This is a character sheet for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky.
Note: Due to a Plot Twist approximately halfway through the game that isn't possible to completely hide with spoiler tags, there are Self Fulfilling Spoilers here. As such, all spoilers are unmarked, except those for Special Episode 5. You have been warned.
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The Protagonists
The Hero
A human who wakes up on the shore to find they have been mysteriously transformed into a Pokémon, with no memory of how or why... or much of anything beyond their own name. As if that wasn't strange enough, they quickly learn that they also possess a strange power that gives them brief visions of various events... It's revealed at the end of the game that the one responsible for the hero's transformation and memory loss was Darkrai.
- Amnesiac Hero: Just like in the last game, the player character is amnesiac.
- Audience Surrogate: Naturally.
- Back from the Dead: Dialga returns them from non-existence after the future they were born in vanishes thanks to changing the past.
- Despair Event Horizon: Comes very close to crossing it during Darkrai's nightmare and giving into the promise of a world of darkness.
- Disappears into Light: When they vanish from existence after changing the past.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Their complete lack of familiarity with the customs of the present is a combination of this and their lost memories.
- Forced Transformation: The reason for the player's transformation into a Pokémon is only revealed late in the postgame, when Darkrai reveals how he attacked (and nearly killed) them during the Time Travel.
- Future Badass: In the present, they're just an apprentice explorer. In the future, they, along with Grovyle and Celebi, fought to figure out how to prevent the collapse of Temporal Tower and save the world.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Like pretty much every Pokémon hero ever, you get to input their name.
- Heroic Mime:
- Similar to Red and Blue Rescue Team, the player is privy to their own Inner Monologue, but aside from responses to dialogue trees, has no scripted dialogue of their own; whenever the player says something, it's a nearby NPC who responds and parrots it to the audience. While there are a few dialogue points that are seemingly meant to be out loud, they are still in parenthesis, meaning it was technically in their head.
- The player does, however, get to speak some actual dialogue during the game's ending, when they say good-bye to the partner right before disappearing from time. They also announce the species of the visiting Pokémon during the Sentry Mini-Game.
- After completing the game, if the player is present on the active team but not the designated leader, talking to them in a dungeon yields only Visible Silence instead of the randomly-chosen responses associated with other Mons.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Pulls a particularly heartbreaking one at the ending, when they decide to repair the future even though this causes them to disappear from the world. Their partner does not take it well.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: They lost all their memories when their journey to the past was violently disrupted.
- Living Emotional Crutch: They are one for their partner, to the extent that after they are removed from time and space, Dialga sees fit to make an unstable paradox by putting them back in after seeing what an emotional mess their partner has become without them.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: The "Dimensional Scream", which allows them to see past or future events related to objects they touch.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to the partner's Red. They are quiet, observant, and calm, and are constantly overthinking things if their inner monologue is anything to go by.
- Standardized Leader: They're the leader of their exploration team, although they don't speak much, and the partner does most of the work for them.
- Suddenly Speaking: Breaks their normal role as a Heroic Mime at the end of the game when they vanish from existence.
- Terminator Twosome: They and Grovyle were both sent back in time to prevent the Bad Future from developing. Dusknoir was sent back to prevent this.
The Partner
A young Pokémon who dreams of becoming a great explorer... but is too intimidated to join the local guild. After meeting the hero, they decide to try signing up as a team, reasoning that their new friend will help them learn how to be brave. They treasure a small rock with a strange design on it, which they named a 'Relic Fragment'; someday, they hope to discover just where it came from...
- Ambiguously Bi: It's implied that over the course of their journeys together, the partner eventually grows to develop feelings for the hero, regardless of either's gender.
- Break the Cutie:
- From the Plot Twist onward. Your hero is a liar and works for the bad guy, you're stuck in a Crapsack World and about to be executed, you have no one to count on other than your best friend and a criminal, and you have no idea of how to get home. And when you do get home, you only have a couple of days to save the world, several of your comrades have made Heroic Sacrifices to get you this far, you have to fight a Physical God, and, oh yeah, your best friend Disappears into Light right in front of you. Is it any wonder they break down crying at the end?
- Everything Darkrai does to them after the main plot resolves are specifically designed to make both them and the hero into believing that they do not deserve to exist and commit suicide.
- Character Development: Starts out as very timid and easily intimidated Classical Anti-Hero, but gradually grows over the course of their many adventures with the hero.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Relic Fragment that they show the player character at the start of the game turns out to be the key to travelling to the Hidden Land much later on.
- The Chosen One: Their Relic Fragment turns out to be proof that they're worthy to enter the Hidden Land.
- Cowardly Lion: For most of the game, they're quite timid, but they're often shown pushing through their shyness to get stuff done anyway. This can be literal in Sky if the player chooses Shinx as their species.
- Cowardly Sidekick: Though they develop into the above rather quickly once they decide to team up with the player character.
- Genki Girl: As a female, she's adorable and enthusiastic.
- Hero-Worshipper: They greatly admire Dusknoir and highly respect him. When they learn from Grovyle that Dusknoir is evil and wants them gone, they refuse to believe him at first even after Dusknoir nearly had them executed.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With the hero, if they are the same gender.
- Jumped at the Call: Or at least tried to. It's not until the hero comes along that they actually succeed in joining the Guild and becoming an (apprentice) explorer.
- Keet: As a male, he's hyper and energetic.
- Parrot Exposition: Primary provider thereof, as they echo whatever the hero 'says'.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With the hero, if they are different genders.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to the Hero's Blue. Despite their timid nature, the partner is generally passionate and enthusiastic about adventures and tends to trust their instincts.
- Ship Tease: Well, they do play "mommy and daddy" to Manaphy with the hero.
Grovyle
A Pokémon who is trying to steal the Time Gears. Supposedly, he's the culprit behind the world's eventual paralysis.
- Anti-Villain: At least he apologizes to Uxie and Mesprit when he takes the Time Gears. Subverted in that he was a good guy to begin with.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Knows the move Dig, which can't be deleted as he uses it in a cutscene.
- Enemy Mine: With Dusknoir in his special episode.
- Foreshadowing: Grovyle is the ally that sticks around with the Hero and Partner the most, and is even set up to accompany them in the game's final dungeons. However, he never stops being a Guest-Star Party Member who cannot level up, which means he will eventually leave the party at any moment. Taking Dusknoir back to the future for good ensures precisely that, and that will be the last time Grovyle is ever seen if you are playing Time/Darkness.
- Good All Along: He is introduced as the game's primary antagonist, but it eventually turns out he's trying to save the world.
- Good Is Not Nice: Despite his good intentions, his plan to retrieve the Time Gears involved attacking anyone in his way, even if they could be reasonably talked out of it (as he finds out after returning to the present).
- Good Is Not Soft: Not afraid to beat anyone that opposes him on his quest to get the Time Gears.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The boss fight against him in Crystal Lake is one of the few mandatory boss battles that you are not required to win. However, even if you defeat him, he'll knock you out in the following cutscene anyway.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Though he's believed to be a villain, he's actually trying to stop a Bad Future.
- Heroic Sacrifice: His goal is to prevent the Bad Future, even if he'll suffer a Ret-Gone.
- Knight of Cerebus: It's when he gets involved in the plot that everything takes a turn for the worse.
- Messiah Creep: He starts off as a villain willing to fight the Lake Guardians and the player Team even when it won't make a difference, then is gradually revealed as more heroic. In his episode, he's regarded as an idealist and manages to talk his opposite number into reforming.
- Non-Human Sidekick: Darkrai later reveals that Grovyle was the hero's sidekick when they were a human. However, because he attacked them in the middle of the Time Stream, Grovyle was separated with the hero and ended up in the future, while the hero transformed into a Pokémon.
- Oblivious to Love: It's implied he simply does not get that Celebi loves him. Celebi's Connection Orb mission in Super Mystery Dungeon involves her feigning being defeated so that Grovyle can pull a Rescue Romance. She instead gets Grovyle to say she is strong enough to get past the dungeon alone.
- Skilled, but Naive: He ends up getting pushed around by some Snorunt partway through the special episode in Explorers of Sky because he didn't pick up on their bad attitude soon enough. Dusknoir sees this and notes that Grovyle is unusually innocent at heart, and that this innocence is what prevents the Bad Future from corrupting him. His power is reflected in his in-game level; when he first joins he will be several levels stronger than you or the partner are most likely to be, at 46.
- Terminator Twosome: He and the hero form a two-on-one variant, with Dusknoir opposing them.
- Tragic Time Traveler: The reason he's stealing the Time Gears is to get them to Temporal Tower to stop the collapse of the tower and the time paralysis of the planet. He was branded a criminal by the entirety of Treasure Town and eventually captured by Dusknoir and his goons, who actually benefited from the dystopian future and were tricking everyone. He does escape thanks to you and your partner Pokémon, but is ultimately erased when the day is saved (Although the bonus story in Explorers of Sky confirms that he actually survived thanks to Arceus).
