Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX Controls and Top Tips

Announced quite suddenly in January as a part of Nintendo’s Pokémon Direct – which also showcased the upcoming Isle of Armour and Crown Tundra – Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX has been a welcomed early year release.

Up until now, there have been sparingly few big-name releases, with most of the news coming in the form of highly-anticipated titles being delayed. Dying Light 2, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Cyberpunk 2077, Iron Man VR, and Marvel’s Avengers have all been pushed back.

There’s a lot to do in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, from picking the best starter combination to recruiting new Pokémon to your team. As such, the game features many controls, which it introduces to the player gradually through the opening stages of the game.

In case you
need a recap or find yourself wondering if you’re playing the game right,
here’s a complete controls guide for the new Mystery Dungeon game on Nintendo
Switch.

We’ll also
be throwing in a few handy tips along the way, while trying to avoid spoilers.

Attack controls in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

Mystery
Dungeon: Rescue Team DX features turn-based dungeon exploration and turn-based
combat. Every time you take a step, Pokémon elsewhere on the map make a move.

When in a
combat situation, after you’ve attacked it’ll be another Pokémon’s turn –
either your partner Pokémon or your opponent.

How to use basic attacks

To use a
basic attack selected by the game, simply press A when you come in range of an
enemy Pokémon.

How to use move sets

To view and
use your Pokémon’s full move set (of which they’ll have four moves), hold down
ZL. A selection of four moves will show, and all you have to do is press the
corresponding button to use that attack.

While this
move select screen is up, your opponent or your partner Pokémon won’t make a
move if it’s still your turn.

If you wish
to customise how your attacks are set out when you press ZL, you can do so by
holding down ZR and pressing the Right button on the direction pad to pick Move
Settings.

In Move
Settings, you then go to Assign Move Buttons to select attacks which you’d like
to reposition on the ZL move selector.

Top Tip: While playing the game, you’ll become
accustomed to just pressing A to attack. So, just in case you do rush into the
ZL move select and accidentally press A therein, make sure you’ve set the move
that you’ll more commonly want to use as A.

What do the attack symbols mean?

While in combat, you’ll notice that each move will have different icons next to it in your ZL move selector. Some of these symbols will show if a move is ranged, others its effectiveness against the foe at hand.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX Icons

Icons that take the form of little diagonal arrows or what looks like an explosion symbol indicate ranged moves, if a move can hit through a corner, and if the move will deal damage to a wide area (as seen below).

All of the
move type symbols are fairly self-explanatory but shown in the image below for
your reference. As for the effectiveness of the move, a cross means that the
move won’t have any effect on your foe while a bullseye indicates that the move
will be super effective.

How to equip items

Quite early
in Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, you’ll encounter your first throwing item,
Gravelerock.

To equip the
item for use, you simply have to press B to open your Toolbox, hover over the
item – in this case, Gravelerock – and select it with A.

You’ll then
see a menu, with one of the options being to Register the item (to register an
item is the same as equipping an item). If you register it, you can then
quickly throw them at enemies by pressing ZL and ZR at the same time.

Over the
course of the game, you’ll find different types of stones and spikes that you
can pick-up, find in your Toolbox, and then register for use while exploring
dungeons.

Top Tip: Be mindful when registering an item
as your partner Pokémon will use it as soon as they see fit – which often sees
your stockpile of equipped items get cut down very quickly.

How to switch targets

In Pokémon
Mystery Dungeon, you’ll often find yourself up against two opponents, sometimes
in a two-on-one situation when coming out of a corridor.

To ensure
that you don’t burn a turn on moving and you target the Pokémon that you want to
attack, you can tap Y to switch which way you’re facing quickly, or you can
hold Y and drag your aim manually.

How to stop partner Pokémon attacks

When you
start to explore the deeper dungeon jobs, you’ll sometimes find that your
partner Pokémon will burn through their best moves or their ranged moves very
quickly. To help limit this, you can stop any of your team from using certain
moves.

Simply hold
ZR and press Right on the d-pad to go into Move Settings and then select Moves
On/Off. In there, you can quickly deselect certain moves that you don’t want a
Pokémon to use just yet.

How to recover PP

If you ever
find that your Pokémon has run out of PP on a certain move that you want to
use, simply press B to access your Toolbox and then select one of your Ether
items to restore the PP of the move of your choice.

Movement controls in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

Being a
turn-based game, with each step contributing to your Pokémon’s level of hunger,
movement selection can be quite important in Mystery Dungeon.

Here are all
of the movement controls that you need to know:

If you find
that the Dash function is too stop-start for your liking, you can press X to
enter the Menu, select Others (symbolised by a cog), and then Options.

In this
section, you can change the setting to Interrupt Dashes in Emergencies in the
Basic 2 tab as well as make your Pokémon dash through corridors instead of walk
while in Auto Mode.

