Mystery dungeon

Floors

Floors consist of multiple rooms that are interconnected by hallways. Using a One-Room Orb turns the whole floor into a single room. Each floor consists of 30×54 tiles.

Each time a player visits a dungeon, its floor layout and the items inside it are randomized. Dungeons consist of multiple floors and waypoints, which can be traversed between by using stairs. Tiny Woods has the fewest floors, with only a total of 3 (discounting the Explorer Maze of the Marowak Dojo which has one). The dungeons with the most floors have 99; they are Joyous Tower, Buried Relic, Purity Forest, Wish Cave, Silver Trench, Western Cave, Zero Isle South, and both versions of Destiny Tower.

To advance in the dungeon, players must find the stairs which take them to the next floor. In the earlier games, enemy Pokémon's levels increase as the player progresses through the dungeon's floors.

Boss floor

Some dungeons feature floors that only contain a boss or bosses which the player must defeat. These bosses are commonly Legendary Pokémon and have higher-than-usual HP. Boss floors usually appear at the end of dungeons; however, in dungeons such as Buried Relic they appear between full floors, but still take a floor number. Some bosses can only be battled the first time the player explores the dungeon, as part of the storyline; other bosses appear until they are recruited (or every time if they cannot be recruited). Some bosses cannot be recruited the first time the player explores the dungeon.

On these floors, the player cannot be rescued if they faint. Prior to Gates to Infinity, Wonder Orbs cannot be used on these floors.

Treasure Floor

Treasure Floors are similar to boss chambers in that they usually only appear at the end of dungeons, but instead of containing a boss they simply contain one or several items. In the earlier games, there is a warp zone that allows the player to leave the dungeon (or proceed to the next floor if it is not the last floor).

Golden Chambers

Main article: Golden Chamber

In Explorers of Time, Darkness and Sky, a Golden Chamber can replace a specific floor in a dungeon when a taking a job to find a Golden Chamber. Golden Chambers all look exactly the same, and contain two Deluxe Boxes in the center which can only be accessed by crossing or removing the water, or moving through or destroying walls. These Deluxe Boxes will contain one of several rare items.

Treasure Memo floor

A Treasure Memo floor replaces a specific floor in a dungeon when a taking Treasure Memo job, which can only be found in bottles found on the Beach. Treasure Memo floors contain one Deluxe Box which will contain one of several rare items. There are 30 different possible layouts for Treasure Memo floors. To reach the Deluxe Box, the player must either cross or remove water, move through or destroy walls, use a Key, or any combination of the above depending on which layout the floor uses.

Outlaw Team floor

In Explorers of Time, Darkness and Sky, an Outlaw Team floor replaces a specific floor in a dungeon when taking a job to arrest an outlaw team. There are 5 different possible layouts for Outlaw Team floors. Like boss floors, Wonder Orbs cannot be used and the player cannot be rescued if they faint.

Challenge Floor

In Explorers of Time, Darkness and Sky, a Challenge Floor replaces a specific floor in a dungeon when accepting a Challenge Letter. There are 5 different layouts for standard Challenge Floors, but legendary challengers (Mewtwo, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Jirachi) each have their own unique layout. Like boss floors, Wonder Orbs cannot be used and the player cannot be rescued if they faint.

Secret Bazaar

Main article: Secret Bazaar

In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky, the Secret Bazaar is a special floor that can only be accessed via Secret Stairs. It can appear in any dungeon in which the Secret Stairs do not lead to a Secret Room. It contains several different kinds of services.

Secret Room

In Explorers of Sky, a Secret Room is a special floor that can only be accessed via Secret Stairs. It only appears in Mystifying Forest, Mt. Travail, Marine Resort, Lake Afar, Happy Outlook, Mt. Mistral, Shimmer Hill, Lost Wilderness, Midnight Forest, and Zero Isle East.

Rooms

Turtwig, Mudkip, and Shaymin in a room

Rooms are rectangular-shaped areas that players may traverse through. They may contain Pokémon, items, Poké, stairs, Kecleon Shops, or all of the above. Other tiles may also be present within a room. Monster Houses and traps appear randomly in rooms of dungeons that are unlocked later in the game. When a player arrives at a floor, they always appear in a room.

When inside, the room the player is in will be completely illuminated. All actions in the room can be seen from any point. The hallways leading out of the room can also be seen, and the first tile of each hallway leading from the room is illuminated by the room. When a room is entered, everything in it is recorded on the floor map.

Special floors like boss floors will only contain one room which makes up the whole floor, and is not the size of a regular floor.

Treasure Chambers

Some dungeons may also contain locked doors that can only be opened with a Key. These locked chambers usually contain HMs or evolution items.

In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, keys are not required to open locked doors, which are instead opened by the client of the mission. Unlike previous games, the locked door allows access to a flight of stairs that leads to a newly discovered dungeon.

