Recruitment
- If you were looking for the the mechanic in Pokémon Conquest, see Warrior#Recruitment.
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This article is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this article to add missing information and complete it. |
Recruitment is the main method of obtaining new Pokémon in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity. After defeating an enemy in a dungeon, it will occasionally offer to join the player's team.
In Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, if a newly-recruited Pokémon—a recruit who has never cleared or warped out of a dungeon or didn't make it to a rest stop—or the team's leader faints before making it out of the dungeon, it will leave the party permanently. Dungeons consisting of multiple parts—such as Mt. Thunder—will count reaching a checkpoint as making it out.
The games contain items that increase the chance of Pokémon asking to be recruited. These are important as the base recruit rate of certain Pokémon, most notably Kecleon, is below zero.
There is a limit of 413 Pokémon at one time in Red and Blue Rescue Teams. In Explorers of Time, Darkness and Sky, the limit is 552 instead, and in Gates to Infinity, it is 288.
In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, recruitment is no longer present. Instead, the player must connect with other Pokémon in order to expand their team.
Requirements
In addition to the prospective recruit having an effective recruit rate higher than zero, there are several other prerequisites for recruiting a certain Pokémon to be possible:
- In the first two games, offers will only be made if there is space in the current party. In the sequels, this requirement was removed, instead excess members simply warp out of the dungeon. In Explorers of Sky and Gates to Infinity, players can choose if they want to send home the recruited Pokémon or not.
- The team leader must deal the finishing blow that causes the enemy to faint. Status conditions such as poisoned, even if inflicted by the team leader do not count.
- The enemy must be adjacent to the team leader when the finishing blow is delivered. However, Pokémon that are not immediately recruited when the final blow is dealt, but after a short cutscene (many Legendary Pokémon for instance), are an exception to this rule.
- Some Pokémon, such as Omastar in Brine Cave, are unrecruitable. In addition, many boss legendary Pokémon cannot be recruited on the first visit. In Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, all but nine fully-evolved Pokémon cannot be recruited and have to be acquired via evolving.
Additional requirements
Red and Blue Rescue Team
- The player must be able to buy Friend Areas; the ability to do so is unlocked after clearing Mt. Steel.
- The player must have bought the Friend Area that a prospective team member belongs to. This means that some Pokémon cannot be recruited until the post-game, because their Friend Areas aren't available for purchase until then. This is not the case for some legendary Pokémon such as Kyogre, whose Friend Areas cannot be bought; instead, their Friend Areas are unlocked after they are recruited.
Explorers of Time, Darkness and Sky
- Chimecho Assembly must be open to the player's team.
- Boss legendary Pokémon no longer have to be defeated by the team leader, in order to be recruited.
Rescue Team DX
- Recruitment will still begin after finishing Mt. Steel, where the player will then be able to acquire Friend Camps.
- Players can now temporarily recruit members after defeating the enemy. If these temporary recruits are with the team when the player escapes the dungeon, the player will have the option of permanently recruiting these members should they have the appropriate Friend Camp and availability.
- The player's team may only have enough temporary recruits to fill a party of eight. Any more will require one of the other members to be released.
- If the player declines recruitment at the end, or does not have the appropriate camp unlocked, the Pokémon give the player a small amount of money "for a fun adventure".
- Recruitment is temporarily unavailable during specific portions of the story, specifically from Lapis Cave to Mt. Freeze Summit, and also the first visit of Sky Tower.
- Recruitment for most legendary bosses will now be guaranteed upon their first defeat after clearing the story.
- Shiny Pokémon can only be recruited when the player is wearing the Friend Bow.
