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Hey everyone! This is a simple guide specialized toward readers who want to get into a PMD fanfic, but don’t know enough about PMD to follow or, more importantly, feel like they wouldn’t be able to enjoy the work as much if they didn’t know about the basic canon.
In this guide I will be going over basic and common items and mechanics found in the games that aren’t found in the main series, followed by lore and notable characters if they’re working with the canon setting, as well as other miscellaneous information in between.
Hopefully this will be good for a lot of people to get a jump start on how PMD fics operate. The format will be as follows: To the best of my knowledge, the “canon depiction” of these mechanics will be explained first, followed by the “common fanfic interpretations." This guide will be adjusted and updated as new information is presented to me, as well as when new games come out, such as the upcoming PMD Rescue Team DX.
Also, I should note, this guide will not cover most key characters or storylines except in broad strokes. If you want to read more about that, refer to the Plot and Character pages as seen in fan wikis such as Bulbagarden, etc. When it comes to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, original regions are extremely common, arguably more common than making a story in the canon region (at least from my experience.)
Now then, onto the basics!
Dungeons
Canon: Mystery Dungeons (sometimes capitalized as in Gates to Infinity, other times not) are strange pockets of distorted space that don’t seem to have an immediate visual indicator as to when they begin or end. In Rescue Team, a Caterpie falls into a fissure, and that is considered a Mystery Dungeon for him to be rescued from.
Mystery Dungeons are never the same each time you enter them; each segment, called a “floor,” is a randomly arranged series of rooms connected by corridors, sometimes with larger rooms, other times smaller rooms, or very rarely in the early games, a single, giant room. Floors are traversed by going to stairs to the next floor.
Defeat in a Dungeon kicks you out of it, and you wake up at the entrance to the Dungeon with most or all (depending on the game) of your money gone, as well as most of your items. It is implied that this is where money in Dungeons come from, though items seem to just appear randomly in Dungeon distortions (more on items later.)
Additionally, the Rescue Badges given to you in all the games are imbued with a special magic that can help you escape from a Dungeon without losing your equipment in the process, and can also be used to rescue others that are calling for help from within. However, it takes time to use, and cannot typically be done in the middle of battle, and instead can only be used after completing rescue missions or at the stairway after completing all missions prior.
Fanon: Dungeons and how they’re interpreted in fan fiction stories are just as varied and diverse as Pokémon species themselves. PMD stories often go out of their way to establish how Dungeons operate in their world, because it rarely sticks purely to canon. Dungeons can be distortions in the world passed through portals, or so on. Almost everything mentioned above is either taken, left, or completely ignored. Keep your eyes peeled for how Dungeons operate per story.
Dungeon Winds
If you hang around on a floor/section of a Dungeon for too long, you will be kicked out of the dungeon. This is interpreted as a very strong wind that blows through the corridors and blows you out of the dungeon, and can only be counteracted by a special item like a Tight Belt.
Fanon: It's very rare that these are acknowledged directly, but sometimes it is used as a means for the dungeon to rearrange itself to its random, labyrinthine format (Example: Fledglings.) Most other stories ignore this.
Items and Equipment
Canon: There are many, many types of items in the PMD series that are not found in the main games. These items can be categorized into a handful of different types: Scarves / other forms of attire, Orbs, Seeds, Wands, Gummis, Emeras, treasure boxes, and projectiles.
Special note: Some berries have slightly different effects in PMD. For example, Oran Berries are 10x as effective, and Sitrus Berries are outright a full heal. Chesto Berries do not cure sleep, but instead grant insomnia, like a really dense caffeine pill.
Wild Pokemon
Canon: Typically, wild Pokémon once native to the area before it had become a Dungeon roam these lands. In Rescue Team and other areas, these Pokémon were once peaceful, but the disruption that the Dungeons introduced made them irritable and hostile. Beating them up can sometimes return them to their senses, and you can even recruit them to join your cause!
