Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity (Nintendo 3DS)

Titles	Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity ポケモン不思議のダンジョン マグナゲートと∞迷宮 (Pokémon Fushigi no Dungeon: Magnagate to Mugendai Meikyū)
Platform	Nintendo 3DS (game card and Nintendo eShop download; camera, gyroscope, StreetPass and local wireless)
Developer	Spike Chunsoft
Publishers	The Pokémon Company (Japan) · Nintendo (elsewhere)
Directors	Seiichiro Nagahata · Hironori Ishigami
Producers	Koichi Nakamura · Takato Utsunomiya · Kunimi Kawamura · Hitoshi Yamagami
Music	Keisuke Ito · Yasuhiro Kawagoe
Players	1–4 (2–4 over local wireless, in Companion Mode)
Genre	Roguelike dungeon crawler
Generation	Generation V
Pokémon	144 recruitable (around 150 appear)
Heroes & partners	5: Pikachu, Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott and Axew
DLC	12 downloadable dungeons (off sale since March 2023)
Released	23 November 2012 (Japan) · 24 March 2013 (North America) · 17 May 2013 (Europe) · 18 May 2013 (Australia)
Re-releases	None (3DS eShop sales ended on 27 March 2023)
Rating	ESRB E · PEGI 3 · CERO A · ACB PG
Predecessor	Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (DS, 2009) – in Japan and Europe the WiiWare Adventure Squad games came in between
Successor	Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon (Nintendo 3DS, 2015)
Sales	About 374,000 in Japan by the end of 2012 · 298,000 in the US in 2013 (Nintendo of America)

Overview · Quick Answers · Story · Pokémon · Gameplay & Features · Building Pokémon Paradise · Demo & DLC · Regional Variations · Videos · Trivia · Legacy · Sales & Reviews · Media

Overview

Released on the Nintendo 3DS, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity is the ninth game of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series in Japan and Europe, counting each version separately and including the three WiiWare Adventure Squad games, and the sixth in North America, where the WiiWare games were never released.

The game makes full use of the 3DS’s abilities by showcasing the Pokémon in 3D models and introducing new interesting features, such as the “Augmented Reality Options”, the multiplayer cooperative missions and the Companion Mode.

The game features Pokémon up to the fifth generation, with four of the five playable characters being from the Unova region. The player will now have Pokémon Paradise as the main hub or town, which they can upgrade and improve as they progress through the game and gain more comrades. Additionally, Gates to Infinity offered downloadable content, in the form of twelve new dungeons, that the player could access for some extra fun, although it has been off sale since the 3DS eShop closed to purchases in March 2023.

Quick Answers

The questions people ask about Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, answered first and explained further down the page.

How many Pokémon are in Gates to Infinity?

144 species can be recruited, and the recruit roster holds up to 288 Pokémon, so duplicates are allowed. Counting characters who never join, around 150 species appear. Most are from Unova, with older Pokémon such as Pikachu, Eevee and its evolutions, Lugia and Ho-Oh filling out the cast. More →

Can my partner be the same Pokémon as my hero?

No. You pick your hero from Pikachu, Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott and Axew, then choose a different one of the five as your partner. There’s no personality quiz this time. Only the Japanese version lets you choose the partner’s gender; in the English and European releases the partner is always male. More →

How do Magnagates work?

Choose Discover a Magnagate from the main menu and aim the 3DS camera at a round object, such as a plate or CD. Its colour sets the dungeon’s theme and its size sets the difficulty, from 3 to 13 stars. You play as a random starter or evolution, and the Poké and items you find go back to your save. More →

When can my hero and partner evolve?

Not until the post-game. After the credits you play as the partner, who eventually reaches Worldcore and wishes for the hero to come back. Once the hero returns and the pair clear one more dungeon together, evolution is unlocked, and the partner no longer has to be in your party. More →

Can I still buy Gates to Infinity and its DLC?

Not from Nintendo. Purchases on the 3DS eShop ended on 27 March 2023, taking the digital game, the demo and the 12 downloadable dungeons with them. Anyone who bought them before then can still redownload them, and the game card is easy to find second-hand. It has never been re-released on Switch. More →

How does multiplayer work?

Through Companion Mode, where you control one of your recruits instead of the hero. From there, up to four nearby players can team up over local wireless, mainly for jobs from the Challenge Request Board. The story doesn’t move forward in this mode, but items and Poké carry back to your main save. More →

Story

A new world and a new home

The game begins with the player having a strange dream about a Munna being chased by a Hydreigon and calling for help. Suddenly, the player transforms into a Pokémon and is teleported to the Pokémon world. There they meet the partner Pokémon, who is surprised by the player’s story but nonetheless believes them and asks them for help. The partner wants the player to accompany them through a dungeon called Ragged Mountain. The two clear the dungeon and find themselves at the other side of it, where they take a crossroads leading to some barren wasteland.

There, the partner buys the land from a Quagsire and tells the player that he intends to build a town he’d name Paradise on that very land. He asks if the player could help him with his task, and the player accepts. That night, as the player and the partner sleep with no shelter on the land, both of them feel cold, and the partner says that they need to build a house. The next day, the partner tells Quagsire about his idea, so he takes the two to Gurdurr the carpenter, at an inn in Post Town. The carpenter agrees to build a house for the player and the partner, but it requires five blue gems.

The two head to the Stony Cave, where the blue gems are located. They rush through the dungeon and find five of them. On their way back to Post Town, a Scraggy bumps into the partner, then apologises and runs away. Upon reaching Gurdurr, the partner finds the blue gems missing. Gurdurr then suggests that they simply go and pick up some more.

The player and the partner then leave toward the Stony Cave once again. But on their way there, they meet two Timburr, who inform them that the Scraggy stole the blue gems and that he is located in Hazy Pass. The player’s party heads to the Hazy Pass and reaches the sixth floor, where they overhear a conversation between Scraggy and Gurdurr, revealing that the two of them are working together and are scamming other Pokémon. The player’s team battles both Scraggy and Gurdurr and defeats them. The Scraggy retreats, while Gurdurr is then confronted by the two Timburr, who beg Gurdurr to return to carpentry and stop the bad deeds. Gurdurr doesn’t listen to them, knocks them down and leaves.

After that, the two Timburr tell the player and the partner Gurdurr’s story. It seems that Gurdurr was once a great carpenter, but one day he received a back injury that stopped him from working. Moreover, the last house that Gurdurr built was a magnificent one, in which Gurdurr put all his effort and soul. Yet the house owner simply decided to destroy the house, neglecting all of Gurdurr’s efforts and how he made such a great creation, even with an injured back. Learning about the house’s destruction, Gurdurr got mad and started scamming all those who want to build houses.

The player and the partner are both touched by Gurdurr’s story and decide to convince him to build a house for them. They chase Gurdurr across the dungeon, till he battles them at the top of the Hazy Pass. After defeating him, they insist on their demand, but Gurdurr refuses. The partner then tells Gurdurr that they’ll accept the house no matter how it turns out, and that Gurdurr needs only to do his best. Upon hearing those words, Gurdurr cries, regretting his deeds and accepting the partner’s request. The two Timburr and Gurdurr finish building the house a few days later, and the player’s team sleeps there that night.

