So I've seen several people say they didn't play the first Mystery Dungeon, but will pick up the second. This wall of text is aimed at them, and there's also something to be learned for all those who did play MD1 but didn't understand the mechanics. Remember, here I'm covering stuff that is either unlikely or not possible at all to end up in the manual. If you want the basics of basics, you'll come to understand them well before this becomes useful. Basically, this is info that's meant to help you build a solid Mystery Dungeon team and understand the more subtle mechanics of the game.

Type matching works exactly as it does in the main games, though in keeping with the survival theme super-effective blows hit for less damage, and NVE for more. The numbers are as follows: 2x weaks become 1.5 weaks, 4x weaks become 2.25 weaks, 0.5x resists become 0.9x resists, 0.25x resists become 0.81x resists, and immunities become 0.5x resists. That's right, other than ability-granted immunities (Water Absorb, Volt Absorb, Flash Fire, Motor Drive, Wonder Guard), there are no immunities at all in this game. Now, what these numbers mean is that weaknesses still matter quite a bit, but resists do practically nothing. That means that the day you're face to face with a Heatran, you can easily do the unthinkable in main-series terms and hammer it with Bullet Seed. A direct implication of that is that type coverage is no longer a major concern. Seeking out effective STAB moves and backing them up effectively with moves with special effects is the most effective way to build a good Pokémon.

Another thing that's changed from the main series is the stats of each Pokémon and the power and accuracy of each move. Here, there's no IVs or EVs whatsoever. Let me give you a concrete example. Let's say you pick Bulbasaur as a starter. Now, Bulbasaur's stats at level 1, as well as the boosts it gets each level, are completely fixed. Let's take its HP, for example. At level 1, Bulbasaur will always have 20 HP. However, your starter begins at level 5. That means it starts out with the stat boosts for levels 2 through 5 as well. For Bulbasaur's HP, that's 3, 2, 2 and 3 in that order, so your Bulbasaur begins at 30 HP. Once it grows to level 6, it gains 3 HP again, so it now has 33 HP. Same principle for every Pokémon, stat and level you can think of.

Now to complicate matters, there's evolution that rears its ugly head. Believe it or not, Ivysaur's set of stats and stat boosts are NOT the same as Bulbasaur's. Once again, an example: a level 40 Bulbasaur has 115 HP, and a level 40 Ivysaur has 135 HP. Now, unlike in the main series, when you evolve a Pokémon, it does NOT change base stats. So if you evolve a Bulbasaur at level 40, the resulting Ivysaur will have 115 HP, not 135. If you want a level 40 Ivysaur with 135 HP, you'll have to recruit an Ivysaur as is (quite difficult, but possible). Or, you can use stat-boosting items until the stats catch up. Because that's something else - you can use stat-up items for permanent boosts. And there's no limit to how much you can give to one Pokémon, making building the perfect Pokémon (999 HP, 255 everywhere else) possible, if very long-winded. Also note that the examples I gave here apply only to MD1, as MD2 changed the Pokémon's stats and stat growth in ways that are as of now undocumented.

Of course, that stat system means the typical roles Pokémon possess in the main games are gone. Blissey isn't the special wall of doom anymore - it's worthless defensively, but has decent attack stats. On the same note, in most cases both attack stats are nearly identical for each Pokémon, and same for the defenses. That means whether a move is physical or special will rarely ever make a noticeable difference. Once again, that's based on MD1 data, and as I said before, they tampered with those numbers in MD2.

Another thing evolution complicates is the move relearner. I'll use a concrete example once again. In the main series, there is no way whatsoever to give Monferno Nasty Plot unless you teach it to it as a Chimchar and keep it for good. Here it's a little different. See, Chimchar learns Nasty Plot at level 23. If you evolve Chimchar into Monferno at level 22 or lower, it becomes completely impossible to teach it Nasty Plot at any point in the future. However, if you evolve Chimchar after you get the opportunity to teach it Nasty Plot, it will forever remain possible to teach it again if you turn it down the first time or delete it afterwards, even once you've evolved it to Monferno, or even Infernape. Neat, huh?

