Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (All Generations)

Ray Jay

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Certainly you've taken the leap to play these memorable Pokemon spin-offs that are more Japanese than Pokemon if we're honest.



Eventually, we can make individual threads if we have to, this shall serve as the most general discussion thread.


What were your favorite mystery dungeon moments?
For me, trying 18 times unsuccessfully to recruit Kyogre at the bottom of that obscenely deep hole where Kyogre lived in Blue Rescue Team was not one of them. Then, when I finally got it, they announced the new game with Wi Fi compatibilities and Gen IV mons.​

Starters?
Was your 4 move Infernape just oh so broken? Or is the cat out of the bag- Skitty's not actually good! Feel free to discuss the viability of starters and their implications on the Mystery Dungeon metagame. Except not really.​

Recruitment?
Who helped you in game other than your starters and partners? Did you ever find the tediousness of recruitment and the difficulty in leveling other teammates to be worth it?​

Most Strongthest Team You Ever Made?
Heck, why not. Also, feel free to post the team's Wi Fi code or however that works.​
 
What were your favorite mystery dungeon moments?
The first time I beat Rayquaza in Red Rescue team; the scene to follow made my tear up since I had really bonded with my partner Squirtle.

Another great moment was the Sableye mission in Explorders of Darkness. Grovyle is a really cool character and I enjoyed every moment he was in the plot.

Gengar in Red and Blue was also an interesting character who I enjoyed "conversing" with


For starters I generally get the fire types(when I take the quiz honestly) but I've also played through as Machop and a few others. For my partner I pick a water type since they are so cute, all of them :)


I've been meaning to get Explorers of Sky but since I have Time and Darkness i'm not sure yet. I probably will eventually
I also love recruiting and I generally try to recruit as many Pokemon as I can, except for Pokemon I hate. They are rarely worth it since half the missions you cant use them but they are fun for when they can be used
 

atsync

Where the "intelligence" of TRAINERS is put to the test!
is a Pokemon Researcheris a Contributor to Smogon
I've only played red rescue team and I found it strangely addictive. I mean, the games have been criticized for being repetitive, but I could never put RRT down. On the other hand, I've never finished it 100%. Not even close. Some pokemon (Mew) are just so fustrating to befriend and I never had the patience to try properly.

Actually, Kyogre is one of the easiest legendaries to befriend since it has a relatively high recruit rate. It sucks if you get unlucky though.

I always used Charizard as my starter because its Heat Wave is just ridiculous. Seriously, if you level it enough you can instantly kill a room full of water types with one Heat Wave! It's a godsend in Monster Rooms. I actually tried Skitty as a joke once. What a piece of crap. Meowth was a good starter with Fury Swipes + Scratch linked combo, and I remember Machop and Pikachu being decent too (don't think I tried the others though, maybe Cyndaquil).

Pikachu was my partner almost every time since it learned lots of useful moves early on. I don't think I bothered training up anything else for actual use though since Charizard does most of the work.

Another thing I liked about RRT was the music. So catchy...
 
Ah, finally. I absolutely love these games, and have played all of them (except for the WiiWare ones obviously). What impressed me the most was how both the games (Blue and Darkness) were the only form of entertainment that I have ever cried over (apart from the Bambi film, but who hasn't cried there). I mean, you go through so many adventures with your cute little partner, and then when he starts bawling at the end when you begin to fade... that's really emotional man.

For starters, in the first generation games I basically always used either Charmander or Cubone. Charmander because Charizard is my favourite Pokemon, and easily one of the most powerful in the game. Fly is basically a OHKO on anything, Heat Wave decimates all Monster Houses (I love the high PP, why'd they change it in T/D?) and it can also to long range offense with Flamethrower. The base is hideous though... that ugly bald head of Charmander really put me off. Cubone is possibly the best starter in the game though, and makes an excellent partner with Charizard. Lightningrod means that Charizard loses its weakness to Electric-type moves, and you can also use Earthquake without damaging your partner, courtesy of Charizard's Flying-type. It learns a vast array of moves too: multi hit bone based moves are a godsend, but it also learns gems like Flamethrower, Ice Beam and Blizzard. The base is awesome as well, who wouldn't want to live inside a house of bones?

I really like Meowth as a starter in the second games, as Technician gives it a welcome boost to moves such as Bite, Scratch and Water Pulse. It learns some nice utility IQ skills as well, and the secondary ability of Pickup is just a bonus. Mudkip is also a brilliant starter here: the Multitalent ability really shines when Mudkip learns a bunch of powerful moves with low PP such as Hydro Pump, Ice Beam and Blizzard. STAB Dig when it evolves is also awesome, but they really screwed up with the evolution method in the later games. Often I couldn't even be arsed to finish it, due to it taking so long...
 
