Draft:Introduction to Basic Gameplay

Introduction to Basic Gameplay

So you're new to the Mystery Dungeon franchise? Whether you choose to play any of the officially translated titles or any of the Japanese only releases in the series, this page is designed to help you understand the basics of how things work. This page is dedicated to universal gameplay mechanics. For information on the other games in the franchise, see the links below.

Adventures

An adventure is your trip into a dungeon, a dojo, a puzzle or other such location. An adventure is over when you clear the dungeon either by making it to the final floor, meeting a character, making it to a set destination or using an item to escape. Alternatively an adventure is over if you lose all of your HP and faint or die and rescues aren't available or you've used up all of your available rescues..

Dungeons

A dungeon is a composition of floors. A floor is an area composed of rooms, often-rectangular open spaces, and hallways, passageways with a height of one, or sometimes two tiles which connect rooms to one another, all bordered by either water or walls, which a player with no modifications to mobility can usually not go through. The majority of dungeon floors also contain the Stairs (with the exception of certain final floors in certain dungeons, which may have a different way of leaving the dungeon (e.g. the Warp Zone in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games)), a tile which allows the player to advance to the numerically next floor. (e.g. if a player on 6F steps on the stairs, the player would be moved to 7F, generally a harder floor with stronger monsters).

Stairs

The stairs is almost always a one-way connection to the following floor, with the player being unable to go back from [n]F to [n-1]F using the stairs, except for a specific mechanic in Shiren 1 DS (are there any other games that contain backtracking?) which allows the player to backtrack in the first 14 floors of the first story dungeon.

There are generally two types of stairs, upward stairs and downward stairs, depending on the direction of the dungeon (whether the dungeon is upward or downward). In the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, this direction of the stairs is indicated by the floor number in the main screen being marked as [n]F or B[n]F, (Are the formats different in other games? Which ones?) where [n]F signifies that the dungeon is an upward dungeon and contains upward stairs, while B[n]F signifies that the dungeon is downward and contains downward stairs. There isn't much difference between upward dungeon progression and downward dungeon progression except for the floor change done by the Pitfall Trap, as Stairs always increment [n] by 1. (Is there a generalized link for this as opposed to one in Shiren 1 DS?) As the direction of the Pitfall Trap is strictly "down," falling on the Pitfall Trap in a downward dungeon would generally increase the dungeon floor number by 1 while falling on the Pitfall Trap in an upward dungeon would generally decrease the dungeon floor number by 1. (Is there information of what happens if you step on a Pitfall trap on 1F of an upward dungeon or the final floor of a downward dungeon?) However, certain specific floors have irregular Pitfall Trap mechanics, such as the "Crawl Up" in certain floors of Table Mountain in Shiren 1 DS (in which case the Pitfall Trap does not change the direction of motion). (is there a list of the floors in other games with such irregular pitfall/height patterns?).

Terrain

You cannot proceed over water or air without special abilities. Try walking diagonally or using items to get around this.

Rooms

(maybe something about set-piece vs random rooms?)

Hit points (HP)

Hit points, or HP for short, represent how much damage a character can take before it is defeated.

Healing

In most if not all games, the HP of player characters recover naturally as turns pass. Some items can also restore HP.

Movement

Turns

Gameplay in the Mystery Dungeon series moves in increments, therefore time is irrelevant. Players have infinite time to decide what to do in their turn, and once they move, enemies will move, and so on.

Movement Speed

The number of actions a character can take each turn. In most games, a slowed character can take only one action every other turn. Also known as Travel Speed. (How do speed mechanics work? Are they different in different games? (e.g. if you slowed down an enemy, would it immediately act? would it wait a turn before acting? If you sped up are you given an extra attack/turn? Does any action "end" the turn so that you aren't able to take more actions despite your increased speed?))

Fullness, Belly, Hunger

Often going by multiple different names, the players fullness will decrease as turns pass, causing them to have to consume food or risk starving to death. While starving, the player will lose valuable HP with every step they take until they recover their fullness or die. If an item used to revive the player isn't in their inventory, then their adventure will be at an end.

Currency

Series	Currency		Icon
	English	Japanese
Dragon Quest Mystery Dungeon	Gold	金貨
Shiren the Wanderer	Gitan	ギタン
Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon	Gil	ギル
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon	Poké	ポケ	File:Explorers - Poké Icon.png
Etrian Mystery Dungeon	Ental
Individuals
The Nightmare of Druaga	Gold	金貨
Mobile Suit Gundam: Mystery Dungeon
TwinBee Dungeon
Mystery Chronicle: One Way Heroics
Seikimatsu Days: Our Era's End

Game/Series Specific:

Introduction to Basic Gameplay (Dragon Quest)

Introduction to Basic Gameplay (Shiren)

Introduction to Basic Gameplay (Chocobo)

Introduction to Basic Gameplay (Pokémon)

Introduction to Basic Gameplay (Etrian)

Introduction to Basic Gameplay (Druaga)

Introduction to Basic Gameplay (Mystery Chronicle)