Hello to all you new faces joining PMU in the past few days! Seeing many of you and your many questions recently has implored me to create an easy tips and tricks guide for PMU so far! There are many things that players aren’t typically familiar with at first, and those of us who play regularly forget to mention them sometimes, so I’ll list some of those here!
Story
This will come as a shock to you, but as of the time of this post, PMU does not have an overarching story just yet. Most dungeons will have a story confined to that specific dungeon to give a reason and a purpose for it existing, but very few stories connect to each other. This may change in the future, but be aware that PMU is more for creating your own story!
Switching Pokemon
You’ve probably recruited at least one Pokemon at this point and may be wondering how to change to them! There are two ways! The first is by clicking the Pokemon on your team view on the top part of the client! The second, easier way is by pressing numbers 1-4 depending on which slot the Pokemon you want is in! Make sure to assign your Leader as a Pokemon that can get away easily or isn’t planning to fight. If you faint as your Leader in a dungeon, you either revive or have to fail the dungeon. But if your other Pokemon faint, you can switch to another instead and continue exploring! You can change your team order and who your Leader is by visiting Chimecho Assembly!
Fullscreen mode
This game is mainly in windowed mode but has an option for fullscreen! You can apply this by pressing F11 after clicking near the top of the right box on the login screen for the client! Please be aware however, this is not the highest quality out there, and you would probably be better off in windowed mode.
Try to find a Pokemon that knows Refresh as soon as possible
Status is pretty mean in this game. Poison, Sleep, Paralysis, etc will follow you to the next floor and beyond unless you have a way of curing it. If you find a Pokemon with Refresh, Heal Bell or Aromatherapy, keep it with you and it can cure your status whenever! One of the earliest for this would be Swablu, which can be found in Mt. Skylift and learns Refresh at level 26! As a bonus this also gives you a Pokemon to learn Fly later on!
Cutscene break
Sometimes while in a story cutscene, the world might suddenly get bright and all npcs disappear. This usually happens either if a lagspike happens during said cutscene or you switch Pokemon at a very bad time. This can be reversed by logging out and back in. In fact, most problems can be solved with a relog!
Selecting multiple of a stacked item while withdrawing or depositing items
If you’re depositing Poke, Shards or an item of similar nature, clicking on the white box that appears and typing out what you want to deposit or withdraw will let you move it much faster! While we’re on the subject, there is not a Bank ingame. This function is fulfilled by Kangaskhan Storage.
Keep your sounds on while exploring
As of the time of writing this post, the only indicator for Shiny Pokemon spawning is a sound. Assuming that the sound file streams properly, that sound will be under the name of “magic.838.ogg” in your client files. Some houses play this noise, but the joke dungeon Razed Fields will play it immediately when you enter! (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STORE YOUR ITEMS BEFORE GOING INSIDE) Furthermore, when you explore dungeons make sure you have a team space open when you hear a shiny spawn!
Reviver Seeds
Reviver items will help you out immensely in this game. While the real time elements can be quite compelling, it also allows for the enemies to be rather unforgiving in large numbers. To counter this, find and pick up all revival items you can! Some dungeons have them as potential items on the ground, but if you’re in need of some immediately the Green Kecleon in Grassroot sells Tiny Reviver Seeds for 750 Poke each, with the only difference being that you regain less health upon revival!
Wind
This may seem an obvious concept for most of you who played PMD before coming to this game, but for those of you who came to PMU without any prior experience, Wind is essentially your time limit for dungeons. Some have slower or faster limits than others. You’ll know that Wind is coming when you see the message “Something’s stirring…” in the chatbox. You’ll have about three warnings before Wind comes and kicks you out of the dungeon. This counts as a defeat and causes you to lose some of your items, so I would recommend booking it to the nearest staircase once the first warning shows up!