In other Dungeons, such as those found in areas where Wild Pokémon do not normally appear (such as Ley Lines or ethereal locations—more on those later) are instead illusions or apparitions crafted by the Dungeon, by the thoughts of the explorers inside, or even by some other force such as Dark Matter (more on him later, too.) Additionally, some Dungeons that seem to be normal but otherwise
Wild Pokémon? Right, that’s a bit of an odd thought to think about, isn’t it? There aren’t any humans here, and therefore there are no trainers. Despite this, there is still a canonical difference between wild Pokémon and Pokémon that you see on teams or in towns. For the most part, it seems to be a matter of lifestyle; wild Pokémon seem to be able to speak the same language as civilized Pokémon for the most part, though there is some ambiguity for some locations on whether that’s the case for all Pokémon. Some Dungeons don’t allow recruiting at all, and that may suggest the Pokémon in the area are pure feral; additionally, the illusory Pokémon and Pokémon created by Void Shadows do not seem capable of speech.
Fanon: Similar to Dungeons, how Wild Pokémon behave, and how similar or different they are to civilized Pokémon, varies wildly. Some are completely separate from civilized Pokémon, sometimes down to an outright physical or genetic level. Others are similar in all ways but lifestyle. And everything in between.
It's also a somewhat common interpretation that the Pokemon seen in Dungeons are corrupted by the distortions into being feral in some way, or are just illusions created by the dungeon.
Humans
One of the most consistent things across all PMD fics is the lack of humans. Canonically, the fate of the human race, if they ever existed in the first place, is fully ambiguous. There is an abandoned lab used as a friend area that is said to have been abandoned by humans in Rescue Team, but after that, there was no mention of large-scale human activity anywhere else. Poké Balls, Apricorns, and the like are completely unknown and unacknowledged in all Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games.
Additionally, as of Gates to Infinity, it is completely codified that humans are typically not allowed in the Pokémon World at all, which is why they often must return to their world once the crisis is over. However, exceptions are always made for the humans that do manage to save the world, either from the compassion of a Legendary or the very forces of the universe giving the human a pass for their efforts. Life may not be fair, but in the Pokémon World, sometimes you get a freebie.
Fanon: The idea of an entire prominent species of the main games being absent in the PMD games is always a tantalizing story. Whether it’s used as the main plot or a lore backdrop, or just ignored entirely, is up to the author.
Pokemon Society
While low-tech for the most part, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon’s world shows a very down-to-earth landscape with magical technology sprinkled inside. Where the technology comes from is unknown, but it’s reasonable to infer that some of it may be due to Mystery Dungeons, while others may be naturally developed Pokémon technology. As the games progressed, the technology level increased from Rescue Team to Super.
Pokémon live in homes or their preferred environments, work together as a humanlike society with commerce, dojos, organizations, and even logos and articles of clothing. However, articles of clothing are typically limited to things like functional scarves or capes, likely to universalize attire and because they’re Dungeon items that actually help in battle.
Pokémon are fond of battling, but do not default to it nor do they seem to have a particular lust for battle. Rather, fighting is simply considered a more normal thing to one another than it would be if two humans fought. Pokémon are resilient, so they often spar very intensely and laugh about it afterward.
Fanon: Similar to Dungeons, it’s varied, but the core aspect of Pokémon living in a society that’s more humanlike than normal is next to universal.
Names?
Canonically, only the hero and partner are ever given names. Everybody else is referred to by their species. The fact that the human has a name is sometimes acknowledged early on as "That's a funny name!" but that could just be a gag at the fact that the user can enter anything for a name. The fact that the partner has a name, and that everyone calls them by that name, is never acknowledged as strange or weird.
Fanon: There are three common interpretations to this: One is fully canon, and just rolling with the fact that most people go by their species for a name. (Example: Guiding Light). Another is that everyone has personal names, and it's assumed that the games just don't use them for the player to see (Canon Breakage.) Others still have the species name as their title or legal name, while their personal name is another name, similar to how we have first and last names (Hands of Creation, Amaranth.)
Timeline
Canon: heavily implied that the games take place in sequence within the same general era. Rescue Team is likely the earliest in the timeline, with Explorers of Sky happening some number of years after Rescue Team (Wigglytuff of the Friend Area appears to be the same Wigglytuff of the Guild in Explorers, having the same catch phrase and so on.) Super is likely the final game in the series chronologically (unless a fifth game is released that isn’t a remake.) and was even advertised to be the one that ties everything together, showing the continents of the previous games all on the same world map. Gates to Infinity’s placement on the timeline is before Super, but where it falls otherwise is ambiguous, as there are not many ties to the previous installments.
