Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX: Strong Foes and Recruiting Shiny Pokemon

Finding strong foes and recruiting Shiny Pokemon in Mystery Dungeon DX is hard, but here's how to make it easier.
Finding strong foes and recruiting Shiny Pokemon in Mystery Dungeon DX is hard, but here's how to make it easier.

Though it might not be as involved as other games in the franchise, finding Strong Foes and recruiting Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX is still a bit of a process.

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The first thing you’ll want to do is know which Pokemon are Shiny. There are 27 Shiny Pokemon in Mystery Dungeon DX, and they also happen to be the same species as the Strong Foes you might encounter in certain dungeons.

In other words, Shiny Pokemon are only Strong Foes, but naturally, every Strong Foe you encounter won’t be Shiny. If you don’t see the Strong Foe icon (a yellow caution sign with a crown in it) listed next to a dungeon when you’re heading out, then just do something else that day and try again next time.

Before you do venture in to find Shiny Pokemon, though, make sure you have the right camp or you can’t recruit them. It’s a good idea to have at least one Wigglytuff Orb on hand in case you accidentally forget to get a camp, as these let you buy a camp after recruiting a Pokemon. If you don’t have any, use Wonder Mail codes to get some for free.

All Shiny Pokemon in Mystery Dungeon DX

Here’s every Shiny Pokemon/Strong Foe and their location, Because there’s no telling what ‘mon goes with what camp unless you’ve already encountered them, we’ve also included what camp you’ll need.

While these Pokemon do appear in other dungeons, the ones we’ve listed are the only ones where they might appear as Strong Foes or full Shiny Pokemon.

Shiny Pokemon Location Required Camp
  Aipom  Solar Cave  Vibrant Forest
  Altaria  Fantasy Strait  Flyaway Forest
  Ambipom  Great Canyon  Vibrant Forest
  Ampharos  Sinister Woods Thunder Crag
  Azumarill  Mt Blaze Turtleshell Pond
Butterfree  Howling Forest  Mist-Rise Forest
  Corsola Far-Off Sea  Shallow Beach
Ditto  Buried Relic  Decrepit Lab
  Dragonite  Mt Thunder  Mystic Lake
  Electrode  Mt Faraway  Power Plant
  Espeon Remains Island  Evolution Forest
  Exeggutor  Pitfall Island  Jungle
  Gyrados  Waterfall Pond  Waterfall Lake
  Hoothoot  Murky Cave  Flyaway Forest
  Lickilicky Mt Freeze  Sky-Blue Plains
  Magikarp  Marvelous Sea  Waterfall Lake
Metagross  Silent Chasm  Magnetic Quarry
  Ninetales  Northern Range  Darkness Ridge
  Noctowl  Lapis Cave  Flyaway Forest
  Rapidash  Mt Steel  Scorched Plains
Shuckle  Southern Cavern Mt Green
  Spinda  Frosty Forest Mt Green
Starmie  Grand Sea  Bountiful Sea
  Sudowoodo  Desert Region  Overgrown Forest
  Wobbuffet  Darknight Relic  Echo Cave
  Zangoose  Western Cave Wild Plains

 

How to Increase Your Chances of Recruiting Shiny Pokemon

Unfortunately, there’s no way to increase your chances of finding a Shiny Pokemon, but there are some ways to make it more likely they’ll join you once you do find a Shiny Pokemon.

Rare Quality Squad Up

The Rare Quality called Squad Up is a must for any recruitment efforts. If it’s on your leader, it increases the chance that enemy Pokemon want to join your team after you defeat them. The bigger your team, the better the chance, so make sure to max out your team for a dungeon before venturing in.

You can get Rare Qualities by giving your Pokemon the Rainbow Gummi or DX Gummi item while in a camp. These can be found as rare drops in dungeons and are sometimes rewarded for quests, but you also get a handful through Wonder Mail codes.

With the Rainbow Gummi, it’s random whether your ‘mon acquires a Rare Quality, though the DX Gummi guarantees it. It’s best — and fastest — to use your Wonder Code Gummis on your starter Pokemon until you get the Rare Quality you want.

Whether Squad Up is automatically the first Rare Quality your starter learns, I don’t know for sure; it was for me, and it seems like it’s the same for others as well.

There’s a Friendly Rare Quality as well, but it seems harder to find.

Inviting Orb

Another way to increase the chance you’ll recruit a Pokemon in Mystery Dungeon DX is by using an Inviting Orb.

You can buy Inviting Orbs from the Kecleon shop in Pokemon Square, find them, or earn them, and you get three for free through Wonder Mail. These raise the chance that a Pokemon will want to join you on that floor, so don’t use it unless you know the Shiny Pokemon is there.

Friend Bow

The Friend Bow raises the chance Pokemon will join you by 10%, but it’s not available until the post-game.

During the fourth quest of the early mission chains in the post-game, you’ll be asked to explore Mt. Faraway (sometimes incorrectly called Mt. Faraday). On 30F, there’s a locked door. Get through it with a key, and you’ll find the Friend Bow.

Mystery Dungeon DX False Swipe

In Mystery Dungeon DX, the move False Swipe actually increases the chance an enemy will turn friendly after the fight. You can buy the TM from the Kecleon shop, or you might get it as a reward.

Like with camps, you can’t actually tell what Pokemon can learn it unless you’ve already got it on your team, so we’ve put together a list of which Pokemon can learn False Swipe and how.

Pokemon Learning Method
Absol TM
Anorith TM
Armaldo TM
Beedrill TM
Breloom TM
Corphish TM
Crawdaunt Level Up
Cubone Level Up
Farfetch’d Level Up
Fearow TM
Gallade Level Up
Gligar TM
Gliscor TM
Grovyle Level Up
Heracross Level Up/TM
Kingler TM
Krabby TM
Marowak Level Up
Mawile TM
Mew TM
Nincada Level Up
Ninjask Level Up
Nuzleaf TM
Paras TM
Parasect TM
Pinsir TM
Sceptile Level Up
Scizor Level Up
Scyther Level Up
Shedinja Level Up
Shiftry TM
Sneasel Level Up
Weavile Level Up
Zangoose Level Up
Do Your Own Fighting

Make sure your leader defeats the enemy. This doesn’t increase the chance of obtaining a Shiny Pokemon, but you won’t have any chance to recruit an enemy if your partners deal the final blow. If need be, adjust your partner behavior settings in the Tactics sub-menu.

Manipulate the RNG

There’s a way of getting around the game’s RNG process for determining whether you’ll recruit a Shiny Pokemon, courtesy of NeonSystemx on Reddit. You’ll need Nintendo Switch Online so you can back up your save data, too.

Once you’ve encountered a Shiny Pokemon by whatever means and are all set to engage it, don’t engage it.

Instead, close the game, and manually back up your save data to the cloud.

Then, continue playing. If you don’t recruit the Shiny, close the game again, and load the backed-up data. Before engaging with the Shiny Pokemon, though, find a different ‘mon and battle it.

This changes up the RNG process so your encounter isn’t necessarily doomed to failure. 

So there you have it. Shiny Pokemon in Mystery Dungeon DX are pretty rare, but there are steps you can take to make finding and recruiting them easier.

Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX guides and our review coming soon.

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Author
Josh Broadwell
Josh Broadwell started gaming in the early '90s. But it wasn't until 2017 he started writing about them, after finishing two history degrees and deciding a career in academia just wasn't the best way forward. You'll usually find him playing RPGs, strategy games, or platformers, but he's up for almost anything that seems interesting.