Hitstun
Hitstun is an unspoken, invisible mechanic in the game that is basically a pause because of attacks. You may have noticed that if you hold down your attack keys on an enemy that they don’t typically get a chance to fight back. This is hitstun! Unfortunately, this can happen to you as well if enemies gang up on you, so be careful. There are rumours that the Pokemon’s Speed stat from the main series affects your recovery from hitstun, but to my knowledge this is still unclear.
Hidden items
You may have noticed in dungeons that you hear the shiny sound from Generation 5 and a tile sparkles! Unfortunately, this is not a shiny spawning, as this mechanic was added before PMU got shinies. This means that there’s an invisible item there, and you can reveal it by standing in front of it and pressing F to do a regular attack. Alternatively you can just walk on it and press Enter to pick it up. If you’re a fan of hidden items in dungeons, try recruiting a Sentret at Winden Pass or in the Winden overworld! They have Frisk as their ability, which lets you reveal hidden items on a floor if you enter the stairs as that Pokemon!
Family Items
Seeing as this game is mainly inspired by the Explorers games, it’s no surprise that Family Items have made a return! You can get random ones from any box that isn’t a Deluxe (some special boxes are random types but you won’t find these from enemies like the regular random ones). If you get Gold Rank and beat all three Marowak Dojo levels, you can unlock the Croagunk Swap Shop! This is very useful, especially since we have family items going all the way to Generation 7! I would recommend that players who have this unlocked to get their starter’s type absorb (3*) item as soon as possible, since this will mean you actually heal from one of your weaknesses! If you find family items that you don’t need or want, try either dropping them in town for other people or going to one of the many family item houses that exist! Family Item Trading Houses
Mushrooms, Shards and Heart Scales
Sometimes you might come across a Mushroom or a Big Mushroom while defeating a boss, Shards while picking up hidden items, or Heart Scales in walls if you’re really lucky. These stackable items all do different things for movesets!
- Mushrooms let you remember moves your Pokemon has forgotten
- Big Mushrooms let you remember moves that your pre-evolution could learn
- Shards let you learn Move Tutor moves if you bring them to the Bronzong in Tanren’s Bazaar, with the order for moves being the following: Red for Physical attacks, Blue for Special attacks, Green is for anything that isn’t an attacking move such as Refresh or Recover, and Yellow randomly picks from those three pools of attacks.
Secret Rooms
Sometimes in a dungeon, you’ll come across a set of golden stairs! This leads to a room full of (usually) treasure free for the taking! If you’re alone then it’s that simple, but if you’re with a party, be aware of logout etiquette. You can’t enter alone if there are other people with you, so make sure to have everyone logout and then enter the stairs while everyone else is either offline or waiting on the next floor. This ensures everyone gets a piece of the pie! Some players also do this for certain boss fights in dungeons as well.
Commands
In PMU, lots of activities require the use of commands. You can use these by typing a / on your keyboard before anything else. Use the command /commands to view most of the commonly used ones. The PMU Wiki has a full list of commands should you need it. Please note that if you have a non-Qwerty keyboard, you may experience issues getting the command slash to work. Unfortunately I don’t have much advice for this, given that I have a Qwerty keyboard myself, but some players have reported remapping some keys to get around this issue.
PMU Wikia
This source will help you for stuff that myself or other players don’t tell you about! It’s a Wikia for all things PMU, and an excellent resource! Please be aware that some information may not be on the wiki or may be outdated or inaccurate. If this happens, please contact players that run the PMU Wikia (NOT Staff, they have little control over it). P.MysteryUniverse Wiki | Fandom
Personal Messaging (PMs)
Ever seen a really cool player you wanted to talk to without clogging Global chat too much? Me too! When this happens, type the following into your chat to message them: !“their name here” “your message here”. Make sure to include quotes. Some players with no spaces in their names can be messaged without quotes surrounding their names, but others will require it if there’s a space in their names. Messages MUST have a beginning quote but don’t require the end quote. Please remember to be civil to whoever you talk to and try not to annoy them!
