The Explorer's Book - A Beginner's Guide to PMU

Seedlings · January 23, 2021, 6:53am

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[Last updated: Jan 22, 2021]

Hiya friends, and welcome! I’m Seedlings and this is my guide intended to help ease newer players into everything that Pokemon Mystery Universe has to offer. I hope that this will be of some use to all of you as you begin your journey with us!

Adventure's Beginnings

"...Where am I? I can't see anything!" ~Implied to be your character, from the beginning of the PMU Trailer

The world of Pokemon Mystery Universe is a vast place with several distinct regions to roam. Your character was summoned here - but for what purpose, you’ll have to find out by becoming an explorer and seeking out dungeons.

When you first gain control of your character in the Destiny Cavern area, you are but an egg. All you can do at this point is to walk around with the arrow keys and listen to the NPC Pokemon in the area by standing next to them and pressing the F key. Your immediate task is to go into the cave and select your starter - no personality quizzes here, but there are a couple dozen different choices split between four rooms. You can freely enter and leave these rooms to look at all of the possible choices, but once you’ve finalized your starter choice there’s no going back.

After selecting your starter by walking into the crystal behind your chosen Pokemon, you wake up under a large tree in Exbel Woods to find a rather cheerful and peppy Buneary. This area serves as the game’s primary tutorial, which you can either accept by following the Buneary to the next map on the left or mostly skip by entering the hole on the bottom right.

After clearing the boss encounter of Exbel Woods, you’re taken to the Explorer’s Bazaar where you can learn about some of the useful NPCs that live in the various towns. This cutscene can also be skipped if you immediately head down in this room.

To recap the major points of the tutorial (in case you glossed over or skipped it):

Use the Arrow Keys to move around. Hold down Shift while moving to run faster.
You can perform a standard attack with F.
You can use a move by holding one of the W / A / S / D keys, and while holding it pressing F.
You can pick up items on the ground with Enter.
You can also read signs by standing in front of them and pressing Enter.
The menu is opened with Escape - here you can find information on your Pokemon (such as current Belly), open your item bag, and so on. You can close any open menus with Escape as well.
You should try to keep your Belly from reaching 0 when in dungeons, or you'll start taking ticks of hunger damage every few steps.
You should also try to not stay on one dungeon floor for too long, or a mysterious wind will eventually kick you out (forced defeat/giveup after ~15 minutes in most dungeons - you get 3 warnings shortly before it does this).
You can sometimes recruit wild Pokemon below your level when you defeat them in combat. Click on a wild Pokemon to check if it can be recruited.
You can safely store items at Kangaskhan's Storage and manage your team roster with any Pokemon you have recruited at Chimecho's Assembly.
You can heal yourself at any inn or rest stop building that has healing nests inside. Simply step on a nest to completely restore your team's HP, PP, and status.
It may be useful to have one Pokemon hold a stack of throwing rocks (like Geo Pebbles), as you can quickly use any held item by pressing the Z / X / C / V keys that correspond to its position in your party (so if my second Pokemon is the one holding the rocks, I'd press X to quick-use them). These items do drain belly quite a lot when used, but their range is massive and they will always hit their mark.
If your leader (the first Pokemon in your team list) faints, you are forced to give up and return to your spawn point even if you have other Pokemon able to fight. I would highly recommend finding a Pokemon to be your dedicated HM user (such as Sandshrew, Krabby, or Bidoof), and making them the leader of your party at the Chimecho Assembly. This has the benefit of keeping your main fighting Pokemon in non-leader slots, so that if they do happen to faint you can keep on going - or if you're down to just your leader, you can safely use an Escape Orb to leave the dungeon and keep your items safe! You also have the HM user with you pretty much all the time as an extra perk.

That’s pretty much what the game tells you, in addition to a few other lesser tidbits. Here’s a few extra tips that might come in handy, and aren’t really mentioned prominently in NPC/sign text.