Nobody knows nor cares where the WiiWare games fall.
Fanon: No seriously, I don’t think I’ve met a single person who cared about the WiiWare games. Edit: Okay apparently some people care, but it's a small percentage.
But as for the rest of the timeline, this is another one that is often up to the author. Sometimes they make each crisis/game happen many generations apart, sometimes to the point where that incident was lost to time. Other times, it’s kept to canon of what Super implies, with each crisis happening relatively shortly after the other, all tied to the Mystery Dungeon phenomena that had started coming up. Once again, keep your eyes peeled for hints on this timeline, if it’s relevant (or even set in the same continuity / world as the canon ones.)
The Canon World
Continents
Canon: The canon world of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a full-fledged world split into several continents, much like Earth (though the geography is nothing like Earth's or the mainline Pokemon world.) Prior to Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, it was unknown whether these games were related to one another in terms of their settings. However, as of Super, it is confirmed that not only do these games all take place in the same world, but they also take place in possibly the same era, perhaps within a few decades of each other. The continents are...
(Note: the numbers are a little blurry due to how large this one is and forum upload limitations. I suggest taking a look at the source tweet for the Super map if possible.
Common Tropes
Personality Test
Most Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games feature a personality test. This test often determines your nature or preferences or some other aspect of your personality, which in turn determines what species you become. For example, being "docile" can make you a Charmander in one game, and "hardy" has the same effect in another. Generally, personalities are mapped to species. In later games, if you don't like the species assigned, you can manually pick it otherwise.
From there, you also can manually choose your partner Pokemon. The only rule for a partner is that it cannot be the same Type as the human. For example, you can have a Charmander and Riolu pair, or a Torchic and a Chikorita, but you can't have a Totodile and a Mudkip, or a Bulbasaur and a Treecko.
Fanon: Surprisingly, perhaps due to character diversity, the human-partner Type dynamic is often followed, for stories that involve a human turned Pokemon. (Note: some PMD stories omit humans entirely, and there is no former-human protagonist at all. Example: Fledglings). Some stories have a personality test at the beginning, but it's rare. Others make cheeky references to it, but never depict it directly (Example: Fractured Elements.).
Amnesia
Perhaps in an effort to keep the scope of the story in check, the human does not have any memory of who they used to be. They knew that they used to be human, they remember their name, and that's it. This isn't really something that has a whole lot of angst over for most games, though in Explorers, the human's past is relevant to the plot later. In Gates to Infinity, it's implied that the human doesn't forget anything at all!
Fanon: While amnesia is seen as a bit more common nowadays, it can still be used effectively even when played straight. Some fics ignore it completely, while others play it straight, and others still use the amnesia trope in completely different ways. Still, expect "amnesia" to be a more common trope in PMD stories in particular.
I have to go, now.
Every non-Wiiware PMD game has a scene at the end of the game (precisely before the credits) where the crisis is over, the world is saved, and the human's mission is over. From there, the human has to go away, leading to a tearful goodbye between the human and the partner. After the credits, the forces at play deem the efforts of the human worthy of giving them what they want--to return to stay with their partner. The first game, Rescue Team, codified this. Explorers continues the trend. Gates to Infinity, the human stays gone until the entire postgame campaign to bring them back is completed (It's also implied that the Nintendo 3DS is used as a means for the human to teleport to the Pokemon World in their pokemon body from then on.) For the sake of spoilers, I can't say what happens in Super, but it's a surprising twist.
Fanon: Similar to amnesia, this is a common ending trope, either played straight as above, or with the human actually staying gone... or simply ignored entirely. I'm not giving examples here.
[TODO LIST]
In this guide I will be going over basic and common items and mechanics found in the games that aren’t found in the main series, followed by lore and notable characters if they’re working with the canon setting, as well as other miscellaneous information in between.
Hopefully this will be good for a lot of people to get a jump start on how PMD fics operate. The format will be as follows: To the best of my knowledge, the “canon depiction” of these mechanics will be explained first, followed by the “common fanfic interpretations." This guide will be adjusted and updated as new information is presented to me, as well as when new games come out, such as the upcoming PMD Rescue Team DX.