Hallways

Hallways are long and narrow areas that connect rooms to each other. They are recorded on the floor map only as the player traverses it.

They are typically one tile wide, which prevents Pokémon from passing one another without destroying the walls or being able to pass through walls. Since the space in hallways is very narrow, items will not spawn in hallways, but can be placed there. Traps also will not appear in hallways, and traps cannot be created here by moves like Spikes.

In dungeons like Beach Cave, where visibility is limited, an illuminated circle will appear around the player, allowing them to only see one or two tiles in each direction more clearly. When the player battles an enemy Pokémon, only teammates within visibility will also attack. If a teammate outside of visibility is battling an enemy Pokémon, only the teammate will appear on-screen until the enemy Pokémon is in the circle.

Waypoints

Waypoints are one-room, mezzanine-like floors that connect one part of a dungeon to a deeper part. Waypoints in a dungeon usually indicate that a boss will be present at the end; however, that is not always the case. Waypoints often connect dungeons to a "deeper" or "peak" of the dungeon.

In the earlier games, a waypoint usually contains a Kangaskhan Rock (only Aegis Cave's waypoint lacks one), most of which have only the saving function available, although some waypoints such as the Crystal Cave/Crystal Crossing waypoint allow item storage as well. Waypoints also have the option of returning to Treasure Town or Pokémon Square, or to the entrance of the dungeon in Special Episodes, or when the player is a fugitive, on the guild expedition, or in the future.

Since Gates to Infinity, the Kangaskhan Rock is replaced by a Deposit Box, and there is no option of backtracking.

Restrictions

Dungeons may place restrictions on an exploration team in order for them to enter it. A non-exhaustive list of possible restrictions are:

• All team members are temporarily reduced to level 1^RBTDS/5^GtISMDRTDX (their level is restored when they leave the dungeon), and their moves temporarily become the moves they would normally have at that level (they can be changed upon leveling up, but will reset after exiting the dungeon).
• Only a certain number of Pokémon may enter. If this restriction exists, it is usually in the form of only allowing the team leader, or team leader and one teammate to enter.
• Only the original team leader and original team partner may enter.
• Only a certain number of items may be brought into the dungeon. Excess items are lost^RBTDS or deposited^GtISMDRTDX upon entering the dungeon.
• Items may not be brought into the dungeon (excludes held items in Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team). Any items brought into the dungeon are lost^RBTDS or deposited^GtISMDRTDX if this restriction applies.
• Money (Poké) may not be brought into the dungeon. All money will be lost^RBTDS or deposited^GtISMDRTDX upon entering the dungeon if this restriction applies.
• Pokémon cannot be recruited in the dungeon.

Time

Exploring a dungeon usually counts as one day in a game; however, there are a few notable exceptions (such as fleeing through Lapis Cave, Mt. Blaze, Frosty Forest and Mt. Freeze as a fugitive; climbing Sky Peak; and exploring Mt. Horn, Foggy Forest and Steam Cave on Wigglytuff's Guild's expedition).

Number of turns

A wind blowing in a dungeon

When exploring a floor, a team can only stay on the same floor for only a limited amount of turns. If the team stays on the same floor for too many turns, winds will start blowing. There will be three warnings before the team is blown away by a strong gust of wind, causing them to be kicked out of the dungeon and be defeated. When this happens, being rescued is not an option. The number of turns a team can stay on a floor varies with the dungeon.

Fainting

Pokémon can faint in dungeons.

In the earlier games, if the leader, original partner (before beating the game), or any client Pokémon faints and is not revived, the entire team is transported out of the dungeon. All of the team's money is lost, along with anywhere between half and all of the team's items (exactly which ones are randomly decided).

In Super Mystery Dungeon, all team members with a ★ icon next to their names have to be fainted before the entire team is transported out of the dungeon, in which the expedition is considered a failure. If the player fails an expedition, all items and money in the Bag are lost.

In Rescue Team DX, if the player completed any jobs in the same dungeon prior to fainting, no rewards will be received (including rescue team points) and these jobs are erased.

In certain games, fainted teams can be rescued through Pelipper Island.

Training mazes

Training mazes are a second, much less common type of dungeon that can only be found in the Makuhita Dojo and Marowak Dojo. While their floors, items and Pokémon are randomized every time they are visited, there are a few special things about them. They otherwise are the same as standard dungeons.

• Traveling through training mazes does not count as an in-game day, unlike other dungeons.
• If a player faints in a training maze, items and money that were collected inside them are kept rather than lost.

Meowth Theater

Main article: Meowth Theater

In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, the Meowth Theater is a shop that is located in Lively Town that enables the player to play five different special dungeons as if they were being recorded like a movie.

