Bittercold

The Bittercold (Japanese: 氷触体 Glacial Body), also known as the Great Crystal (Japanese: 大結晶 Great Crystal), is a giant ice creature resembling a snowflake which appears in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity as the final boss in the main story. It dwells in the Glacier Palace's Great Spire where it attempts to destroy the world. The Bittercold is not a Pokémon, and is the second of a handful of non-Pokémon beings to appear in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, following the Judge of Darkness.

The player encounters this creature immediately after battling Kyurem. If defeated, the player can re-challenge the Bittercold without having to redo the dungeon. When re-challenged, the Bittercold will also keep the same amount of HP from when the player was last defeated.

Role

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

The Bittercold resides within the Glacier Palace. Before the palace was explored by the player's team, it was not seen by many Pokémon, only known through legend as the "Great Crystal." It has the power to make ice and other objects float, and it creates the Winds of Despair, which render all Pokémon with the Bittercold's vicinity unable to move by suffocating them. This is much less effective on Pokémon that were once human, however. The Bittercold's power, once fully built up, would bring an end to the world.

The Bittercold, being comprised of the negative emotions of Pokémon, is the natural enemy of the Voice of Life, Hydreigon, who summoned people from the human world, such as the player, to destroy it.

It is guarded by the seer, Kyurem, who generally remains stationed at the top of the Glacier Palace. Kyurem also hired Munna's gang to stop any humans who came to the Pokémon world to destroy the Bittercold.

When the player challenges the Bittercold, they begin to feel the effects of the Winds of Despair, despite being human. The Bittercold manages to immobilize them. However, the voices of encouragement coming from the player's friends and other Pokémon around the world suppress the Winds of Despair, stunning the Bittercold, and allowing the player to move again and fight.

First battle

At first, the Bittercold is immune to damage, and after few turns, the battle ends. The player's hope begins to waver as they realize that none of their attacks are even able to scratch the Bittercold. As a result, the Winds of Despair become stronger as they begin swirling above the Great Spire.

However, the player's partner manages to get up, urging the player to carry on and to keep their hope. The player gets back up, powered by their friendship with their partner, and then successfully musters the last of their strength to lash out at the Bittercold, cracking its front. After another attack, the Bittercold's red core is revealed, and the Rainbows of Hope flicker momentarily into sight. This renews the hope of the Pokémon of Post Town, strengthening the player once again.

Second battle

In the second battle, the player will be able to deal damage to the weakened Bittercold. When the player defeats the Bittercold, it shatters and the Winds of Despair dissipate once again, and the Glacier Palace is destroyed.

	Spoilers end here.

Personality and characteristics

The Bittercold does not appear to be a sentient being that is aware of what it is doing. Rather, it is simply an object formed from the negativity of Pokémon.

Attacks used

The Bittercold manipulates the Winds of Despair to perform three different attacks, all of which deal typeless damage and have 99 PP each. They are all called UNUSED in the game's code, despite them being used, but the names are not displayed in-game.

• UNUSED - Damages the player in the room and also causes confusion.

• UNUSED - Damages the player in the room and reduces the player's Attack and Special Attack.

• UNUSED - Damages the player in the room and reduces the PP of all the player's moves by 3 each. This move has the strongest attack power out of all of Bittercold's moves.

Trivia

• The Bittercold is the only final boss where the player fights without their partner.
• It is similar to Dark Rust, Dark Matter and the Void Shadows in that they can be fought, but are not Pokémon.
• The Bittercold is very similar to Dark Matter in nature and purpose, but there is no known relationship between the two.

In other languages

Related articles

This article is part of both Project CharacterDex and Project Sidegames, Bulbapedia projects that, together, aim to write comprehensive articles on characters in the spin-off games.