Charizard was definitely OP in the first game—I mean c'mon, he got Heat Wave at Lv. 1 meaning he could sweep through Dungeons that would put you at Lv. 1.

Any multi-hit moves were broken, I can't count how many times Fury Attack Beedrill and Fearow beat me down in Sinister Woods and Mt. Blaze Peak, respectively.

My favorite game would certainly be Sky, as you still had a shitload of things to do, even after beating down Primal Dialga. The only problem I had with the game is that it has way too much dialogue and treats the player as if they have the memory span of a fish.
 
What I'd like to know is if anyone here actually got Chansey legally in the first Mystery Dungeon games...

Anyways, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is my favorite spin-off. I love exploring through dungeons and recruiting Pokemon. I like the idea of being a Pokemon more than being a Pokemon trainer. Traps and hunger are also 2 interesting features.

Red Rescue version was actually my first Pokemon game. I have fond memories of getting it. I didn't think it could be improved much more; however, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Darkness and Time disproved that theory. Explorers of Time and Darkness fixed all of the big problems the first games had.

Recruitment in the first games was annoying. Want to go on a recruiting spree? You can only bring 1 Pokemon. Not only that, but it was nearly impossible to recruit middle staged Pokemon and impossible to recruit fully evolved Pokemon. It was also very hard trying to keep something such as Silcoon alive so you can keep it without an Escape Orb.

Another big annoying thing about the first games was the damage output. If a Pokemon had only slightly higher stats than you, they were nearly impossible to beat. The same goes for Pokemon that have nearly as high stats as you. However, it's also a good thing: if you gave a few extra gummies/proteins/whatever to your Pokemon, they'd become nearly impossible to beat as well. It was a shame that most Pokemon's Defense stats capped out at 60 without any stat boosting items.

I did miss the awesome 99 floor dungeons and everything having that IQ skill where they can walk through any kind of terrain and break through walls (seriously, only Palkia has that IQ skill in Explorers of Darkness, Time, and Sky).

Overall though, I liked Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky better. I still replay both the Explorer Mystery Dungeons and Red and Blue rescue team a lot. The Mystery Dungeon games are very fun!

Also yeah, Heat Wave Charizard was amazing. Too bad that didn't transfer over to the second games.
 
Oh yeah, if anyone here's ever recruited a Kecleon in either games, you have my respect.
I've never gotten a Kecleon in the Explorers games, but I have gotten one in Red Rescue team.

Kecleon wasn't that hard to get in the first game. Its stats were 195 HP / 96 Atk / 93 SpA / 77 Def / 71 SpD. Get a Pokemon that has at least 200 HP, 120 Atk, 100 Def, 120 SpA, and 100 SpD and you'll do fine against them. The more the better, especially if the Pokemon has enough Attack so that it can OHKO Kecleon with a regular attack. Preferably that Pokemon can also hit everything around it if it gets into a tough situation. Spamming Mt. Blaze is good for finding Kecleon shops.

It takes a while, but it isn't as bad as the Explorers games; they really upped the challenge of getting Kecleon in that game. Kecleon's are much more powerful in them. 255 stat points in everything but HP, which is over 300. Not only that, but you are also limited to a Pokemon that can get the Fast Friend IQ skill. It also doesn't help that there isn't a very good place to spam for Kecleon houses.

There was this one time where I was traveling in Zero Isle South and I found a Kecleon shop. I was just looking around in the shop when a Magnezone regular attack'd me. I was holding a Pass Scarf, and, it passed the attack to Kecleon. Kecleon killed the Magnezone and then followed me around. Curious, I then proceed to steal from the Kecleon shop. It killed me.
 
After seeing this thread, I decided to go hunt for PMD Time or Sky, unfortunately, I have lost Sky :(. Though I found Time so w/e. The first time round, I decided to answer truthfully - I got Squirtle x__x. Not wanting to be a chubby turtle thing, I switched my DS on and off. Decided to pick only the top answers this time, which paid of greatly because I got a Charmander :D

On my various playthroughs of this games, Groudon has ruined me so many times. I needed to pick a Grass / Water-type, though the options were only grass and water mons so w/e. I decided to go with Torterra, as it my favourite grass-type starter.

Now to go my adventure~ oh also screw Kecleon I have died to that thing so many times 9_9 thug 4 life
 

Ray Jay

"Jump first, ask questions later, oui oui!"
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
There was this one time where I was traveling in Zero Isle South and I found a Kecleon shop. I was just looking around in the shop when a Magnezone regular attack'd me. I was holding a Pass Scarf, and, it passed the attack to Kecleon. Kecleon killed the Magnezone and then followed me around. Curious, I then proceed to steal from the Kecleon shop. It killed me.
I messed around with Kecleons quite a bit as I thought it was one of the cooler aspects of the game.