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: At first. His plan to retrieve the Time Gears involved attacking anyone in his way, even if they could be reasonably talked out of it. He grows out of this mentality after returning to the present.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: He's convinced that no one in the future is truly evil; they are either misguided or desperate due to the Crapsack World they live in. This comes to bite him a few times, where he was attacked when off-guard. He's ultimately proven right, at least where Dusknoir and his Sableye are considered, but it is a very close call.
Members of the Wigglytuff Guild
Guildmaster Wigglytuff
YOOM-TAH!
Guildmaster of the Wigglytuff Guild. Relentlessly cheerful and upbeat, he hardly seems to fit his fearsome reputation... yet almost everyone deeply respects him.
- All-Loving Hero: He thinks of everyone as his friend, and he doesn't believe there's any truly bad Pokémon even among all the outlaws running around.
- Badass Adorable: A cute and soft pink Pokémon who's silly and friendly to everyone, and also probably among the strongest and most intelligent characters in the entire series. In his appearance as an Igglybuff during his special episode, he's even more adorable as a Cheerful Child and repeatedly shocks other characters with his explosive power, and even his basic Pound attack is likely to one-shot most enemies you encounter by the end of it.
- Berserk Button: Mess with his Perfect Apples and it won't end well for you.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Extremely nice, trusting to the extreme, willing to lend a hand to literally anyone... and can probably beat any of those people into the ground if they betray his trust.
- Beware the Silly Ones: He's introduced as comic relief, with the wariness at provoking his temper seeming like bizarre overkill until the "Perfect Apple Incident" and his later beat-down of Team Skull.
- Break the Cutie:
- As an Igglybuff, finding out that his trusted mentor Armaldo is a wanted outlaw absolutely devastates him. Thankfully, it's also subverted as it seems to motivate him to keep being an All-Loving Hero well into adulthood.
- He's very worried over the prospect of Chatot being attacked by Kabutops's gang in Brine Cave again, and gets almost distraught when it actually happens.
- Broken Pedestal: Subverted, he still remembers Armaldo fondly even after learning of his criminal history.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: An example with actual bunny ears! He may be silly, but he is very skilled at battling and also can be pretty smart when the situation calls for it.
- Character Catchphrase: "YOOM-TAH!" *flashflash*
- Cheerful Child: He was a very friendly and happy fellow even as a young Igglybuff.
- Child Prodigy: Lampshaded by Armaldo and the game itself. Armaldo says he seems to be some kind of "exploration prodigy", while the special episode is titled Igglybuff the Prodigy. Seeing what he is now...
- Cloud Cuckoolander: He's very easygoing and considers everyone his friend, including the Obviously Evil Team Skull and people he's never met before. His oddball behavior is also seen when he's the only one to stay in-character as the "Grand Master of All Things Bad", even after the plan was foiled by Bidoof.
- The Cloud Cuckoolander Was Right: More often than not. It's implied a few times that being a Cloud Cuckoolander is precisely the secret behind his legendary exploration skills.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
- The only one to figure out Ditto's deception in "Here Comes Team Charm!"
- Not to mention withstanding Team Skull's noxious gas combo that knocked the player and partner out cold with ease, then effortlessly delivering them a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Igglybuff The Prodigy" in Explorers of Sky has you play as him. He is also a major character in "Here Comes Team Charm!", and has a rather memorable scene in "Bidoof's Wish" as well.
- Ditzy Genius: It's hard to tell exactly how much of his childish behavior is completely genuine and how much of it's at least partially a front to conceal his knowledge or mess with people. In either case, he can be startlingly perceptive about certain things relating to his area of expertise, able to see the solutions to traps and puzzles near instantly.
- The Dreaded: To Chatot and only Chatot. He starts to panic when he sees something that might disappoint Wigglytuff, although Chatot often ends up exaggerating and Wigglytuff isn't the slightest bit concerned. Considering the Perfect Apple incident or when Armaldo was arrested, he has good reasons to fear a potentially angry Wigglytuff...
- Easily Impressed: Despite his vast experience, he still becomes enamored by the simplest of things.
- Eccentric Mentor: He falls asleep during his own meetings, dances with his food, and sings and kids around constantly... but the player character and partner are proof that he sure does turn his apprentices into top-quality explorers.
- Friend to All Living Things: He will reach his hand and try to be friends with anyone he meets - regardless of whether they are childhood playmates, rookie explorers, more experienced ones, food thieves, fugitive criminals, bullies, illusions, Time Gear guardians, or Obviously Evil thugs. The only one he's not seen trying to be friendly at first is Grovyle, but once his intentions are cleared up he's as friendly to him as to everyone else.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Double subverted, with his temper being established before meeting him, only to find... The Pollyanna. But then The Perfect Apple Incident...
- Handwriting as Characterization: The childish and emotional Wigglytuff writes in a "messy scrawl", which Chatot struggles to read when tasked — showcasing the personality differences between the partners.
- Leitmotif: "Guildmaster Wigglytuff"
. - Manchild: Childlike, at best. At worst, he can cry to the point of almost causing earthquakes. All because he didn't get his Perfect Apples.
- Nice Guy: He's sweet to everyone, and a good leader.
- Obfuscating Stupidity:
- He does not seem to be the part, but he sure is one of the smartest Pokémon in the Mystery Dungeon series, with deductive abilities that catch almost everyone off-guard. For example, the moment he looks at The Partner's relic fragment, he figures out it has something to do with Brine Cave and Lapras.
- There's also numerous points even before they ambush him where he seems at least somewhat aware Team Skull might not have the best intentions, most noticeably when he conveniently interrupts a stand-off between them and the protagonists and urges the latter to go on and explore the Steam Cave they uncovered while he keeps Team Skull within his vision. He does this all while still acting like his friendly and childish self.
- Odd Couple: With Chatot, his much more normal right-hand bird.
- One of the Kids: His usual personality.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: As the "Grand Master of All Things Bad".
- The Pollyanna: As shown in his Explorers of Sky special episode.
- The Power of Friendship: Which apparently manifests as an actual power, especially in his side-story.
- Stepford Smiler: Invoked and Discussed by Chatot after the Perfect Apple incident.Chatot: As you know, it's difficult to tell what our Guildmaster is thinking from his demeanor...but there's no doubt he must be seething with anger inside.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Perfect Apples.
- Tragic Keepsake: He still keeps the Defend Globe Armaldo gave him before he was taken by the authorities.
Chatot
Wigglytuff's right hand bird and head of intelligence, Chatot handles most of the day-to-day details of running the guild. Unfortunately, he has a tendency to grossly overestimate his own talents and occasionally misread the situation, and isn't as well-respected as he thinks he is. That being said, he can still be counted on when push comes to shove.
- Bad Liar: As shown in "Bidoof's Wish".Chatot: I...I will say one thing! I didn't rush out here because I was worried about you or anything! I...I just thought you might be deserting the Guild!
- Brutal Honesty: Especially evident during "Bidoof's Wish", where he tells Bidoof right to his face that he's horrified of how badly the rookie might mess up his first expedition. He also flat-out tells the player character and partner that they can forget about being selected to go on the expedition after they mess up getting a Perfect Apple for Wigglytuff.
- Butt-Monkey: He constantly bores the Guildmaster, he isn't nearly as respected as he thinks he is, and he's assaulted by Kabutops when trying to save Wigglytuff's life.
- Cluster F-Bomb: If Skuntank's claim in Brine Cave is true, then Chatot did something very reminiscent to this trope once he caught up with them.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He saves the protagonist and their partner's lives from an ambush by Kabutops and Omastar, and even manages to hold his own in battle when you have him as a partner and when he fights against you during The Grandmaster Of All Things Bad fight.
- Exposition Fairy: He's the one in charge of all the relevant information in the guild, and relays it to all who need it.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Briefly teams up with your party to explore the first half of Brine Cave.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Wigglytuff.
- History Repeats: Chatot is knocked unconscious during the fight with Kabutops by shielding someone. First it was Wigglytuff, then in the story itself it's the protagonists.
- Horrible Judge of Character:
- When the player and partner try to join the Guild as an exploration team, Chatot's first reaction is to kick them out for being salespeople. And his opinion on Team Skull is that they are perfectly good upstanding citizens. He even completely trusts their word over the hero's partner about what happened to the Perfect Apples after Apple Woods.
- Despite their close friendship, he really seems to overestimate Wigglytuff's likelihood to hold a grudge, acting as if it's almost certain the protagonists won't be selected for the expedition over the Perfect Apple incident. He definitely has reason to fear his temper, but it's hard not to get the impression Chatot himself doesn't understand the guildmaster's own thought process as much as he seems to believe... though given who Wigglytuff is, this isn't too surprising.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Best shown when he starts to chew out the player and partner over the infamous Perfect Apple incident again, but almost immediately stops and apologizes. And then there's his actions in Brine Cave... And also what he does to help Bidoof in Star Cave, by rounding up every member of the Guild to help out including the Guildmaster himself.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: He describes himself as an "encyclopedia" of knowledge, and he is actually pretty knowledgeable about various legends and Pokémon (which is more or less your Required Secondary Powers for being the guild's personal Exposition Fairy), but he is also really lacking in patience and basic common sense. Especially with never noticing how Obviously Evil Team Skull was, and believing their word over the protagonists. Oddly enough, he's very perceptive and when he notices something's wrong with Bidoof, has the Guildmaster look into it so they can save him from an untimely ambush.