Forming a team

In the morning, Quagsire visits Paradise, as the land is now called, and brings the two a Request Board, where many missions are posted. The partner chooses the mission “Saving Dunsparce” and the two head toward Stompstump Peak, where the Dunsparce was lost. After clearing half of the dungeon, the player’s party comes across an Emolga, who turns out to be Dunsparce’s best friend and who’s actually looking for him. The team continues even further and stumbles upon some shiny and gorgeous crystals, from which they take one. Reaching the end of the dungeon, they finally find Dunsparce. He explains that he wants to be a great adventurer and that he went into the dungeon to find some beautiful crystals. The player’s team remembers the crystal they picked earlier and hands it over to Dunsparce.

While the party were busy rescuing Dunsparce, Virizion arrived at Post Town and entered the inn, attracting the attention of everyone around her. As soon as the player’s group returns to Post Town, they hear a lot of noise coming from the inn, and soon learn that Virizion is in there. Dunsparce informs the player’s team that the crystal was meant to be a gift for Virizion, in order to gain her friendship. The group enters the inn and the partner starts to chat with Virizion, who tells them that she visited Post Town for the sole purpose of seeing the Rainbows of Hope. She tells them that there are four crossing rainbows that would literally fill anyone who sees them with hope.

Dunsparce then appears and offers the crystal to Virizion, hoping to gain her favour, but she rejects him, as friendship doesn’t interest her. Dunsparce feels broken and quickly leaves the inn, with Emolga getting upset with Virizion and following Dunsparce. Two Pawniard seem to have witnessed what happened and leave the inn too. The player and their partner feel bad for Dunsparce and try to go looking for him too. They meet Quagsire, who informs them that Dunsparce left with two suspicious Pawniard. The team senses that there’s something wrong and follows him to the Desolate Canyon. The team clears the dungeon and reaches Dunsparce, who’s trapped by the two Pawniard as they try to take his Poké off him.

The player, their partner and Emolga, who was following Dunsparce, battle the Pawniard and defeat them. Although they lost, the Pawniard still summon four minions to battle the group again. At that moment, Gurdurr, the two Timburr and Virizion show up and battle the four minions, defeating them and protecting everyone. Virizion then advises Dunsparce to pay heed to whom he trusts, as not everyone can be trusted, but the partner disagrees with her and insists that many Pokémon are trustworthy. The partner then asks Emolga and Dunsparce to join him and the player in their quests, and they both agree. Surprisingly, Virizion decides to tag along too, starting to change her views on friendship and trust.

On the next morning, the player and their partner meet Dunsparce, Emolga and Virizion, accompanied by a Pelipper, outside of their home. The player then picks a name for the team and the Pelipper leaves. Quagsire then appears and informs everyone that Scraggy has opened a shop near the crossroads that lets Pokémon remember forgotten moves and forget ones they have. The Pelipper then reappears and leaves a treasure chest behind. Inside the chest, the team finds a letter, a Team Badge that allows the use of the new skill “Team Attack” and a team bag. The team, formed of the player, the partner, Emolga, Dunsparce and Virizion, heads toward the Forest Grotto dungeon, where they finish their first mission together and get to test the new “Team Attack” skill.

Victini and the strange dreams

On the next day, Gurdurr appears and tells everyone that he, too, now owns a shop. The player then takes another mission to do with the team, revisiting an already completed dungeon. Upon finishing their second mission, Gurdurr tells the group that they can now build more shops, but they have to provide Poké and items for them. Once the player’s team has finished many missions, they witness a fireball flying across the sky. When the Pokémon wake up on the next day, they witness floating coloured circles in the air. Emolga then takes them to a bulletin board that appeared recently. As they reach it, the fireball appears and seems to be heading toward their location. It crashes where they were standing and a shop appears, with Victini inside of it.

Victini tells the Pokémon that he, too, wants to be a member of the Pokémon Paradise community. Victini presents his V-Wheel, which lets them change the V-wave of the day in exchange for Poké. Although most of the Pokémon are annoyed with Victini, he still gets permission to stay in Pokémon Paradise. That same night, the player has another weird dream, where a Pokémon is asking for help. They wake up and wonder if the dream is related to the one where Munna was chased by Hydreigon. The partner wakes up and realises that the player was awake.

After doing a few missions, some events happen on consecutive days, starting with Dunsparce showing the team an icy area far away. A shadowy silhouette is seen moving toward Pokémon Paradise through the bushes. Then, the player has another weird dream, where they hear a Pokémon calling for help once more and even calling the player’s name. On the next day, the player decides to tell the partner about the weird dreams, and both soon meet with Quagsire, who gives them a few Poké. Everyone soon notices that Pokémon from Pokémon Paradise are starting to disappear. The shadowy silhouette is shown again moving toward Pokémon Paradise.

The next day, the player and the partner meet Dunsparce, Emolga, Lillipup and Leavanny as soon as they leave the house. Lillipup and Leavanny are there to ask for the player’s help retrieving their friend Swadloon from Inflora Forest. The player’s team goes through the dungeon and reaches the fifth floor. Swadloon is then shown uncovering two items with weird patterns and a red stone, but he soon gets attacked by the mysterious silhouette and screams for help. The player’s team finds Swadloon after they go deeper into the dungeon, but he seems to have lost all his items. They take him back to Lillipup and Leavanny, and the three of them are happy to be reunited.

Umbreon, Espeon and the Magnagates

That night, the moon doesn’t rise in the sky, and the shadowy figure appears again and heads to Pokémon Paradise, but it collapses due to sickness. In the morning, as the player and the partner leave their house, they meet Emolga, who quickly takes them to Swanna’s inn, outside which many Pokémon from Pokémon Paradise have gathered. Inside the inn, they find out that the shadowy figure is an Umbreon, whom Virizion seems to know. After the team finishes a dungeon, they come back the next day to visit Umbreon at Swanna’s inn. Umbreon is able to move once again, but hasn’t fully recovered yet.

The Umbreon tells the Pokémon about the Magnagates and shows them two Entercards. Swadloon notices that they are the same cards that he discovered in the dungeon of Inflora Forest. Umbreon then takes everyone outside and demonstrates how a Magnagate portal opens, after placing the two cards in a weird box. Umbreon gives more information about the Magnagate and the portal closes. He then requests the team’s help to rescue his sister Espeon from Crags of Lament.

As the group reaches the fourth floor of the dungeon, Espeon is shown following a mysterious voice and being very badly injured. At the sixth floor, the team finds a checkpoint where they can hide the items and Poké they found, to prevent their loss in case they lose in the dungeon. Arriving at the tenth floor, Espeon is shown again in a worse state than she was before, and she gets attacked by Purugly and Toxicroak. Luckily, the player’s team arrives just in time and defends Espeon by battling Purugly and Toxicroak. Once the two villainous Pokémon are defeated, they run away and everyone leaves the dungeon.

Espeon is then reunited with Umbreon, and Leavanny and Swadloon show up. Swadloon then hands over the Entercards he has to Espeon, and it turns out that Espeon was following Swadloon in Inflora Forest, as she saw that he had found the Entercards. At night, the Pokémon talk together about the Magnagate portal, and a flashback shows Umbreon once trying to open the portal. The next day, everyone goes to check on Espeon and Umbreon, then the player’s team heads to another dungeon. After clearing it, at night, Dunsparce is shown looking into the far distance, and Virizion surprisingly shows up to keep him company. At first Dunsparce is surprised by Virizion’s presence, as he thought she didn’t like him, but then the two of them keep gazing at the sky together, while Emolga watches over them, hidden behind a tree. The next day, the player talks to Espeon and Umbreon and the two of them join the team.

