Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
The Hidden Land (Japanese: まぼろしのだいちPhantom Land) is a Dungeon in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. The Hidden Land has 15 floors, while the Hidden Highland (Japanese: まぼろしのだいち おくち) has 8. The Hidden Land was passed down in oral legends for a long time, but nobody had ever found it. It is an area located in a gap in time, or between the split of a second, as Lapras put it. It was hidden to prevent anything happening to Temporal Tower, which was the home of Dialga, controller of time. If the flow of time was disrupted, Temporal Tower would collapse. This would cause time to stop, and the planet would be paralyzed in a shroud of darkness. The only key to entering this land was the partner's Relic Fragment.
When Torkoal, the town elder, is asked about the Hidden Land at the Hot Spring, he mentions that one needs "proof" to enter, but then forgets. He comes the next day and tells the guild that the proof is of a strange certain marking. The hero remembers that their partner's Relic Fragment has a strange pattern on it, and tells them to show it to Torkoal. He is astonished when he sees the needed pattern on the Relic Fragment. When the fragment is brought to a larger marking in Brine Cave, the two react and a light shines from the large marking, summoning Lapras, who will ferry Grovyle, the hero, and their partner to the Hidden Land. At the end of the Hidden Land is the Old Ruins (Japanese: こだいのいせき), where the Rainbow Stoneship lies, as well as Dusknoir, who ambushes the party with his Sableye. The ruins feature murals that depict Mew, Groudon, Kyogre, Dialga and Palkia.
No Pokémon, except Grovyle, the hero, the partner and Lapras, can enter the Hidden Land. Ironically, this means that if the player recruits Dialga, it will not be able to go back to Temporal Tower.
The floating island explored during the hero and partner's visit to the future appears to be the future version of the Hidden Land, due to the Temporal Tower being there and the two landmasses having the exact same shape. Presumably, the planet's paralysis caused the Hidden Land to become visible to all.
The floors are ranked E, ★1 and ★2 for purpose of Treasure Boxes and friend rescues.
Floors 1 through 8 of Hidden Land are medium sized with 3-9 rooms; later floors are large-sized with 4-10 rooms. There's 1-4 items and 2-3 starting enemies on first four floors of Hidden Land and 2-5 items and 2-4 enemies on later floors.
The IQ Booster activates on every even floor (counting Hidden Highland as continuation of Hidden Land). The player is forced to use the hero and partner even during subsequent visits; this means that the player will lose when the partner is knocked out. The player cannot be rescued if knocked out in Hidden Highland. The turn limit is 1000. The enemies in this dungeon have 26IQ, granting them Status Checker IQ skill. There is light darkness in the dungeon. Floors 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 of Hidden Land, as well as floors 3 and 6 of Hidden Highland feature air tiles. Floors 6 and 10 have sunny weather by default, but there's chance of weather on any floor via Abomasnow's Snow Warning or Garchomp using Sandstorm.
The Hidden Land appeared in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky - Beyond Time & Darkness, where Team Poképals and Grovyle arrived there with Lapras. Once they arrived at the Old Ruins, they prepared to use the Rainbow Stoneship to get to Temporal Tower, but were ambushed by Dusknoir and a group of Sableye before they could do so. Dusknoir stole the Relic Fragment needed to activate the Rainbow Stoneship and intended to return to the future through a time portal, but was stopped by the combined effort of Team Poképals and Grovyle. In order to prevent Dusknoir from stopping Piplup and Chimchar, Grovyle took Dusknoir with him back to the future, leaving behind the Time Gears before doing so. After this, Team Poképals activated the Rainbow Stoneship and headed to Temporal Tower to stop Primal Dialga.
Trivia
After graduation, if the player tries to go to Hidden Land with the partner as the leader, they will insist that the hero becomes the leader as they usually do for important missions. Should the player refuse the request, the partner will not feel confident enough to take on the role, and the duo will not go to Hidden Land.[1]
Additionally, this is a circumstance in which Charizard's rarely used shocked portrait can be seen in Explorers of Time, Darkness and Sky. Charizard and GrovyleS are the only possible evolved partner Pokémon to include a portrait for this emotion.