All dungeons contain enemy Pokémon, which appear randomly. Each dungeon has its own unique set of Pokémon, which is based on the area in which the dungeon is located. Most Pokémon found in dungeons fit a theme, usually a type theme. The levels of the Pokémon in the dungeon get higher as the player enters dungeons unlocked later in the game.

Enemy Pokémon can interact with the player or other enemy Pokémon in various ways:

• Sleeping enemy Pokémon will not move or attack until a member of the player's party steps on a directly adjacent tile or attacks it.
• Enemy Pokémon are capable of throwing items and catching thrown items.
• Enemy Braixen and Delphox can use wands^SMD.
• Enemy Pokémon may defeat wild Shedinja and evolve^SMD/awaken^RTDX.
• Enemy Pokémon can perform Alliances with other Pokémon in the same room^SMD.
• Enemy Delibird can warp in and use Present to heal other wild Pokémon^SMD.
• Enemy Ditto can be disguised as an item. When the player tries to pick up the item, the Ditto will Transform into the player and confuse the whole team except for the leader^SMDRTDX.

Enemy Pokémon will never run out of PP for their moves, unlike the player-controlled Pokémon.

Strong Foes

The contents of this article have been suggested to be split into Strong Foes. Please discuss it on the talk page for this article.

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Exact probability of a Strong Foe being Shiny per floor, Strong Foe spawn rates

Introduced in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, Strong Foes are enemy Pokémon that may appear once a dungeon has been beaten. These Pokémon are much stronger than the ones normally contained in the dungeon, in both power and recruitability, and appear in dungeons that they do not normally appear in (such as a Rapidash in Mt. Steel). Dungeons with Strong Foes will be indicated on the dungeon select screen, and have a chance to appear when going up or down a floor. Only 27 dungeons in Rescue Team DX will contain these Pokémon. Strong Foes also have a chance to be Shiny, and as such are the only way currently to recruit Shiny Pokémon. The rate for encountering shiny Pokémon has been denoted to be very rare among appearances, exceptionally so in dungeons with many Pokémon. Below is a list of Strong Foes and where they can appear:

No.	Lv.	Sprite	Name	Dungeon	Shiny Rate
#0012	60		Butterfree	Howling Forest	1/11
#0038	60		Ninetales	Northern Range	1/11
#0078	40		Rapidash	Mt. Steel	1/13
#0101	60		Electrode	Mt. Faraway	1/11
#0102	60		Exeggcute	Wyvern Hill	1/11
#103	60		Exeggutor	Pitfall Valley	1/11
#0121	60		Starmie	Grand Sea	1/11
#0129	60		Magikarp	Marvelous Sea	1/11
#0130	60		Gyarados	Waterfall Pond	1/6
#0132	60		Ditto	Buried Relic	1/2*
#0149	60		Dragonite	Mt. Thunder	1/11*
#0163	60		Hoothoot	Murky Cave	1/11
#0164	20		Noctowl	Lapis Cave	1/6
#0181	30		Ampharos	Sinister Woods	1/6
#0184	19		Azumarill	Mt. Blaze	1/6
#0185	60		Sudowoodo	Desert Region	1/6
#0190	60		Aipom	Solar Cave	1/11
#0196	60		Espeon	Remains Island	1/11
#0202	60		Wobbuffet	Darknight Relic	1/11
#0213	60		Shuckle	Southern Cavern	1/6
#0222	60		Corsola	Far-Off Sea	1/11
#0327	20		Spinda	Frosty Forest	1/6
#0334	60		Altaria	Fantasy Strait	1/11
#0335	60		Zangoose	Western Cave	1/6
#0376	45		Metagross	Silent Chasm	1/11
#0424	16		Ambipom	Great Canyon	1/6*
#0463	60		Lickilicky	Mt. Freeze	1/6

Fainted Pokémon

In Rescue Team DX, there is a random chance in dungeons that the player will find fainted Pokémon lying on the ground. If given an Apple, they will regain their energy and the player can recruit them.

Main article: Dungeon tile

All floors are mostly covered by ordinary ground. Normal or ordinary ground tiles may be covered with aesthetic effects, such as grass or rocky terrain, and may be traversed by any Pokémon. Traveling across normal tiles does not produce any side effects, even if they do appear to have extremely rocky terrain. However, this terrain does affect moves such as Secret Power, Nature Power, and Camouflage.

Special terrain that only certain Pokémon can cross also exist. They are water, lava, pit, and wall.

Traps and Secret Stairs sometimes appear hidden on the floor.

There are six dungeons that are only accessible in the demo of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky sent via DS Download Play. These six dungeons are Little Plains, Mt. Clear, Challenge River, Trial Forest, Guiding Sea, and Hidden Shopkeeper Village. The demo can be downloaded from a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky game or the Nintendo Channel. In these dungeons all Pokémon are male and some of the sounds such as when picking up items have been replaced with another sound.