You can have each of the Pokemon in your team hold an item (or stack of items) from your bag. Some items have an effect when held by any team member, such as the Beginner Badge and Beginner Band. Other items must be held by your active Pokemon to have an effect, for example the Stamina Band will only work if your currently selected Pokemon is the one holding it. Usually you can check an item summary for the text "when held by a team member" to check whether it's a team-held or self-held item.
You can attack enemies through walls and obstacles in this game. Sometimes, using the terrain to your advantage is a useful way to deal with otherwise problematic situations. The AI for wild Pokemon is generally pretty dumb and, aside from trying to move in random directions sometimes, will get stuck on the other side of a wall. If you're within range of their attacks though, they will try to strike back, so be careful later on!
Slumber Orbs are immensely useful for any dungeon with boss encounters and/or monster houses, as they put all nearby hostile Pokemon to sleep for 4 turns (unless they have an ability that prevents them from falling asleep, e.g. Insomnia or Sweet Veil). Kecleon sells them in Grassroot for only 150 Poke apiece, and they are a distinctive white colored orb that could also be found on the floors of some dungeons too. As with Geo Pebbles, you can have one of your Pokemon hold this and use it from there as a quick way to buy yourself some time in a hard place. To this day I usually equip this orb right before heading into a boss chamber so I don't have to fumble with the inventory menu after the boss dialogue finishes.
You can keep your chat channel set to Local all the time, and send messages to other channels using the following shortcuts:
- 'Messages preceded with an apostrophe like this go to Global.
- /g Messages like this go to Guild.
- /p Messages like this go to Party.
This should make it easier to manage the chat channels, hopefully.
To get the game to fullscreen, there is a janky workaround. On the login screen, click the spot where the "Main Server" button appears in the Server Select section. Doing this (for whatever reason) allows F11 to fullscreen the game window until you've logged in (normally it's hardcoded to take screenshots for your PMU screenshots folder).

Growing from Experience

"I see. With that in mind, I would like to test your abilities. I want to know whether you're capable of handling yourself." ~Type: Null

Every journey has a beginning, of course…but every journey must also have a destination or some sort of goal to reach. Yet this game doesn’t really give that to us right now - it’s up to us to figure those details out for ourselves.

That said, there are meaningful steps to progressing further into this world, and that is the Hidden Machine (HM) moves. Without these, your range of accessible areas will be rather limited in its scope. This is the list of navigational moves in PMU:

HM Cut is obtained from [Sour Root Cave](https://pokemonmysteryuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Sour_Root_Cave_(PMU_7)), after clearing the midboss encounter following 5F. Recommended level 10-15 if you're just here for the HM.
HM Fly is obtained from [Mount Skylift](https://pokemonmysteryuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Mt._Skylift), upon completion of this 36-floor dungeon. Recommended level 30+ if going solo, but as this is a popular early game exp grinding spot you could try to get in a Skylift party around 25+.
While technically not an HM, TM Dig is used to navigate in relation to two specific later-game dungeons. It can be seen within a couple dungeons sometimes, but it can always be obtained from [Glitter Cavern](https://pokemonmysteryuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Glitter_Cavern) upon completion of this 36-floor dungeon. Recommended level for that dungeon is around 35+ if going solo, or 30+ in a group - it's comparable to Skylift but the Sandstorm weather in later floors and a boss encounter bump this up slightly in my opinion.
HM Rock Smash is obtained from [Sauna Cavern](https://pokemonmysteryuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Sauna_Cavern), after clearing the midboss encounter following 23F. Recommended level 35+.
HM Surf is obtained from [Mineral Cavern](https://pokemonmysteryuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Mineral_Cavern), upon completion of this 8-floor dungeon. If you could get Rock Smash (which you need to access this dungeon), then it's practically a formality.
HM Rock Climb is obtained from [Tanren Mines](https://pokemonmysteryuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Tanren_Mines), after clearing the midboss encounter following 28F. Recommended level 50+.
HM Dive is obtained from [Murky Trench](https://pokemonmysteryuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Murky_Trench), upon completion of this 12-floor dungeon. You'll first have to clear the dungeon Boggy Wastes in order to unlock access to this dungeon, and this dungeon is a forced solo run similar to Cliffside Relic. Recommended level 55+.