Next, the Pokémon of Pokémon Paradise gather, as Umbreon and Espeon are about to open the Magnagate portal. They place the Entercards in the box and the portal appears. The two then enter the portal, followed by Virizion, the player and the partner. Dunsparce feels down as he doesn’t get to go, but Emolga, as his best friend, lets him go in his stead, pushing him through the portal. Emolga feels sad as he couldn’t accompany Dunsparce, and Dunsparce feels the same.

The Pokémon find themselves in front of the Telluric Path dungeon. After completing Telluric Path, the group clears the Great Glacier dungeon, then Espeon and Umbreon place the Entercards in the box again and reopen a Magnagate portal. As they enter it, they get transported near the Glacial Underpass dungeon. They complete it and head to the Glacier Palace dungeon. The player and the other Pokémon go through the dungeon, reaching the eighth floor, where they find Frism crystals that can store voices emitted at them, which can be replayed later by warming them up. The partner tries to store a voice and successfully manages to replay it. Virizion finds a Frism with something already recorded on it. As she warms it up, Keldeo’s voice comes out of it. She then cries, knowing that Keldeo made it that far. It seems Keldeo was once a companion of Virizion and they got separated.

The group then continues exploring the dungeon, reaching the tenth floor and finding a checkpoint where they can store their valuables. After they complete the thirteenth floor, they hear a loud voice coming from deep in the dungeon. A Golurk and two Cryogonal emerge, forcing the player and their companions to fight them. The Pokémon try to go even deeper into the dungeon, but a very cold wind blows and all of them are unable to move and fall, except for the player. Suddenly, the dungeon gets darker and a Kyurem appears in front of the player, releasing a cold wind as he roars. The Kyurem tells them to leave and vanishes, leaving a treasure chest behind. The group opens it and is astonished by the amount of valuable items and Poké in it. They return to Pokémon Paradise and celebrate their discovery.

Munna’s trap

The next day, Emolga’s voice is heard, and the player cannot find where exactly it is coming from. It turns out that his voice was coming from one of the crystals from the Glacier Palace, and Emolga is seen planting another one. When he notices he’s been found out, he runs away embarrassed. Some time later, as the player’s team finishes a dungeon, they dream again of a Pokémon calling them for help, but fail to find out who it is. They tell their partner about the dream and then head toward another dungeon. Upon finishing it, they meet up with Rufflet and Ducklett on a hill, and the Pokémon look together at the horizon, noticing a shining yellow thing far away in the sky.

That same night, while dreaming, the player meets Munna, who turns out to be the Pokémon calling for help. The player and Munna discuss the nightmare where she is seen running from a Hydreigon. Suddenly, a bad thing happens to her and the player wakes up from the dream. The day after, the player tells everyone about their nightmares, which makes everyone worried. The player and their partner then meet up with Espeon and Umbreon on a hill and open up a Magnagate portal. This time, only the player and the partner go through it, and they find themselves near the Kilionea Road dungeon. Upon finishing the dungeon, they make a camp and try to rest for the night. The player has another dream where Munna talks to them again. The player wakes up and wakes their partner, telling them about it.

Next, the two enter the dungeon of the Forest of Shadows, in which they find a terrified Munna hiding in a very dark area. Surprisingly, Munna’s fear goes away, as four Excadrill, two Gigalith, two Chandelure, Toxicroak and Purugly appear. They attack the player and their partner, causing the two to get separated. The player runs and enters the Daybreak Ridge dungeon. Upon reaching the seventh floor, they get cornered by Gigalith, Toxicroak and Chandelure, but manage to defeat them in battle. Two Excadrill and a Salamence join the enemy ranks and attack the player. The player is knocked down and is about to be finished off by Salamence, when a Hydreigon appears and interrupts the enemies with Dragon Pulse. He then throws the player off the cliff, which confuses the enemies. Hydreigon flies toward the falling player and saves them.

A few moments later, the player wakes up near Hydreigon, in a sort of cave. Hydreigon tells the player that he isn’t a villain, which gives the player a flashback of the dream. Hydreigon is very pleased to see that the player is doing fine, and the two of them clear the Ochre Quarry dungeon and enter the Withered Savanna dungeon. At the seventeenth floor, the player and Hydreigon decide to camp and rest, and the player remembers various events from the past, including Kyurem’s appearance. Four enemy Excadrill then appear and are ready to attack them, but they somehow vanish. The two exit Withered Savanna and enter the dungeon Holehills. At the fourth floor of Holehills, the player finds a crystallised rock with the partner’s voice engraved on it. The voice states that the partner was taken by Munna.

Reaching the thirteenth floor of Holehills, the two find Munna, Toxicroak, Chandelure and Excadrill on a cliffside, with the partner trapped in a cage. The player proceeds to the partner’s position, following their voice and knocking out Toxicroak on their way. When they reach the partner’s cage, the player realises that a crystal was emitting the sound and not the real partner. They find themselves surrounded by enemies, but Hydreigon intervenes and uses Dragon Pulse to keep the enemies away from the player. After some effort, the player manages to save the real partner, but they soon get surrounded again. Hydreigon picks the two up and runs away, with Salamence chasing after them. They manage to lose Salamence, and Hydreigon finds himself completely tired, while the player and the partner rejoice at how he saved them. Afterwards, a flashback shows that the crystal they found with the partner’s voice on it was actually recorded by Munna, who was setting them up.

The player and Hydreigon tell the partner about their small adventure, and the partner is surprised that Hydreigon was actually a nice Pokémon. The three then enter the Scorching Desert dungeon. When they reach the tenth floor, Kyurem appears, freezes Hydreigon and crushes him into the ice. Hydreigon disappears, leaving only sparkles behind. Kyurem then attacks the player and the partner. As Kyurem is about to finish off the player, the partner protects the player and tries to stop Kyurem. A flashback of the yellow distant object in the sky is seen, and Kyurem tells the partner that those yellow lights are merely humans who turned into Pokémon, whom Kyurem defeated and who are returning to the human world. Kyurem leaves and, slightly after, Emolga appears accompanied by Dunsparce. The partner tells them the whole story and everyone returns to Pokémon Paradise.

The floating Glacier Palace

Back in Pokémon Paradise, everyone learns the story, and Emolga and Umbreon are angered about it. Everyone else seems really sad and wants to avenge Hydreigon. The Pokémon of Pokémon Paradise gather, and the player starts giving them plans on what to do. Suddenly, the ground starts shaking and everyone quickly heads to the hill. There, they see something flying toward them and everyone leaves, except the player, Swanna and the partner. That very night, the partner and the player both think about Hydreigon and what’s going to happen in the near future. On the day after, Espeon and Umbreon give the player the Entercards and all the other Pokémon wish the player and the partner luck.

