PMD Blue ReA FAQ / Q&A

PMD: Blue Recruit em All run #3 FAQ / Q&A

Q: What are the criteria for this run?
A: This run is a No QS, No WM run obtaining every pokemon and checking them off on Wigglytuff's Friend Area shop checklist. Because the shop only checks it off if you have the pokemon in the friend area currently, we must create a living dex (having every pokemon at once) for this game. An example of this is having a Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, and Venusaur all at the same time. Another thing is the checklist also tracks every version of Unown you have, so we get all 28 of them as well. One final thing is we need to obtain the Version Exclusive Pokemon from Red Rescue Team in this run as well. Since the only way to actually get them in the game is to use Wondermail codes, we've made 3 fixed codes that can spawn in all 5 pokemon into the game that reward us with only a plain seed for no unfair advantage. This leaves us with a grand total of 413 pokemon to recruit (though we get two of them automatically for being our starter and partner).

Q: What are the rules of a No QS, No WM run and what does each mean?
A: No QS stands for No Quicksaves, which is a feature you generally use to save in a dungeon and pick it up at a later time. However, we've discovered that if you Quicksave on a floor, and then revisit the dungeon and do the same Quicksave on that floor, the floors from then all will all be in the same order as before. While it's difficult to explain here and isn't relevant to this run, the TLDR is that it's a way to RNG manipulate the game, so we have a separate category for it where we'll likely be able to manipulate recruiting pokemon first try. No WM stands for No Wondermail, and that is the game's password feature that allows us to make any missions we want in order to get any items we may want or need. Due to the fact that we need to use 3 Wondermail codes to get the 5 Version Exclusives into the game, it's more like a Minimum Wondermail run to be exact, but the meaning behind what we're doing is the same: Using no Wondermail codes for an unfair advantage.

Q: What do you use as the main pokemon this run?
A: To get through the main story of the game (Beat Rayquaza), we use Skitty starter and Squirtle partner. Skitty is by far the best starter in the game as it has a defense dropping move in Tail Whip, Attract and the Cute Charm ability to stun every enemy in the game, including bosses, and once Skitty reached level 15 it learned Double Slap, which hits 2-5 times with similar power to any other move. When using these moves together there was nothing that Skitty couldn't destroy in the main story, and until we got Double Slap we had Squirtle to deal with most enemies since most were weak to water or his 3x linked move setup early on.

After beating the main story we use Articuno because he's the best pokemon in the game. Not only can you recruit him right after you beat the main story, but he starts at level 53 (which is usually 2x Skitty at this point) has Powder Snow to deal with Monster Houses, Ice Beam to attack through corridors, Gust for damage with high PP, and Agility for safety. Furthermore he can walk over all terrain without the IQ skill, goes 2x speed in the snow, and has better base stats due to being a legendary. He only has one major drawback to a Recruit em All run, his body size. While I'll explain later why this is a problem, we need to recruit another pokemon to recruit more efficiently, and the best candidate for this is Skarmory. Skarmory has decent moves, stats, and typing overall, plus Agility for safety, but it also starts out at level 55 (the highest recruitable pokemon in the game) and it's body size is lower and much better for recruiting.

Another pokemon that we use briefly towards the end is Mr. Mime. We level it up 4x to get it to level 33 where it learns Recycle, which allows us to recycle Frustration TMs for level 1 dungeons to make them easier. Frustration deals 45 damage as long as your IQ is low so it's perfect for dealing fixed damaged even when you're on high floors at a low level.

Finally there is one more pokemon we mainly use in post-game and it's the best pokemon for dealing with level 1 dungeons: Alakazam. For some reason when Alakazam goes into a level 1 reset dungeon, its stats are absolutely amazing, giving it massive HP (80 at level 1) as well as defense and special defense. When you couple that with Teleport, Alakazam is almost untouchable when you play correctly.

Q: What is the body size problem?
A: I'm glad you asked! Every pokemon in this game has a certain body size, either 1 *(star), 2 *, or 4 *. The larger the pokemon, the larger the body size. This can become a problem when you're trying to make a party. The party limit is determined by 2 values: The party size (which maxes at 4 pokemon) and the total body size (which maxes at 6 *). If we were to use a pokemon that has a 4 * body size, like Articuno, then we would only be able to have 2 other 1 * pokemon or 1 2* pokemon in our party with it. However when you use a pokemon like Skarmory, you can have 3 other 1 * pokemon in your party as it doesn't max the body size limit.