- Number Two: To Wigglytuff.
- Papa Wolf: A more downplayed version of this trope, as he firmly denies it constantly, but he shows a protective side of Bidoof, the Player, and the Partner. Most tellingly in Star Cave, in which the guildmembers told Bidoof that it was Chatot who was concerned, and in Brine Cave, for when he heard of Team Skull's wrongdoings, he instantly bolted after them. He then protects the Player's team when Kabutops and Omastar attacks.
- Parrot Exposition: Secondary provider thereof; if the partner isn't recapping, chances are good Chatot's doing it instead.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: He's not as competent as he thinks he is, which causes problems for the player's team, especially early on.
- Polly Wants a Microphone: Justified as, in the Mystery Dungeon series, Pokémon Speak is understood as full sentences instead of just a group of sounds.
- Poor Communication Kills: His tendency to jump to conclusions, such as when he first tried to turn the hero and partner away because he assumed they were door-to-door salesmons.
- Small Name, Big Ego: He thinks of himself as The Smart Guy and highly respected in the guild, while people actually just sort of put up with his bossiness because of Wigglytuff.
- Tsundere: Type 1. He starts off as an abrasive, if well-meaning, right-hand man to Wigglytuff, then he loses the player's respect after chewing the protagonists out during the infamous Perfect Apple Incident, then redeems himself by taking the attack for the protagonists.
Bidoof
A cheerful beaver Pokémon who's eager to please others. Before the newcomers arrived, he was the Guild's most recent recruit, and was having trouble adjusting. Things get better for him after your arrival, and he quickly befriends the team. While he can be a bit slow at times, he tries his hardest and dislikes the thought of giving up.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Bidoof's Wish" in Explorers of Sky.
- Bad Liar: He's not thinking about Star Cave, or anything, at all, no sirree!
- Big Brother Mentor: He tries his best to be one for the player and partner, though his own lack of experience means he doesn't do too well at it.
- Big Eater: Literally stated to be one by his mother in Bidoof's Wish. His hunger "gets him into trouble"; when he first joined the guild, he unknowingly ate all of Wigglytuff's Perfect Apples and much like the hero and partner, got Denied Food as Punishment by Chatot. He's also the only one who asks for seconds at dinner.
- Butt-Monkey: Before your team came along, he was pretty clumsy and was always getting yelled at by Loudred and Chatot.
- Character Catchphrase: "Yup yup!" and "Oof!"
- A Day in the Limelight: He's the focus character of the special episode "Bidoof's Wish".
- Gasshole: According to his journal, he has a problem with this.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: "Gosh!", "Golly!", etc.
- Heavy Sleeper: Implied to be one in Bidoof's Wish by the fact that his other roommate Corphish is always out of the room already when Loudred is trying to get him to awaken.
- The Load: Averted when he joins your team for the guild's expedition. You'd be forgiven for thinking that said long-awaited quest would be nothing but an over glorified Escort Mission (especially if you'd read Sunflora's diary about how much of a novice he is when they explored), but in truth he can carry your whole team by knocking out everything in front of him with a surprisingly powerful Headbutt.
- Naïve Newcomer: He's the newest recruit until the player and their partner show up, and he's still not very used to everything.
- Nightmare Retardant: In an in-universe example, he accidentally ruins the whole "Grandmaster Of All Things Bad" setup. The Grandmaster tries to salvage it, without much success.
- The Unfought: He doesn't participate in the Grand Master of All Things Bad battle, unlike the rest of the guild.
Sunflora
She's voiced by Rachael Lillis in the dub.
- Action Girl: She's a competent fighter and explorer in her own right.
- Badass in Distress:
- During her special episode; Justified as she's stated to be very skilled, but goes on a solo mission with major type disadvantages against opponents who are fully aware of the type mismatch and skilled at luring others into ambushes.
- Happens again to a lesser extent in the anime special Explorers of Time and Darkness. She actually does quite well against Gabite until the latter uses Attract, forcing Chimchar and Piplup to pick up the slack.
- Big "OMG!": Her catchphrase.
- Character Catchphrase: "Eek!" and especially "Oh my gosh!" Her special episode is named after the latter, and for a very good reason. note
- A Day in the Limelight: "Today's Oh My Gosh" in Explorers of Sky.
- The Determinator: Despite being on the wrong end of Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors during her Day in the Limelight, Sunflora absolutely refuses to give up on her mission to capture "The Invincible Haunter".
- Eyes Always Shut: Of the upturned, optimistic variety.
- Genki Girl: She's always energetic and excited about something.
- Incendiary Exponent: During the boss fight at the end of "Today's "Oh My Gosh", oddly enough.
- Valley Girl: Is totally this, oh my gosh.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She hates fire and has to battle Haunter in the boiling core of the hot springs.
- Tsundere: Type B, towards Loudred.
Loudred
A loud and short-tempered apprentice who tends to shout all the time, and serves as the guild's morning alarm clock. Because of this, he comes off as a bit... harsh. Also a bit of a braggart, he's convinced that he's the strongest of all the apprentices.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Explicitly acted out in Sunflora's Special Episode, right down to the "I'm not here because I care or anything" blatant lie when he comes to back her up.
- Big Damn Heroes: Arrives just in time to help Sunflora out during her mission to catch the Invincible Haunter. Twice, even.
- The Big Guy: He sees himself as this.
- Incendiary Exponent: Same as Sunflora during the boss fight.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He does mean well, deep down, even though he's kind of a jerk.
- Loud Sleeper Gag: Bidoof's special episode shows that he's just as loud asleep as he is awake, as his snoring keeps Bidoof up late at night.
- No Indoor Voice: IS ALWAYS YELLING! Which IS, in its own WAY, his VERBAL tic.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Loudred has a tendency of bragging about how strong he supposedly is.
- Suddenly Shouting: He falls into this when he's not constantly shouting. Sometimes, he'll start speaking normally, but then emphasize random words in his sentences.
- Tsundere: Type A, towards Sunflora.
Diglett
The Wigglytuff Guild's lookout and Loudred's partner. Not nearly as brash or self-assured as his father or his partner.
- Character Catchphrase: Subverted, he's one of the few apprentices to not have one.
- The Generic Guy: Like Corphish, Diglett is one of the most "normal" of the guild members.
- Only Sane Man: Especially when compared with, say, his dad or Loudred.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Can be seen as this with Dugtrio, considering his father would rather spend his time staring out at sea, and Diglett is annoyed with his father for shirking his work. It gets to the point where he tricks Dugtrio into going back to work by having his partner, Loudred, use his large voice to pretend to be the sea. Loudred was quite surprised by this.
Corphish
Another apprentice, Corphish is one of the more sensible members of the guild.
- Character Catchphrase: "Hey, hey!"
- The Generic Guy: Perhaps the least quirky member of the whole guild. Doesn't help that most of his accomplishments get Overshadowed by Awesome.
- Recurring Character: The same Corphish (or possibly all talking Corphish say "Hey, hey!") has appeared in almost every game in the franchise since that features talking Pokémon. Such as, Poke Park Wii 2 and Pokemon Rumble Blast.
Chimecho
This apprentice runs the Guild's Assembly, managing any recruits brought in by other apprentices and helping with team-building. Appears to have a crush on Wigglytuff.
- Cannot Spit It Out: If she does have a crush on Wigglytuff, he doesn't seem to be aware of it.
- The Medic: Acts as the guild's healer both on and off the field.
- Onee-sama: Has a bit of this with the player's team, being a responsible and more experienced female recruit.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Despite her apparently sweet nature, Chimecho is still capable of fighting if need be.
- Team Chef: One of her jobs involves preparing the dinner for the Guild's members.
- Team Mom: She comes across this way due to taking care of several things around the guild.
Dugtrio
Diglett's father and a fellow apprentice. He also handles the updates for the Guild's Job Boards. Likes to spend his free time overlooking the vast sea.
- Large Ham: He tends to be rather melodramatic.
- Leeroy Jenkins: In Bidoof's Wish, his AI isn't programmed to take into account Bidoof's IQ skills or Treasure Bag. Due to this, he can accidentally one-hit-KO Bidoof with Earthquake. This also happens in the Grand Master of All Things Bad battle, with the exact same allies as the special episode, minus Bidoof. Apparently, he hasn't learned.
- Mythology Gag: His deep, abiding love of the ocean may be a reference to a Diglett/Dugtrio father-son pair who played a minor role in Red/Blue Rescue Team and spent most of their time overlooking the sea. Assuming, of course, that there isn't something more to it...