The player opens a Magnagate portal and enters it, along with their partner, Virizion and Emolga, while Dunsparce stays behind this time. The group finds themselves in the Tyrian Maze dungeon. Once they reach its eleventh floor, they notice the Glacier Palace floating. Soon, two Chandelure and a Salamence fly toward the group and attack it. The player’s team manages to defeat the bosses, but a Chandelure tries to attack back and is stopped by Espeon. A flashback is seen, where the Magnagate portal lights the way to the palace. The player’s group enters another Magnagate portal that leads them to Glacier Palace Eastern Spire. At the second floor, a cutscene shows Espeon and Umbreon talking about what they may find in the dungeon. Reaching the sixth floor, another cutscene plays, in which Virizion and Emolga discuss what awaits them. Upon reaching the twelfth floor, Purugly and six Excadrill attack Virizion and Emolga, but soon the player and their partner catch up and help the two defeat the villains.

Later, the group moves to Glacier Palace Western Spire. A cutscene plays and shows Munna talking to Kyurem in a dream. Munna is then told by Toxicroak how her other friends have lost their battles. After the group clears the third floor of Glacier Palace Western Spire, they hear a strong noise, and a cutscene shows how Espeon and Umbreon broke through an ice door and found the injured Keldeo, along with Entercards. After finishing the twelfth floor, a purple cloud appears above the Glacier Palace and everything starts to quake. The player’s group is then attacked by Toxicroak, four Gigalith, Chandelure and Munna. The player’s group manages to defeat the bosses, but they stand up again. A Magnagate portal is opened, and Keldeo, Umbreon and Espeon come out of it to aid the others. Abruptly, the ground shakes again and the Glacier Palace starts to fall apart. Munna gets heavily injured and her comrades start to worry about her. The player and the partner carry on, though, while Keldeo is immobilised by the pain, which saddens the rest of the group. The partner starts to feel very tired.

The group enters Glacier Palace Great Spire and reaches its fifth floor, where the partner starts feeling overly exhausted. They find a doorway from which purple lights are emerging. Kyurem appears at that moment and battles them. After defeating Kyurem, the player and the partner enter the room from where the purple streams are coming. There they encounter Bittercold, which unleashes a devastating force just as they set foot there. The force affects the partner, making him collapse to the ground, while it seems to have no effect on the player at all. The player seems to be the only one capable of defeating Bittercold.

The player slowly advances toward Bittercold during the battle, while all the other Pokémon cheer them on. Bittercold releases up to three different attacks each time the player attacks it. The purple cloud hovering over Glacier Palace grows bigger and bigger, scaring the Pokémon in Pokémon Paradise. The player stops attacking and hits Bittercold with their head instead. The hit reveals a red core on Bittercold. The player hits it again and Bittercold falls, while releasing shock waves. The player continues to battle Bittercold and ultimately defeats it, causing it to shatter.

The ending

The darkness surrounding the Glacier Palace disappears and the palace itself starts to crumble. The Pokémon in Pokémon Paradise are worried about the others in the falling palace. Kyurem roars and transports all the Pokémon in the palace back to Pokémon Paradise. Dunsparce meets them and is relieved that they are well. The Pokémon then go to the top of the hill, where they watch a rainbow across the sky. Suddenly, the Pokémon get shocked as they see Hydreigon’s spirit appear before them. Quagsire, Gurdurr and Swanna join everyone, and they are pleased that everyone is doing okay. The Pokémon then celebrate at Swanna’s inn, while the player talks to Hydreigon on the hill.

The day after, the player leaves the house and heads to the hill, and all sorts of flashbacks of their adventure with the partner are shown. On the hill, the player talks with Hydreigon and transforms into a yellow orb. The two start floating in the sky while looking at Pokémon Paradise. Hydreigon then gives the player the partner’s Frism, on which Espeon, Umbreon, Swanna, Gurdurr, Emolga, Dunsparce, Herdier and Virizion recorded their voices together, as a last goodbye to the player. The player cries and the credits roll.

The after-story

During the after-story, the player will be using the partner Pokémon to complete several dungeons, until they finish the Worldcore dungeon. After that, they may wish for the player’s Pokémon to return. Once the player’s Pokémon is back and the pair have cleared one more dungeon together, things are back to normal: evolution is unlocked for both the player’s and the partner’s Pokémon, and the partner no longer has to be in the party.

Pokémon

Around 150 Pokémon appear in the game, 144 of which can be recruited as comrades, while the rest aren’t obtainable. The available Pokémon range from playable characters to NPC Pokémon helping or trying to hinder the player’s advancement.

Gates to Infinity has a far smaller cast than the DS games. The recruit roster holds up to 288 Pokémon, so the same species can join more than once. Roughly four in five of the Pokémon that appear come from Unova, joined by a selection of older favourites such as Pikachu, Eevee and all seven of its evolutions, the Bagon line, Lugia and Ho-Oh. The five hero and partner species can also be recruited later from downloadable dungeons and Uncharted Roads, while Reshiram, Zekrom and Kyurem are post-game bosses.

Playable Pokémon

At the start of the game, the player can pick one of five Pokémon into which they’ll transform during the story. The playable Pokémon are mainly from the fifth generation, including Tepig, Oshawott, Axew and Snivy, with Pikachu being the only one from a different generation. Moreover, the player will start out at level 7 instead of 5, unlike in the earlier Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games.

Pikachu

Electric type, and the only choice from outside Unova. It evolves into Raichu after the story, and the Pika Land downloadable dungeon is built around it, with Pikachu recruitable there.

Snivy

Grass type, and Unova’s Grass starter. It evolves into Servine and then Serperior after the story, and the Ivy Park downloadable dungeon is full of Grass types like it.

Tepig

Fire type, and Unova’s Fire starter. It evolves into Pignite and then Emboar after the story, and the Mount Tepid downloadable dungeon gathers Fire types like it.

Oshawott

Water type, and Unova’s Water starter. It evolves into Dewott and then Samurott after the story, and the Scalchop Beach downloadable dungeon is home to Water types like it.

Axew

Dragon type, and the only choice that isn’t a starter Pokémon in Black and White. It evolves into Fraxure and then Haxorus after the story, and the Axe Rock downloadable dungeon is home to Dragon types such as Axew and Bagon.

Partner Pokémon

The partner is picked from the same list as the playable Pokémon, but it can’t be the same species as the player’s own Pokémon, so it’s always one of the other four. Only the Japanese version lets the player choose the partner’s gender; in the Western versions, the partner is always male.

Pokémon in the player’s team

• Emolga: He’s first encountered when the player and their partner are looking for Dunsparce. As Dunsparce’s best friend, he joins the team when Dunsparce does.
• Dunsparce: The first Pokémon that the player and the partner rescue, in their very first mission. He desires to become a great adventurer but is still too weak to make it happen. His best friend Emolga watches over him a lot. He joins the team after getting saved a second time, in Desolate Canyon.
• Espeon and Umbreon: They are brother and sister, and both of them explore and research dungeons. Umbreon is first encountered when he turns out to be the shadowy figure. He asks the player for help and wants them to rescue Espeon. Once the two reunite, they take some time and then join the team.
• Virizion: A solitary adventurer, who’s liked by everyone. She doesn’t want to have any friends, and the reason why is slowly revealed throughout the story. Her character develops and changes as the game progresses, as she changes her beliefs about friendship. She joins the player’s team after they save Dunsparce in Desolate Canyon.
• Hydreigon: Although he is first thought to be a villain, Hydreigon is a very kind and caring Pokémon, and the physical form of the Voice of Life. He saves both the player and the partner several times. He helped the player come to the Pokémon world and helps them again to leave it. He joins the team after the final battle.
• Keldeo: He’s Virizion’s old friend, and the reason why she doesn’t believe in friendship. Keldeo, who knew a lot about the Magnagates and their Entercards, was trapped in the Glacier Palace after refusing to join Munna. He sent Virizion a letter putting an end to their friendship, causing her to lose faith in any friend. He joins the team after the player leaves the Pokémon world.