Q: How do you get the maximum recruit chance?
A: A pokemon at level 90 gives a +24% recruit bonus, and when the Friend Bow is equipped it's an addition +10%, giving a total of +34% possible boost.

Q: What is the route you take to recruit em all?
A: First we go through the main story / Any% route and beat Rayquaza while getting money, friend areas, and supplies ready for post-game when we can. Next we go and recruit Articuno and unlock dungeons in a specific order until we unlock the dungeon Skarmory is in, and recruit it. From there we finish unlocking most of the other dungeons and getting any legendaries that are 100% guaranteed until we reach level 90 on both Articuno and Skarmory. Once Skarmory reaches level 90 we can start going through every dungeon again and start recruiting everything we can. Once all the recruiting is done we start exp grinding using the Team Hydro Dojo and Joy Seeds from the shop, then IQ grind whatever else that needs it for evolution. Finally we start going through Wish Cave multiples times to wish in certain pokemon that are difficult to get usually (Think Kecleon, Exeggcute / Exeggutor, High IQ evolutions, High level requirements, etc). Once we've wished everything we can possible, we complete the dungeon one las time and recruit Jirachi, then head to Purity Forest and recruit Celebi to complete the run.

Q: Why do you use Team Hydro to grind exp?
A: The Team Hydro dojo itself isn't the greatest way to exp grind. It is only 3 floors and does give around 4200 exp each time you defeat the boss, but the real reason it's great is because we can keep reloading the shop after each visit, and the shop has a chance at joy seeds each time. Because we can use the joy seed at any point, we can use it for pokemon that need a high amount of exp to get to the next level, which means it can be used for 20-30k exp each time. Furthermore you can hold an item called the Pierce Band which allows you to throw an item through pokemon and each receive the benefits of it, so throwing it through 2-3 pokemon allows us to receive up to 60-90K experience at a time!

Q: What's the best way to IQ grind?
A: The way to IQ grind is fairly similar to exp grind. We get White Gummis from going through Mt. Steel multiple times, (White Gummis give 7 IQ points, Orange Gummis give 4 IQ points, everything else gives 3 or less IQ points), then we get do the same Pierce Band strat as before to raise 2-3 pokemon's IQ at a time.

Q: What were some of the highlights of this run?
A: Some of the best gameplay highlights of this run:
-Really good item luck early on with Pierce Band, X-Ray Specs, etc.
-Saving 2 hours on getting 3/4 of the fish
-Really good Legendary Recruit luck for the most part
-Generally saved time on most parts of recruit spam
-Saved about 2-3 hours on exp grinding and 5 hours on IQ grinding
-Got all the evolutionary stones I needed from both Solar Cave and Wish Cave pretty easily
-Probably the best item luck I've ever seen in Purity Forest

Q: What were some of the things you could improve in another run?
A: Unfortunately there were a decent amount of problems:
-Didn't get Skarmory's friend area early so I lost about 2-3 hours trying to get it / level it up later
-Mew took 4 complete visits of Buried Relic (got on 94F of 4th visit)
-Didn't get Pidgey nor Exeggcute
-Wish Cave was an absolute nightmare, 3 deaths and killed my morale
-Generally just playing a bit slower than before (worse any% time, took a bit longer to get through 99F's than usual, etc.)

Q: Will you be making improvements to the route for next time?
A: Yes, the one thing I really liked about this run is I learn more and more each time about possible ways to improve the route:
-Reworking the Friend Area purchase order
-Working on finding ways to joy seed 3x pokemon more often
-Changing the order of dungeons I do recruiting in for Escape Orbs early
-Various quality of life additions

Any Questions I receive in the comments I'll try to answer and possibly add below!

Q: Why do you need to get more than one of certain pokemon?
A: Most final evolutions in this game have an impossible recruit rate (there are some exceptions but for the most part you're not likely to get any), and most secondary evolutions that still can evolve have a -19.0% recruit rate (which is 15% with max recruit odds). This means that most of the time you're going to get the base forms of pokemon a lot faster, and to complete the living dex we need to recruit those pokemon multiple times with some evolving and one not.