How to get a Friend Bow and find Shiny Pokémon in Mystery Dungeon DX

Any Pokémon trainer worth their salt has at least one Shiny Pokémon, right? Shinies are rare palette swaps of Pokémon that accompanied by a few sparkles when summoned, and they've made their way over into the brand-new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX.

This visual alteration is coveted by Pokémon trainers as a mark proving a player’s dedication. In mainline titles, like Sword and Shield, being Shiny is simply a cosmetic difference, with no bearing on how difficult a Pokémon is to capture, not their combat abilities. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX, the dungeon crawling spin-off has changed the long-standing Shiny Pokémon tenet, giving the interestingly colored critters boosted stats, making them objectively better than their counterparts.

So how do you recruit these elusive Pokémon to your rescue team?

How to find Shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX

To locate a Shiny Pokémon, you first need to choose the Shiny Pokémon you want. This time around rather than including the whole Pokédex, only 27 Pokémon can appear as Shiny. Additionally, these Pokémon can only appear as Shiny in certain locations. As of this writing, not all of the Shinies have a definitive location just yet but most of them do.

Here's a list of all the Pokémon that can appear as Shiny with their known locations when applicable:

• Butterfree – Howling Forest
• Ninetales – Northern Range
• Rapidash – Mt. Steel
• Electrode
• Exeggcute
• Exeggutor – Pitfall Valley
• Starmie
• Magikarp
• Gyarados – Waterfall Pond
• Ditto – Buried Relic
• Dragonite – Mt. Thunder
• Hoothoot – Murky Cave
• Noctowl – Lapis Cave
• Ampharos – Sinister Woods
• Azumarill – Mt. Blaze
• Sudowoodo – Desert Region
• Aipom – Solar Cave
• Espeon
• Wobbuffet – Darknight Relic
• Shuckle – Southern Cavern
• Corsola – Far-Off Sea
• Spinda – Frosty Forest
• Altaria
• Zangoose
• Metagross – Silent Chasm
• Ambipom – Great Canyon
• Lickilicky – Mt. Freeze

Once you select your target, head to the dungeon they’re said to reside in. You’ll have a random chance to encounter them on any floor of the dungeon. If you do, they’ll first appear on your map with a yellow marker rather than the standard red market used to denote most enemies. The yellow is because shiny Pokémon are strong foes with boosted stat values. Defeat the shiny Pokémon with your group’s leader to have a chance at catching them.

If you’re having trouble with the recruiting part of this task, you will probably want to acquire the Friend Bow, which boosts your recruitment rate significantly.

How to obtain the Friend Bow in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX

The Friend Bow is an item that boosts all your recruitment rates by 10 percent, making it significantly easier to recruit Pokémon in any circumstance. To acquire the tool, you first need to beat the game. You’ll then gain access to a post-game quest chain to locate Mirage Pokémon. In the chain’s fourth mission, you’ll be told to scale Mt. Faraday. Travel up to the location’s 30th floor and use a key to unlock a nearby door. Behind that door, you’ll find the Friend Bow.

If you’re already beyond that point and hardly want to return, you can find the Friend Bow in the optional Joyous Tower dungeon. The Friend Bow has a chance of being sold by Kecleon. The higher you go, the likelier Keckleon will have the Friend Bow in stock. If done through this method, the Friend Bow will set you back 5000P.

That’s a pretty reasonable price for some assistance obtaining the world’s most sought after Pokémon!

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX is now available for Nintendo Switch.