- Royal "We": His Verbal Tic. Justified, as there are three of him.
- Small Name, Big Ego: His sense of self-worth is possibly even more inflated than Loudred's.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: As noted with Diglett, Dugtrio is much quirkier than his son is, much to Diglett's exasperation.
Croagunk
An odd apprentice who keeps to himself and constantly laughs. This tends to unnerve the others, who aren't quite sure what to make of him.
- Dark Is Not Evil: While viewed as a bit strange, still a rare example of a Poison-type who isn't treated as purely evil or having the "out" of being half-Grass-type.
- Evil Laugh: "Meh-heh-heh!"
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: At least, he's viewed this way by the other apprentices.
- The Stoic: Even at the worst of times, he never displays much emotion.
- Willfully Weak: It's said that he's already skilled enough to graduate from the guild, but chooses not to because he doesn't want to leave his swap cauldron, which is permanently stuck to the floor of the guild's quarters.
Other Exploration Teams
Team Skull
A trio of poison Pokémon who do nothing for their Type's bad reputation. The brutish Skuntank leads the team, while Koffing and Zubat are his sneering lackeys. Not to be confused with the other Team Skull.
- Bad Boss: Zubat isn't immune to the team's "noxious gas special", but this doesn't stop Skuntank from using it.
- The Bully: Their basic character trait. They enjoy picking on people they consider weaklings, especially the player character and their partner.
- Bullying a Dragon: Not only do they keep picking on the player and their partner even as they grow ever stronger, they even go after Wigglytuff at one point. Really bad idea.
- Combination Attack: Skuntank and Koffing's "noxious gas special".
- Dark Is Evil: Downplayed. They're not outright evil, just really greedy and selfish.
- Devil in Plain Sight: None of the other Guildmembers like them at first.
- Dirty Coward: They're willing to attack when they're stronger than their target, but they always run from a fair fight.
- Dual Boss: Koffing and Zubat are fought together as the first boss fight of the game.
- Evil Laugh: Each member has a distinctive one:Skuntank: Chaw-haw-haw!
Koffing: Whoa-ho-ho!
Zubat: Heh-heh-heh. - Fat and Skinny: Koffing and Zubat respectively.
- For the Evulz: Sometimes they're looking for profit for minimal effort, other times they're just picking on "weaklings".
- Gasshole: Skuntank and Koffing both qualify. They frequently team up to unleash their noxious gas combo on unsuspecting victims.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: They completely get away with sabotaging the player team's mission to get Perfect Apples from the Lost Woods for Wigglytuff. With Chatot refusing to hear reason, it all ends with having your team being punished instead of Team Skull. Also, they suffer no real punishment for stealing Azurill's Water Float, putting it in Amp Plains, and nearly getting the player and partner killed. However, they finally get their comeuppance when Kabutops beats them down and Chatot chastises them.
- Leitmotif: "Team Skull".
- Manchild: It's not known if Koffing and Zubat are adults or not, but one would assume Skuntank is a fully grown adult (or rather a fully-evolved Pokémon), and he's no different from a petty school bully.
- Obviously Evil: Sadly, Chatot is Genre Blind.
- Pet the Dog: After being nearly killed in Brine Cave, Skuntank willingly gives the Relic Fragment back to the main characters after he stole it previously.
- Poison Is Evil: They're all Poison-Types, and they're all jerks.
- Poisonous Person: All three of them have Poison as one of their types.
- Revenge by Proxy: After getting the ever-living shit beaten out of them by Wigglytuff, they know they can't take him in a fight, so they decide to get even by screwing with you and your partner. They then proceed to steal a rare Water Float belonging to two completely unrelated kids just to lure you into a trap.
- Smelly Skunk: Team Skull's leader, Skuntank, is a skunk Pokémon. In two cutscenes, he uses a scent attack that smells so bad that other Pokémon (mainly the player team) become unconscious from it, while even Pokémon standing far away commented on the terrible smell.
- Terrible Trio: They show up at various points of the game to harass the player and partner.
- Underestimating Badassery: They assumed Wigglytuff was just a "big baby" and an instant pushover. They were terribly wrong.
- The Unfought: While Zubat and Koffing act as the the first bosses, Skuntank prefers dirty tricks and running away, and the heroes never get to fight Skuntank. Except when they take a solid one upside the chin due to a combination of The Worf Effect and the fact they're fighting Wigglytuff.
- Warm-Up Boss: Koffing and Zubat are the first bosses in the game.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: They all disappear after Brine Cave, never to be seen or mentioned again. They reappear in Super Mystery Dungeon, however, proving that they survived and escaped.
- Would Hurt a Child: Their stealing of the Water Float and hiding it in Amp Plains meant they were counting on either the hero and partner or Marill and Azurill to be slaughtered by the violently territorial tribe living there.
Team Charm
A famous trio of all-female explorers that appears primarily during the epilogue arc. Lopunny is the leader, traveling with her best friends Medicham and Gardevoir. Their exploits are well-known, and they have plenty of adoring fans.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Here Comes Team Charm!" in Explorers of Sky.
- Amazon Brigade: A formidable, all-female group of fighters and explorers.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Lopunny, Gardevoir, and Medicham respectively.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Or rather, them. Among the guild members gushing over Team Charm, the female Sunflora and Chimecho were just as gushy as their fellow male guildmates (with the exception of Croagunk, who seems rather oblivious).
- The hero and/or partner would qualify if either/both of them are female.
- Expy: Essentially, the Pokémon versions of Charlie's Angels.
- They also have a resemblance to The Powerpuff Girls. Lopunny is the leader, Gardevoir is the cheerful one and Medicham always wants to kick butts.
- Fan Boys: Implied to make up the vast majority of their fan club. And the vast majority of your own guild.
- Fight Woosh/Battle Theme Music: They actually get their own during their Special Episode.
- Girly Bruiser: Lopunny
- Guest Star Party Members: In one mission, you team up with/compete against them while exploring Aegis Cave.
- Lady of War: Gardevoir, the calmest and most graceful of the group.
- Leitmotif: "Team Charm's Theme"
- The Pollyanna: Lopunny maintains a constant optimistic bliss regardless of the conflicts she and the team face.
- Town Girls: Lopunny is Femme, Medicham is Butch and Gardevoir is Neither.
Team AWD
An Arbok, Weavile and Drapion who are always searching for greater challenges and treasures. Lady Weavile is the team's no-nonsense leader.
- Ascended Extra: In the main game, their only purpose is to advertise the Zero Isle dungeons. They become plot relevant in Sky's Team Charm episode.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio:
- Drapion: Big
- Arbok: Thin
- Weavile: Short
- Dark Is Not Evil: Double subverted in Sky, where you're told that they're a team of ruffians that will hurt others in their attempts to get treasure... and then find out that the incident you were told of was a lie by the guardian of the area to get you two to fight each other and take enough damage that neither of you would find the cave's treasure.
- Though they act like bandits and jackasses during the Team Charm episode, they seem to have mellowed out and are relatively benign by the time of the present day. They are seen around Treasure Town and Wigglytuff's Guild, and have neither caused trouble for others nor have a warrant out for their arrest like the outlaws on the bulletin board.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While they aren't exactly evil, it's telling that not even they will mess with a Time Gear.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Like Team ACT in Rescue Team (Alakazam, Charizard, and Tyranitar), AWD's team name is simply their species' initials (Arbok, Weavile, and Drapion).
- Heel–Face Turn: Implied, given that their behavior in the present era is infinitely more pleasant than it was during the Team Charm episode (though Weavile is still a bit of a bitch).
- Poison Is Evil: Subverted with Arbok and Drapion. Team Charm is told to watch out for them in their special episode, but they're actually fairly pleasant, at least by the present day.
- Sssssnake Talk: Arbok, but only in Sky.
- Treasure Hunter: Their main priority. The spend the game searching for Zero Isle.
- Two Guys and a Girl: Weavile is the sole female of the trio and its leader.
Team Ebony
A Shuppet and Murkrow. While both want to go searching for treasures, they can't seem to agree on what type they should target — Murkrow wants to go after the shiniest treasures, while her partner Shuppet prefers rarity to sparkliness.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Implied with Murkrow, who constantly mentions her love of shiny treasures.
- Dark Is Not Evil: They've got no beef with anyone; they're both just explorers minding their own business.
- Treasure Hunter: Like Team AWD, this is their main objective.
Team Flame
As the name implies, a Fire-focused team; two of the three members, Ponyta and Camerupt, are Fire-types. The leader, Bellsprout, is a Grass-type, which means he's on the wrong side of Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors. Despite this, he tries to be a good commander, and his teammates care deeply about him.
- Kill It with Fire: Two of the three of them can, though they have to be careful not to burn their leader.
- Nervous Wreck: Bellsprout comes across this way, due to constantly being surrounded by one of his weaknesses.
- Odd Friendship: Between a pony with a mane and tail of flame, a camel made of magma, and... a small flower.