Top Tip: If you do prefer to use Dash, you’re much better off turning off the interrupted dashes option as the time it takes to start moving again after an interruption is very tedious to someone who wants to get around quickly.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX Change Leader

In Mystery Dungeon DX, your leader is whichever Pokémon you’re directly in control of when you’re on a mission in the dungeons.

When you set up your team, the Pokémon that you put in slot one will be the Pokémon that starts the mission as your leader. You can go on missions without your starter Pokémon or starter partner Pokémon, so any rescue team member can be your leader.

However, you can change the leader at any time during a mission to one of the three Pokémon which start the job on the team. You cannot change to a Pokémon which joins your team mid-mission.

To change the leader in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, simply press the + button. You can see which Pokémon is your leader by the yellow ring around their base: others that you can control have a green ring around their base.

Healing and eating controls in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

As is the
case in most Pokémon games that feature battles, HP is a critical factor. In
Rescue Team DX, however, you also need to keep your eye on your Belly metre.
Each step and move will reduce your Belly from 100 to zero. When the metre hits
zero, your movement will start to cut away at your HP.

To remedy
this, you have to eat food. From the beginning, you’ll be given Apples, but
you’ll also be able to pick up plenty of Berries along the way which fills up
your Belly metre and offer other benefits, such as restoring some HP.

To find
Apples, Berries, and other consumable items, such as Ether, press B to access
your Toolbox and then select the item that you wish to use.

If you’re
pressed for food or HP, you could try your luck with the blue item dots on the
dungeon map and hope that one of them is a useful food item. To heal HP, all
you have to do is move around without taking damage.

If you’re
suffering from lowered stats, you can seek a Wonder Tile. Marked by a green
cross on the map, just standing on a Wonder Tile will return your stats to
normal regardless of if your stats have been boosted or lowered.

Top Tip: If you find that your preferred
Pokémon’s Belly metre is running low, but you’re either short on food or don’t
want to use an Apple or Berry, simply switch the leader by pressing the +
button. While moving around the dungeons, only the Pokémon that you are directly
using (the leader) will see their Belly metre fall.

How to save in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

Rescue Team
DX automatically saves your progress, even if you’re in the middle of a
dungeon. So, if your Nintendo Switch runs out of battery, you likely won’t be
too far from where you were.

You can also
perform a manual save by pressing X to access the menu and then going into
Others. Here, you’ll see the option to Save and Go to Main Menu.

How to leave a dungeon in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

The main ways in which you leave a dungeon in Mystery Dungeon are by completing the mission and leaving when prompted or by being defeated. If your team gets defeated, you’ll lose all of the items and Poké money that you were carrying.

If you find
yourself wandering around a dungeon having completed the mission that you
entered there to do, you can locate some stairs and select the option to
no-longer continue exploring, which allows you to leave the dungeon.

To get out
of the dungeon quicker than waiting for enemies to defeat your team, you can
opt to Give Up. By pressing X to bring up the Menu, you can then select Others,
and then you’ll see the option to Give Up near the foot of the selection.

The other
way, which is certainly the preferred way, to get out of a dungeon in the game
is to use an Escape Orb. If you have one, you can find it in your Toolbox by
pressing B. Escape Orbs allow you to get out of the dungeon while keeping all
of the items that you’re holding at the time of using the Escape Orb.

Top Tip: At the start of the game, your
partner Pokémon will show you around the town, with Makuhita’s Dojo. Speak to
Makuhita immediately and run through all of its Tricks of the Trade list.

Not only are
the tasks very easy, but they’ll also reward you with loads of useful items,
chief of which is five Escape Orbs for completing the challenge called Push a
Pokémon!

How to recruit new Pokémon in Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

One of the first things that any player will want to do is recruit a bunch of new Pokémon to their rescue team.

You won’t
have this feature available to you from the start, but once you’ve completed
the mission at Mt. Steel, the story will unlock the features necessary for you
to start recruiting.

Once you
have spoken to the newly unlocked Pokémon in town, you’ll be able to pay for
Camps which allow you to recruit new Pokémon.

While almost any Pokémon that you battle in a dungeon has a chance of becoming a new recruit, your chances of triggering this will be fairly meagre early on – especially with good Pokémon. The likelihood of a Pokémon wanting to join your team is tied to your rescue team’s rank – which is raised by completing missions.

Furthermore,
only Pokémon that your leader defeats can potentially become a recruit in
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX.

Top Tip: You need to make sure that you have
already purchased the right Camp to allow a new Pokémon to become a part of the
team – for which, there is a handy in-shop Pokémon guide. You’ll likely find
that the majority of your Poké currency is spent on buying these items as they
aren’t cheap, but they are necessary if you want to expand your team.

Those are the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX controls that you need to know as well as some top gameplay tips for good measure.

Looking for more Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX Guides?

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX: All of the Available Starters and the Best Starters to Use

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX: Complete Mystery House Guide, Finding Riolu

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX: Every Wonder Mail Code Available

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX: Complete Camps Guide and Pokémon List

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX: Gummis and Rare Qualities Guide

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX: Complete Item List & Guide

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX Illustrations and Wallpapers