Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX: How to Recruit All the Legendary Pokemon
We'll show you how you can add all the legendary Pokemon to your rescue team and even play as them.
Playing through Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX, you'll encounter all manner of legendary Pokemon, most of which you'll fight at some point in the game. In this guide we'll go over how to recruit all the legendary Pokemon and add them to your team, from Rayquaza to Mewtwo.
Warning: this guide contains some spoilers for the endgame content of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX.
On this page:
- How to Recruit Legendary Pokemon in Mystery Dungeon DX
- How Many Legendary Pokemon are in Mystery Dungeon DX?
- Strategies, Tips and Tricks for Recruiting Legendary Pokemon
- How to Recruit Zapdos
- How to Recruit Moltres
- How to Recruit Articuno
- How to Recruit Kyogre
- How to Recruit Groudon
- How to Recruit Rayquaza
- How to Recruit Unown
- How to Recruit Latios and Latias
How to Recruit Legendary Pokemon in Mystery Dungeon DX
As we've experienced it so far, the rules for recruiting legendary Pokemon in DX are a little different to recruiting regular Pokemon, and there are some distinctions even between them. We'll go over each Pokemon separately below, and be sure to add details for new Pokemon as we discover them. It's important to remember that you can't recruit any of the legendary Pokemon until completion of the main campaign, but once you defeat Rayquaza, you'll be able to hunt down all the old legendaries and encounter new ones.
How Many Legendary Pokemon are in Mystery Dungeon DX?
At time of writing, we've uncovered these legendaries, which can be both battled and recruited at the marked location. Some of these you'll have to defeat during the main campaign first before coming back to recruit later.
- Zapdos - Mt. Thunder
- Moltres - Mt. Blaze
- Articuno - Frosty Forest
- Groudon - Magma Cavern
- Rayquaza - Sky Tower
- Kyogre - Stormy Sea
- Unown - Unown Relic
Strategies, Tips and Tricks for Recruiting Legendary Pokemon
There's specific things to do when encountering each legendary Pokemon, but there's also some general advice we can give when dealing with them overall. If you're having trouble, remember to do the following:
- Before entering the Dungeon, use Gulpin and TMs to make sure you have a wide range of moves, at least a few with Type advantage.
- Bring as many Reviver Seeds as you can.
- On the floor before the fight, heal your Pokemon and restore all their PP.
- Also before the fight, link together all their powerful moves with Link Boxes.
- Use Empowerment Seeds if you have them to gain a big boost or even Mega Evolve.
- Recruit as many Pokemon along the way as you can, but unless they're very powerful, don't use Seeds to revive them in the battle.
- Moves that do damage and status effects can be fantastic, especially if everyone on your team has one.
- Orbs that have brief, powerful effects (like All-Protect Orbs) can do a lot to change the course of a battle.
- We've actually outlined the best order to fight the legendaries, and how you can use victory over one to help with later victories. It's not essential, but it can do a lot to help.
How to Recruit Zapdos
After doing the main campaign, you can return to the peak of Mt. Thunder. Though the Pokemon in the Dungeon haven't gotten any tougher, Zapdos certainly has, with new moves like Thunder and Light Screen, as well as much better stats and higher health. Otherwise, all the same weaknesses we outlined in our guide here should be the same. If you're tempted to get any legendary first, Zapdos is the best choice, its Electric typing being very useful when trying to bring down the other birds and a few other legendary Pokemon too. Defeat Zapdos, and they'll automatically join your team. There's no beating the odds this time, there'll be a brief cutscene in which they sign onto your squad. They're level 50, and can be taught the highly-powerful Discharge move if you take them to Gulpin.
How to Recruit Moltres
Moltres' fight is functionally similar to Zapdos', found at the top of Mt. Blaze where you'll have a second boss fight like the first one, only this time Moltres has more powerful moves, stats and health. Fire Spin is one to watch out for, able to hit multiple Pokemon at once and trap them in vortexes of flame that hurt them for a while afterwards. However, you should have Zapdos now, which will make the fight a lot easier with those Electric moves. Focus on inflicting paralysis and any other status effects to buy yourself as much time as possible, and hopefully you'll end Moltres before they can end you. They'll also be level 50.
How to Recruit Articuno
You should know the drill by now. Articuno has a few weaknesses, but two of those are Fire and Electric moves - and now you've got Zapdos and Moltres on your side. Still, there are things to watch out for: Articuno knows the move Blizzard, which does room-wide Ice damage and Mist, which'll stop their stats from being adjusted. Keep these in mind and use type advantages from the two legendaries you've already recruited.
How to Recruit Kyogre
Now things get a little tricky: Kyogre lives in the Stormy Sea, an area that opens up after the game ends, which you'll get by talking to Medicham, Lombre and Whiscash in that order, hanging about Pokemon Square. Stormy Sea is a difficult area full of Water-type Pokemon, forty-floors down with Kyogre at the bottom. It's easier to get to Groudon or Rayquaza at this point, but we'd tentatively recommend approaching Kyogre first, especially if you don't have a powerful Water-type on your team. They'll be more useful if you can get them early.
