Top 10 Most difficult Recruits in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time 

The most difficult pokemon to recruit is cresselia. Its so hard to forgive someone who ate 40 Reviver seeds

Let's be all be honest, we all knew Kecleon would be number one when we clicked on the video...

.1% doesnt mean you need 1000 kecleons to get 1...actually there is a 50% chance that you will have gotten one by the time you have killed 693 kecleons. There is also a 36.7% chance that you wont get one even if you kill 1000 kecleons.

And to add insult to injury, you have to track each recruit you have already obtained yourself. At least Sky was generous to color the recruitment message differently if you already have one of that species

Now this is the kind of content I like to see. PMD is sorely underrepresented on RU-vid :(

I just completed a recruit em all in darkness (no wondermail*), and this list holds up very well to what I experienced. I got exceptional luck with the seven treasures legendaries tho. I suffered so much recruiting Unown-W, Y and Z as well as failing 6 pichu recruits (I was using a level 100 fast friend with golden mask and my own service fish throughout the whole process). All the spacial rift recruits sucked, lunatone and solrock come to mind specifically. Grinding for levels on abomasnow, waillord, bronzong, and purugly was really boring too. Kecleon also took multiple attempts in Mt. Horn (I had to run zero isle south a few times to get a mobile orb for it once i realised how tough it was to stay alive). My IGT was around 98 hours, so I would guess my actual time was like 110-120 hours (I did this over 9 months this year on and off) *it was no wondermail apart from the seven treasures, no way to access the missions without wondermailing it in time/darkness

There is no pain greater than having a driftloon harass you by spamming unburden ominous wind on floor 49 of sky stairway. The ghost types camping you in the walls(Who tf thought that was a fair gameplay mechanic?) don't help either. It took me weeks to get my underleveled ass through that dungeon when I went through it for the first time, and I didn't even get Rayquaza. Seriously, it's still one of the hardest dungeons that don't put any kind of special restrictions on you imo. Long, big floors, no rest stop, boss fight at the end, and the hellspawn that drifloon is in the mystery dungeon franchise.

For me, I found Jirachi one of the hardest to recruit, since you can’t really bring any recruit boosting items in the Final Maze

I've seen so much of those low spawn rate pokemon by accidentally stepping on pokemon traps, not activating them, then throw a lot rocks around then activate it. Used pikachu to grind xp

I love that there are still people that acknowledge the brilliance embedded within the concept of The PMD games. Definitely going to sub.

The issue with Kecleon is that you basically have to shiny hunt to get it. There are some shiny hunting methods that are way better than 1/1000. Then again, if you have good stats, killing Kecleons is faster than most shiny hunting methods.

This is so cool, I loved playing explorers of time as a kid and beat it a few times but never made it to being able to evolve pokemon. I didn't know there was so much more content I was missing out on

This was a fun video! Thank you for keeping Pokémon Mystery Dungeon alive on RU-vid :) Also, Chinchou/Lanturn is my favourite pokémon of all time

Hey I've watched at least one of your speedruns in a marathon, glad to see this category is alive

I honestly didn’t realize how lucky I was to have recruited a few of these Pokemon simply through them joining me after I completed their request on the Job Board while playing through PMD EOS when I was still working on my 100% completion run. I might pick off where I left off soon but I really don’t wanna go to Aegis Cave again to recruit Unown and get all their stones too.

I guess I was lucky, I recruited a Kecleon once, when I was a kid. I dint even know you could only get them by stealing from the shop, I just stole something and killed a few that were blocking the stairs, and boom recruited one.

2:08 - I believe the spawn limit is 14. In Rescue Team Pokemon are spread more thinly so no floor hits that limit... but that has its downsides, like trying to find Pidgey or Exeggcute in Howling Forest. By the way, doing something with 0.1% 1000 times gives you... 63.2% chances of at least one success. You still have about 1 in 3 to get fucked by RNG.

