Are you looking for a decent way to grind without going through the same few dungeons over and over? Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX has some optional dungeons you can explore! Our Optional Dungeons guide will show you the benefits of taking on the optional dungeons, and how to prepare for them.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX Optional Dungeons
While the main game is practically a straight shot from beginning to end, there are a few optional dungeons you can take on before climbing Sky Tower. Most of them will unlock as you continue through the game, but one of them (Illusory Grotto) will only appear at certain times. Oddity Cave also is a bit of a strange optional dungeon.
Illusory Grotto
Unlike any other optional dungeon in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX, the Illusory Grotto will appear and disappear at seemingly random points. The grotto is more likely to appear if you fainted in a dungeon and needed rescuing, though, so it’s a good dungeon to delve into if you need to grind a bit!
Either way, it’s a good idea to dive into the Illusory Grotto whenever it’s available. Pokemon levels within the dungeon scale to your own level and the grotto holds all sorts of goodies to help you get on your feet, including Revive-All Orbs and Max Elixirs. Essentially, the Illusory Grotto is there to help you get caught up and help take on the next dungeon without difficulty.
Oddity Cave
Oddity Cave is the first optional dungeon of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX, and as the name implies, it’s a bit of an odd one, but probably not for the reasons you think. When you unlock Oddity Cave, you won’t actually have a current main-game goal to work towards, so Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX makes it feel like Oddity Cave is the next step in your journey.
It’s not. As a matter of fact, Oddity Cave is a pretty difficult dungeon when you first unlock it. While it’s only eight floors, Oddity Cave has some higher level Pokemon in it despite being in the earlier part of the game. I definitely learned the hard way when I had to beg on Twitter for someone to rescue me in Oddity Cave.
So, again, you don’t need to enter Oddity Cave to continue the story. After a couple of in-game days pass, Dugtrio will visit and ask you to save Diglett, unlocking Mt. Steel and the next main mission.
There are a couple of other optional dungeons that unlock before the credits roll, but they don’t cause confusion like these two do. Explore them at your leisure!
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX Post-Game Dungeons
Most of the game’s optional dungeons are unlocked after beating Sky Tower and seeing the credit roll. These new dungeons will be much longer and harder than the ones that came before it, but it’ll give you the chance to recruit legendary Pokemon onto your team!
You unlock most of these optional dungeons by talking to the right Pokemon and starting a questline. Below is how the post-game questline goes and how they unlock:
- Stormy Sea – Talk to Whiscash after the credits roll
- Legendary: Kyogre
- Buried Relic – Unlocked after defeating Kyogue
- Legendaries: Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Mew (after defeating the Regis and obtaining the Music Box)
- Northern Range – View cutscene at Kecleon Store after defeating Kyogre and visiting (not necessarily completing) Buried Relic
- Legendary: Latios
- Pitfall Valley – Defeat Latios
- Legendary: None, but you’ll recruit Latias on completion
- Fiery Field – After defeating Kyogue, talk to the Spinda in town. Then, return to The Great Canyon and speak to the Xatu on floor 5.
- Legendary: Entei
- Lightning Field – Defeat Entei
- Legendary: Raikou
- Northwind Field – Defeat Raikou
- Legendary: Suicune
- Mt. Faraway – Defeat Suicune
- Legendary: Ho-Oh
- Western Cave – Defeat Ho-Oh
- Legendary: Mewtwo
- Silver Trench – First, complete Pitfall Valley. Next, you’ll have to revisit Mt. Thunder, Mt. Blaze, and Mt. Freeze to fight the three legendary birds again. When completed, go to the Rescue Team Camps, and you’ll unlock the dungeon.
- Legendary: Lugia
However, those are only the dungeons that have a specific quest line attached to them. There are even more dungeons to explore in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon’s post-game! Most of these dungeons will not have legendaries in them but are great for grinding up to fighting those legendaries in the first place. A few have legendaries to fight at the end, though!
- Desert Region – Complete the story
- Southern Cavern – Complete the story
- Wyvern Hill – Complete the story
- Darknight Relic – Complete the story
- Solar Cave – Complete the story
- Uproar Forest – Accept Wynaut’s quest
- Howling Forest – Accept Smeargle’s quest
- Waterfall Pond – Use the Waterfall HM
- Unown Relic – Buy the Aged Chamber Friend Camp
- Grand Sea – Buy the Bountiful Sea Friend Camp
- Far-off Sea – Buy the Serene Sea Friend Camp
- Wish Cave – Watch cutscene with Ekans and Madicham about saving Latias
- Joyous Tower – Complete Pitfall Valley
- Purity Forest – Complete Pitfall Valley
- Legendary: Celebi (after first completion)
- Murky Cave – Take Gengar to Mt. Silver (after completing Pitfall Valley)
- Remains Island – Complete Western Cave
- Marvelous Sea – Complete Western Cave
- Fantasy Strait – Complete Western Cave
- Meteor Cave – Complete Silver Trench
- Legendary: Deoxys
