Draft:Shiren 5 2020:Tower of Fortune Strategy

Shiren came from the tradition of classic roguelike games. A full discussion of what that means is out of scope for this page and can be learned elsewhere, but in a nutshell, it means randomly-generated dungeons, punishing difficulty, and permadeath. Experienced roguelike players can probably beat the Tower of Fortune main dungeon without ever dying, but newcomers may find it more difficult to make progress.

Strategy

Breaking from the classic roguelike formula somewhat, games in the Shiren series offer many ways for the player both to recover from disaster and to build up greater power to ease future attempts, though the specific mechanisms differ somewhat from game to game. Taking advantage of these mechanisms makes it much easier for players of all levels of experience to eventually beat the dungeon. Here are a few specifics for Shiren 5. There are many ways to recover from disaster:

• Revival Grass and Undo Grass are relatively common in the early floors of Tower of Fortune. Keep these anywhere in your inventory and they will save you from disaster. A Revival Grass will not only let you survive death but will also fully heal you, restore your strength, remove any status ailments, and make it your turn again. An Undo Grass will do all of that and also allow you the option to escape the dungeon with all your inventory intact. Each of these items will only work once then turn into Weeds, unless they're blessed in which case they will work their magic then lose the blessing, but otherwise remain intact for another use. Moreover, you may be able to get more of these items as rewards for solving puzzles in the starting villages, and, after your first few runs, you gain access to the Points Shop where in, you can buy more of these items for a nominal amount of points. In short, these are super powerful and super cheap, and they completely break the "permadeath" tradition of roguelikes.
• An Escape Scroll basically functions like the escape function of an Undo Grass. Except it's not automatic, you have to read it yourself before you collapse. And if you don't have any of these but want one, you can buy a Blank Scroll from the Points Shop in Nekomaneki Village and write one, so long as you've ever read an Escape Scroll previously. Writing on a Blank Scroll does not take a turn, so you can leave it as a Blank Scroll then suddenly decide you need to escape the dungeon, write Escape on it, and read it, all before anything else dangerous happens to you.
• There are loads of other common emergency supplies, too numerous to mention. You will need items that can give status to monsters, or buffs for Shiren and his allies.
• Tagging your primary equipment is also a critical safeguard. If you get knocked out with tagged equipment, especially while adventuring in the Tower of Fortune, there's a very good chance your equipment will be waiting for you in the lost & found bin at the Sentry in Hermit's Hermitage.
• If all else fails, Shiren offers multiple ways for different players to help one another. Players can trade items with one another while their characters are still alive, and rescue one another in multiple ways after a player's character has died. It's even possible for a single player with multiple devices or multiple accounts to rescue themselves. You may have to wait awhile before another player rescues you.
• Note that the PlayStation Vita offers the ability to backup and restore game state, opening up the possibility of "save scumming". Whether you want to "save scum" or not, you should still backup your device and game state regularly in case your device is ever lost or stolen.

There are also ways to build up power across multiple runs, easing future runs:

• Build up the best sword and shield you can find. In Shiren 5, these items have experience points and can level up. The more Fate Scrolls and Earth Scrolls you can apply to your main equipment, the better. You can also upgrade one item each time you visit the Hermit's Hermitage blacksmith for 1,000 gitan.
• Find and save a few good bracelets. There are many great choices, but one great choice is the Monster Bracelet, which will let you see the locations of all monsters and Characters on the map. If you're taking advantage of the ways to recover from disaster listed above, you should basically never lose your durable items.
• Learn how to take advantage of Synthesis Pots and Mixer family monsters, to increase the upgrade values of your primary equipment faster then add useful magical runes.
• You probably won't be able to take advantage of most of these topics until after you've beaten the Tower of Fortune at least once, but the Crafting page has loads of info on how to improve your equipment and make better equipment.
• Hire Character allies. There are several different Characters who will join you as allies, most of whom will join you for free, each of which has different attacks, strengths, and weaknesses. When you're stronger and better at the game, you won't need allies and in fact may find them more annoying than helpful, but in the beginning, they can be enormously helpful. Unlike Shiren, Character allies retain their levels across multiple runs, so the more often you bring them with you, the stronger they get, permanently.
• Finish side quests and unlock things. As with most video games these days, you don't have access to everything from the get go, but must unlock some powerful and useful stuff. In Shiren, this basically means talking to every Character, usually more than once across multiple runs. There is no quest tracking dashboard in Shiren, but the game keeps track of the state of many different quests, some of which you will need to complete in the dungeon, but most of which can be completed in the starting villages or other rest areas. Basically, just talk to everyone in town at least once, go on at least one dungeon run, then talk to everyone again, and repeat until you get a feel for which Characters you no longer need to talk to and which will keep advancing quests. Advancing these quests can give you great bonus items and can give you yet more ways to recover from disaster. In particular:
• When you find a lost sparrow in the dungeon and rescue him, returning him to Sparrow's Inn, he will later offer to rescue you when you're in trouble in some dungeons for 500 gitan.
• When you come across a boy who cries and wants help rescuing his sister, and when you rescue his sister, the sister will later rescue you when you're in trouble in some dungeons for free. When she rescues you, the state of this side quest is reset and she will not rescue you again until you find the boy and young woman and rescue the young woman again.

Aside from building up power over the course of multiple runs, there are many tips and tricks that can help you win any given run. For example, don't fight in a room with multiple monsters, but instead retreat into a hallway to face monsters one at a time. Collect other equipment and items that help you, such a Monster Detector Bracelet. Keep a few emergency items in reserve, such as an Escape Scroll, and/or room-wide scrolls such as Confusion Scroll and Slumber Scroll. Learn how to use Synthesis Pots and Mixer monsters to your advantage. Learn about the amazing power of Blank Scrolls then keep one on you at all times. The definitive treatise on how to play and master Shiren 5 has not yet been written, but there is good information on this site related to Shiren 1 that is mostly still applicable to Shiren 5. The Shiren 1 Strategy page, and the Shiren 1 Table Mountain Strategy page in particular, may be useful.

For better or worse, there is no easy way to teach another player how to master this game, and no better way to learn than simply by playing. It's randomly-generated, so no walkthrough will suffice, you must learn the various ways you can take advantage of what you have at hand and learn how to maximize the ROI of any given situation. When you run across a situation that's particularly vexing, try asking your question on an online forum, such as the one at GameFAQs.com, or searching the archives of said forum.

Farming Opportunities

Relative to bonus dungeons, it is trivial to farm items out of the Tower of Fortune. You don't need particularly strong equipment to beat this dungeon. Better still, most items are pre-identified for you. But, the variety of items is substantially less than in most any other location. This is a great place if you need cheap, common items such as Swift Grass, Strength Grass, Stomach Expander, and several lesser pieces of equipment. For example, if you want to stock up on huge numbers of Strength Grasses so you can max out your strength on a single run, taking many runs through this location may be your fastest way to collect enough. On the other hand, if you're looking for rare equipment or other rare rune ingredients, other locations such as Merchant's Hideout, Inori Cave, and Lost Well are also easy to farm (with strong equipment) and yield a much greater variety of items.