Also, I should note, this guide will not cover most key characters or storylines except in broad strokes. If you want to read more about that, refer to the Plot and Character pages as seen in fan wikis such as Bulbagarden, etc. When it comes to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, original regions are extremely common, arguably more common than making a story in the canon region (at least from my experience.)
Now then, onto the basics!
Dungeons
Canon: Mystery Dungeons (sometimes capitalized as in Gates to Infinity, other times not) are strange pockets of distorted space that don’t seem to have an immediate visual indicator as to when they begin or end. In Rescue Team, a Caterpie falls into a fissure, and that is considered a Mystery Dungeon for him to be rescued from.
Mystery Dungeons are never the same each time you enter them; each segment, called a “floor,” is a randomly arranged series of rooms connected by corridors, sometimes with larger rooms, other times smaller rooms, or very rarely in the early games, a single, giant room. Floors are traversed by going to stairs to the next floor.
Defeat in a Dungeon kicks you out of it, and you wake up at the entrance to the Dungeon with most or all (depending on the game) of your money gone, as well as most of your items. It is implied that this is where money in Dungeons come from, though items seem to just appear randomly in Dungeon distortions (more on items later.)
Additionally, the Rescue Badges given to you in all the games are imbued with a special magic that can help you escape from a Dungeon without losing your equipment in the process, and can also be used to rescue others that are calling for help from within. However, it takes time to use, and cannot typically be done in the middle of battle, and instead can only be used after completing rescue missions or at the stairway after completing all missions prior.
Fanon: Dungeons and how they’re interpreted in fan fiction stories are just as varied and diverse as Pokémon species themselves. PMD stories often go out of their way to establish how Dungeons operate in their world, because it rarely sticks purely to canon. Dungeons can be distortions in the world passed through portals, or so on. Almost everything mentioned above is either taken, left, or completely ignored. Keep your eyes peeled for how Dungeons operate per story.
Dungeon Winds
If you hang around on a floor/section of a Dungeon for too long, you will be kicked out of the dungeon. This is interpreted as a very strong wind that blows through the corridors and blows you out of the dungeon, and can only be counteracted by a special item like a Tight Belt.
Fanon: It's very rare that these are acknowledged directly, but sometimes it is used as a means for the dungeon to rearrange itself to its random, labyrinthine format (Example: Fledglings.) Most other stories ignore this.
Items and Equipment
Canon: There are many, many types of items in the PMD series that are not found in the main games. These items can be categorized into a handful of different types: Scarves / other forms of attire, Orbs, Seeds, Wands, Gummis, Emeras, treasure boxes, and projectiles.
Special note: Some berries have slightly different effects in PMD. For example, Oran Berries are 10x as effective, and Sitrus Berries are outright a full heal. Chesto Berries do not cure sleep, but instead grant insomnia, like a really dense caffeine pill.
- Orbs: You can consider these to be Moves-In-A-Ball. A Slumber Orb, for example, operates similarly to a room-sized AoE, affecting all Pokémon in the area and putting them to sleep. A Totter Orb is the same, but Confuse Ray, and various other Orbs that have different effects. Some Orbs are more popular to use than others, typically standard ones, while others are more niche or outright omitted from the arsenal.
- Seeds: Like Orbs, Seeds are one-use items that contain various effects. Unlike Orbs, however, these are typically single-target, and are consumed by the user. Well-known ones are Totter Seeds (if you eat it, you get confused), Stun Seeds (paralysis), and, uniquely, Blast Seeds, which can either explode if you throw them, or cause the user to spew an explosion in front of them if they eat it. Generally, looking up the wiki on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon items would be best as a brief reference point, though usually you can infer the effects of a Seed when they’re shown. One well-known seed is the Reviver Seed, which automatically revives a fainted ally to full health as long as the item is in inventory; when it’s used, the Reviver Seed then becomes a useless Plain Seed (though it does fill your belly by 5%, which is nice.)
- Wands: These are like a hybrid of Seeds and Orbs, but are multi-use, and were first featured in Super. Like Seeds, they are often single-target, but the ‘look and feel’ of their effects are more Orb-like. But in general, they are just another conduit for strange effects a Pokémon would normally not be able to do.