I know primal dialga doesn't count because it's a bug but if he was on this list it'd probably be 8th or 9th, not because getting it is super rare from the wonder mail trick (I got mine on my 5th try) The thing that makes getting primal dialga a pain is actually re-typing the wondermail code each and every single time you need to do it so it ends up taking forever to get.

Dang, I didn't even know you made videos like this, but it's nice to see some pretty informative, agreeable content getting produced for this game. I feel like I remember you prompting me for the ten hardest Pokémon to get in this game, and I probably just answered, "Porygon, Porygon2, Porygon-Z" lol. So at least this captures a fair amount of variety in terms of the challenges we face. There's like 50 Pokémon or something in this game that are difficult just because of 2% spawn rates so it's hard to only pick 10 hard things. Also I'm glad this footage shows Infernape strats, Time ReA WM is literally the only category where he gets to shine, and it's a shame because he is extremely fun to go fast with in PMD2.

Granted, I'm not that familiar with the categories, but I was expecting Darkrai to be on the list somewhere; considering that it only spawns in 5 dungeons, 1 floor each, requires the Mystery Part or Secret Slab (which I assume would be hard to get in the non WM category), and has a -22% base rate.

In my recruit them all journey, kyogre took me around 7+ time through its dungeon not having anyone with double speed that was high leveled enough to go through. So I had to grind constantly through the dungeon with my party having the item that priorities water Pokemon recruitment. I must have gotten extremely bad luck cause with rayquaza I had gotten the recruit first try. The others like picku, abomasnow, bronzong, Milotic, and porygonZ were also difficult (especially level ups), but luckily wasn’t as harsh give or take making you restart a dungeon so many times. Kecleon is the worst. As of me putting in this comment, kecleon is the last Pokemon I need to recruit and am most certainly making a video for my process. Your video explains it perfectly why he sucks so bad. I am leveling up a mew for fast friends ability. He’s at max friendship so I have the ability, it’s just now having to grind for hours to get mew at level 99-100. I believe I’m at 80ish at the moment, but has been a process.

Happy to have a Pichu in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

Thank you algorythm, you finally recommended something that was both useful and enjoyable.

Great video. Makes me want to play my DS again

I remember dealing with unknown at that after game, story moment. And kinda annoying because of certain unknown being hard to get. It took a while for that to clear.

thank you crrool really enjoyed this video

And Sky. Top 10 Pokemon that I'm not doing a recruit em all challenge. Instead, I'll take which Pokemon in Non Level Resetting dungeons. And rank them. Edit: Kyogre was gotten in Sky in Bottomless Sea.

Great video, yeah, they are hard to recruit, keep it up!

Super interesting video!

Hilariously enough I got Pichu as an egg from a Poochyena that gave it to me after drinking at Spinda's cafe.

Random story: Prior to September 2019, for the longest time, I've been wanting to recruit Kecleon for so long that no matter how many attempts that I've tried, not once, did I ever get lucky enough, until one day, I was looking for both recruiting other Pokemon and evolution stones, eventually finding the stones in a Kecleon shop, also deciding to steal too for shits and giggles, only for one wanting to join my team lol

Ayy kecleon my favorite btw nice vid😁👍

Try playing the balance hack Explorers of Alpha, it has a ton of QoL features from newer games, a higher difficulty curve and Arceus is in the game and recruitable. A Recruit Em All would probably be hellish in that game though since your expected to be level 100 by the end of the main game.

Wait a second these videos are so cool, you remind me of freezai except with speed running!

Getting kecleon is like finding playing the lottery ticket and winning 1000 times.

I have been trying for literal years to recruit darkrai, for me he’s been the toughest! I’d love to attempt to get a kecleon someday :)

groudon’s dungeon is only 10 floors and I had to clear the level 4 TIMES to recruit it, can’t even imagine trying to get kyogre after 50 floors

I’m still trying to recruit most of these Pokémon (Kyogre is the only legendary I don’t have). Even with the leader being Lv. 100 with a Golden Mask, it’s still really tough to recruit some of them. I want to recruit everything for the sake of completion, even though you get nothing for it. Not to mention I want to start a completely new game to experience the story as an adult. I’ve had the same save file for nearly 10 years and I want to use different starters this time around.

