Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX - How to recruit Pokémon and manage camps

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX has finally arrived, and people who have never played the original game it's based on might not understand how recruiting Pokémon works right away. Since this is how you'll be expanding your Rescue Team's roster all throughout the game, it's important to have a good grasp on how to recruit and manage Pokémon. Don't worry, though, because we're here to help. Here's our guide to how you can start getting more members for your Rescue Team.

Buy camps from Wigglytuff

Before you can start recruiting any Pokémon into your Rescue Team roster, you're going to need to buy some camps. Camps are essentially places that your Pokémon can stay while they aren't out on adventures with you; if you don't own the type of camp that a Pokémon can live comfortably in (this is determined by type) then they won't be able to join you. Therefore, it's a good idea to buy as many camps as you can, as soon as you can, so you don't run into this problem.

You can buy camps from Wigglytuff at his shop, Wigglytuff's Camp Corner, which is located on the eastern side of the Pokémon Square area. Each camp costs a varying amount of Pokémon Dollars; a lot of them are pretty affordable, but many of them are also pretty expensive as well. Since you'll almost always get the items you need from dungeons, it's usually better to avoid buying things from the Kecleon brothers and put your money towards buying camps.

Find Pokémon!

Once you have some camps purchased, you can head out to Mystery Dungeons to try and recruit Pokémon who can comfortably stay in the camps you own.

For the most part, the Pokémon recruiting process is random. Every time you defeat an opponent, there's a small chance that they'll become interested in joining your team. If you have a camp they can stay in, then they'll offer to permanently join your Rescue Team once you complete your expedition into the dungeon. You can increase the chances of Pokémon asking to join by having a squad member with the Rare Quality Squad Up or Friendly in your team.

Another way you can recruit Pokémon is to help fainted Pokémon you find while exploring dungeons. If you give a fainted Pokémon an Apple, they will be nursed back to health and will offer to join your Rescue Team as thanks.

The final way to recruit Pokémon is to grind jobs, which you can find on the billboard next to the Peliper Post Office. The chances of a client asking if they can join your Rescue Team are rare, but since you'll likely be grinding jobs anyway, it's a good thing to keep an eye out for.

Managing camps

Once you have recruited some Pokémon and your camps have residents, you'll want to manage them by expanding their size and feeding the Pokémon in them Gummis. The former allows you to recruit more Pokémon for each camp, while the latter will boost their statistics and unlock new Rare Qualities for them, making them more effective in your expeditions.

To get more space in each of your camps, you'll need to increase the rank of your Rescue Team by completing lots of jobs. Every job gives you rank points, but jobs that are listed as more difficult always give out higher amounts of rank points. We recommend trying out some tough jobs to see if you're comfortable with them. If you are, you can focus on grinding them. If you're not, you can always grind less difficult ones, albeit you'll need to do so longer in order to rank up. Tough jobs also frequently reward good items, too, so it's best to do those if you can.

To boost the stats of the Pokémon in your camps, you're going to need the right items. Primarily you'll want to be using Gummis, as they permanently boost stats and have a chance to unlock Rare Qualities that give Pokémon unique strengths in battle. However, health drinks like Calcium and Iron or foods like Sitrus Berries are great too, since they can provide small stat boosts of their own. You can find Gummis by completing jobs or from unlocking Treasure Chests that rarely drop from enemies, while health drinks and other stat-boosting items are found from jobs, from exploring, or very rarely, from the Kecleon shop. Dungeons that are occasionally labeled with a Treasure Chest icon signify an area where Pokémon are carrying a lot of Treasure Chests, so if you're hunting these items we recommend exploring those dungeons when you see them.

What do you think of the recruitment and camp management system in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX? Let me know.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is available now on Nintendo Switch for $60.