You’ll see that I recommend getting to specific levels to take on these dungeons, but the intermediate step of actually reaching these levels can take a while. I would consider referencing the page of training locations other people have posted on the wiki to get a general idea of where to go, but these suggestions lean quite heavy on difficulty for newer players and as such I’d like to propose my own quick list of places to try early on especially if you’re more into solo play:

Level 1-15: Pebble Cave
Level 15-25: Fruity Grotto, Happiness Lake, Sunny Hillside
Level 20-30: Seafoam Cove, Winden Pass, Island Garden
Level 25-45: Mt. Skylift, Glitter Cavern, Cliffside Relic
Level 40-50: Sunrise Temple, Southern Sea, Rustic Savannah

Of course, if there are other dungeons that you feel capable enough of doing, the beauty of this game is that you can go explore these places in whatever fashion you like! One way to make the level grind not quite as draining is to focus on something else you can achieve at the same time - for example, if you want to get a Farfetch’d from Happiness Lake then you can focus on that and treat the leveling you do in the meantime as an extra bonus. Always try to have multiple points of motivation if you can, and get out there doing things you can do even if they’re not the most optimal places to be at!

…but if you want to continue reading this guide anyways, I won’t stop you.

Speaking of things to motivate you, there are a lot of places to see in this game. At this time, there are four major regions in the game, with two minor sub-regions as well. Here’s a quick rundown on those:

Exbel: The starting region where your adventure begins!
Winden: The chilly region to the north, said to be a cursed land.

Winden-East: A sub-region of Winden that's been isolated from the outside world.

Tanren: The rocky badlands region to the east, where rugged explorers brave the unknown to uncover relics of the past.

Tanren Undercity: A sub-region of Tanren with a bunch of shady characters.

Archford: The tropical islands region to the south, protected by the island natives distrustful of outsiders.

Awesome Side Diversions

"Ugh, I really want to go outside and do something exciting! Standing here watching my sister shopping for stuff is boooooring!" ~Hype the Jolteon

Pokemon Mystery Universe isn’t all about the dungeoning. At least in my opinion, some of the best experiences to be had here are those shared with large parts of the community all taking part in some common activity. Thankfully there are times and places to do exactly that!

Weekly Sunday Events

(Every Sunday at 1 PM Pacific / 4 PM Eastern, in the Delite Plaza.)

Perhaps the biggest gathering of PMU players is in the weekly event, where the staff team hosts some sort of minigame for the players to partake in. Participation in these events awards you with Event Tokens, which can be used in the Spinda Cafe to purchase various items (notable items in the shop include Gems, Crystals, Globes, and Pokemon Gifts). Some of these events include the following, but this is not an exhaustive list as other events come up occasionally:

Icebreaker: Players work together to navigate through an invisible maze of thin ice. Stepping on the wrong tile sends you back to the beginning of the room!
Dodgeball: Players compete to out-last each other as the staff team chases them down with Pokeballs. If you're caught, you're out!
Boss Rush: Players go through a series of trials fighting some notable characters from throughout the game.
IKEA: Players go through a department store themed dungeon, and along the way cause some trouble for a certain unfortunate Golem...
Hide and Seek: Players search the overworld areas for hiding staff members. The first three players to find a given staff member get rewarded!

Holiday Caves

(Two-week periods throughout the year, usually around the holidays.)

During seasonal times, the staff team may open a special event zone for a 2 week period. This zone can contain one or more dungeons themed after the season or holiday being celebrated. These temporary event dungeons are often collectively referred to as Holiday Caves and usually have some new or unique things to obtain through doing them.