I have never heard of the game or anything of the Maystery Dungeon series but Im happy RU-vid randomly recommended it to me :D It looks pretty fun to play might ckecke it out later idk.

I remember trying for hours as a kid to recruit Dusknoir in spatial rift in EOD. I never got him, and I actually got Dialga to lv.100 during my grind.

is there a way to get stuff like that fighting gem in Sky without wondermail?

It's times like this I'm glad I don't care about getting everyone, just the ones I want.

Would Darkrai be an honorable mention? You have to have a special item with you for it to spawn, you have to have a mon of a higher level, it has a very low recruitment rate, AND if you it doesn’t join your time after defeating it, you restart the dungeon over again. It took me way too long to recruit one for myself.

Oh shit een Nederlander crazy, probably one of my favourite games, cool pkm mystery dungeon content je hebt een subscriber

I recruited keckleon as altaria and let me tell you the wall thing was the best thing you could have done. I wish i knew before xd

Is the Kecleon at least worth it, or is it nerfed from the monstrosity that fights you when you dare steal from it?

When I played this as a kid I managed to somehow hatch a bronzong from an egg. I was shocked to say the least that it was even possible 😅 definitely go for egg missions you never know what you'll get

I got a question regarding the mobile orb. I now got 491 Pokémon in Explorers of Sky with obviously Arceus missing and Kecleon. I wanted to use your strat because the idea behind it is great and I already got the right Pokémon (Mew) with Fast Friend and it's even Level 100 because I gained so many Exp while recruiting everything which was missing :D But where do I find the orb? I got so many rare items and items in general that I'm steadily around ~900/1000 items but I don't have a single one :( I even played through Zero Isle South now because I read you can find them there but nothing... At least I got a full adventure log in main menu now

Ok you have to admit PMD Blue/Red has way harder Pokemon to recruit (Chansey, Ponyta, Eccegute, Pidgey, Snorlax, Clamperl, Relicanth, Chinchou, the Fossils, Walrein, Despotar, Celebi, Jirachi, Dragonite, Deoxys, Mew and Kecleon is also even harder to get in Blue/Red)

shoutouts to mew in pokemon mystery dungeon dx who i still somehow don't have after killing like 10 -15 times with a friend ribbon and inviting orb, who has a 1% spawnrate only in certain floors of a 100 layer dunegon...

In my opinion also darkray could be on the list easily he is so scary and so hard to recruit

Out of curiosity once you recruit every Pokémon in the game do you get any sort of acknowledgement/ statue/ rewards or something?

jirachi was the toughest one for me, it took like a week just to get her from marowak dojo

I expected Darkrai somewhere, but I guess that just proves how little I know about the recruit all category ^^'

Nice vid but how do you use mobile scarf and gold mask at the same time?

I got really lucky on the Pichu and Kyorge :)

That #1 was so obvious but I cannot complain about it.

Idk what the odds are but I got a Kecleon the very first time I tried to recruit one which absolutely boggled my mind. All the mental preparation and the memories from the blue and red rescue team games for nothing. I'll never be that lucky again in anything I touch

More of this Game!!!

So I’ve just been using up all of my recruiting luck with the legendarys. That explains why I can never recruit anyone in the legend dungeons. (Beat them they join. Always thought it was guaranteed for them to join after you beat them)

Fantastic video, yet my brain hurt every time I heard "catch rate" in PMD

I'm late to the video but how does this compare to explorers of darkness/sky? Is there a reason to run this game instead? Awesome video

I played this game 2 years ago when I was 15 and I cried idk why but it hurts the feelings a lot. 💔😢😭😓

been a while since ive come across a PMD youtuber with rep

For kyogre can't you save in the middle of the dungeon and kill it in different ways for a different result?

I save scummed on the floor right before rayquaza so that I don't have to go through the entire dungeon again

For Abomasnow, wouldn't it be easier/make sense to have someone else in the party with rain dance or sunny day?

