Pkmn:Highest Possible Damage

This page aims to document the Highest Possible Damage in each Pokémon Mystery Dungeon title.

Leaderboard

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Game	Damage	Screenshot	Player	Contributor
Rescue Team	33,890		u/StarDwellingDude (Reddit)	@PMDGuy (Twitter)
Explorers of Time and Darkness	34,056		@PMDGuy (Twitter)
Explorers of Sky	44,229		@PmdGang (Twitter)

Standard Gameplay

Game	Damage	Screenshot	Player	Contributor
Rescue Team	3,310		Jubilee

Method

Games

Red and Blue Rescue Team

To achieve the highest possible damage in a single hit, at least two Pokémon are needed.

The first one is a Charizard that is already at Lv. 100 and has been fed enough stat-boosting items to hit Special Attack cap of 255. It also needs to know the move Blast Burn that has 99 Ginseng boosts. In these games, Charizard learns Blast Burn at Lv. 99 if it has at least 333 points of IQ. Red Gummis can be found often in Magma Cavern while Sky Gummis are found often in Sky Tower; alternatively, the player can use Pickup to found them in the relevant type mazes in Makuhita Dojo. If the player has Tight Belt, the most efficient place to find Calcium is Western Cave past floor 10 as they can spawn on ground (as well in shops once they start spawning); otherwise the elemental fields from Ho-Oh quest are a good pick as they can also have the items on ground, but less commonly. The game does not display exact numerical value, but 333 IQ is achieved between 7 and 8 stars on the summary screen.

The 99 Ginseng boosts is likely going to be the bottleneck of this setup, as Ginseng is one of the most rare items in these games. You get one Ginseng for rescuing Diglett at Mt. Steel, one for clearing all type-based mazes in Makuhita Dojo and one for clearing each of the team-themed mazes in Makuhita Dojo, for a total of six freebies. The only other sources of Ginseng all require some preparation: it can be found in Purity Forest Kecleon Shops, randomly on the ground in Joyous Tower and Purity Forest, as well as hidden inside the walls of Mt. Blaze Peak, Frosty Grotto, Mt. Freeze Peak, Magma Cavern Pit, Lightning Field, Northwind Field and Buried Relic. Digging into the walls is the preferable option, as Joyous Tower and Purity Forest both impose punishing restrictions on you. The minimum amount of Ginseng required is 33, as there is a small chance that the move will be boosted by 3 instead of just 1.

Blast Burn is the move of choice. In terms of base power it is tied with many other moves for second place, but in practice it is the most powerful move in the entire game, as it is one of the few moves where the game secretly doubles damage at the very end.

Alternatively, the player can abuse the faulty quicksave RNG to make farming these items faster, such as this Ginseng farming setup.

The other Pokémon needed are for buffing and debuffing purposes. You need Metal Sound, which is a starting move on Magnemite, a scripted story recruit (if you somehow have lost it, they spawn in the first floors of Lightning Field). You also need something that learns Helping Hand; if you did not pick Eevee to start with, there are some easily available options. Latios and Latias both can have this move at the level they are obtained (use Gulpin's move relearning if needed); other straightforward options are Plusle and Minun found in Thunderwave Cave who learn the move at Lv. 13, or Sentret found in Sinister Woods which learns the move at Lv. 17 (though all of these picks will have to be leveled up first). Alternatively, one can Sketch those move with Smeargle to have them at the same time. An optional choice is also to have something that knows Sunny Day to summon the weather. As the TM for this move does not exist in this game, its distribution is very limited; Magby and Magmar found at floors 4 through 9 of Fiery Field are high level enough to have it in their possible move set. Alternatively, bring Groudon in to change the weather with Drought (however, its body size means that one has to rely on Smeargle for buffing and debuffing purposes).

There are also some items to further increase damage. Special Band will increase the Sp. Atk stat by 12, even beyond the usual cap (indicated by a red 267 in the summary screen), and Doom Seeds to reduce the target's level. If the player did not bring a Pokémon to change the weather, a Sunny Orb is needed. Special Band is a relatively common item that can show up in many dungeons, or be sold in the Pokémon Square shop after finishing the main story. Sunny Orb is a somewhat uncommon item found in Post-Credits. It can be found inside walls like Ginseng, but it can also be sold by Pokémon Square shop. Doom Seeds are even more rare than Ginseng, as they only appear in Purity Forest and Joyous Tower, the same way as Ginseng does. In this specific case, 10 are needed.

With preparation done, go find Paras that can be found in Silent Chasm on floors 7 through 9. Both of its types are weak to Fire-type, which in this game is a 1.5x multiplier (with double weakness being effectively 2.25x). Buff the Charizard's Sp. Atk to +10, or 10 uses of Helping Hand and debuff Paras's Sp. Def to -10, or 4 uses of Metal Sound. Throw 10 Doom Seeds at Paras to lower its level from 11 to 1. Make sure that the sunlight is active (this provides another 1.5x multiplier) and Charizard has less than quarter of its HP left to activate Blaze (2x multiplier). Additionally, since Charizard and Blast Burn's type matches, the move receives the same type attack bonus of 1.5x.

There are still two random factors, one of which is completely out of your reach. The attack can be a critical hit and deal 50% more damage. Blast Burn's default critical hit rate is 12% but Type Advantage Master IQ skill sets that value to a higher number than 12% when attacking something with super-effective moves, so it can take effect here. The other factor is that, after all damage calculations, most moves actually still vary in damage even if every other factor is the same. As such, even with all this preparation, the game can still pick the lower end of the damage range.

An interesting tidbit of trivia is that, while the mini number by the defender will cap at -999 (and turn red), the number in the message log still properly tracks the ridiculous damage.

Explorers of Time and Darkness

The setup is similar as in Red and Blue, but with some extra steps to further increase damage. Given the new items, it is possible to prepare with just one Pokémon.

The Pokémon of choice this time can be both Charizard and Infernape; while all fully evolved Fire-type starters learn Blast Burn this time around, these two are tied for how much they can increase their Sp. Attack beyond the cap. The move this time is learned at Lv. 72 with 300 IQ. However, the Pokémon also needs to have Erratic Player IQ skill learned at 340 IQ, which is achieved between 3½ and 4 stars.

Infernape prefers Orange Gummis instead of Sky Gummis; however unlike Red and Blue there are some major differences: first of all, Gummis are more evenly distributed when they do spawn, thus it might be better to just look for Gummis in general (Marine Resort spawning a lot of them). Additionally, the version differences now extend to items; Red Gummis are common in Darkness but rare in Time, and vice-versa for Orange and Sky. Gummis can now also be sold by the town's shop and found in most dungeons' Monster Houses. Additionally, dual-type Pokémon now take the better matchup instead of summing both (though this does not change anything for Charizard); given this, it might help using Combee's Honey Gather to make Nectar appear in Treasure Boxes, as they always grant 10 points. While Wonder Gummi always give 15 points, they are far too rare to be viable. Calcium is also harder to find; the player gets one freebie for reaching Super Rank and one for clearing Drenched Bluff the first time. Other sources require some form of preparation: Zero Isle dungeons and walls of the Seven Treasure dungeons (aside from Sky Stairway). If the player already has a very strong Pokémon or something that easily clears level reset dungeons, such as the Drifloon line or Smoochum, Zero Isle dungeons are the better option.

Ginseng is where the version differences are at their worst. The player gets two freebies, one of which can be missed: one for reaching Gold Rank and one for identifying all six visitors during the very first Sentry Duty. The others have to be farmed: in Time only, players can rarely find Ginseng at Mt. Mistral lying on the ground. Otherwise, it can be found in Zero Isle East and South shops, on ground in Zero Isle West and South, or in the buried walls of Seven Treasure dungeons. There is a 12% chance that the move is boosted by +3 instead of +1.

Special Band is still needed; it is common to find in dungeons such as Steam Cave (or Waterfall Cave in Time). New to these games are the Specialized Items to further boost the Sp. Attack stat. The ★ species items are found via Treasure Boxes, the other two have to be swapped via Croagunk's shop by swapping in previous items. Both Charizard and Infernape want the second ★ and the ★★ items of their entire line, as they each give 5 to Sp. Atk (for 30 in total). With types, you want the Red Silk and Fire Dust, as well as either Sky Dust (Charizard) or Courage Dust (Infernape). The Dust items are sometimes awarded for missions ★5 or above that have ??? as their reward; if they are picked, it will be the type matching the client/outlaw. Red Silk is found on Midnight Forest's fifteen floor, behind a locked chamber. With Special Band, this should push the stat to 327.