Team Glee
A cheerful team made up of Togepi, Ledyba and Politoed; they like bringing happiness to others.
- Cheerful Child: All of them have the personality of one, though Politoed is actually fully evolved.
- For Happiness: Their main goal is make other people happy.
- Keet: They're all pretty energetic.
Team Poochy
The three Poochyena Brothers make up this team of bounty hunters. They exclusively hunt criminals, preferably the ones with the best rewards and least difficulty.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Dark-types exclusively against "evil" outlaws, in fact!
- Sibling Team: A trio of brothers who take down bad guys.
Team Raider
A master rank exploration team made up of Gallade, Rhyperior, and Roserade. They only appear after the end of the post-game, having saved Dugtrio from drowning at the beach.
- Flat Character: Due to their extremely limited screen time, none of them demonstrate much personality.
Team Razor Wind
Zangoose, Sandslash and Scyther make up this team, which derives its name from their speed and razor-sharp claws. Notably appeared in the first anime special, and had a very brief cameo in the second.
- The Worf Effect: Their Continuity Cameo in the first Time/Darkness anime adaptation was simply to demonstrate Wigglytuff's strength by having him whup their tails offscreen, as well as Gabite's by having him do the same.
- Worthy Opponent: Zangoose dreams of battling Team Charm. He also considers Sunflora to be one.
Team Rogue
A team that only appears in Sky; considering that they're completely unashamed thieves and bullies... Bagon and Gligar are a pair to watch out for. And then there's their leader...
- Arc Villain: Team Rogue serve as the main antagonists of the Special Episode, "Bidoof's Wish", attempting to lure Bidoof into Star Cave so they can rob him while he's least expecting it.
- Bastard In Sheeps Clothing: Snover, who acts harmless but is actually the leader of the gang.
- The Con: Pulls one on Bidoof, fooling him into trusting Snover and following him far enough way to be robbed.
- Foreshadowing: Snover's Snow Warning ability doesn't help Bidoof at all and can outright KO him if he doesn't do anything about it, a clue that Snover isn't really an ally.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: When the three of them attack Bidoof, you're meant to lose the fight; it's three against one, and Snover is double Bidoof's level. Of course, once Wigglytuff's Guild shows up, this trope gets turned back around on them.
- Leitmotif: "Air of Unease"
- Oh, Crap!: Their reaction when the rest of the guild shows up is priceless.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: The three try to take on the entire Wigglytuff Guild, with predictable results.
- Unwanted Assistance: All Snover's Snow Warning ability does while pretending to help Bidoof is to damage him faster than Bidoof can regenerate his health. This in hindsight seems to foreshadow that Snover is not a true ally to Bidoof and is in fact luring him into a trap.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Snover pulls one on Bidoof, pretending to be on the run from Bagon and Gligar to lure him into Star Cave.
Team Seedgey
A Seedot and Pidgey duo; their team name is derived from both their names.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: As they mention, they came up with their team name by just putting their names together.
Team Slacker
A Slowpoke and Slakoth who aren't very interested in exploring, so they tend to hang around the Guild and Treasure Town instead. Very easygoing.
- Dismotivation: As could be expected from their species.
- Lampshade Hanging: They themselves constantly point out that they're not really sure why they made a rescue team, as they're so lazy.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: They're an exploration team, but don't really do any exploring.
- The Slacker: As you can expect from a team made out of a Slowpoke and a Slakoth.
Team Tasty
A happy-go-lucky Swellow and neurotic Wurmple, the latter of whom is utterly convinced that his partner will eat him if he ever gets hungry enough.
- Big Eater: Swellow sure does talk about food a lot...
- Cannot Spit It Out: Non-romantic version; Wurmple's too afraid to just tell Swellow why he's so jumpy and nervous all the time... And when he finally manages it, Swellow is promptly horrified at having scared him so much.
- Carnivore Confusion: They're a large bird (Swellow) teaming up with a small insect (Wurmple); the implications of Swellow getting hungry aren't lost on Wurmple.
- Meaningful Name: Wurmple's intent behind the team's name. It's what he thought Swellow would eventually think of him.
- Odd Friendship: A bug and a bird who nonetheless work together.
- Poor Communication Kills: If Wurmple had just mentioned it to Swellow instead of dwelling on it, Swellow could have cleared up that he'd never eat his friend if he got hungry.
Treasure Town Villagers
The Kecleon Brothers
A pair of Kecleon who run the local Item Shop. The green one handles regular items while the purple one specializes in TMs and Orbs. Always changing their inventory.
- Badass Bystander: Should you provoke a Kecleon in a Dungeon Shop, you'll find that they're level 49, with max stats and permanently at double speed. Playing this trope more straight, it is possible under very rare circumstances for them to begin fighting the wild Pokémon alongside you, without actually joining your team, should a wild Pokémon use Explosion or some other attack that damages their goods.
- Easily Angered Shopkeeper: They're friendly enough in Treasure Town, but when found running their Dungeon Shops...
- Leitmotif: "Kecleon's Shop"
- Palette Swap: The purple Kecleon.
Kangaskhan
A matronly Kangaskhan who takes care of the locals' Storage. Always has kind words for everyone, and calls others terms of endearment like 'dear' or 'sweetie'.
Xatu
Runs "Xatu Appraisal"; he uses his strange abilities to see into sealed chests before opening them (which he immediately does afterwards, as that's the service he offers). Speaks in an overly grandiose fashion.—-
- Character Catchphrase: "Kwee- Kwee KWAH!...Kwah- HAH!! "
- Magical Native American: Possibly, though it might just be the aesthetics of his species' design.
- Psychic Powers: Can psychically tell what items the chests contain.
- The Stoic: He doesn't express himself much, though he does seem to like Team Charm, much like most of the other male villagers.
Electivire
The energetic owner of "Electivire Link Shop", where he teaches customers how to link moves together. He can also help Pokémon remember any level-up moves they've forgotten.
- Gentle Giant: He looks intimidating, but he's really a nice guy.
Chansey
Basically a babysitter-for-hire, Chansey will look after any eggs that others bring her, taking care of them until they hatch (which takes anywhere between 6-9 dungeon clears).
Duskull
Teller of the "Duskull Bank", where Pokémon store any money they don't want to risk losing if an adventure goes horribly wrong.
- Dark Is Not Evil: He's got a dark sense of humor, but he'd never short anyone who trusts him with his money.
Marowak
The new head of the local Dojo, which was forced to close down for lack of customers some time ago. As such, he's almost painfully eager for any new customers to show up and start using the facilities. These courses aren't as harrowing or punishing as normal mystery dungeons (primarily in that there's no penalty for defeat), so they're great for training.
- Lovable Coward: He has an obsessive fear of the hardest maze in his own dojo. To the point that he sealed it off.
Azurill and Marill
Two cute youngsters. Despite their youth, they're both very responsible and polite, running errands for their mother and doing their best to stay out of trouble... though they often end up finding it, through no fault of their own. In the Japanese version, Marill is the elder brother, and Azurill is implied to be the younger sister.
- Adorably Precocious Children: After their mother fell ill, they took over most of the jobs in their household.
- Break the Cutie: Azurill suffers two of these, first by Drowzee luring him into a trap, then by falling to one of Darkrai's nightmares.
- Cheerful Children: They're always in a good mood, as long as they're together.
Teddiursa and Ursaring
Usually found hanging out together, these two villagers are always ready to weigh in with their thoughts on the latest news. Teddiursa eventually chooses to evolve, making telling them apart a bit difficult. However, in the Japanese version, she can clearly be identified by her use of feminine speech patterns.
- One-Steve Limit: Becomes a minor issue after Teddiursa evolves.
Spoink
This happy villager likes to go bouncing down the streets, always with a lilt in his voice and a (literal) spring in his step. He is introduced as your first job client after he loses his pearl in the Drenched Bluff.
- Keet: He seems to be pretty energetic.
Vigoroth
Acts as the town barker; whenever a new business reopens, Vigoroth can be found running around town announcing this and pointing customers its way.
- Keet: Vigoroth himself says that he just can't sit still. It's more a trademark of his species, though.
- Mr. Exposition: Explains Treasure Town's services to the player as they become available.
Spinda
- Achievements in Ignorance: Freely admits that he has NO IDEA how he's able to mix up miraculously good drinks sometimes, even adding that he couldn't do it by actively TRYING to make a 'miracle drink'.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a successful owner and manager of his cafe, despite his oddities.
- Character Catchphrase: "Hopes and dreams..."
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Very, very eccentric.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: While he can't control when it happens, Spinda will always sense whenever the drink he's just created is special somehow and warn the customer.
Wynaut and Wobbuffet
These two help Spinda by running the Recycling Station, which doubles as the Lottery and the heart of 'Project P'.
- Cannot Spit It Out: While normally Wobbuffet responds to Wynaut's questions about whether or not a given ticket is a winner, sometimes she goes very quiet. This can signify that it's a big win... or that she's just reluctant to admit it didn't win anyway.
- Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: Wynaut to Wobbuffet.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: As a female, Wobbuffet wears lipstick.
- Verbal Tic: Wynaut tends to phrase things in a way that he can ask "why not" or "is it not?" Wobbuffet, meanwhile, hardly says anything other than "That's right!" or announcing what color you just picked.
Villains
Drowzee
A thief who kidnaps Azurill to help him get the rumored treasure of Mt. Bristle.
- The Atoner: After Azurill is trapped in nightmares, he goes to free him to make up for his past crimes against him.
- The Bus Came Back: Despite vanishing for most of the story after his defeat, he returns during the post-game story, helping you when Azurill gets trapped in a nightmare.
- But Now I Must Go: He takes off for parts unknown soon after the player and partner beat Darkrai.
- Heel–Face Turn: Gives up his career as a criminal after he's beaten. He also helps the player out late in the game.
- Starter Villain: He's the first major outlaw you'll have to fight.
- Walking Spoiler: Due to a complete 180-degree change in personality.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: He's the second boss in the game after Koffing and Zubat (who are total cakewalks), but he's rather annoying to beat, as both his abilities, Forewarn and Insomnia, will allow him to block your moves occasionally and makes him completely immune to sleep-inducing moves or Sleep Seeds, respectively, while he puts you to sleep himself via Hypnosis and hits quite hard with Confusion.
Dusknoir
A very wise explorer who rose to stardom overnight. Despite this, he's very humble and willing to help even the smallest Pokémon. In reality, he is Primal Dialga's right-hand man from the future and seeks to cement the world's stasis.
- The Ace: At first: his knowledge from his studies of the past allows him to be an extremely effective explorer.
- Anti-Villain: Dusknoir's speech after being defeated at the Hidden Highland heavily implies that all his motivation for evil stems from fear of death; as his existence is tied to the Bad Future, he will go to any lengths to keep history on its negative course. Special Episode 5 confirms this to be the case in a heart-to-heart with Grovyle, and also has him overcome it and become Not Afraid to Die.
- Becoming the Mask: In the extended story; his team-up with Grovyle, while initially just a ruse, eventually leads him to join his cause for real.
- Big Damn Heroes: Twice, he comes to rescue the player and partner. Once on Amp Plains, once for Grovyle. Subverted the second time when it turns out that he's the antagonist, not Grovyle.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He appears to be nice and a very friendly Pokémon who is willing to help anyone in need but is later revealed that his nice and friendly side is just a façade.
- Dark Is Not Evil: ZigZagged. He is introduced as heroic, but is then revealed to be villainous. In Special Episode 5, he seemingly pulls a Heel–Face Turn, only for it to have been fake all along, but then he pulls a real Heel–Face Turn right then and there, which sticks.
- Determinator: He will stop at nothing to capture the player, partner and Grovyle and drag them back to the future. Even when he's defeated, he gets back up and tries to take out the player despite his injuries, and it takes Grovyle dragging him back to the future to finally get him out of the picture. And even then, he quickly hatches another scheme to take over Grovyle's body and go back to the past to take out the player and partner. The reason for this is that if the Bad Future is changed, he'll disappear, and he's trying to preserve his own existence at all costs.
- The Dragon: To Primal Dialga.
- Evil Laugh: "Hoo hoo ha!"
- A Father to His Men: Downplayed, as he's not above pushing them around or attacking his Sableye lackeys if they displease him, but he does compliment them when they do well, and when Primal Dialga knocks the Sableye aside when they try to protect him, he - despite being unable to move - is clearly enraged at what his master has done.
- Grand Theft Me: His last-resort plan in Special Episode 5 is to take over Grovyle's body.
- The Heavy: Antagonizes the heroes most throughout the story with Primal Dialga only taking center stage after Dusknoir is removed from the plot.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Appears to be good at first, but then kidnaps the player and partner and reveals he's Primal Dialga's right hand man. In Special Episode 5, he comes to a truce with Grovyle only to reveal later that he faked betraying Primal Dialga. Shortly afterward, he finally settles on a side, and makes a genuine Heel–Face Turn.
- Irony: The Pokémon described by most Pokédex entries as essentially the Grim Reaper of the Pokémon world is so afraid to die that he's willing to doom the entire future to keep on living.
- Leitmotif: "The Power of Darkness" as well as his own boss theme, "Battle Against Dusknoir". The latter is shared with Darkrai.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Part of his motivation is his loyalty to Primal Dialga.
- The Mole: He at first seems like an ally, but was actually working to preserve the world of darkness and capture the player.
- Pet the Dog: Coming to the party's rescue in Amp Plains becomes this in hindsight, as as far as he knew at the time, the player and partner's well-being were inconsequential to his mission. Then again, he may have done it just to keep up appearances.
- Psychotic Smirk: Subtle but when he is told the Player's name, he can be seen smirking in his portrait. The Player character spotted this but dismissed it as an imagination.Dusknoir: I see! You're named [ player ]!Partner: ? Does that name sound familiar, Dusknoir sir?Dusknoir: ... -looks to the side- No. -portrait shows a smirk in his eye- That name is unfamiliar to me.
- Terminator Twosome: At first, he seems to be the Kyle Reese to Grovyle's Terminator, but it's actually the other way around.
- Time Police: Revealed fairly early compared to his other reveals to be sent from the future to protect it from someone else changing it in the past, which, unlike everything else he tells you, is actually the honest truth. The trouble is that the future he's trying to protect isn't one that those in the present would want.
- Villain with Good Publicity: He creates a reputation of an incredibly skilled explorer that appeared out of nowhere, concealing the fact he's The Dragon to Primal Dialga. It works to the extent almost everyone struggled to accept the fact Dusknoir was evil.
Sableye
- Dark Is Not Evil: Initially, though their alliance with Dusknoir later places them as Dark Is Evil. They eventually become this for real near the end of the fifth special episode.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Their first act of defiance against Primal Dialga is to claw at him. More like a failed attempt at punching him out, but distracts him long enough to work.
- Evil Laugh: "Weh heh heh heh!"
- Extreme Doormat: They do Dusknoir and Primal Dialga's dirty work out of cowardice and pressure, but finally grow a spine and defect along with Dusknoir.
- Heel–Face Turn: Alongside Dusknoir, they switch sides to help Grovyle in Special Episode 5.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: They always show up in groups, usually alongside Dusknoir.
- Recurring Boss: Fought in both the main story and Special Episode 5, twice in the latter.
- Undying Loyalty: To Dusknoir. They're even willing to fight Primal Dialga for him.
Spiritomb
A being composed of 108 fused spirits.
- Dark Is Evil: A Dark/Ghost-Type who antagonizes Grovyle and the player's team, and later Celebi, too.
- Large Ham: At times, especially given the emphasis it puts on random words.
- Mystical 108: An antagonistic group of 108 ghosts crammed together.
- Orifice Invasion: Toward Grovyle and later Celebi.
- Royal "We": Justified since it's made of 108 spirits.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Decides to run when a very angry Dialga shows up after Dusknoir's betrayal.
Primal Dialga
GRRR-OOOOOO...OOOOOH!!!
A Dialga who has been in the process of being driven insane by the loss of the Time Gears, sending Dusknoir to capture Grovyle so the Bad Future will stay. His descent into madness as Primal Dialga drives most of the pre-credits plot.
- Anti-Villain: Of the "good guy brainwashed into being evil and none of his villainy is really his fault" variety. He's not evil at all — just being driven insane.
- Big Bad: Of the main story at least, as he sent Dusknoir back to stop Grovyle from changing the timeline and is the cause of the planet's paralysis.
- Clifftop Caterwauling: When giving orders to Dusknoir.
- Dark Is Evil: As Primal Dialga, his body is a much darker color. When he goes back to normal, he's his normal shade of blue.
- Disc-One Final Boss: There's still a lot of plot left after he's defeated.
- The Dragon: Literally one to Darkrai, although he's not aware of it.
- Dragon-in-Chief: He's what keeps Darkrai's "ideal" future in place.
- Dub Name Change: In Japan, Primal Dialga is called "Dark Dialga", which was most likely changed to avoid playing thinking that Dialga is now a Dark-type. No relation with the later-introduced Primal Reversion, though.
- Final Boss: Of the game's main story, and of Special Episode 5.
- Fisher King: Dialga's mental state is tied to Temporal Tower's physical state, or possibly the other way around. This also applies to the entire state of the timeline.
- God Is Good: When he's not Primal Dialga, he's quite benevolent and generous.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: As Primal Dialga he only communicates through bestial roaring, though Dusknoir and his other minions can understand his orders. Subverted before you fight against him in the first arc of the main story, where he can speak but is on the edge of falling into madness.
- Leitmotif: "Planet's Paralysis" during cutscenes, and "Dialga's Fight to the Finish!" when finally fought— the latter appears in various forms throughout the game when time and the Time Gears are involved.
- Mad God: And when the god of time goes crazy, bad things happen.
- No Indoor Voice: Constantly speaks in ALLCAPS. Then again, he is nearly twenty feet tall. Unlike his counterpart Palkia, who's a Large Ham bar none, Dialga is relatively reserved in his speech, suggesting that his all caps dialogue is merely because he's just that loud.
- Painting the Medium: When he uses his powers to negate another Pokémon's, it's illustrated as shattering the touch screen.
- Physical God: He is the god of time, and is effectively immortal and beyond powerful.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Twisted a bit; in his normal state, Dialga just happens to have red eyes, but Primal Dialga's angry red peepers get highlighted in two of the cutscenes.
- Sanity Slippage: Goes mad due to Temporal Tower getting wrecked. Fixed when Temporal Tower is restored.
- Superpowered Evil Side: Primal Dialga is this, having none of his reluctance to wreck the timestream in the process of using his powers.
- Time Master: Well, he is the god of time; he can disrupt time how he pleases, send people back to before time stopped, and violently cancel the time travel of others.
- Unwitting Pawn: To Darkrai, who removed the Time Gears in order to drive him insane and cause the Bad Future.
The True Culprit
Darkrai
The world of darkness will be wonderful.
Darkrai is a mysterious and malevolent Pokémon who is the true mastermind of the hero's lost memories and their separation from Grovyle, as well as Temporal tower's collapse and the resulting Bad Future. His goal is to create a world of darkness where he reigns over. Once this fails, he takes action himself, and he resorts to spreading illusions and lies to lure the hero and the partner to their deaths.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the main series, Darkrai is a Pokémon that means no harm, even when inflicting horrible nightmares. This Darkrai in particular is a sociopath that seeks to turn the world into a perpetual nightmare.
- Amnesiac Villain Joins the Heroes: After he loses his memory, you can find him wandering aimlessly through certain dungeons, and can eventually recruit him.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: In stark contrast to most iterations of its species, this Darkrai is using his nightmare powers to spread darkness over the world.
- Big Bad: Of the epilogue, when he finally takes action and attempts to take down the player and partner in an another attempt at creating his "ideal" future.
- Book Ends: The first major villain, Drowzee is an outlaw who kidnapped Azurill to grab a treasure in Mt. Bristle. The final villain, Darkrai, was an outlaw of the greatest magnitude who also happens to target Azurill, this time to draw the heroes out to kill them.
- Casting a Shadow: Fitting, as he's the master over nightmares.
- Caught Monologuing: The only reason why he's thwarted for real. After being defeated in Dark Crater, He tries to get away using a time portal, but instead of making a mad dash towards his escape he stops near the end to rub into Cresselia's face that he's gotten away from her yet again, thus giving Palkia enough time to stop him.
- The Chessmaster: He's so well prepared for the final battle, it takes the intervention of a Physical God to stop him! And that's not even getting into what he did to start the main plot in the first place — he somehow managed to slowly drive another Physical God into despair and doom the world into a Bad Future without anybody else knowing what's actually going on.
- Crazy-Prepared: His original post game plot was to convince the heroes they should destroy themselves. When that didn't work, he convinces Palkia that he should destroy them. When that failed, he already had a backup plan to lure them to their deaths at his hands. When they show up, he tries to convince the player to join him by trapping them in a nightmare where their partner betrayed them and joined Darkrai. When that failed, he summoned his army of Mooks to help him kill the group. Then when he lost, he had an escape route ready and would've escaped had Palkia not intervened. Yeah, he had a total of five backup plans!
- Six, actually, considering his post game plot itself was a backup plan after the Bad Future plan was foiled.
- Dark Is Evil: He's a dark, sinister and mysterious Pokémon desiring to plunge the world into darkness so it can rule over it. And he's definitely not a pleasant individual when our heroes meet him personally.
- Dark Is Not Evil: After his memory is erased, he can be recruited and turns out to be an extremely loyal ally.
- Dystopia Justifies the Means: He is trying to plunge the world into darkness and rule over it.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: One of the main reasons his plans failed. He failed to factor in that The Hero could still be...well, heroic after losing their memory and didn't finish the job then and there. Another example is at the end of the game, when he tries to pull a We Can Rule Together on the hero and their partner. He makes the partner in the illusion join him out of depression, something the real partner would never do. This creates A Glitch in the Matrix that allows the hero to escape.
- Foreshadowing:
- When you meet him in Azurill's Nightmare (impersonating Cresselia) and Drowzee checks you up, he freaks out instantly and runs. Neither the Hero or the Partner notice it, but it's effectively Glamour Failure and a dead giveaway that this "Cresselia" is not what it seems to be.
- The fake Cresselia acts too harsh for a Pokémon like her and is constantly fixated in removing the Hero and Partner. They also didn't notice this since they didn't meet the real Cresselia before, but she's noticably a lot better than that.
- Genius Bruiser: Very crafty with his plans and is said to never work outside of the shadows, but he's no slouch in battle.
- Glamour Failure:
- The Hero and the Partner might not notice it, but when Drowzee was checking them out inside Azurill's Nightmare and they were talking to him (while he impersonates Cresselia), he was noticably freaking out and runs under the fear of having his cover blown. Furthermore, the nightmare dissapates after Darkrai flees, but because he was impersonating Cresselia at that time, it would look like as if Cresselia was causing the Nightmare, something that she never does. Nobody notices it after the heroes went back to the real world and Darkrai's existence isn't known by many, so the group was unable to out him yet.
- At the second time he impersonates Cresselia in an attempt to dispose of the protagonist in Palkia's Nightmare, even Palkia starts to doubt if "Cresselia" was lying to him since the Hero and Partner looked almost innocent to him. When the real Cresselia appears in time to stop the impersonator, that's when his cover gets blown for real.
- Greater-Scope Villain: In the main story. He's the one responsible of trying to get the planet paralyzed, but his existence isn't revealed until he decides to.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: It's never explained why he wanted to rule the Pokémon world by destroying both time and space.
- Irony: His Laser-Guided Amnesia due to being attacked during time travel is quite similar to what he did to the hero.
- Lack of Empathy: He couldn't care less about others and sees them as tools to be used and disposed of.
- The Man Behind the Man: Responsible for distorting time and space.
- Manipulative Bastard: To the point where he manipulates the gods of time and space for the entirety of the game.
- Master of Illusion: He used an illusion of Cresselia to trick the heroes and Palkia.
- Near-Villain Victory: And one that comes dangerously close to becoming The Bad Guy Wins at that. The Bad Future was basically established when the hero and partner starts foiling his plans and before anyone has a single idea who he is or what is actually going on. He's just that dangerously effective.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The heroes had no idea that he was distorting space. They only find out when he tries to kill them, allowing them to stop his plans. Justified as he knew that when his nightmare would start spreading, the heroes would begin to find out why. And with the player's Dimensional Scream, figuring out who was behind it could become really easy.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Unlike most Pokémon villains, he proved himself to be quite the careful player by using psychological traps into either convincing the main characters to commit suicide, or deceiving them to join his side, and when he realizes before the final battle that his speeches are fooling nobody it's quite clear his only thought is to obliterate them immediately.
- Obviously Evil: The first few lines coming out from him after being exposed should point to that he is bad news, and nothing else.
- Omnicidal Maniac: It's not directly stated, but given the impact of his plan, it's fairly obvious.
- Phantom Thief: Based on how he managed to create the bad future with nobody having a single idea about what hit them until it's almost too late, has five backup plans mostly involving trickery or illusions, is a Master of Disguise, and has a rival in the name of Cresselia, he can be considered a truly maligant example of this trope.
- The Spook: Nobody knows who he is, his past, or why was he trying to Take Over the World. Not even the Guild knows anything about him. Cresselia seems to have a rivalry with him, but neither Pokémon confirm or deny anything about it.
- The Sociopath: Feels no remorse, has a complete Lack of Empathy, uses emotional blackmail and manipulation to get what he wants (at one point, while disguised as Cresselia, he almost convinces the hero and their partner to commit suicide), he couldn't care less about others and sees them as just tools for him to use and then dispose of (trapping Palkia in a nightmare after he fails to kill the heroes), he has a grandiose sense of self-importance (if him wanting to take over the world and plunge it into darkness is any indication) and he is cruel.
- Take Over the World: His plan was to plunge the world into neverending darkness and nightmares where he could rule. Though if he actually is the ruler of the Bad Future seen ingame is unknown.
- True Final Boss: Defeating him wraps up the plot entirely, though there are still additional bosses after him.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: A downplayed version, as there are several other dark moments in Explorers, but he's not only easily the most evil villain in the game, he's likely one of the most evil villains in the entire Pokémon franchise.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: He attempts to do this after finally being beaten in Dark Crater, but Palkia attacks him just as he was making his escape, sending him somewhere in the world with Laser-Guided Amnesia.
- Walking Spoiler: The fact that he doesn't reveal himself until the post-credits plot makes his role a huge spoiler.
- We Can Rule Together: His plan B after attempting to drive you to suicide is to trick you into joining him.