Did some digging and found this, lol.
 
I completed the "dex" in both BRT and EoD, including Chansey and Kecleon.
I never 100%d BRT, however, as I never did see the random Munchlax event to fill my event log thing. I may have used Jirachi to befriend a hard-to-catch pokemon, I can't remember. But I know I caught Kecleon via traditional methods.

BRT Kecleon was harder to get IMO - the recruit rate was lower, as I recall a 0.1% (one in a thousand). I don't remember EoD being as difficult. I got Kecleon in BRT after ~700 Kecleons - I was lucky. In EoD I think it took about 300? But in EoD I think the rate is like 1 in 200.

In BRT my favourite team was Ludicolo, Kyogre and I believe Articuno (I -think- you could have a team that big in total...). Memories are somewhat foggy. Ludicolo/Kyogre was who I used to get Kecleon in the first game.

Basically, because pokemon with multiple abilities get to have both of them at once in MD games, some pokemon become great (Ludicolo has Rain Dish and Swift Swim at once!) while others are bad (Lucario can't be flinched, which means he can't get speed boosts...).

Kyogre brought the rain which kept Ludicolo so happy :D
Ludicolo spent all his time double-attacking, being healed by Rain Dish, and if necessary, he also had Giga Drain for extra healing. I think he also had Bullet Seed, and he may have had Surf and Ice Beam too? Can't remember...
Articuno was mainly there for its room-clearing abilities.

Edit: reading up further, it seems max team size wouldn't have allowed that combination... It may have been that my normal team was Ludicolo/Kyogre/something-1-star (probably Kecleon eventually, maybe Kingdra or some other SwiftSwim abuser...) and Articuno was who I used to level up pokemon? I think I'll have to boot up my cart and find out.

EoD/T/S was strange. It felt like, for every good decision they made to make the game better, they did something else to make it worse.
From memory, recruiting became incredibly easy in terms of pokemon recruitment rates, but they made things more annoying/random in terms of whether the pokemon would turn up in a dungeon (as pokemon were often randomly assigned).
Teams were improved in some ways but made worse in others (you couldn't change team leader while in a dungeon in EoDST, as I recall...)

Also, I actually -liked- the Friend Areas system in B/RRT.

Anyways, love spin-off games. Love B/RRT, quite liked EoD/T/S, and -looooove- the Ranger games. Really looking forward to Conquest, too.
 

atsync

Where the "intelligence" of TRAINERS is put to the test!
is a Pokemon Researcheris a Contributor to Smogon
I messed around with Kecleons quite a bit as I thought it was one of the cooler aspects of the game.

Did some digging and found this, lol.
Wow a Kecleon recruitment guide that fails to recruit Kecleon? Not that it isn't helpful, but it does show how stupid and tedious it is to recruit it.

In RRT, Kecleon had a recruitment rate of -33.9% (lowest in the game). Having your leader at lv. 90 or above adds 24% and holding the friend bow adds another 10%. So the highest rate for Kecleon is (as Least100Seraphs said) 0.1%, and if you don't have the bow and/or your leader is at too low a level it is impossible to recruit it. In other words, you have a 1 in 1000 chance, which is ridiculous when you consider the fact that you have to actually find a Kecleon stall and then buff up your leader to prevent them from being killed. I guess the fact that there are tons of Kecleon swarming you gives you many opportunities to get it though. Still, not sure if I would ever have the patience for it.
 
So thanks to you guys I had to suffer the torment of Kecleon-catching. You all suck. But seriously!

Played Explorers of Darkness for the first time in ages (Seeing as I already had a level 100 fast friend user by chance) and went out and recruited a Kecleon because I felt like I could do it now. For the record, it's a lot easier if you just use the mobile orb to hide in/strike from a wall, as you're effectively invincible while in there. Just bring a lot of oran berries for the hunger-induced pains.

PS: Trying to hit stuff with Delibird is a pain, stupid hustle.

Also for those unaware, PMD2 Kecleon is silly. Level 49, with attack stats of 255/255 and defense stats of 255/252
 
i have no idea why i haven't played any of these games yet

lufia 2's ancient cave is one of my favourite parts of any video game, and i have an autistic obsession with anything involving low drop rates (final fantasy iv psp, 10 1/1280 adamant armors is pussy shit, try farming 700 or so 1/128 soma drops to max everyone's mp). this would probably be the game series of my dreams.
 

Ray Jay

"Jump first, ask questions later, oui oui!"
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Definitely, I think the added RPG elements mesh nicely with the Pokemon series (even if some items like Orbs and Seeds feel a little "forced" but whatever)

In any case, I'm curious if anyone has any experience with the Japanese Wii Ware versions; I really don't know a whole lot and I'm assuming a lot of us don't, so feel free to share!
 
PMD is definitely my favorite spin-off series. It was just so much fun! Sadly... my PMD: Blue Rescue Team got stolen a while ago... but I still do have PMD: EoT!

Some of my favorite moments were the ending of PMD: Blue, and there were lots more moments I remember from EoT. There was that one fountain with the Volbeats and Illumise, it was a nice sight. Also, I loved when Wigglytuff beat up Team Skull (can't remember if that was their name but I think it was)! Yoomtah!

My best starter combo in Blue was Bulbasaur + Charmander; it was the only time I was ever able to get past Sky Pillar... In EoT it was Piplup + Turtwig. I think I'm gonna run through EoT again with Cyndaquil + Something else, Idk yet. I might try Munchlax, though! Or just go with whatever I get... c:

Recruiting in Blue was just terrible; I hated it! But it was also much more rewarding. I remember the friend areas and how you could go visit your team members... I wish that feature was brought back in EoT, I liked it! I don't really have anything else to say about recruitment.

I'm gonna start a new file on EoT soon just because of this thread! Thank you, RayJay! :D
 
All this PMD talk has me wanting to play again... but I don't know which to play. I have RRT, BRT and Darkness, and of the three, BRT is the one I'd go for... but I never played Explorers of Sky.

How much of a difference is there between Darkness and Sky?
I don't mind the idea of picking it up if there's a good reason to play through it.
 
I absolutely love these games. I loved my level 100 Charizard from PMD Red, it OHKO'd anything except bosses with its basic attack. Another great mon is Mudkip- it gets Endeavour eventually, which is great against Primal Dialga and Rayquaza. Cyndaquil or Charmander are amazing partners, having the incredibly broken Smokescreen. Seriously, one of these turns any opponent into a piece of shit.
 
How much of a difference is there between Darkness and Sky?
I don't mind the idea of picking it up if there's a good reason to play through it.
Not a whole lot. It's like the Crystal/Platinum/etc. version in that there's some tweaks and stuff but it's still the same (awesome) story, more or less. The additions are pretty convenient stuff though, and some cool stuff like new dungeons and some side story missions for NPCs, and then there's the cafe, where you can pretty much get IQ skills faster through drinks made from gummis, or the recycling thing which makes getting some items easier (A reviver seed for two escape orbs, of which you can get loads of from the dojo? Sold!) or just a better way to get rid of your junk items.

Overall it depends on how much you'd bother with a third version.
 
How much of a difference is there between Darkness and Sky?
I don't mind the idea of picking it up if there's a good reason to play through it.
The Spinda Cafe is one of the biggest new things in Explorers of Sky. It's incredibly useful for increasing your team's stat boosts with gummies, and it has a few other useful features such as Recycling which also get you some cool stuff. Not to mention that there are many lovable characters that frequent the Spinda Cafe and it's overall an amazing place.

Special episodes are another thing added to Explorers of Sky. In them, you have to go through a mini plot with certain characters from the main game and it gives you more insight on them. They're quite fun, but also annoying. There are 5 of them.

5 new hero's/partners are in Explorers of Sky: Phanpy, Riolu, Shinx, Vulpix, and Eevee.

There are also a few other things: Shaymin's Peak (new dungeon), much better outlaw missions (some you have to take down the outlaw in a monster house!), new dungeon traps, new items, easier accessibility to some dungeons, both time and darkness exclusive stuff, etc.

If you like all of this extra stuff, I suggest that you buy it. The extra features of Sky are really cool, and there is more in Sky that is not in Darkness/Time than what I mentioned.
 

Ray Jay

"Jump first, ask questions later, oui oui!"
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
So I've decided I'm going to go through EoT again; any recommendations for starters / partners?
 
So I've decided I'm going to go through EoT again; any recommendations for starters / partners?
Go for the cool stuff, ie. Treecko and Chimchar or the classic Charmader and Squirtle duo.

I supposed if you wanted to make the game harder, use a Skitty, lol Normalize.
 
Normalize: The only ability that makes your neutral typeless attack into a move following type rules. And gives it STAB. It's hilarious. From what I recall hearing (and a bit of seeing) it actually makes things a bit easier (Since you get up to four STAB moves with effectively every range in the game excluding the neutral attack. Normal-type blizzard!), aside from the things that resist it.

Regardless you could probably just get a partner to help with ghosts/rocks/steel-types, though I don't recall how often they come around (Aside from during super-spoiler part). A water type would probably make for a good partner.
 

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