Recruitment rate modifiers
Recruitment rate by level
Red and Blue Rescue Team
| Level | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 1-29 | +0% |
| 30-39 | +5% |
| 40-49 | +7.5% |
| 50-59 | +10% |
| 60-69 | +12.5% |
| 70-79 | +15% |
| 80-89 | +17.5% |
| 90-100 | +24% |
Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky
| Level | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 1-29 | +0.0% |
| 30-39 | +5.0% |
| 40-49 | +7.5% |
| 50-98 | +12.5% |
| 99-100 | +24.5% |
Fast Friend
The IQ Skill "Fast Friend", available in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, raises the recruitment rate by 5%. It's important to notice this 5% is crucial for recruiting Kecleon, which has a recruitment rate of -49.5%, making it impossible to be recruited with only a high level Pokémon and a Golden Mask.
Fast Friend is learned only by Pokémon in IQ Groups B and H.
Recruitment-affecting items
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Friend Bow
In Red and Blue Rescue Teams, the only such item to increase recruitment is the Friend Bow. When held by the leading Pokémon, it raises the recruitment rate by 10%. The bow is located behind a door needing a key to open on floor 30 of Mt. Faraway. Further Friend Bows can be purchased from Kecleon shops in Joyous Tower. In Explorers of Time and Darkness, the Friend Bow's effectiveness is reduced to 5%, but is supplemented with a number of other items. It can still be bought from Kecleon Shops in Zero Isle North, and in Explorers of Sky, the Friend Bow is able to be won as a prize item from the Recycle Shop in Spinda's Café.
In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, it functions identically to the original, but it also allows the leader to recruit Shiny Pokémon. The Friend Bow's location has also been moved to the end of Solar Cave.
The following Wonder Mail S mission allows the player to explore the Drenched Bluff and receive the Friend Bow as a reward.
| Pokémon | Wonder Mail Code | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Rescue Pidgey | 1PK1F
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Q7C3HT6
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6&J19
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C2T3R
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+M98KJ-
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RN43F
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Amber Tear
Introduced in Explorers of Time and Darkness, the Amber Tear can be found located on floor B40F of Zero Isle West, or given as a reward for a mission in search of the Amber Tear. It is essentially a 'mid-tier' recruitment boosting item, with the ability to boost the user's recruitment rate by 15%.
Golden Mask
The Golden Mask, also introduced Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Darkness, has the highest boost to the recruitment rate of any item, at 20.1%. It should be noted that this boost is necessary to recruit Kecleon. It can be found on floor B75 of Zero Isle North, or given as a reward for a mission in search of the Golden Mask.
The following Wonder Mail S mission allows the player to explore a Golden Chamber with Infernape and receive the Mask as a reward.
| Pokémon | Wonder Mail Code | |||
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Explore with Infernape | NN00S
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655M=4Q
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-+8J0
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N2%%%
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NXQN4Y2
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PQ&RN
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The Seven Treasures
- Main article: Seven Treasures
Each of the Seven Treasures raises the recruitment rate by 20% for Pokémon of one particular type among Ground, Fire, Flying, Grass, Ice, Water and Rock.
Friend Gifts
- Main article: Friend Gift
In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, a Friend Gift raises the recruitment rate for Pokémon of one particular type. They are given to the Pokémon and the Pokémon will decide whether to accept the Friend Gift and join the team or not. The Friend Gift is not lost from the items list if it is rejected. Friend Gifts do not work on evolved Pokémon.
There are also Friend Gifts for specific Pokémon.
Friend Gifts are given as prizes after completing missions. They can be bought at Gift Shop. They are also available with specific passwords.
Orbs
In Rescue Team DX, two new orbs were created to help with the recruitment process. An Inviting Orb will boost the recruitment rate of all enemies within the floor, while the Rare Quality Orb will boost the chances of recruiting enemies with a rare quality.
Rare Qualities
- Main article: Rare quality
In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, Pokémon can obtain two rare qualities that affect the team's recruitment rate.
"Friendly" gives a flat bonus.
"Squad Up" gives a bonus for each member of your team, giving the largest bonus when your team consists of 8 Members (excluding "Guest Pokémon" brought in for missions).
In other languages
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Friend Bow
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Amber Tear
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Golden Mask
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This article is part of both Project Sidegames and Project ItemDex, Bulbapedia projects that, together, aim to write comprehensive articles on items in the sidegames. | 
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