- Scarves, Bandanas, Ribbons, Looplets, and so on: These are the “hold items” of PMD, and they’re often passive versions of some Seed, Orb, and Wand effects. For example, a Pecha Scarf grants immunity to poison. There are also, rarely, mentions of mainline items, such as a Zoom Lens, whose effects are as you’d expect from the mainline games.
- Gummis: These are special oddities in the PMD world that appeared in earlier games, and most recently in Rescue Team DX. These are food items (they literally look like gummy candies) that often taste best when their color matches the Type of the user—for example, Fires enjoy Red Gummis, Grasses enjoy Green Gummis, Waters enjoy Blue Gummis, and so on. While typically only associated with food items, canonically they also can raise stats on occasion, and even let the Pokémon learn new skills for exploring Dungeons.
- Emeras: Introduced in Super, emeras were the replacements for gummis. They gave temporary skills to the user when placed on a looplet, which had a limited number of slots to fill. Emeras only exist within Dungeons, and when you leave a Dungeon, the emeras acquired disappear. However, some Looplets behave like Scarves of previous games, already having an effect imbued within them, in addition to slots for more emeras from Dungeons.
- Treasure Boxes: Curiously, sometimes wild Pokémon of Dungeons drop treasure boxes. These boxes contain random, and sometimes rare or valuable, items inside. They used to require a person in town to unlock them, or… smash them open. In Explorers, and only Explorers, the items sometimes contained strange items that referred to parts of Pokémon or icons that resembled them, or or other rare artifacts. What that means, or how they were acquired, or why they had such beneficial effects, is never really mentioned or acknowledged, and they’re more items to just give you an edge in Dungeons. In fanfiction, most of these items except, potentially, the strongest items / the special items that aren’t associated with Pokémon parts are mentioned. The rest are often omitted.
Wild Pokemon
Canon: Typically, wild Pokémon once native to the area before it had become a Dungeon roam these lands. In Rescue Team and other areas, these Pokémon were once peaceful, but the disruption that the Dungeons introduced made them irritable and hostile. Beating them up can sometimes return them to their senses, and you can even recruit them to join your cause!
In other Dungeons, such as those found in areas where Wild Pokémon do not normally appear (such as Ley Lines or ethereal locations—more on those later) are instead illusions or apparitions crafted by the Dungeon, by the thoughts of the explorers inside, or even by some other force such as Dark Matter (more on him later, too.) Additionally, some Dungeons that seem to be normal but otherwise
Wild Pokémon? Right, that’s a bit of an odd thought to think about, isn’t it? There aren’t any humans here, and therefore there are no trainers. Despite this, there is still a canonical difference between wild Pokémon and Pokémon that you see on teams or in towns. For the most part, it seems to be a matter of lifestyle; wild Pokémon seem to be able to speak the same language as civilized Pokémon for the most part, though there is some ambiguity for some locations on whether that’s the case for all Pokémon. Some Dungeons don’t allow recruiting at all, and that may suggest the Pokémon in the area are pure feral; additionally, the illusory Pokémon and Pokémon created by Void Shadows do not seem capable of speech.
Fanon: Similar to Dungeons, how Wild Pokémon behave, and how similar or different they are to civilized Pokémon, varies wildly. Some are completely separate from civilized Pokémon, sometimes down to an outright physical or genetic level. Others are similar in all ways but lifestyle. And everything in between.
It's also a somewhat common interpretation that the Pokemon seen in Dungeons are corrupted by the distortions into being feral in some way, or are just illusions created by the dungeon.
Humans
One of the most consistent things across all PMD fics is the lack of humans. Canonically, the fate of the human race, if they ever existed in the first place, is fully ambiguous. There is an abandoned lab used as a friend area that is said to have been abandoned by humans in Rescue Team, but after that, there was no mention of large-scale human activity anywhere else. Poké Balls, Apricorns, and the like are completely unknown and unacknowledged in all Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games.
