The remake decided to revamp how this dungeon works and oh boy it's a doozy.
The good:
- It remains 20 floors. Not so shabby there.
- You can bring teammates now, rather than being limited to yourself.
- Poke isn't the only thing that spawns in the dungeon. You get to see a lot of regular items like Max Elixir and Apples, and some special ones like Sitrus Berry and Reviver Seeds (more on this below).
- You aren't limited to 3 items anymore, which is great. Bring as many items as you want (specifically, Max Ethers/Elixirs). YOU'RE GONNA NEED IT.
The bad:
- The gimmick of dungeon has slightly changed from "track down the sole Deoxys Clone to unlock the stairs". It is instead "Defeat the real Deoxys on each floor." Deoxys appears near the stairs, never leaves the room with the stairs, and you must defeat it in order to progress forward. It has low HP and will warp to the next floor. You simply repeat this 19 times.
- What's so different about the above? Of course, this lovely objective has a few roadblocks. Accompanying the real Deoxys are clones, of which there are many in each floor. While it's not necessary to defeat them this time around, they behave like regular enemies, with their minmaxed stats coming into play as you begrudgingly kill them: giving Deoxys-A a free turn will either mean death or a significant chunk of HP lost, but at least it dies quickly. Deoxys-D quite simply does not die and will stall out your PP with Iron Defense and Amnesia. Deoxys-S will dodge as many moves as it possibly can with its high Speed stat (remember Speed influences accuracy / evasion modifiers in this game).
The UGLY:
- A new addition to the dungeon is the great addition of:
Deoxys Monster Houses.
You read that right. This means that if you stumble upon these (whether on purpose or otherwise), be prepared to be devastated by the undying Deo-D backed up Agility from Deo-S (which still boosts everyone's Travel Speed!) compounded by Pressure draining your PP for EACH opponent you hit: You might only be able to use Blizzard twice before you need to use a Max Ether!
At least Monster Houses have good rewards inside them, so that helps.
- THE BOSS FIGHT:
If you make it through those 19 floors, you get to this mess.
Unlike its original incarnation, Deoxys does not fight alone. It summons 3 clones (one of Deoxys-A, Deoxys-D, and Deoxys-S) with custom movesets for the boss fight. Deoxys is backed up by Deo-A blasting you and your teammates with murderous Psycho Boosts, Deo-D using Light Screen to shield everyone from your AoE or special moves, and Deo-S activating Agility to make sure you get to experience all of this again before moving. Fortunately, the clones do have the same stats as the ones in the dungeon.
HOWEVER, add-on to the fact that Deoxys can
resummon these clones immediately if you kill off all of them, has access to Teleport, Cosmic Power, and the broken
Recover to make sure you don't kill it, and Pressure sapping all of your moves PP at crucial moments in the battle... this boss made Mega Rayquaza look like a joke to me.
It took me locking out the clones from supporting Deoxys and eating an Empowerment Seed to outdamage Recover with fully powered up Double Slap.
Do all of yourselves a favor and come with a plan to lock Recover out and plenty of Max Ethers / Elixirs for the Pressure gauntlet. Had to rethink my strategy very deep in the battle after I was losing Reviver Seeds left and right.