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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX: How to Recruit New Pokemon to Your Team

We show you how to catch - or rather hire - new recruits and Pokemon to your rescue team.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX has a strong focus on hiring new Pokemon to add to your rescue team, allowing you to customize your members and your squad. We'll show you how to recruit new members and how to increase your chances of recruiting pokemon along with it.

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Recruiting Pokemon

Recruiting Pokemon is a feature that unlocks after defeating the Skarmory Boss fight at Mt. Steel, about 2-5 hours into the game. The day after beating him and rescuing Diglett, you'll be able to visit Wigglytuff's store in Pokemon Square, to the right of Persian at the Felicity Bank. There'll be some dialogue wherein the system is explained to you and Magnemite joins your team, and afterwards you'll be able to recruit new Pokemon to your Rescue Team while exploring dungeons.

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How to Recruit New Pokemon to Your Team

To recruit new Pokemon, you need to defeat them with your team leader (namely, whatever Pokemon you're playing as), escort them safely through the rest of the Dungeon, then have the right camp waiting for them to live in at the other end. If you don't have the right camp, you'll get a random amount of money and the recruited Pokemon will disappear.

Toot-toot! All aboard the friend-ship! | Joel Franey/USgamer, Spike Chunsoft/Nintendo

How to Get New Camps

You can buy Camps from Wigglytuff in Pokemon Square. Each one is a specific environment designed from specific Pokemon, such as Thunder Crag being good for certain hardy electric types or Stump Forest being good for bugs. You can check what Pokemon species each Camp can hold by going to Wigglytuff and checking either his camps list, or the Pokemon list. You can't get this information about any Pokemon you haven't encountered yet.

If you've recruited a Pokemon in a dungeon but don't have the right camp waiting, you can solve this by finding and using a Wigglytuff Orb item. These allow you to remotely access Wigglytuff's shop from inside a dungeon, but it won't make the camps any cheaper, so make sure you have the money to buy them or else it'll be wasted.

Wigglytuff can provide you with all the camps you'd need, whether you're looking for lackeys or legendaries. | Joel Franey/USgamer, Spike Chunsoft/Nintendo

How to Increase Your Chance of Recruiting Pokemon

There's no way to absolutely guarantee a Pokemon will join, but you can boost your chances by doing some or all of the following:

  • Make sure you defeat the Pokemon with your team leader! If you're worried one of your allies might finish them off, go into the tactics menu and select "don't use moves" or "run away from enemies."
  • Use an "Inviting Orb," which can either be found in Dungeons, given as a reward for rescue missions, or bought from the Kecleon Shop in Pokemon Square. Inviting Orbs increase your chances of recruiting Pokemon on the floor you're currently on.
  • Use a "Rare Quality Orb". Available in all the same ways as the Inviting Orb, the Rare Quality Orb has the same effect, but only on Pokemon with rare qualities, ensuring you'll only get the cream of the crop.
  • Check your own team's qualities. Powers like Squad Up, which increases recruitment chances as your team gets larger, can be a huge boon to general recruitment and building a diverse team.
  • Get a Friend Bow! These rare items are most usually found at the end of post-story Dungeons, and can be held by the team leader for a massive increase to recruitment chances.

How to Visit Camps and Add Pokemon to Your Rescue Team

Once recruitment and camps are unlocked, you can access them by taking the path left from your home base. This'll open the menu of all the camps you have, and by selecting one you can see who's living there, check their stats and give them Gummis to eat.

The quickest way to add Pokemon to your active team is by selecting the "Edit Team" option when you're preparing to go to a Dungeon. You can have multiple team set-ups and builds, and the option to edit one comes up when you click on it. Most Dungeons allow teams of three (though you can recruit more when you're in there), and in plot-essential missions at least one or two of those will probably be occupied by you and your partner.

You can tweak the members of your team just before going into a dungeon. | Joel Franey/USgamer, Spike Chunsoft/Nintendo

There's no shortage of Mystery Dungeon content to enjoy on USG. You can see Joel's full review, or go here to see Kat's early impressions of the game.

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