- Would Hurt a Child: He's gleefully willing to take Azurill hostage just to have a chance to take out the heroes on his own.
- Xanatos Gambit: He has 5 backup plans in the postgame alone. Pre-credits he's responsible for the damage to Temporal Tower as well as the player's amnesia. It takes the intervention of a Physical God to stop his final backup plan.
Others
Torkoal
- Absent-Minded Professor: Slight variation; while he's not actually a teacher of any sort, he is the town elder and is quite knowledgeable... and quite forgetful.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The player and the partner encounter him, after being launched into the Hot Spring in their first exploration, very early into the game. Much later, when they are trying to find a way to get to the Hidden Land, Torkoal reappears and provides critical information.
Celebi
- Action Girl: She joins as a competent team member when the protagonists are dragged into the future, as well as in the special episode "In the Future of Darkness". She also evades capture entirely on her own after sending the protagonists back into the past, despite being apparently cornered by Dusknoir, the Sableye, and Primal Dialga.
- Genki Girl: Despite the awful circumstances of the future, she refuses to be anything less than enthusiastic.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Invoked: the plot-relevant Celebi is female and Shiny, meaning she's pink rather than green. note
- Rescue Romance: Deliberately gets herself in trouble to pull this trope on Grovyle in Super Mystery Dungeon. All she gets from Grovyle is being told she was too strong to be knocked out in that dungeon.
- Single Specimen Species: Averted. She's not the only Celebi that appears in the series, and in Super Mystery Dungeon you can recruit both her and a regular-colored Celebi, even though it lacks any gender differences (other than this Celebi being Shiny). A regular Celebi can even be recruited in Explorers.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: "It's-It's not like I'm attracted to [Grovyle] or anything..."
- Time Master: She can travel short distances through time, though nowhere near Dialga's level.
- Tsundere: Type B, towards Grovyle. Arguably.
Armaldo
- Ambiguous Criminal History: We're never told what crime(s) he committed.
- Anti-Villain: In spite of being a criminal, he truly adored Igglybuff and was earnest in teaching him how to explore.
- Big Brother Mentor: Becomes this to Igglybuff over time.
- Broken Pedestal: Subverted in that his teaching of Igglybuff was in earnest, and Wigglytuff clearly still holds him in very high regard to this day. It could be argued the opposite of this trope is in play, as learning Armaldo was a criminal ultimately ended up being a huge source of Wigglytuff's All-Loving Hero attitude that he holds to present day.
- Defrosting Ice King: He starts off rather hostile and finds Igglybuff's perpetual cheer to be a nuisance, but he gradually comes to genuinely enjoy his company over the course of their adventuring and ends up giving Igglybuff a heartfelt goodbye and encouraging him to do his best to become an explorer and make him proud.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Igglybuff's parents' first reactions to Armaldo secretly hanging out with their child. One really does get the impression that they see him as a creeper/pedophile.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Super Mystery Dungeon has him return for a sidequest in which another Igglybuff requests the player to deliver a Tiny Reviver Seed to him, whereupon he'll muse about an Igglybuff he once knew who grew up to be a renowned Guildmaster, implying that he did his time and was let free.
- Heel–Face Turn: While the episode's ending reveals that Armaldo is a criminal, it also shows that his time with Igglybuff has an effect on him as he never denies Nidoking's accusations and willingly allowed Magnezone to arrest him. Super Mystery Dungeon indicates that he genuinely reformed as it's shown that he is no longer in prison.
- Making a Splash: Knows the move Water Gun.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: He lives in a dark forest and pretends to be a monster to scare off explorers, but he's actually a very nice guy and shows concern for Igglybuff constantly. Subverted slightly by that fact that he is a wanted 'mon and criminal, but his kindness towards Igglybuff is shown to be fully genuine.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: He doesn't die, but his previous crime caught up with him and he gets arrested, which may not have happened if he didn't take Igglybuff under his wing.
- Monster Façade: He pretends to be a terrifying monster to scare away any Pokémon who come to the dungeon where he lives.
- Remembered I Could Fly: When Igglybuff burns his map, he flails about with the burning paper before remembering that his Water Gun could extinguish it.
- Retired Badass: He's retired from exploring at the time of "Igglybuff the Prodigy", but he's still tough as ever.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Wigglytuff implies to Chatot that he eventually met with Armaldo after the latter was caught, but says he'll leave those stories for another time.
- Wigglytuff also declares himself as the apprentice to the "Explorer Armaldo" to Team Charm, way after the events of their special episode, possibly suggesting that Armaldo was eventually released from prison and became a legitimate explorer in his own right as he said he would.
- Worth It: While he admits that he was well aware of the risks of exploring with Igglybuff, Armaldo doesn't regret the short time they spent together and genuinely enjoyed it.
Cresselia
Appears in the post-credits plot.
- Big Damn Heroes: Arrives Just in Time to prevent the heroes' deaths at the hands of an impostor.
- The Gods Must Be Lazy: Averted; she's a legendary, and she's been trying to track down Darkrai on her own for a while. She also shows up to help the protagonists, and joins them for the final fight against Darkrai.
- Light Is Good: A pink Psychic-Type with moon-based powers who helps the heroes.
- Lethal Joke Character: She becomes this if you're lucky enough to get the Lunar Veil from Spacial Rift's treasure chest; the Lunar Veil makes it so any stat buffs she gains are also gained by the rest of the party. She comes packing Double Team when you're traveling through Dark Crater. Even one or two can save your life against Darkrai and his goons.
- The Load: When you're actually trekking through Dark Crater. Her stats and movepool aren't particularly noteworthy, consisting of Confusion (an admittedly decent move), Slash (which isn't very useful considering that she'll eventually be standing next to a Mismagius and Aggron), Double Team (a useful albeit highly luck-based move), and Aurora Beam (one of the worst ranged moves in the game, with its accuracy barely exceeding 60%). Additionally, Darkrai has a ridiculous advantage against her in his boss battle; oftentimes he'll just spam Ominous Wind a few times and knock her out almost instantly, meaning even with the above mentioned Veil you'll likely need a few Reviver seeds until she gets lucky with Double Team (or a Stun Seed for Darkrai). At least she won't wander into lava and constantly burn herself thanks to her IQ skills.
- Psychic Powers: She's a Psychic-Type.
Palkia
The god of space, who appears in the post-credits plot.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: When attacking in cutscenes, he's prone to punching at the ground.
- Big Damn Heroes: Just as it appears that Darkrai is about to get away by escaping through a dimensional hole, Palkia shows up and attacks Darkrai as he begins to time travel. This causes Darkrai to lose his memories the same way that he caused the player character to lose their memories at the beginning of the game.
- Dungeon Bypass: Being the god of space allows him to go wherever he pleases; his last IQ skill allows him to move through walls, tearing them down.
- The Gods Must Be Lazy: Averted. When Palkia can't stop the distortion with his own powers, he personally seeks out the apparent cause (the player and the partner) to try and destroy it. And after it's revealed that it's Darkrai, he shows up just in time to tear him a new one before he can escape.
- Hero Antagonist: He only fights you because he thinks you are the one who distorted space when it was actually Darkrai. As soon as he learns you're innocent, he throws whatever animosity he has for you in the trash and focuses on the true culprit.
- Incoming Ham: "I HAVE FOUND YOU AT LAST! THE DEFILERS WHO ARE CAUSING... THE DISTORTION OF SPACE!"
- Interface Spoiler: To anyone familiar with Sinnoh lore, it's fairly obvious that Palkia will show up at some point. That being said, it's likely that no one expected him to show up as abruptly as he did.
- Inspector Javert: He sincerely believes that the player and partner are the ones behind the distortion of space, and only attacks and pursues them because of that. He was also told they were evil beings by Darkrai in disguise as Cresselia, and once he learns they aren't evil he quickly begins questioning whether they are truly responsible (though not without a difficult boss battle).
- Large Ham:
- "I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS!"
- "YOU DARE TO DISTORT SPACE? WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!?"
- "THIS IS A STRIKE FOR JUSTICE!"
- Leitmotif: "Palkia's Onslaught!"
- No Indoor Voice: See Large Ham. Though, like Dialga, it's justified by how big he is compared to everyone else. Although at times it seems he likes to take it a bit farther than Dialga.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis:
- When he believes that you and your partner have to die, he teleports to where you are sleeping before you have any chance to react, and drags you off to the Spacial Rift to weaken you before fighting you at the end of the dungeon.
- When he shows up at Dark Crater, he instantly goes straight for the kill on the weakened Darkrai and hits him with an attack so hard it shatters the Dimension Hole he was traveling through.
- Physical God: He's the god of space, as in spacetime.
- Travel Transformation: Strangely, he's presented as flying through the air with a Ball of Light Transformation than just straight-up teleporting.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Hunger seeds. Unlike most bosses, he lacks the IQ Skill that most of the other bosses have that makes them immune to it, so it will cause all of his attacks to do only one point of damage and completely trivialize the encounter as a result.