The way damage is calculated is also radically different from what you're used to seeing. In the main games, damage is proportional to the stat multiplied by the move's power. Here, it's proportional to the stat PLUS the move's power. And as I said before, the moves' power has changed - here it's between 1 and 24. For example, your standard, nameless attack, has 1 power, whereas Tackle has 7. So for a starting level 5 Bulbasaur, which has 10 attack, the difference between the standard attack and Tackle is fairly decent. However, as your level grows it becomes less and less significant. When your Bulbasaur reaches level 40, it will have an attack stat of 57, so if you do the math Tackle becomes a complete waste of a moveslot. That means low-power, high-PP moves are completely useless in the long run, unless they have an additional trait, such as Bubble's range.

And when you get to the high-power moves like Hydro Pump and Megahorn, your level will usually be high enough that the difference isn't really noticeable. However, in a case like Hydro Pump, it's a ranged move, but you'll usually be better off with the vastly superior PP of Bubble or Bubblebeam, even at the expense of some power. As for drawback moves... avoid them like the plague. The minimal damage difference really isn't worth it.

That formula also makes multi-hit moves extremely brutal - the more hits, the better. So moves people shun completely in the main games, like Fury Attack or Spike Cannon, become brutally effective here. Even better, Bullet Seed, a TM every Grass-type is capable of learning (along with a few non-Grasses), is ranged on top of that, which makes it into the single most abusive offensive move in the game. It's only got 10 PP though, so use it wisely or pack a few Max Elixirs.

Next, there are status conditions. Burning is amazingly useless... you take 5 HP of damage every 20 turns. If your level isn't really, really low (which it shouldn't if you're far enough to get burned on anywhere near a consistent basis), that's not even damaging enough to cancel out natural HP regeneration. Poison's a little more problematic, as you lose said natural HP regen, AND you take 4 damage every 10 turns or 6 damage every 2 turns depending on whether it's regular poison or Toxic. It can be troublesome for you, but you shouldn't ever use it yourself, as regular offense will deal so much more damage. Paralysis prevents you from attacking for two or three turns... but not from moving, so at worst you can just move back and let your AI allies handle the situation while you recover.

Sleep, on the other hand, is smexy, and the only status you should actually consider using on enemies. Whoever's asleep is completely immobilized for 3 to 7 turns (2 to 4 for Rest-induced sleep), which can be handy. While Hypnosis, Sing and Grasswhistle only affect an opponent directly in front of you, Lovely Kiss and Sleep Powder work on all enemies within a 1-tile range in all directions (including diagonally, of course), and Spore affects all enemies in the same room!

So, on to putting that together and building a decent team. One important thing to keep in mind is that there are two types of teams in Mystery Dungeon: the team you'll be using all the way to the credits (though usually it's going to be used much further than that) and the team you could call "final". The former mostly depends on what you pick as starter and partner. Since they'll be forced into your party all the time until you defeat Rayquaza in MD1 and Dialga in MD2, naturally Pokémon designated as starters will have excellent stat sets. It's pretty much the case in any RPG - whichever character is forced into your party for a prolonged period of time will usually be great all-around. Cloud in FF7 would be the ultimate textbook example.

So, which starter to pick? (Note: I'm going to go with the MD2 set here since it's what interests us most at this point in time.) The aforementioned Bullet Seed makes any Grass starter into a fiendish pick. On top of that, most of them have other cool tricks. Treecko was perhaps the most popular starter in MD1 for getting Agility, which allows all Pokémon in your party to move twice per turn for the next 9 to 11 turns. Alternatively, Torterra also gets Rock Polish, though with this you need not only to get a TM, but also to be able to evolve, which is only the case after you beat the Mystic Forest dungeon, the one immediately after Dialga. I personally prefer Bulbasaur and the awesomeness of Sleep Powder, which combined with Bullet Seed is devastating when it comes to crowd control. Seriously, that combo eats through Monster Houses like nobody's business. (Remember, your partner can't be the same type as your starter, so no Bulbasaur/Treecko tandem for you.) Chikorita, as usual, blows chunks.

In MD1, Charmander was quite recommendable because when it evolved into Charizard, it could immediately learn Heat Wave, which is extremely valuable because it attacks all the foes in the room. However, this time around, it needs to wait until level 58. On top of that, Silver Wind, which has the same effect, is a TM that has a solid learnbase, and Ominous Wind and Powder Snow do the same thing as well. That means Charmander's stock goes down some. Torchic makes a very nice partner, with Quick Attack allowing it to attack an enemy two tiles away, even if you get in the way, making fights in hallways a little easier. Cyndaquil learns it earlier, however the rest of its movepool is pretty bad, the obvious Flamethrower aside, whereas when Torchic evolves, it gets Double Kick. Remember what I said earlier? Multi-hit moves = win. As for Chimchar, I really can't recommend it. What sets Infernape apart in the main games, high-power moves with drawbacks, becomes terrible in Mystery Dungeon.

As for Water-types, they all get Ice Beam, a ranged move, so they're worthy additions. The best Water move in MD1 was Bubblebeam, with a sky-high 19 PP. The only Water starter that gets it is Piplup. Unfortunately, Pokémon can't get their egg moves in Mystery Dungeon, so Agility Piplup is out of the question. One that DOES have access to Agility (only in MD2, however) is Feraligatr, but only once it reaches its final form. The downside, of course, is no Bubble or Bubblebeam - Hydro Pump will have to do. If your Totodile is in your high 30s or low 40s when you beat Mystic Forest, you might want to hold off evolution a little while longer - Totodile gets Hydro Pump at level 43, a whole TWENTY levels earlier than Feraligatr. Other than Bubble, Squirtle's nothing special, especially with Piplup around, and Mudkip... well, its saving grace is learning decent Ground moves that aren't Earthquake, which is pretty lame in this game especially since no one but Shedinja's fully immune to it (aside from a few Pokés with their Poké-specific items, hi2u Electivire). That makes it a desirable choice if you want Ground moves, especially in this day and age where Cubone isn't a starter anymore. And then there's the possibility that Mud Bomb might be ranged like Octazooka (it IS a clone of Octazooka in the main games, after all), so it's not a bad choice overall

Now, for the oddballs (Pikachu, Meowth, Skitty, Munchlax). Pikachu's actually nice, with Shock Wave, Agility and Quick Attack (the last two of which are learned naturally). Meowth and Skitty just have a lot of awesome moves. Fury Swipes for Meowth and Doubleslap for Skitty, for one. There's also Fake Out (which in this game is just a Quick Attack with an added chance of flinchax). They also get the ranged Shock Wave and Shadow Ball (and even Ice Beam for Skitty) via TMs as well. Munchlax also gets those TMs, but nothing worthwhile naturally.

So the choice is yours... however, there are still unknowns. Because all the new moves remain undocumented, it's still possible that some of them turn out to be really good. I'm thinking of Focus Blast in particular, here. Imagine if it was ranged. Several starter evolutions learn it, so you can't really count on it until after Mystic Forest, but if you want to keep using your starter and partner for a while longer, and I can't blame you if you do... And since we established type coverage wasn't important in this game, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have a Blaziken that runs both Double Kick for power and Focus Blast for range. Then again, it's all hypothetical, but quite possible.

When it comes to final teams, though, it's a lot looser. After all, there are about 270 Pokémon you can choose from, and since the stats are, once again, undocumented, there's no way to know what's good and what's not (though odds are Mantine's stats will be beaten with the nerf stick after being arguably the best Pokémon in MD1 and picking up Psybeam, Bullet Seed and Signal Beam in MD2). When documentation does come out, however, be sure to look out for good stats, ranged and multi-hit moves, all that jazz. The biggest challenge would be to get out of the habits the main series gave us. Surf stinks, EQ's to avoid like the plague, Bullet Seed's the best move in the game.