• EmolgaDunsparce’s best friend
• Dunsparcewould-be adventurer
• Espeondungeon researcher
• Umbreondungeon researcher
• Virizionsolitary adventurer
• Hydreigonthe Voice of Life
• KeldeoVirizion’s old friend

Pokémon from Pokémon Paradise

• Victini: An energetic Pokémon that takes over the V-Wavecast from Quagsire and runs the V-Wheel.
• Scraggy: He’s a mean Pokémon and used to be a criminal. After he gets defeated, he opens a shop in Pokémon Paradise, helping other Pokémon forget the moves they currently have and remember old forgotten ones.
• Quagsire: The Pokémon that sold the land on which Pokémon Paradise is built to the partner and the player. He helps them out in their first steps of building the town, such as building their house and a few shops. He opens a shop there himself, selling a few items and offering to rearrange the player’s team.
• Gurdurr: He is a great carpenter that can offer a variety of services. He was once a villain, as he scammed the player and the partner. After he gets defeated and later convinced by the partner to build their house, he returns to carpentry and stops the scam business. He can repaint houses and shops, prepare the land on which different facilities can be built and builds them himself with the help of the Timburr Brothers.
• Timburr Brothers: They are Gurdurr’s apprentices, who help him in building houses and shops.
• Azumarill: She’s responsible for the Request Counter. There the player can cancel or accept any job or mission request.
• Meloetta: She appears in Pokémon Paradise after finishing the story and clearing the Worldcore dungeon. She wants to build Music Paradise in the town and asks the player and the partner for help. Once her facility is built, she asks to join the team.

• VictiniV-Wheel
• ScraggyScraggy’s Savvy Moves
• QuagsireQuagsire Assembly
• GurdurrGurdurr Crew
• Timburrthe Timburr Brothers
• AzumarillRequest Counter
• MeloettaMusic Paradise

Pokémon from Post Town

These are the Pokémon from Post Town, the town near Pokémon Paradise:

• LillipupSwadloon’s friend
• LeavannySwadloon’s friend
• Rufflet#627
• Ducklett#580
• Swannaruns the inn
• Herdier#507
• Swadloonfound the Entercards
• Mienfoo#619
• Sandile#551
• Trubbish#568
• Roggenrola#524
• Dwebble#557
• Patrat#504
• Panpour#515
• Pansear#513
• Pansage#511

Pokémon villains

• Pawniard Brothers: They ambush Dunsparce, after they lie to him about how they’ll make him stronger.
• Toxicroak and Purugly: Both are friends with Munna and part of her gang, which works for Kyurem and targets the player. They change their minds at the end of the game.

Main villain: Munna

Psychic · Glacier Palace Western Spire · Leader of the gang working for Kyurem

She was first thought to be a good Pokémon and one that required help. It turns out she’s the one leading the other villain Pokémon, and she works for Kyurem. She aims to protect the Bittercold and stop the player. During the final battle, she changes her mind and cheers on the player.

Boss battle: Munna, Toxicroak, Chandelure, Gigalith ×4

The final stand of Munna’s gang. The fight ends as the palace starts to break apart and Keldeo, Umbreon and Espeon arrive.

Guardian: Kyurem

Dragon/Ice · Glacier Palace Great Spire · Keeper of the Bittercold

He foresaw the end of the world and believes that protecting the Bittercold and the inevitable future is his mission. He’s very powerful and stands in the player’s way several times. During the last battle, he too changes his mind, as he’s moved by the player’s resolve.

Boss battle: Kyurem alone

Rematch: After the story, Kyurem waits in his own dungeon, Hoarfrost Tower, and White Kyurem and Black Kyurem appear side by side at Turbulent Tor.

The guardian of the Bittercold, fought at the top of the palace while the partner grows weaker the closer they get to the Bittercold.

• Pawniardthe Pawniard Brothers
• ToxicroakMunna’s gang
• PuruglyMunna’s gang
• SalamenceMunna’s gang
• ChandelureMunna’s gang
• ExcadrillMunna’s gang
• GigalithMunna’s gang

Pokémon bosses

These are the boss battles of the story and the post-game:

The post-game legendaries each wait at the end of a dungeon of their own:

• Ho-OhEternal Ruins, with a Shiny Ho-Oh
• LugiaSeasound Ruins
• ReshiramIvory Peak
• ZekromObsidian Edge
• KyuremHoarfrost Tower and Turbulent Tor

Gameplay and Features

New features and changes

• The player now starts at level 7 instead of 5.
• 144 different Pokémon can be recruited, and the team roster holds up to 288 of them, so the same species can join more than once.
• When a player loses in a dungeon, they only lose a few of their items and keep the Poké they found, unless they were beaten by a Kecleon, which costs everything they’re carrying.
• If a Pokémon has more than one Ability, only one of them will be active, unlike in the other Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games.
• After completing the main story, Mysteriosity auras will start appearing in dungeons randomly. These auras can have different effects on the floor they appear in. For example, they might cause consumable items to be impossible to use on a floor, or they can cause a certain Pokémon species to be the only one appearing on that floor.
• When the player selects a mission from the Request Board, there’s a number near a question mark. The number ranges from 1 to 5 and determines the chances that a Mysteriosity aura will spawn in that dungeon.
• The Wonder Mail feature, which Explorers of Sky still had in the form of Wonder Mail S, returns in a simpler form: the passwords used are way shorter now, at 8 characters, and they only give items, with no jobs, dungeons or legendary Pokémon to unlock.
• Unlike in the other games, when an item falls into water, lava or a chasm, it isn’t destroyed but is placed on the nearest walkable tile instead.
• The game offers full 3D gameplay and makes use of the 3DS’s camera for augmented reality, allowing it to scan round objects in the real world, which turns them into Magnagates and unlocks additional dungeons.
• The hunger feature appears only in the final three dungeons, which open up after the story.
• The basic attack, used without a move, now always does a fixed 5 damage.
• IQ skills are replaced with 24 Team Skills, which affect all of the player’s Pokémon. These skills can even be obtained from treasure chests, if the player is lucky enough.
• The player can only take one job request at a time. This will sometimes cause them to revisit certain dungeons, as some job requests target the same dungeons.
• Two special floor types were added to the dungeons: Gilded Halls and Uncharted Roads, which can cause certain types of items and Pokémon to spawn. Uncharted Roads are floors with no number, found only in six optional dungeons. After leaving an Uncharted Road, the next normal floor’s number is the total of the floors that the player has been through.
• If the player doesn’t take some of the recruited Pokémon with them to a dungeon, these will still gain experience as the player completes the dungeon, and might level up the next time they enter one.
• The player may now use Wonder Orbs during a boss battle.
• The game offers two minigames, Sunken Treasure and Beartic Slide, which are unlocked by building Starmie’s and Beartic’s facilities in Pokémon Paradise.
• As the player goes through the dungeons, they might notice some odd shapes on the ground. These are special tiles, such as Training Switches, which have special effects on the Pokémon that stand on them.
• Pokémon moves now have nine ranks and can be upgraded, which increases their power, PP and accuracy. Moves that deal set damage cannot increase in power, while status moves cannot be upgraded at all.
• The player can build Dojos in Pokémon Paradise, where the Pokémon can train and have their moves gain experience and thus be upgraded.
• Enemy Pokémon can evolve if they knock out one of the player’s Pokémon, or another enemy with friendly fire.

