Dress Up Key

The Dress Up Keys (ドレスアップキー) are the main collectible items in Go! Princess Pretty Cure. The Dress Up Keys come in the Cures respective theme colors and also look like their outfits. They can also be used to activate the girls transformation when inserted into the Princess Perfume. Once all Dress Up Keys are collected, the Gate of Dreams will be able to be opened so the Pretty Cure can protect people's dreams. Power of dreams dwells within the keys. The Keys are used by the Cures to change into their Mode Elegant in order to perform finishers.

Abilities
The keys can unlock the Princess Perfumes to enable transforming into Pretty Cure, as well as changing into Mode Elegant in order to purify the enemies. They are also able to free people whose dreams have been locked up by Dys Dark. The Elegant Rose Key, Ice Key and Luna Key are used with the Crystal Princess Rods to perform the attack Trinity Lumiere. The Miracle Lily Key, Bubble Key and Shooting Star Key are used to perform Trinity Explosion.

Cure Flora uses her Crystal Princess Rod with the Rose Key to perform Rose Tourbillon, and the Lily Key to perform Lys Tourbillon.

Cure Mermaid uses her Crystal Princess Rod with the Ice Key to perform Frozen Ripple, and the Bubble Key to perform Bubble Ripple.

Cure Twinkle uses her Crystal Princess Rod with the Luna Key to perform Full Moon Humming, and the Shooting Star Key to perform Meteor Humming.

Cure Scarlet uses her Scarlet Violin with the Phoenix Key to perform Phoenix Blaze, the Hanabi Key for Scarlet Illusion as well as Scarlet Spark, and her transformation key to perform Scarlet Flame.

In the movie Pretty Cure All Stars: Haru no Carnival♪, there is also the All Stars Dress Up Key that activates the Mode Elegant Primavera (the Italian word for "spring") for the Princess Cures. This is an upgraded Mode Elegant. They can use the finisher "Rainbow Tornado" in this form.

Dyspear, the main villain, also created her sinister version of the keys, the Black Dress Up Keys, for Twilight. Her first one can power up the Three Musketeers to create more powerful Zetsuborgs. The second one, a purple key, which Twilight inserts inside her butterfly staff to trap victims inside a mirror-like frame from which she can draw out their despair. This key also has the ability to scatter cross or sword-like objects that burn anyone that it came in contact with. Last is a blue key which can corrupt a Princess Perfume, and then allow Twilight to transform into the Black Princess, a powerful transformation that rivals the power of the Pretty Cures. With the three combined, Black Princess can enter Mode Elegant and fight on equal terms with Trinity Explosion.

After the battle between Lock's clones, Towa receives the Premium Sun Dress Up Key. But just as this happens, Haruka, Minami and Kirara's keys are stolen by Lock. In the episode that follows, the three girls receive their Premium Dress Up Keys from the previous Princess Pretty Cure, which are the Premium Sakura Key, the Premium Sango Key, and the Premium Ginga Key. In episode 30, Haruka, Minami and Kirara retrieve their stolen Keys and as they received the Music Princess Palace, the four Cures use their Premium Dress Up Keys to transform into their Premium Mode Elegant and perform the group attack Éclat Espoir.

In episode 39, when Kanata regains his memories, the present Haruka bought for him turns into the new key, the Royal Key, which grants the Cures a new group attack called Grand Printemps.

In the second part of the movie, Go! Princess Pretty Cure: Go! Go!! Gouka Sanbon Date!!!, the Pumpkin Dress Up Key helps the Cures activate a new Mode Elegant mode and use the finisher Halloween Eclair.

Etymology
Sakura (サクラ) means "cherry blossom".

Sango (サンゴ) means "coral".

Ginga (ギンガ) means "galaxy".

Hanabi (ハナビ) means "fireworks".

Trivia

 * The first opening shows a golden Dress Up Key, hinting that it might be the Cure's source of powering up halfway through the season.
 * There are 12 Dress Up Keys, which was revealed by Prince Kanata.
 * However, with Cure Scarlet's Dress Up Keys, which awakened into true Pretty Cure Dress Up Keys from the previous Black Dress Up Keys, plus her Premium Sun Dress Up Key, there are a total of 16 keys.
 * At the beginning of the second opening, which appeared for the first time in GPPC26, 17 lights are representing the Dress Up Keys, so there may be more keys appearing later in the season.
 * All of the Dress Up Keys (both Elegant and Premium) are in English, except for the Hanabi Key, the Sakura Key, the Sango Key, and the Ginga Key.
 * All of the Elegant Dress Up Keys have their names in English, except for the Hanabi Key.
 * All of the Premium Dress Up Keys start with the letter "S", except for the Ginga Key.
 * Additionally, all of them have their names in Japanese, except for the Sun Key.


 * It is revealed that if a Cure falls into despair, their Dress Up Key won't allow them to transform as Haruka's dream to be a princess was shattered due to becoming depressed which made her Key not work without her strong feelings for her dream.