Draft:Shiren 5 2020:Underground Manor

Key Parameter	Mode 1	Mode 2
Initial Goal Floor	varies	99
Final Goal Floor	varies	99
Day / Night	Day	Day
Bring Items In	No	No
Take Items Out	4 non-pots	Yes (all)
# of Allies	0	0
# of Rescues	0	3
Pre-ID'd Items	No	No
New Items	No	No
Shops	None	Normal (all 3 types)
Monster Houses	Normal	Normal
NPCs	None	Shopekeepers only
Spawn Rate	Normal	Normal
Winds of Kron	Normal (slow)	Normal (slow)

The Underground Manor is bonus dungeon with two modes of play with different characteristics.

• Mode 1: A set of 10 separate "districts" of 10 floors each, except the last one which is only 9 floors. The player chooses to start on floor 1, 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, or 91 and must survive and exit from floor 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, or 99 respectively. The player may not take any items, Gitan, or allies into the dungeon, but is given a starting gift of levels/experience and items, which scales up depending on the depth of the district. Upon success, the player may take up to 4 non-pot items out of the dungeon. The player may not request rescues.
• Mode 2: A "general district" which is a full 99-floor dungeon. This mode must be unlocked by completing all districts in mode 1. In this mode, the player again may not take any items, Gitan, or allies into the dungeon, and there are no starting gifts. However, the player may request rescues, and if the run is successful, the player can take all items/Gitan out of the dungeon.

Gaining Access

Access to the Underground Manor is not restricted. You can play any district of mode 1 as soon as you can reach the Dungeon Center of Nekomaneki Villlage. Access to mode 2 is unlocked by completing all districts available in mode 1.

Unique Features

When playing in mode 1, each run begins in a small room with the starting gift items. There are no starting gifts for district 1 (floors 1-10), but they get better for each subsequent district. Later districts start you with the Shoddy Dirk / Shoddy Plank pair, with bonus level and upgrade points, and items such as Strength Bracelet, Revival Herb, Invincible Herb and Fixer Scroll, depending on district. You also start at a higher level in later districts. If you make it to the goal floor 10 floors later (9 floors in district 10), you enter another identical looking small room, and all your items become identified. (Items created after you enter this room are not automatically identified.) The room has four 5-spot Ordinary Pots on the floor, presumably to contain the items you want to leave behind, as you are only allowed to take 4 non-pot items out of the dungeon. Exiting the room takes you back to Nekomaneki Village.

When playing in mode 2, you start at level 1 and there are no starting gifts. If you beat the 99 floor dungeon, you get to keep everything in your inventory.

This dungeon has the following features:

• All items start unidentified, except those given to you as starting gifts.
• This dungeon is daytime only.
• In mode 1, all floors use the same indoor theme and tileset. Mode 2 starts out with the same indoor theme, but changes into a different floor theme every 5 floors starting on 6F.
• Shops only appear in mode 2. The shopkeepers are the only NPCs in the dungeon.
  • There are guaranteed shops on 11F, 21F, 31F, and so on.
• Both regular and great hall monster houses appear.
• Cursed weapons, shields and bracelets are very rare, especially on early floors.
• Most items with a purely detrimental effect don't appear. This results in a small item pool, comparable to the Tower of Fortune.
  • Items can still be harmful in specific situations. (Warp Grass in a shop, Can. Arm Bracelet while trying to break pots)
  • Evil twin items, such as Gut Grass and Modder's Pot, don't appear.
• Mixers don't appear in this dungeon.
• Monsters never spawn with auras.
• A few of the nastier traps, such as Rust, Pit, and Floor Warp, don't appear.

Final Reward

Other than the items you can take out of the dungeon, there is no final reward item. When you beat mode 2 for the first time, you get an icon on your top menu, as well as a PSVita trophy.

Farming Opportunities

This is not the best dungeon to farm in, but it is possible in mode 1. Each district is at most 10 floors, and you can pick up some interesting stuff along the way. But the later districts tend to force you to move towards the exit quickly, making it hard to get much out of each floor. The dungeon also has a poor selection of items, so there are likely better farming opportunities in other dungeons.

Strategy

Beating mode 1 is relatively easy. The early districts are pretty simple, but the difficulty does ramp up. Districts 5-10 all give you a Shoddy weapon and Shoddy shield, with increasing levels and amounts of bonus the deeper you start. Shoddy equipment is very powerful to start with, but it degrades with every use. Thus it is a good idea to move quickly to the exit and avoid fights if at all possible. This is especially true in the last few districts, since your HP regeneration rate goes down as you have more max HP. Fighting every monster you come across will not be sustainable.

(It's worth noting that, in many of the harder dungeons in Shiren 5, mustering resources on the earlier floors then diving down the later floors is often a good strategy, so the later districts can be viewed as a sort of practice.)

Mode 2 is quite challenging. While this dungeon is simpler than other difficult dungeons such as Primordial Chasm, there are also fewer ways to gain advantage, especially with its complete lack of Mixers. Strong play (and a bit of luck) is necessary all the way through, and the general dungeon tips apply here. There are also a few things applicable to this dungeon only:

• Test out all your swords, shields and bracelets as soon as you get them, since cursed equipment items are rare. Bracelets are mostly harmless, but watch out for Can. Arm Bracelet. You can test it by throwing any item and see if it vanishes.
• Likewise, test all your herbs and scrolls since the (overtly) harmful types don't appear. Later in the run, it could be worth saving an unidentified grass since it has a higher chance to be Revival Grass, assuming it is not identified yet.
• Identifying items is simpler since many "bad" items don't appear.
  • A Grass with a buy price of 1000 is always Revival Grass.
  • Pots in the 600 base buy price tier (Preservation, Identify, Ordinary) can be told apart by inserting one unidentified item, since 4-2-8 Pot does not appear.
• The lack of Mixers means that Synthesis Pots are far more crucial than in other dungeons. If you see one in a shop, it is almost always worth buying or stealing.
  • Consider saving up some Gitan so you can afford a Synthesis Pot (7,500) if you come across one in a shop.
  • Unlike in Primordial Chasm, you will often end up with a surplus of equipment items without enough Synthesis Pots to merge them all. Before you synthesize, think about which effects you need the most on your main sword or shield, as the next synthesis opportunity could be many floors later.
• Since "bad" grasses don't appear, it can be worthwhile to stay on floors where Grass Boy family monsters spawn to rack up on extra Revival Grasses and Strength Grasses.

Expert Badges

1. You conquered a dungeon without eating any food!
2. You conquered a dungeon without using any grass!
3. You conquered a dungeon without using any scrolls!
4. You conquered a dungeon without using any staves!
5. You conquered a dungeon without using any talismans!
6. You conquered a dungeon without using any pots!
7. You conquered a dungeon without collapsing even once!
8. You conquered a dungeon without doing any direct attacks!

Monsters

The types of monsters that can appear in this dungeon have not yet been replicated to this wiki. Here are good external resources:

• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C1h9IRPQPLg9g7aE48wlyw8IudHIStawK4mR3kuggto/edit?usp=sharing
• http://seesaawiki.jp/w/shiren5/d/%c3%cf%c4%ec%a4%ce%b4%db (Japanese wiki page for this location)

Open Questions

• It is a safe assumption that you cannot get expert badges at all while playing mode 1. This has not been confirmed.
• It is assumed that you can't get expert badges on your 1st successful run of mode 2. This has not been confirmed.