In depth

Magnagates

In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, the Magnagates are a key feature, as they play an important part in the main story’s development. The Magnagates open portals to faraway dungeons, which are unlike the other normal ones. Using the 3DS’s Augmented Reality feature and its camera, the player can open extra Magnagates by scanning round objects in real life. To do so, they need to first select the Discover a Magnagate option on the main menu, which will open the camera mode. The player then has to find a circular object and target it with the camera. If the object successfully connects, the player can press the A button to open the portal. The dungeon accessed with the Magnagate will depend on the object’s colour and size. The colour will determine the dungeon’s theme, while the scanned object’s size will determine the dungeon’s difficulty, from 3 to 13 stars.

Magnagate dungeonsThe Discover a Magnagate mode turns real round objects into dungeon entrances. The camera reads the object’s colour, which decides the dungeon’s theme, and its size, which sets a difficulty between 3 and 13 stars; harder gates only appear once you’ve cleared a number of easier ones. Your team is drawn at random from the starters and their evolutions, enemies can’t be recruited and quicksave is switched off. Fainting costs half your items and money, but everything you bring out goes to the Deposit Box in your main save.

Dungeon checkpoints and out-of-dungeon areas

The player will come across some floors, in certain dungeons, where they can rest and store the items they have on them. Additionally, some of these floors have parts of them changed into a grid-like area, where the player can roam freely. Sometimes the player will have to complete certain tasks in order to leave these floors.

Team Attack

It is a special attack that gets unlocked when the team obtains the Team Badge. This attack is charged up throughout a dungeon by using other moves and skills to defeat the wild Pokémon. Once the attack is ready, the player can unleash it. It will damage all the enemy Pokémon in the room, increase the friendly Pokémon’s stats and restore their health points. Its exact effect depends on the leader’s type, and it fails if there are no enemies around. This attack can be used many times in the same dungeon.

Companion and Local Wireless Modes

The Companion Mode lets the player control one of the recruited Pokémon, while the player’s main Pokémon stays inactive in Pokémon Paradise. The player can access all normal features, such as going through dungeons and doing jobs with the recruited Pokémon, although the story can’t move forward in this mode. The rewards gained will be transferred to the main story mode later on. Furthermore, the Companion Mode gives access to the Local Wireless Mode, where the player can access the local network with up to three friends and do missions with them, in a cooperative gameplay style.

Companion Mode and Local WirelessCompanion Mode lets you play as recruits other than the hero, keeping items, Poké and progress in the main save while the story stays on hold. As Post Town is out of bounds in this mode, Cofagrigus’s Glorious Gold (which swaps Gold Bars for 555 Poké or rare items), Cinccino’s Gift Shop and the Box Buster set up shop in Paradise instead. Companion Mode is also the only way into Local Wireless, the one way to take more than one player-controlled Pokémon on a challenge request.

StreetPass rescuesThe Passerby Post in Paradise holds up to 20 Reviver Seeds. If you pass someone over StreetPass whose team has fainted in a dungeon, a seed from your post revives them automatically, and a thank-you gift turns up in your post afterwards. Every five StreetPass tags adds a free Reviver Seed. Wonder Mail survives only as short 8-character codes that give items, with a different set of codes for each region.

Wonder Mail passwords

These are passwords that unlock several rewards, from flags and food to other items, when they are entered in the game. Each region has its own set of codes, which only work on copies from that region, and the Japanese rewards are given here by their English names where the item has one.

Passwords for the Japanese version

Standard and special missions

Outside of the story, there are several missions that are randomly generated, which the player can take. Up to 20 jobs will be available at a time, spread across five lists, and each time the player completes one, another will be unlocked. These missions have various difficulties and offer a variety of rewards, like items and even materials needed for construction in Pokémon Paradise. These missions are generally classified into two types:

Standard missions: These are the normal missions, similar to those present in the previous games. During these missions, the player would have to either rescue a Pokémon from a certain dungeon, retrieve a lost item from a dungeon or defeat a Pokémon outlaw.

Special missions: These are the unique challenge requests from the Challenge Request Board. The player can take them on alone with a single Pokémon, or bring more player-controlled Pokémon by teaming up with friends through Local Wireless in Companion Mode. These missions are pretty simple but offer a great deal of rewards. Generally, through these, the player would have to defeat a group of 4 Pokémon in a certain order, or battle a legendary Pokémon like Ho-Oh, Lugia, Zekrom, Reshiram, Kyurem, or White and Black Kyurem. Ho-Oh even appears alongside a Shiny Ho-Oh, and the two have to be beaten together.

Building Pokémon Paradise

Pokémon Paradise is the game’s main hub, which becomes available after completing the first dungeon and buying the land. The location improves and several facilities show up as the game progresses. The player can also build additional facilities in Pokémon Paradise by speaking to Gurdurr the carpenter.

The facilities

The facilities available are as follows:

• The player and partner’s House: It is the first facility built in Pokémon Paradise, by Gurdurr. It is shown several times throughout the story, and it’s the place where the player can save the game.
• Request Board: It is unlocked after finishing the Hazy Pass. It has several missions posted on it, which the player can take on. It’s updated every time a dungeon is completed.
• Challenge Request Board: It is simply a request board but with way harder missions, and it appears one job after Victini opens his shop. It is also the request board used to take missions in the Local Wireless Mode; otherwise, only one Pokémon can go on its jobs.
• Request Gates: The first is built on the right centre side of Pokémon Paradise and opens up when the player takes a job request from Azumarill. A second gate on the left, added after Victini arrives, is used for challenge requests.
• Passerby Post: It lets the player send Reviver Seeds over StreetPass to their friends who fainted in dungeons, and it holds up to 20 of them. This allows the friends to be saved.
• Request Counter: It is run by Azumarill and unlocked after clearing the Hazy Pass. Azumarill will allow the player to take only one request at a time. The player can also cancel the request they’ve taken and even delete it.
• Scraggy’s Savvy Moves: It is run by Scraggy, who lets the player learn previously forgotten moves or forget the ones they have currently.
• Quagsire Assembly: It’s a shop run by Quagsire, selling a variety of items. It also allows the player to edit their party, rearranging their team’s composition and switching its Pokémon.
• Gurdurr Crew: Here, the player can ask Gurdurr to build new facilities or redecorate the available ones.
• Victini’s V-Wheel: It appears after Victini crashes down in Paradise. Here the player can spin the V-Wheel and aim for Victini’s head on it. If they manage to win, they can change the V-wave, which sets the type that gets a boost that day.
• Swap Shop: It allows the player to trade certain items for others.
• Detour Guide: Here, Woobat gives the player information on the detours in the different dungeons. After its second upgrade, the shop also sells keys for those detours, for 1,650 Poké.
• Elite Boutique: This shop sells items for different sums than the other shops. It might sometimes offer very rare items for sale. The shop will hold a sale at a certain time and then close after it.
• Dojos: Within the Dojos, the Pokémon can train to upgrade their moves. This costs the player 100 Poké a day.
• Oodles of Orbs: A shop selling orbs.
• Prize Palace: It is the equivalent of the Recycle Shop in the previous games. Here the player can use the Prize Tickets they have and try to earn some rewards.
• Fields: These are fields where the player may plant any Seeds or Berries they have. The planted Seeds and Berries will grow after a few days and will then be ready to be harvested.
• Diggers’ Den: This facility appears randomly in Pokémon Paradise and is run by Drilbur. If the player funds Drilbur’s excavations, he may unlock a special Treasure Trove dungeon for them. These special dungeons can only be unlocked through this method.
• Sunken Treasure: Talking to the Starmie running the facility will allow the player to play a minigame on a daily basis, steering by tilting the 3DS. The minigame allows the player to earn a treasure chest.
• Beartic Slide: Another minigame facility, run by Beartic, at 100 Poké a go. This one allows the player to earn various prizes that differ in value.
• Music Paradise: This facility, run by Meloetta, is very similar to the Sky Jukebox feature of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, as it lets the player listen to the different soundtracks available in the game.