Chat Channels
You may have noticed that there’s an option to change chat Channels below the chatbox. You can click this to change which channel you’re speaking in, or use shortcuts that I will go over shortly. (Please note that there is a swear filter in the game to make sure everyone is obeying the no-profanity rule. It doesn’t matter if it’s a personal message or an empty map, Staff will hear it and you will be warned for it. If you wish to swear, take it to DMs on another platform.)
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Local Chat
Whoever is in the same map as you will be able to hear you when you talk in this. There is no shortcut for this channel. -
Global Chat
Whatever you type in here will be heard by the entire playerbase, so be careful! You can type an apostrophe (’) before your sentence as a shortcut to talk in Global if you don’t feel like manually switching channels! (Please note that it is against PMU’s rules to speak languages other than English in Global, due to the large population of English-only speakers) -
Guild Chat
Assuming you’ve joined a Guild, whatever you type will be heard by the rest of your guildmates! You can type /g before your message as a shortcut to the Guild Chat Channel! (Bonus: if you type /og you can see who in your guild is online right now!) -
Party Chat
This one is kind of obscure, so I saved it for last. When you join a party, you can talk to each other regardless of where you are by typing /p before your message. -
Parties
A neat feature that is similar to a guild, except it is meant to be temporary and some dungeons will dissolve parties before you enter (Cliffside Relic does that). It can have 4 players, and XP is shared among the party members. Please note that if a member defeats a pokemon and is 15 LV higher than you that you won’t receive XP. To create a party, do/cpand to join, stand on a tile beside the leader, and type/jp. To check who is in the current party, type/mp.
Staff
Our Staff Team keeps the game running smoothly and makes sure we all have fun! Ask them if you need help and other players can’t! For anything map related, please be aware that only Designers and up can change things. For anything code related, please be aware that only Developers and higher can help, and unfortunately coding issues will take a while to be resolved. If you need a Staff member to help you, type /stafflist and see which one you can ask for help! If no members are online, try the Discord to see if anyone’s online over there!
(If you really need a staff member at the Discord, do @StaffTeam.)
Regions
There are four regions in PMU, five if you count a sub-region in one of them. Here’s how you can access each one! (If you obtain Fly, you can Fly to different regions you’ve unlocked!)
- Exbel
You already have this one by default, so no problem! It’s the starting region and has mainly lower level dungeons. - Winden
This region is to the far north, and requires completion of Winden Pass (Level 18-25) to access. Please note that it requires Cut to access. - Tanren
This region is to the far east, and requires completion of Tanren Tunnel (Level 22-30) to access. Please note that it requires Rock Smash to access. - Archford
This region is to the far west, and requires completion of Crescent Islet (Level 45-55) to access. Please note that it requires Surf to access. - Bonus: Tanren Undercity
This secret sub-region is in Tanren and requires Rock Climb and Rock Smash to access. When you have both, look for the Tanren Museum and look for a vase that you can smash!
Map desyncs
Sometimes when you’re traveling through maps quickly, or weather changes or something akin to that, your position on the map will do what’s called a desync. This means that where your client is showing you and where your character actually is isn’t synchronized anymore. Don’t panic, you can solve this by standing still and either typing /refresh or pressing your End key (latter does not always work with some keyboards for some reason).
Guilds
Guilds are a very integral part of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon as a whole, so it’s no surprise they’ve made their way to PMU! You may have noticed extra names over peoples’ heads other than their username. These are the guilds they belong to! There are always some guilds looking for recruits, so keep an eye out for potential invites! Green guild names mean that that person helped found the guild originally and have absolute power in the guild! Yellow guild names mean that that person is an admin in their guild and can recruit other players to join! Blue guild names mean that that person is simply in the guild, but don’t worry, there are still plenty of reasons to join other than for a higher rank! Guilds can meet each other in dungeon instances as long as ten minutes hasn’t passed since the floor was created. This is called the Guild Timer, and activates as soon as the floor is generated even if you haven’t moved yet. The only known way to pause this timer is to log out. If you wish to make a guild yourself, save up your Poke and strive for Master Rank!
Missions
In the northeastern corner of town is the Job Board! This will give you missions for dungeons you’ve completed at least once all the way through! You will get one job per time change that you’re online for, and occasionally when you’re offline as well. You can check the time until the next change by typing /time and looking at what it says! For escort missions, be aware you need a free team slot for the client.
Logging out
The most simple way to log out of PMU is to click the X, which will save your progress and log you out within a few seconds! If you’re like me and wish for an instant logout however, there is a command that lets you check whether or not specific people are online by typing /online “their name”. If you type your name, it will disconnect you from the server, letting you close the game at your leisure! This was intended as a joke command but works perfectly well as a logout button!
Find HMs whenever possible
As Caspian helpfully told you when you started, you can find Cut in Sour Root Cave, and it helps you traverse the surface of Exbel when you use it on the odd leafy bushes. What if i told you there were more HMs than that, in many more dungeons? To help you all out, I have composed a list of HM dungeons with their levels and which HM you’ll find inside!
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Cut
Dungeon: Sour Root Cave
Levels: 5-16
Requirements: None
Advice: Do not underestimate this dungeon. They love to use Poison-type attacks and some will spam Stun Spore. After Floor 5 and the midboss, you can take the exit portal in the next room to safely leave the dungeon.
Status effects: Poison and Paralyzed. -
Rock Smash
Dungeon: Sauna Cavern
Levels: 26-30
Requirements: Access to Winden, which requires Cut
Advice: Bring a Water or Ground type Pokemon if you can. (And don’t walk onto the water or lava tiles generally) Starting on Floor 13, lots of Rock and Fire types start showing up and can make your run go wrong. Don’t bring anything weak to those types or to Ground type moves. Once you defeat the midboss that drops the HM, enter through the warp and then head south to return to town.
Status effects: Just about everything except Frozen. -
Surf
Dungeon: Mineral Cavern
Levels: 24-30
Requirements: Rock Smash
Advice: Lots of Water types lurk here, but this is one of the easier HM dungeons out there. You should be alright as long as you’re prepared. -
Fly
Dungeon: Mt. Skylift
Levels: 20-40
Requirements: Either HM Cut or a Pokemon that can travel over water
Advice: This dungeon can be kind of difficult for newer players, but some will host training runs and may take you along if you ask nicely. Lots of Flying types, and later floors have Pelipper that use Drizzle to quite literally Rain on your parade. -
Rock Climb
Dungeon: Tanren Mines
Levels: 50-65
Requirements: Access to Tanren, which requires Rock Smash
Advice: This is the second hardest HM dungeon, so only try it when you’re really prepared. There are many Rock/Ground/Steel types in here, and near the end Hippowdon and Hippopotas will cause a Sandstorm with their ability. Beware of Ground type move spam and reach the end. If you’re confident in your abilities, keep some item space open for the many Diamonds that spawn here, for they sell for 500 Poke each at Kecleon! -
Dive
Dungeon: Murky Trench
Levels: 55-65
Requirements: Access to Archford, Boggy Wastes completion, Aquatic Key (can be found in the Vaporeon’s hut)
Advice: This is the hardest HM dungeon in the entire game. You will find many Water and Dark type Pokemon in here, and lots of them have Pressure for their ability, meaning you’ll lose PP faster than usual. As with Tanren Mines, only try this dungeon when you are truly ready. This dungeon has a unique rule however, for it disbands your party upon entry! Guilds cannot meet up in here as of a recent fix either, so be very careful.
Whew, that was more text than I expected to add! I certainly didn’t include everything this game has to offer, but this should help everyone with the basics! Feel free to ask each other for help if you feel stuck! Go forth, explorers! Have a grand adventure in Pokemon Mystery Universe!