Historically, every Holiday Cave (that I’m aware of at least) has been a set-level dungeon that resets your learned moves and restricts you from bringing in any supplies. They can however be done in parties, and sometimes are even designed specifically for group play.

HCs have been released during some of these times in the past:

Valentine's Day
Easter
Summer
PMU Birthday (September)
Halloween
Christmas / Winter

There is no guarantee that a given holiday or season will have its respective HC every year as the staff team strives to add something new to the experience or are busy working on something else at the time. At this time of writing, my typical expectation is for at least Easter Holiday Cave and maybe 1-2 others throughout the rest of the year.

PvP Arenas

(Located at the dojos of each region.)

Players can battle each other inside dedicated PvP arenas. There’s nothing gained or lost here ~~except maybe one’s dignity~~. Each arena map has an assembly and storage, as well as a healing nest to quickly restore your team to fit fighting condition. There may be some other things besides that, such as a Training Dummy in Exbel’s arena.

There are four arenas in the game currently:

Exbel: Anything goes
Winden: Set level 50, no items, no stat boosting
Tanren: Set level 50, items and statboosts allowed
Archford: Same as Winden, but it's further out of the way to get to

Immediately upon entering the arena via a warp panel, your Pokemon’s “floor entry” abilities can trigger - such as Drought to change the weather to sunny, for example. For the non-Exbel arenas, this is also when your team gets set to level 50.

Players within the same party cannot hurt each other, but anybody not in your party (even if they’re in your guild) is considered a hostile target in the PvP arena.

To leave the arena ring without being knocked out, you can use the /giveup (/gup) command. This puts you in a spot just outside the arena ring, rather than your spawn point. This should also revert your levels back to normal when leaving a set-level arena.

You can also focus your camera on a spot within the arena using the /watch command, and stop spectating with /stopwatch.

Capture the Flag

(In Grassroot Town, at the upper left just below the Dojo.)

There is a Capture the Flag minigame that can be played for fun. The host enters the tent and starts up a new game. Each person who enters the CTF tent and uses the /ctfjoin command will join that game when it starts.

When it starts, players are divided into two teams (Red and Blue) to be displayed in your status and the game takes place on one of two maps also picked at random. The goal then is for your team to grab the opposing side’s flag and bring it back across the middle without getting tagged by an opponent enough times to win the game. To this end people play either offense or defense.

Snowball Fight

(Just east of Snowbasin Town in Winden.)

There is also a Snowball Fight minigame that can be played for fun too. Here the goal is to use your snowballs (they’re classed as throwing items) to knock other people out.

Remember to hold the snowballs on one of your Pokemon so that you can quick-use them with Z, X, C, or V!

Hunting For Bounties

"Yes, I am indeed shiny! Magnificent, huh?" ~Bonanza* the Bonsly

In the late game, people turn to shiny hunting as a way to get something that feels unique or desirable to them. Most recruitable Pokemon in this game have a chance to be found shiny - at the current time of writing shinies are available through Generation 5, along with some parts of Gens 6-7 as well (starters, fossils, alolan forms, and a couple others like Noibat’s line).

To do shiny hunting effectively, it’s mainly just a matter of churning through wild spawns until you hear the distinctive noise of a shiny appearing (magic838.ogg is its sound file). At that point you locate the shiny and figure out what to do with it.

This, along with laziness/burnout on the part of some older players, has led to a market for Shiny Bounties to start up. The basic idea is this:

Someone posts a bounty on a shiny Pokemon they want to recruit.
Other people go into the dungeons in which it appears as a recruitable and hunt it down.
When they do find that shiny, they get the bounty poster to their location (via the guild meetup mechanic - the hunter needs to be in an active guild for this). Usually this also involves logging out until the bounty poster is nearly to the hunter's location, in order to preserve the guild meetup function from expiring.
If the poster successfully recruits their shiny Pokemon, then they'll pay out the bounty to whoever found it. (Usually a failed recruit results in no payment given.)

