Red and Blue Rescue Team lay the foundations of the whole Mystery Dungeon series. The rules are simple, but the dungeons do not forgive recklessness. These tips will help you get your rescue team off to a good start.

The quiz and the duo

The personality quiz decides your Pokémon: answer as the Pokémon you want, or start over. Then pick a partner of a different type to cover your weaknesses. The matches are on our Starter Pokémon page.

The dungeon rules

  • Turn-based play: every step, every attack and every item makes the enemies act.
  • Hunger: the gauge goes down as you walk. When well fed, your Pokémon recovers HP as it walks; when starving, it loses HP. Bring Apples.
  • PP: vary your moves, especially against bosses with the Pressure ability, like the legendary birds.
  • Traps: invisible at first, they can poison, put to sleep or warp you.
  • Monster houses: rooms where many enemies drop from the ceiling. Run to a corridor to fight them one at a time.

Missions

Between story steps, complete missions: they earn you money, items, Friend Areas and Rescue Points. Start with ranks E and D, then work your way up. See Missions and ranks.

Recruiting

To recruit a Pokémon, you need its Friend Area, and the leader must be the one to knock it out. Buy the Friend Areas of the Pokémon you want at Wigglytuff’s Club. See Recruiting and Friend Areas.

At the Gulpin Link Shop, you can link two or more moves: they then chain together in the same turn. This is very effective against bosses.

Training

The mazes of the Makuhita Dojo let you train against Pokémon of a given type; there are no items to find and you cannot recruit there. They are useful before a boss whose type you know. See Pokémon Square.