Paradise also has a Deposit Box for storing items and a Berries and Seeds shop, and in Companion Mode, when Post Town is out of bounds, Cofagrigus’s Glorious Gold, Cinccino’s Gift Shop and Rampardos’s Box Buster set up shop there too.

How building works

Pokémon Paradise starts as a bare patch of wasteland that the partner buys from Quagsire after the first dungeon, and it grows with both the story and your work. Key services such as the Request Counter and Quagsire Assembly arrive through the story, but the rest is up to you: once Gurdurr Crew opens, Gurdurr and the Timburr Brothers prepare land and build facilities in return for Poké and building materials. Completing jobs earns Paradise Points, which raise your Paradise Rank and unlock more buildings.

• 8plots of land beyond the house
• 4land designs to choose from
• 11Paradise Ranks, Normal to Perfect
• 17dojos, one for every type

Paradise Points start counting once Gurdurr Crew opens, and ranking up also widens the bag from 24 to 48 slots by Gold Rank and hands out items, Gold Bars and keys. Paradise has eight plots beyond the house, and each holds four facilities and can be laid out in one of four land designs; a design can be changed later for the same price.

Building materialsConstruction runs on materials won from jobs and rank rewards. Basic buildings need Rich Soil, Precious Branches, Sturdy Vines, Fresh Herbs, Lustrous Metal, Stone Slabs and Spring Water. Upgrades call for tougher grades, from Ancient Soil, Heavy Lumber and Reflective Alloy up to Rare Soil, Fine Logs, Gilded Metal, Endless Stone and Rainbow Drops.

Upgrades, removals and repaintsGurdurr starts offering upgrades once three facilities stand. Most buildings have two upgrades, usually 600 and then 1,000 Poké plus better materials, for better stock: Silver and Gold Tickets at the Prize Palace, rarer goods at the Elite Boutique, and detour keys at the Detour Guide. Repainting opens after six facilities and removal after nine; Perfect Rank adds Gold, Silver, Copper and Crystal paint at 1,500 Poké.

DojosThere is a dojo for each of the 17 types, run by a fitting Pokémon such as Watchog (Normal), Pansear (Fire) or Deino (Dragon). The Normal, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric and Dragon dojos are available from the start, with the rest arriving between Bronze and Diamond Rank. Each costs 300 Poké, two Lustrous Metal and two Stone Slabs to build, and training costs 100 Poké a day.

FieldsEach field grows one kind of Berry or Seed, ready after a few days. Besides the Oran Field there are 15 seed fields, from the Eyedrop and Blast fields at the start to the Heal and Violent fields at Platinum Rank, the Reviver and Vile fields at Diamond Rank and the Pure Field at Master Rank. Most cost 300 Poké plus Rich Soil, Spring Water and two of the seed.

MinigamesTwo facilities are pure fun. Starmie’s Sunken Treasure is a daily tilt-the-3DS game using the gyroscope, in which you steer to collect black, blue and red chests while avoiding Chinchou and rocks. Beartic Slide costs 100 Poké a go, gives you one minute to score with pucks worth 10, 30 or 50 points, and awards prizes at 1,000, 2,000 and 2,500 points.

Victini’s V-WheelAfter Victini crash-lands in Paradise he takes over the daily V-wave forecast from Quagsire. Once per in-game day you can spin his wheel and try to land on his face to change the V-wave type. A one-icon wheel is free, while two to five icons cost 1,000, 2,500, 5,000 and 7,777 Poké.

Diggers’ Den and Music ParadiseDrilbur’s Diggers’ Den turns up in Paradise at random. Paying 100, 500 or 1,000 Poké funds a dig of 10, 50 or 100 feet, which can uncover a Treasure Trove dungeon. Meloetta’s Music Paradise arrives after the credits or at Super Rank, costs 1,500 Poké plus three each of Rare Soil, Endless Stone, Gilded Metal and Fine Logs, and plays music you have unlocked.

ShopkeepersOnce enough facilities are built, Gurdurr lets you swap the clerk running many of them for free, choosing from 16 Pokémon including Zorua, Larvesta, Cubchoo and Golett. The Detour Guide (Woobat), Beartic Slide, Sunken Treasure, Music Paradise and the dojos keep their own staff.

When each facility opens

Here is every facility, when it becomes available and what its first build costs (upgrades cost more):

Game Demo & Downloadable Dungeons

The demo

A game demo was available for download on the Nintendo eShop until 27 March 2023, when the 3DS eShop closed to purchases and free downloads. It let the player play the opening part of the story mode. The player could also access the Magnagate dungeons, but couldn’t save them for further replays. The Magnagates also lacked their full features, as they didn’t change according to the scanned object’s colour or size: there were just two dungeon styles, Maze, using Ragged Mountain’s layout, and Cavern, using Stony Cave’s.

Downloadable dungeons

Twelve downloadable dungeons were released for the game in Japan, in three waves between launch day and 11 January 2013. Poké Forest was free for a limited time at launch; in North America, it could be downloaded for free until 30 April 2013. Buying them also unlocked music from earlier Mystery Dungeon games at Music Paradise.

Regional Variations

A few things differ between the Japanese and Western releases:

• The Japanese version lets you choose the partner’s gender; in the English and European releases the partner is always male.
• The Japanese title is Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate and the Infinite Labyrinth (Magnagate to Mugendai Meikyū).
• Wonder Mail codes are tied to region: Japan, North America and Europe each have their own sets of 8-character passwords.
• Japan got the game four months before North America and six before Europe, and its 12 downloadable dungeons arrived in three waves between launch day and 11 January 2013.
• There was no Korean release.

Left in the data

• Two unused main-menu illustrations: one of Oshawott, Tepig, Emolga and Dunsparce in Paradise, and one of Snivy, Axew, Carracosta and Gothorita opening a treasure chest in a dungeon, a scene that never happens in the finished game.
• A developer test menu with movement, camera and effect tests, a DEBUG wallpaper of vertical colour bars and placeholder [M:DEBUG] lines across many text files.
• Placeholder models: a charcoal-grey Pikachu labelled Dummy and a plain green cube named PSMD Sample Box.
• Unused text, including a language-select menu, a text-speed option, extra DLC and SD card error messages and the line ‘You cannot change any facilities while the Request Gate is open.’
• The partner gender choice cut from the English and European versions is still present and can be restored by editing one of the game’s scripts.