Next step involves consumable items. Unlike Red and Blue, there are items to replace necessary moves, although they are exclusive to one of the two versions. Violent Seed raises attacking stats to +10 and can be sold by the town's shop or found in dungeons in Darkness (most commonly in Drenched Bluff), similarly All-Hit Orb that guarantees critical hits is exclusive to Darkness (in town's shop or dungeons; commonly found in Crystal Cave or Brine Cave). Vile Seed is a Time-Specialized Item that lowers defensive stats to -10 and is much less common than Violent Seed; they can be somewhat commonly found in future dungeons but those are only available during a certain point in the story outside of Friend Rescues. The other places they can be found are shops in certain postgame dungeons or Zero Isle dungeons... ...and Drenched Bluff's fourth floor (only that floor). Given how easy and short Drenched Bluff is compared to every other option, it is the best option. Doom Seeds are much easier to acquire in these games, as they are found in many postgame dungeons - most commonly, the infamous Aegis Cave. Sunny Orb can also be bought in the town's shop, making it that much easier to acquire.

Since certain items are not available in one of the versions, the player can substitute with moves, as before. Shieldon found in Crystal Cave is at a high enough level for Metal Sound. There are two moves to buff another Pokémon's Sp. Atk: Helping Hand (which boosts allies' attacking stats by 1) or Acupressure (which raises a random stat by 2, picking randomly for each team member). Acupressure is found only on very specific species; the fastest way is to recruit Skorupi from Quicksand Cave as it comes at a high enough level to have it; similarly Plusle/Minun found in Amp Plains are at a level for Helping Hand. With Sunny Day, Cherrim and Castform found in Treeshroud Forest and Blizzard Island, respectively, come at a high enough level. There is no equivalent move for critical hit ratio, thus the player has to rely on luck without the Wonder Orb (though in this game, male Pokémon are more likely to crit, and the Type-Advantage Master IQ skill still exists), which somewhat hurts as critical hits are generally less likely in Explorer games compared to Red and Blue Rescue Team.

The target of choice is still Paras, found in Apple Woods; on the first few floors, it is Lv. 11, requiring 10 Doom Seeds to bring to Lv. 1. Not only are both of its types weak to Fire, it has the newly introduced Dry Skin Ability, which further increases damage (1.25x). Type matchups work slightly different; by default, weakness is now 1.4x (with double weakness being equal to 1.96x); however if either side has Erratic Player IQ skill active, type matchup multipliers are more extreme, increasing weakness to 1.7x (2.89x on double weakness). Critical, STAB, Blaze, and sunlight multipliers are the same as before.

This time, the little damage popup by the target can display more than 999 (though it still turns red at that point). With such extreme damage numbers however a certain quirk arises - this little damage number is stored as a signed 16-bit number, meaning once the damage reaches 32768, the popup overflows to +32768 and ticks down from "negative" damage.

Explorers of Sky

The setup is similar to base games, with one major difference - the addition of Space Globe. This held item, acquired for clearing the game's hardest dungeon - Destiny Tower - doubles the base power of user's move, and thus is used instead of Special Band. Destiny Tower is a level reset dungeon that is effectively Zero Isle South with even more restrictions - most notably, the player is immediately removed from the dungeon upon fainting, with no rescues allowed and no Reviver Seeds in the dungeon.

Otherwise, the setup is the same. However, many of the additions in Sky make it easier to perform than in the previous games. To this setup, the following are important:

• Just one version, so no split items; although not all item distribution corresponds to Time or Darkness - Vile Seed and Violent Seed can no longer be found in Drenched Bluff. A good dungeon to find them in Sky is Zero Isle North and Midnight Forest, respectively.
• Spinda's Café allows more efficient use of IQ items such as Gummis.
• Wonder Gummi is now available in the lottery as a big win for Gold and Prism Tickets.
• Calcium can be found in Sky Peak Grab Bags with a 1/72 chance.
• Ginseng can be found in Sky Gifts or as a big win reward for Silver, Gold and Prism Tickets.
• Most importantly, Ginseng no longer boosts the set move, but rather, the first move in the user's move set. Make sure you don't accidentally waste it due to muscle memory.

References

• Highest Damage (Rescue Team - 33,890)
• Highest Damage (Rescue Team - 29,989)