Some extra tips for the serious hunters out there:

Take a Pokemon with you that can steal a held item (via the moves Thief or Covet, or the ability Magician). There is currently a known glitch where, if nobody is currently logged in on the floor where a wild shiny is and that wild shiny is holding onto an item, it will lose its shiny status upon someone there logging back in.
If the shiny/bounty hunt is the sole reason you're running the dungeon, you'll usually want to resort to rushing it with a Mobile Scarf and a Pokemon that has self-healing and can stack two Type Crystal effects for maximum movement speed. One popular example of such a Pokemon would be Noivern - with Moonlight in your moveset and its two Crystals that work in Clear weather (along with a Clear Rock to make the weather always Clear for you no matter what), you can run through dungeons blazingly fast.
There's a Discord server dedicated to PMU shiny hunting! I linked to it at the top of this guide, in case you missed it. ^_^
If you're attempting to recruit the shiny, you'll want as high of a recruit chance as possible:
- Friend Bows can be held by any team member and boost your success chance by +10%.
- Other recruit rate items have to be held by your active mon, boosting it by 1 / 10 / 17 / 24% depending on which item it is. These items are Soothe Bell, Affinity Pendant, Amber Tear, and Golden Mask respectively.
- Always try to recruit with your highest level Pokemon; each level gives +0.1% to your success rate.
- Try to get a higher explorer rank too! Ranking up usually gives anywhere from 0.5% to 2% more success rate on recruiting for each new rank you attain.
- If you want it to be guaranteed, use a Pokemon Gift. These are purchased with event currencies (both the Event Tokens from weekly events and the Holiday Cave dungeon currencies). Note: It occasionally does act funky, so be sure to take a screenshot before actually using the Gift in case something goes wrong - and try using it by holding onto the gift and quick-use with Z / X / C / V.
Guild Rescue Team
"I've made the promise to myself that I will join a strong rescue team when I evolve! I'm going to help everyone in need!" ~Filoti the Lillipup
Guilds are generally quite useful to be in, though by no means are they mandatory to enjoy PMU’s content. It just simply makes things more fun by being in touch with others who can help you out if need be (or just having a nice group chat with friends).

At this time of writing, guilds offer two main things: A guild chat channel for your guild members (which you can type in with /g message, and the ability to meet up in dungeons without needing to be partied up. The latter part is useful for both shiny bounty hunting and getting rescued by a guildmate.

Guild rescues work largely the same way as getting a shiny bounty hunter to your location - the person in need waits for a guildmate to arrive at their location so that the rescuer can use a party reviving item (Revive, Max Revive, or Restore Power) on them. If the rescuer is going to take longer than 5-10 minutes to reach the person in need, it is often recommended for the person in need (and anybody with them if applicable) to log off so that the guild meetup function doesn’t expire.

If all of this sounds great, and you want to start a guild of your own, you’ll need a couple things first:
1. Master explorer rank (13,500 points) or better
2. 100,000 Poke
If you want to co-found a guild with multiple leaders, everybody will need to satisfy those above requirements and party up when making the guild. Once the guild is made, inviting new players to it will have a linearly increasing cost of 1,000 Poke times the number of members there will be in the guild.

Leaders can promote members to a guild admin position, allowing them to invite and kick members as well. Promoting a member to the guild admin position has a similarly linearly increasing cost of 10,000 Poke times the number of admins there will be after that promotion.

If you’re not ready for that quite yet, you can also join one of the other guilds out there! (My own guild, Seeds of Friendship, is always looking for more friendly players - but there are other good choices too.) Once you’ve decided on which guild you want to join, contact any guild leader/admin (green or yellow guild name) in that guild and ask them if they can invite you.

The guild desk at the Grassroot Housing center takes care of all the guild joining/creating tasks.

I hope this guide had some useful information to provide! Feel free to respond with comments, feedback, and questions if you wish. If you made it here, thanks for being awesome! <3

~Seedlings