Videos & media

A selection of videos about Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, including the game’s intro, the official trailer and a UK TV commercial.

The official UK TV commercial.

The official trailer.

The intro / opening.

Trivia & facts

• 

  Victini is often said to have been removed from the playable character selection because it had a skill move that was considered a little overpowered.

• The same story goes that Victini wasn’t fully scripted as a playable Pokémon, as it lacks a sleep animation, and that hacking can unlock it as a playable character in the main story.
• “Emolga’s Enforcers”, the team name that Emolga suggests, doesn’t obey the length limit given to the player when naming their team.
• The game offers only 5 playable characters to choose from, making it the main Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game with the fewest character choices.
• The legendary Ho-Oh appears in the game alongside a Shiny Ho-Oh, and the team has to beat both of them at once.
• Unlike the earlier handheld Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, where the player’s character was chosen based on a quiz, this one lets the player pick their character directly.
• A Toxicroak and a Purugly are seen chasing after an Espeon. They are also the signature Pokémon of two Team Galactic Commanders, Saturn and Mars, in the main series games Platinum, Diamond and Pearl.
• A reference to Carly Rae Jepsen’s song “Call Me Maybe” can be spotted when the player meets Swanna for the first time, in the English version.
• Gates to Infinity is the first game in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series whose box art uses 3D-rendered models instead of drawn artwork.
• Although the player cannot select the gender of their partner in the international versions of the game, where the partner is always male, this feature is available in the Japanese one.
• Like Explorers of Sky before it, the game was released as a single version rather than a pair, and it’s the first main Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game to leave out most of the Pokémon known at its release: around 150 species appear, out of the 649 that existed in 2012.

Further trivia

• Magnagates opened with the 3DS camera are blue, while those opened with Entercards in the story are red.
• Magnagate dungeon names are made of two random words, giving 54 possible combinations; only the second word affects the dungeon’s layout.
• Reaching Perfect Rank, the top Paradise Rank, takes 99,999 Paradise Points and is rewarded with five TMs: Frenzy Plant, Blast Burn, Hydro Cannon, Volt Tackle and Draco Meteor.
• As in Explorers of Sky, each hero and partner starts out knowing an Egg Move.

Legacy

What came after

• Japanese release – 23 November 2012. Launched alongside the first six downloadable dungeons, with Poké Forest free for a limited time
• Further Japanese DLC waves – 7 December 2012. Axe Rock, Kecleon Bazaar and Strongest Trail; Mount Tepid, Treat Road and Ultimate Wilds followed on 11 January 2013
• North American release – 24 March 2013. Poké Forest was free to download until 30 April 2013
• European release – 17 May 2013. Australia followed a day later, on 18 May 2013
• Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon – 17 September 2015. The 3DS follow-up (North America 20 November 2015, Europe 19 February 2016) brought back all 720 Pokémon known at the time
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX – 6 March 2020. The series moved to Nintendo Switch with a remake of the first games; Gates to Infinity itself has not been remade or re-released
• Nintendo 3DS eShop closes to purchases – 27 March 2023. The digital game, the demo and all 12 DLC dungeons came off sale (DLC sales in Japan ended at 9:00 on 28 March); redownloads of past purchases continue
• Nintendo 3DS online services end – 8 April 2024. Internet features closed down; StreetPass rescues and local wireless co-op still work between nearby players

Where to play it today

Gates to Infinity can no longer be bought new from Nintendo. Purchases on the 3DS eShop ended on 27 March 2023, so the download version, the demo and the 12 DLC dungeons are off sale, though anyone who bought them earlier can still redownload them. Nintendo’s 3DS online services closed in April 2024, but StreetPass rescues and local wireless co-op still work. The game has never come to Switch, so a second-hand game card is now the usual way in.

How it was made

Gates to Infinity was the first Pokémon Mystery Dungeon made under the Spike Chunsoft name, following Chunsoft’s 2012 merger with Spike. Seiichiro Nagahata and Hironori Ishigami directed, and Shin-ichiro Tomie wrote the scenario. In an Iwata Asks interview, The Pokémon Company’s Tsunekazu Ishihara said he wanted an AR feature that would change a dungeon’s properties, building on Pokémon AR Searcher, and first pictured manholes as dungeon doors; the team tried triangles and squares before settling on round objects whose colour and size shape the dungeon. Nagahata set out to use every 3DS feature, from the camera to a gyroscope treasure hunt and co-operative boss fights. Ishihara also chose a single release over the series’ usual pair, calling it the most concentrated entry yet. The game was revealed in Japan on 13 September 2012 as Magnagate and the Infinite Labyrinth.

Gates to Infinity elsewhere

Sales & reviews

Sales figures

Within the first three weeks of its release, the game managed to sell an estimated 209 thousand copies in Japan, 68 thousand in Europe and nearly 151 thousand in the USA. Sales continued to grow, reaching an estimated 474 thousand copies in Japan, almost 300 thousand in Europe and 406 thousand in the USA, for an estimated global total of 1.28 million copies.

Those figures are estimates from tracking sites, and no official worldwide total has been published. The numbers on record are about 374,000 copies sold in Japan by the end of 2012, within six weeks of the game’s 23 November launch, and 298,000 copies sold in the United States in 2013, a figure Nintendo of America released in September that year.

• ~374,000sold in Japan by the end of 2012
• 298,000sold in the US in 2013 (Nintendo of America)
• 38/40from Famitsu
• 59on Metacritic (46 critics)

Review scores

The game received mixed reviews, getting scores ranging from bad to good on major review websites. Let’s take a look at these reviews:

• Jeremy Parish from IGN was very disappointed with the game: although the graphics were good, he thought the gameplay and the story were both dull, rating the game 4.5/10, the equivalent of ‘Bad’ on the IGN scale. Boo, bring back Craig Harris 😉
• Heidi Kemps from GameSpot didn’t enjoy the game much either, stating “it’s not poorly made and designed, but it fails to deliver much excitement or fun” and rating it 5/10, which equates to ‘Mediocre’ on the GameSpot scale.
• On GameRankings (which closed in 2019), the game earned a score of 62.34%, while it scored 59 on Metacritic, from 46 critics.
• Morgan ‘The Retro Goat’ Hench reviewed the game on behalf of Pokémon Dungeon, scoring it 2 stars out of 5.
• Overall, although the graphics have improved compared to other Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, the gameplay is still pretty much the same, and it still gets repetitive and boring as soon as the main story ends.

Critics were split. Western reviewers mostly liked the colourful 3D presentation, the music and the town-building in Pokémon Paradise, but many found the dungeons plain and repetitive, the challenge too gentle, the partner AI weak and the long, unskippable story scenes a chore. IGN’s Jeremy Parish was the harshest major voice, saying it “fails as both a Pokémon and a Mystery Dungeon game”, while GameSpot’s Heidi Kemps found it cute but dull. Others were much warmer: Nintendo Life, Destructoid and Nintendo World Report all gave it 8/10, and Nintendo World Report rated it the best Mystery Dungeon experience so far despite the small cast. Famitsu in Japan was the keenest of all with 38 out of 40. Western averages settled at 59 on Metacritic and about 62% on GameRankings.

Awards and honours:

Media & artwork

• Official artwork gallery from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity
• Box art from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, including regional variations
• Screenshots from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity

Further reading

More Mystery Dungeon and Nintendo 3DS links on the site: