “Leonid – Twinkle Twinkle” increases your total score/styling power by 15 percent. You will get a 15 percent boost right in the beginning, after you choose this designer reflection skill card before pressing the “confirm” button.
During a styling battle, tap on the Leonid Twinkle Twinkle card on the lower right corner of the screen when the hairstyle rating round starts to get additional 9 percent bonus points of your total styling power.
You will acquire new designer reflection cards from the story mode.
The Final Showdown and Making the Most of Skills
After dressing up our character and equipping cloth pieces and accessories with the highest rarity/styling power or points, it’s time to get the highest battle rating.
When a styling battle begins, each cloth piece, hairstyle and accessories wore by Nikki is being rated, i.e. points are calculated. This begins right from the top (head piece/hair style) to bottom (shoes footwear). Pieces are rated based on the styling power or points that they carry. I have explained more about cloth pieces and their selection in the previous paragraphs of this guide.
The aggregate score of all cloth pieces is reflected on the top of the screen, indicated by the yellow bar, known as battle rating in Shining Nikki.
You can boost this battle rating by tapping on skills positioned on the bottom of the screen. These skills provide bonus points when clicked at the right moment.
Tap on one of the four skills at the right time. These skills are:
Perfect Hairstyle: Tap on this skill when Nikki’s hairstyle is being rated. When you tap on perfect hairstyle, a mini-game appears on the screen. Join the numbers 1-2-3 in the right order to get bonus points for hairstyle.
Stunning Aura: Tap on this skill when her dress is being rated. Bonus points will be added to your total battle rating. Make sure you are quick to tap on any skill.
Shiny Shiny: When neck accessories, ear rings, bracelets etc. are being rated, tap on this skill to obtain bonus points.
Brisk Pace: Tap on this skill when her footwear is rated.
Note: All skills have cooldown time. After using a particular skill, all four skills can’t be used for a few seconds. Make sure you tap on a skill immediately when the rating of a corresponding cloth piece has just begun. The rating session of a cloth piece lasts for a few seconds as shown by the yellow circle on the top-left corner of the screen.
Make sure you tap on the correct skill when its corresponding cloth piece is being rated. You can’t tap on “Stunning Aura” when her hairstyle is being rated. . If you tap on the wrong skill, you will have to wait until the cooldown time of all four skills are over and in this way fail to earn bonus points for another cloth piece.
Tip: Don’t forget to claim your pre-registration rewards from Shining Nikki’s home screen. If you have pre-registered for this game, head straight to “Mail” and claim all pre-registration rewards.
You will get these bonuses:
SR Concept, Pink Gems, Fantasy tickets, poses, mystery tickets and stamina for playing the main story mode.
How to set avatar and name card?
On the home screen, tap on “Dressing Room”. Here you can dress up Nikki with the choicest of outfits and accessories that you have purchased from the shop during “styling battles” in story mode. You can also purchase new dresses, hairstyles, tops, bottoms, footwear and accessories from Home > Design Center > Apple Apparel.
Select the best costumes and accessories from these categories on the right side of the screen: hairstyles, dresses, coats, tops, bottoms, hosiery, accessories, shoes etc. All items under these categories were purchased during style battles or from the Apple Apparel.
Tap on each category and tap to select the best item to dress up your character. You can also long-press an item to enter the “Try On” mode, where you can view that item over your character to see how she may look in that dress or accessory.
When ready, press the “Save” button. Next, tap on “Camera” on the top-left corner of the screen. You will enter the picture mode where you can change the background, character’s pose, add photo frame and stickers to the photo. There are also other effects, including an Instagram-like filter effects, lightning, and even the direction of the wind (environment).
To edit your photo and add these effects, tap on “Edit” on the lower-left corner of the screen. You will obtain effects, background and poses from certain missions in the story mode.
Before taking a picture, press the “Edit” button and choose templates, poses, frames, stickers, background, filters etc. All these will be displayed on the bottom part of the screen. Tap outside the edit mode and then press the “Snap” button on the bottom to take a picture.
You can now set your new picture as avatar and name card in Shining Nikki. Tap the “Use as Avatar” button your character’s face will be set as avatar. Make sure you press confirm to set your avatar. Your avatar or profile pic is usually displayed on the top-right corner of the screen.
You can also generate a name card from the picture. Tap “Set as Name Card”, adjust the name card display area and press Generate.
To view your avatar and name card, tap on your avatar picture displayed on the top-left corner of the home screen. A new profile page will be shown on the screen. Here you can see your avatar’s name, the name card on the top and the avatar picture. You can access settings from the profile page and then redeem code to obtain bonus rewards.