However, from what little we know, there's already what one could call an "ultimate team" that can be built up after much item collecting. As you probably know by now (if only because I already told you), Togekiss picked up a held item that gives it unlimited PP on an ungodly array of moves. Which ones you want is your call, though I definitely recommend Shock Wave. Not only is it a great ranged moves, but it never misses, canceling out Hustle's effect, AND there's the fact that you can hit your allies with ranged moves. See where I'm going there? How about pumping Electivire full of speed boosts when you need them? Yep, that's one deadly tandem, provided Motor Drive-induced speed boosts have a decent enough duration (once again, undocumented). And to round it out, how about Lanturn, with its Volt Absorb and incredible array of ranged moves (Bubblebeam, Signal Beam, Ice Beam, Shock Wave)? Yup.

So that's it. What you'll use is your call, but hopefully now you understand how to maximize your team's potential. Happy dungeon crawling!

Fantastic.

I had the GBA emulater and I played the first on my computer. I started with Cyndaquil, and Treecko. Then added the pre evo to Honchkrow (can't remember name, on Painkillers), as they were just cool pokemon.

I really thought the story itself was kind of neat, and the way you were all by yourself at that one point in the story line was hectic.

I didn't figure it to be as complex as this. Do regular pokemon like Lickilicky and Mawile have potential to be somewhat decent then? As stats being changed and moves taking a drastic turn for something else?

I don't know anything about stats in MD2, but I can offer some info about their movepool. Lickilicky's natural movepool isn't interesting at all, but it does get a boatload of ranged attacks via TM. Ice Beam, Flamethrower, Shock Wave, Shadow Ball, and maybe Focus Blast depending on how it turns out. Same deal for Mawile, really, though I'd keep my eyes peeled on a potential ranged Flash Cannon. Ranged STABbed moves are a force.

Their stats in MD1 were interesting enough, though. Especially Mawile, with max HP over 200 and both attack stats over 100 (at level 100, that is). Of course, it's still not quite up to snuff with things like the starters or especially Mantine, but still good.

Sorry for double-posting, but some of the things I've found out may be of great interest to some of you, and since this thread is way down the list it's unlikely anyone will read it unless I bump.

1. Dark Pulse turns out to hit every enemy that's around you, sweet move for crowd control. Leaf Storm is ranged, not that it matters - Bullet Seed and even Razor Leaf rock its world. Meanwhile, Draco Meteor hits all enemies in the room where you are for extreme damage, and I do mean EXTREME. You'll need to use it wisely because of the SA drop though, but enemies typically don't have that problem. All dragons in Zero Island North know the move, which can be an instant game over if you're not strong enough.

2. It was brought to my attention that while you can evolve all the Pokés you recruited after beating Mystic Forest, your starter and partner will have to wait until after you beat Darkrai. Ouch. This is a huge blow to starters that get sweet moves when evolving, like Torchic, because to keep that example, you'll get Blaziken's Double Kick too late for it to be of much use. Still better than never getting it at all, but geez.

3. It appears IQ skills are going to be much more useful this time around. For example, one randomly allows you to use a move without burning up PP on occasion, while another can permanently raise your max HP by 10. However, enemy Pokémon also have IQ skills now, and those can get particularly nasty against bosses. However, in keeping with Magus' Law, they lose a lot of them when they join you, and you have to teach them those skills all over again.

4. Apparently there's a way around the lack of Mewtwo and Celebi in the other's version, so you could conceivably get both in the same version.

5. You can enter a dungeon with a full team of four now! (Of course, the size restrictions are still in place, so no bringing three size 1s with a size 4.) However, you'll have no choice but to send whatever you recruit back to the guild. Still, this ought to make things easier, not to mention all the new team-building possibilities that are opened up.

6. Kecleon's stats took a serious hike upwards. I guess they wanted to make the reward for recruiting one more worth it, but it's even more difficult to do so, if that's even possible.