Additionally, as of Gates to Infinity, it is completely codified that humans are typically not allowed in the Pokémon World at all, which is why they often must return to their world once the crisis is over. However, exceptions are always made for the humans that do manage to save the world, either from the compassion of a Legendary or the very forces of the universe giving the human a pass for their efforts. Life may not be fair, but in the Pokémon World, sometimes you get a freebie.
Fanon: The idea of an entire prominent species of the main games being absent in the PMD games is always a tantalizing story. Whether it’s used as the main plot or a lore backdrop, or just ignored entirely, is up to the author.
Pokemon Society
While low-tech for the most part, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon’s world shows a very down-to-earth landscape with magical technology sprinkled inside. Where the technology comes from is unknown, but it’s reasonable to infer that some of it may be due to Mystery Dungeons, while others may be naturally developed Pokémon technology. As the games progressed, the technology level increased from Rescue Team to Super.
Pokémon live in homes or their preferred environments, work together as a humanlike society with commerce, dojos, organizations, and even logos and articles of clothing. However, articles of clothing are typically limited to things like functional scarves or capes, likely to universalize attire and because they’re Dungeon items that actually help in battle.
Pokémon are fond of battling, but do not default to it nor do they seem to have a particular lust for battle. Rather, fighting is simply considered a more normal thing to one another than it would be if two humans fought. Pokémon are resilient, so they often spar very intensely and laugh about it afterward.
Fanon: Similar to Dungeons, it’s varied, but the core aspect of Pokémon living in a society that’s more humanlike than normal is next to universal.
Names?
Canonically, only the hero and partner are ever given names. Everybody else is referred to by their species. The fact that the human has a name is sometimes acknowledged early on as "That's a funny name!" but that could just be a gag at the fact that the user can enter anything for a name. The fact that the partner has a name, and that everyone calls them by that name, is never acknowledged as strange or weird.
Fanon: There are three common interpretations to this: One is fully canon, and just rolling with the fact that most people go by their species for a name. (Example: Guiding Light). Another is that everyone has personal names, and it's assumed that the games just don't use them for the player to see (Canon Breakage.) Others still have the species name as their title or legal name, while their personal name is another name, similar to how we have first and last names (Hands of Creation, Amaranth.)
Timeline
Canon: heavily implied that the games take place in sequence within the same general era. Rescue Team is likely the earliest in the timeline, with Explorers of Sky happening some number of years after Rescue Team (Wigglytuff of the Friend Area appears to be the same Wigglytuff of the Guild in Explorers, having the same catch phrase and so on.) Super is likely the final game in the series chronologically (unless a fifth game is released that isn’t a remake.) and was even advertised to be the one that ties everything together, showing the continents of the previous games all on the same world map. Gates to Infinity’s placement on the timeline is before Super, but where it falls otherwise is ambiguous, as there are not many ties to the previous installments.
Nobody knows nor cares where the WiiWare games fall.
Fanon: No seriously, I don’t think I’ve met a single person who cared about the WiiWare games. Edit: Okay apparently some people care, but it's a small percentage.
But as for the rest of the timeline, this is another one that is often up to the author. Sometimes they make each crisis/game happen many generations apart, sometimes to the point where that incident was lost to time. Other times, it’s kept to canon of what Super implies, with each crisis happening relatively shortly after the other, all tied to the Mystery Dungeon phenomena that had started coming up. Once again, keep your eyes peeled for hints on this timeline, if it’s relevant (or even set in the same continuity / world as the canon ones.)
The Canon World
Continents
Canon: The canon world of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a full-fledged world split into several continents, much like Earth (though the geography is nothing like Earth's or the mainline Pokemon world.) Prior to Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, it was unknown whether these games were related to one another in terms of their settings. However, as of Super, it is confirmed that not only do these games all take place in the same world, but they also take place in possibly the same era, perhaps within a few decades of each other. The continents are...
- The Water Continent - This is the game where most of Super takes place, and is the home of Serene Village and Lively Town. In terms of the depicted world map, it is located in the central-north portion of the world. It is considered to be the continent with the most rivers and water
- The Air Continent - This is the game where Rescue Team (Red, Blue, Deluxe) took place, and is home to Pokemon Square. It is located in the northeast and is, appropriately, considered to be very arid.
