Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team/Gameplay

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon's gameplay is quite different from that of the core games such as Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. Mystery Dungeon is a Roguelike, meaning it centers around strategic free exploration of dungeon environments with a limited overworld, rather than focussing on overworld exploration with the turn-based combat common to Japanese-style RPGs.

Being a Roguelike all floors are generated at random, so the most precise directions this walkthrough can provide is which floor a particular character or item is found on. In the case of rescue missions that are not part of the main storyline even these details are randomised. In both cases the in-game rescue record describes your current objectives and what floor to find them on. Unlike many Roguelikes you cannot return to higher floors so the only way to leave is to complete all the floors, complete an objective, or use an Escape Orb.