Question: Don't most of these Pokemon have a chance of being hatched? Or are they not hatchable? I don't really know the Egg mechanic of Explorers well.

I remember how painful it was for me to recruit Dusknoir in Spacial Rift

Wait what about darkrai? Isn't he like a negative percent until you get the golden mask?

3:54 Question unrelated to recuitment, WTH is the "took a deep breath" thing that appears every floor

Fun fact I actually recruited keckleon on my first ever playtrough of blue rescue team when I was a kid Never succeeded ever again lol And also not the same game but, can you recruit evolved pokémon in blue rescue team too ? I ever thought it was impossible.

I find Porygon to be the dumbest Pokémon to recruit (and Lunatone I guess). Stuff only being in Spatial Rift is fine in my opinion, but having some only appear past the checkpoint, aka the point where the game will kick you out if you were there on missions, is utterly asinine. On the other hand, it let me cheese not only them, but Latios, given he spawns down there with the Slab or Part. Save at the checkpoint, reset if you fail, you just go right back to the checkpoint for another round. I forget if Escape Orbs in DSR will just bring you back to the checkpoint, but if so, that just lets you go back and save any of the five you got that round before going again.

I ended up recruiting Lunatone while in the main story line when I got to temporal tower. Then I had to take him with me to beat dialga🤷‍♂️.

One of my friend has recruited a kecleon in Pokémon mystery dungeon, explorers of sky.

Where you find those spawn percentages? I can't find them

I thought I was the only one who played this game

When I played this game when I was little I never really used the wonder mail feature. What does it do?

I play mystery dungeon sky. Of all the pokemon i can't seem to get so far but need is Charmander. That way I can finish my team of Lyrea the Eevee, Lazarus the Riolu, Loki the Shinx, and hopefully a charmander named Luka.

I’m surprised Giratina wasn’t on this list. I was able to get Rayquaza back in the day since his dungeon was just long and not that hard. However the Giratina dungeon has so many earthquake and earth power mons that mess you up. I don’t think I’ve ever recruited Giratina.

I mean of course number one is Kecleon lol.

Rotom is kinda hard to recruit. Low recruit rate, only really recruitable on a few floors of one dungeon, and hides a lot. Like Darkrai but not as bad.

I think is not even possible to get the version exclusive legendary/mythical from time and darkness respectively. Im talking about mewtwo and celebi. Since theres no team trading or wondermail generator that can replicate the wi fi one.

In blue mystery dungeon i got keckleon first try after getting the friend scarf and when i did i didn't even know it was needed to get keckleon

Now i feel bad for rejecting all those Bronzor that wanted to join my team when i go to Spacial Rift. I do plan on getting one via egg, so dunno how difficult that'd be

i remember on my old save file, i tried to recuit Wailord many times, but failed! (and yes i had the golden mask)

Trying to resist the urge to start a new file on eos instead of concentrating on 100% dx i keep starting new files and all the games i wanna complete get put on the bench for ever aghh

11:37 me who has explorers of sky on my Wii u virtual console so I can just save state before defeating him then resetting if I don’t get him

What about Mind Reader move if we use it against Keckleon before to kill him/her?

I remember having an unown ! on my child game

Why didn't you do this in sky? Is this list any different in that game?

I have a job restricted to me being accompanied by a steel Pokémon. Where can I recruit one?

I heard Kecleon just goes to level 30 when you recruit him but he still has max stats or something?

There should be a category where you don't have to get Kekleon

i remember being a kid and using an infinite health cheat so i could recruit kecleon in team blue. when i finally got it my game froze.

Kecleon HAD to be number 1. No debate about that!

I find it really annoying that the a certain iq group is needed to recruit caclon, makes it so much work if you don't have the right starter. Which, since it's Chikorita, is never for me

What about dusknoir in the spacial rift?

What iq skill is that when you “take a deep breath”, and what does it do??

Nice video, have you recruited em’ all?