All of these Gen Three legendaries will Mega-Evolve when damaged enough, and Kyogre's no exception. They also start by creating floods that slow all non-Water types and randomly move Pokemon about the arena. Kyogre's biggest weapons are Origin Spout, which hurts everything in the area, and Hydro Pump, a high-damage cannon that blasts a three-tile wide beam ahead of it. They'll undergo Primal Evolution about halfway through the battle and start bringing down Heavy Rain, giving a massive boost to all their attacks and weakening Fire attacks. Confusion is still a valid status to inflict, but it's less effective here, as you're more likely to be in the danger zone even if Kyogre firing in a random direction. Paralysis or sleep are much more effective, especially considering you can slow Kyogre down to match your own flood-floundering team. Zapdos is the obvious choice - Electric attacks that often paralyze is a great combination for many bosses.
Oddly enough, Kyogre has the lowest level of all the legendary Pokemon - only level 40 when you recruit them. Still, they have excellent Sp. Atk and Sp. Def stats, as well as powerful moves that you can use against the next target when recruited: Groudon.
How to Recruit Groudon
Well, look who's back! Groudon should be a lot easier to get to than Kyogre - you've made it through the Magma Caverns once already - but Groudon's actually a little more powerful than their aquatic rival. Still, you should bring Kyogre with you for the type advantage, and Articuno could work if you can keep them away from all the fiery damage. After all, they're immune to Ground attacks, and Ice does double damage against Groudon.
Groudon will generate bright sunlight, earthquakes and lava pools as before (making Solarbeam a good choice if you have a Grass-type on the team). They have two moves that can hit everybody in the room - Earthquake and Earth Power - but their only Fire-type move, Lava Burst, is close range (though it hits everything around it), so keep your Ice and Grass types at a distance and watch out for when Groudon triggers Primal Evolution halfway through the battle. They'll start to generate Extremely Harsh Sunlight that boosts their own Fire-type moves and negates Water-type moves, as well as stopping anything from being Frozen. Any Orb or ability that negates weather can be good here, or use Empowerment Seeds to overcome this disadvantage.
Groudon will be level 50 when you defeat and recruit them, with an especially good Attack and Speed stats, as well as generating constant sunlight, which can be good for your Fire and Grass allies.
How to Recruit Rayquaza
Let's go for the Gen Three hat trick: Rayquaza is easily the most powerful Pokemon, let alone the most powerful legendary you'll have encountered so far, way more dangerous than the last time you encountered them. Remember that the first fight didn't end, it was interrupted by the meteorite, so you never really got the dragon's full power - but now you will.
All your team should be at least level 50 for this fight, and you want a lot of Ice damage to go around. It's Rayquaza's biggest weakness, taking four times the damage from Ice moves, but Dragon attacks won't hurt either, especially if you can give them to a non-Dragon type. It'll blow you around as it did in the first fight, and moves like Outrage and Hyper Beam can hit enemies and any range. When it becomes Primal Rayquaza, it'll activate Strong WInds that negate all the weaknesses of Flying types. Still, Ice will still do double damage, so keep pouring that in, ideally freezing it as much as possible.
If you manage to bring down Rayquaza, you'll have a mighty level 70 Dragon/Flying Pokemon, one that also seems comically large when compared to the others in your party. Rayquaza also is pretty versatile when it comes to learning TMs, meaning you can teach it almost any combination of moves in preparation for harder Dungeons.
How to Recruit Unown
These barely qualified as legendary Pokemon, but we'll include them for completion's sake. If you go to Wigglytuff and buy the two camps named "Aged Chamber A-N" and "Aged Chamber O-?", it'll unlock a new Dungeon to visit called the Unown Relic. It's only 11 floors deep, and filled with all the different variations of Unown (as well as a few Ditto). You can recruit these Unown like any wild Pokemon, but don't get too excited: they only know the move Hidden Power, which you can find a TM for on the last floor of the Dungeon. Still, if you ever wanted to assemble a team of floating letters that spell out a rude word, this is the place to do it.
How to Recruit Latios and Latias
This event triggers after beating Kyogre and buying the "Southern Island" camp from Wigglytuff. One morning there'll be a cinematic showing that the Kecleon shop has been robbed by a mysterious assailant moving at great speed. The culprit went to the Northern Range, a Dungeon that will open up after this. Get to the end of Northern Range, 25 floors down, and you'll see it was Latios, who you'll then have to fight. Latios is a Dragon/Psychic type who should be much weaker compared to Pokemon like Rayquaza or even Kyogre. Still, they have a couple of annoying moves, like Heal Block, which prevents you from restoring health in any way, and Luster Purge, which hits everything close to it and lowers Sp. Def.
After beating Latios, you'll bring him back to Pokemon Square, where he explains that his little sister, Latias, was brought down by a chunk of the meteorite Rayquaza destroyed, falling into a void-like Dungeon called Pitfall Valley. Latios was trying to save her by stealing powerful equipment, but is injured after your fight. If you can make it through Pitfall Valley (a 25 floor dungeon mostly filled with flying types), you can reach Latias and rescue her. She won't fight you, instead grateful for the help when you bring her back to the Square. At this point, her and her brother will both ask to join your group as payment for your help. They're a pair of level 35 Dragon/Psychic Pokemon who are also immune to Ground attacks, as well as having a few good support moves.
If you want Pokemon content, USG is the place to go. Check out Joel's review of Mystery Dungeon, or take a look at Nadia's story on the world's most popular Pokemon.