- The Grass Continent - This is where the Explorers games (Time, Darkness, Sky) take place. It is home to Treasure Town, Wigglytuff's Guild, and Zero Isle (an infamously difficult Dungeon in those games that, for some of its Dungeons, reduce the Pokemon's level to 1.) It is located southeast.
- The Mist Continent - This is where Gates to Infinity took place, and is home to Post Town and Paradise (the giant, highly habitable area created by the hero and partner of those games) are located. It is in the northwest portions of the world, and is typically cooler but mysteriously misty or foggy in many parts of the land.
- The Sand Continent - This is an entirely new location that is filled with sand dunes and rocky terrain. No games take place here, and it is only known to be home to Sahra Town, located in the southwest.
- The Sea of Wonders - This is a series of islands and archipelagos that is home to several important locations. The Tree of Life is located here, which is said to keep the world stable and safe. It was the main target of Dark Matter in Super, who intended to destroy the Tree to hurl the planet into the sun. It is also where the Hidden Land of the Explorers games are located, which houses Temporal Tower, which, when it was unstable, would have led to time freezing for the world if it was destroyed, or its guardian, Dialga, corrupted.
- The Mystery Continent - Located to the far north, it is a frigid and small landmass that is home to some of the most powerful Pokemon in the world. In particular, Arceus is located here, sitting atop Destiny Tower, a 99-floor labyrinth, said to be the greatest challenge a Rescue Team could face.
(Note: the numbers are a little blurry due to how large this one is and forum upload limitations. I suggest taking a look at the source tweet for the Super map if possible.
Personality Test
Most Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games feature a personality test. This test often determines your nature or preferences or some other aspect of your personality, which in turn determines what species you become. For example, being "docile" can make you a Charmander in one game, and "hardy" has the same effect in another. Generally, personalities are mapped to species. In later games, if you don't like the species assigned, you can manually pick it otherwise.
From there, you also can manually choose your partner Pokemon. The only rule for a partner is that it cannot be the same Type as the human. For example, you can have a Charmander and Riolu pair, or a Torchic and a Chikorita, but you can't have a Totodile and a Mudkip, or a Bulbasaur and a Treecko.
Fanon: Surprisingly, perhaps due to character diversity, the human-partner Type dynamic is often followed, for stories that involve a human turned Pokemon. (Note: some PMD stories omit humans entirely, and there is no former-human protagonist at all. Example: Fledglings). Some stories have a personality test at the beginning, but it's rare. Others make cheeky references to it, but never depict it directly (Example: Fractured Elements.).
Amnesia
Perhaps in an effort to keep the scope of the story in check, the human does not have any memory of who they used to be. They knew that they used to be human, they remember their name, and that's it. This isn't really something that has a whole lot of angst over for most games, though in Explorers, the human's past is relevant to the plot later. In Gates to Infinity, it's implied that the human doesn't forget anything at all!
Fanon: While amnesia is seen as a bit more common nowadays, it can still be used effectively even when played straight. Some fics ignore it completely, while others play it straight, and others still use the amnesia trope in completely different ways. Still, expect "amnesia" to be a more common trope in PMD stories in particular.
I have to go, now.
Every non-Wiiware PMD game has a scene at the end of the game (precisely before the credits) where the crisis is over, the world is saved, and the human's mission is over. From there, the human has to go away, leading to a tearful goodbye between the human and the partner. After the credits, the forces at play deem the efforts of the human worthy of giving them what they want--to return to stay with their partner. The first game, Rescue Team, codified this. Explorers continues the trend. Gates to Infinity, the human stays gone until the entire postgame campaign to bring them back is completed (It's also implied that the Nintendo 3DS is used as a means for the human to teleport to the Pokemon World in their pokemon body from then on.) For the sake of spoilers, I can't say what happens in Super, but it's a surprising twist.
Fanon: Similar to amnesia, this is a common ending trope, either played straight as above, or with the human actually staying gone... or simply ignored entirely. I'm not giving examples here.
[TODO LIST]
- M E A T (and other dietary supplements)
- Game-related lingo (Did you know Levels are actually mentioned? For some reason?)
- Moves, techniques.
- Non-canon moves (Vacuum cut, Wide Slash, etc.)
- Non-Pokemon entities (subsection of lore?)
- Help I don't know what tags to give this post
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