Draft:Shiren 5 2020:Creating New Items

This guide covers the strategy aspects of New Items.

Introduction

The secret pots in the basement of Hotel Nekomaneki lets you create new items. Swords, Shields, Bracelets, Grasses, Scrolls, Staves, and Talismans can be turned into new items.

You can look into the secret pot at any time to see (a) how many real world days have passed, (b) what effects would be added if you were to take it out at that time, and (c) for swords and shields, how much the inherent power will be boosted, if at all. Each day, there is a chance (~1/3) that the item will acquire a random set of 1-3 additional magic effects, replacing any previously added effects. You can take the item out any time and register it as a new item in your save file. If the effects are not great, you can leave the item in the secret pot for another day and the additional effects may change. Presumably, you are more likely to get better effects the longer the item bakes. It is best to check the secret pots once a day to see what effects have changed on your baking items, and pull out items that are good enough. Always take out items after 7 days have passed, unless you prefer to discard them, since all items turn into Weeds after 8 days.

The contents in secret pots change at midnight in the GMT timezone. Theoretically, you could save and quit, then advance the date on your PS Vita, then launch the game again to advance this process much faster. It is unknown whether this throws off anything else about your game. (The Japanese Shiren 5 wiki says it is safe .)

There are a few strategies when it comes to naming a new item:

• You can use the base item name and append a + sign for every additional magic effect on it. This does not tell you at a glance which added effects it has, but it is simple and consistent.
• You can name the new item with a concatenation of short names of the effects, like FloStrID for a bracelet that is a combination of Floating + Strength + Identify. This can help you see which effects are on the new item at a glance, but the names might be a bit ugly, and it can be hard to jam 4 stock names into 10 characters.
• You can come up with unique and memorable names like "Doom" -- but it can be hard to remember what 64 unique names mean.

Each time you return to Nekomaneki Village after a dungeon run, you can buy one new item of your choice from the raccoon who runs the secret pot place. Don't forget to buy one every time you pass through so you can build up greater stock of useful items.

Each Shiren 5 save file can have at most 64 new items registered. You can keep crafting new items after that, but you must choose an existing new item to delete. When you do this, any copies of the deleted item anywhere on your save file disappear.

The new items you've created can also appear in some dungeons. This can help tilt the balance of power in those dungeons in your favor, especially in Old Road and Heavenly Lake since you cannot take items inside. If you want to maximize your chance to beat these dungeons, only register powerful new items. If you crafted many mediocre ones, the only way to delete them is to make more than 64 new items.

New Item Ideas

• Make new items based on an Undo Grass, so you will find them in many dungeons. This also lets you buy one per run at the new item shop. You can use this to ensure you always have an Undo Grass, which works great if you want to go shopping in a remote town.
• Similarly, a new item scroll with the Extraction Scroll effect lets you buy one every run without having to spend points.
• A scroll that summons all monsters to be near you, then blasts them with Vacuum Slash twice, then puts any survivors to sleep where you can mop them up easily. This lets you clear an entire dungeon floor.
• A scroll that creates a monster house, then deletes all traps, then blasts the room with Vacuum Slash, then confuses the monsters?
• A new item Fixer Scroll can be read it at night without a light.
• Grass that gives you multiple buffs such as Swift, Invincible, Power Up, and Antidote.
• Make new item bracelets with up to 4 strong bracelet effects, so you can have all of them at the same time. If you have the item resonance that lets you wear 2 bracelets, you can get up to 8 bracelet effects.
• Make a new item sword based on a level 8 Kaburagi or Helix Shield. Not only could this be your best equipment for dungeons that let you take items in, but you might also find it on early floors in Old Road or Heavenly Lake. Note that runes on the base items will disappear, and must be added again.

Bracelets

While most bracelet effects correspond to existing bracelet, a few new item bracelet effects (such as "You can withstand a fatal strike") don't exist on any base bracelet. There are also a few bracelets, such as Floating Bracelet, whose effect can never appear as a new item effect. (You can still use a Floating Bracelet as your base item.)

It is more important to craft new item bracelets than any other kind of new item. You can only equip 1 or 2 bracelets at a time normally, but there are many useful bracelet effects.

Here are some considerations when crafting a new item bracelet: (see also This external forum post )

• "Prevents items from being blocked" is the effect on Anti-Parry Bracelet. It can save your equipment from being destroyed by a Swordsman or Field Knave.
• "Items thrown at you will miss" is a mistranslation. What it actually does is "Items thrown by you will miss", which corresponds to Inacc. Bracelet.
• "Boosts buff rates and # of usable items" is pretty amazing. It can add charges to staves in your main inventory and also add upgrade points to your swords and shields in main inventory when you change floors. It seems to trigger about 25% of the time. It may also increase stacks of items like arrows, stones, or talismans (Confirm?)
• "Increases weapon and shield growth rate" acts like a permanent Upgrade Seed, allowing your weapons and items to level up much faster.
• "Monsters will drop Onigiri more often" can be problematic, as it can replace other more valuable monster drops.
• "Raises miss rate of items launched at you" and "Recover quicker from status ailments" are both very helpful.

Swords and Shields

Like with bracelets, some innate effects of swords and shields (such as that of Wonder Pick) never appear as an added effect, and some added effects don't exist on any base sword or shield.

You can add runes onto a new item sword or shield, but you cannot convert a new item into a rune or transfer runes from a new item sword or shield. So don't add a rare rune to a new item sword or shield if you might want to move it to a different sword or shield later.

It is best to use level 8 swords and shields as your base items, because the resulting new items will also be level 8.

New item swords and shields can get a boost to their inherent power level, up to +15 according to the Japanese wiki. The upgrade limit and rune limit can be increased as well, but most level 8 swords and shields have a +99 upgrade limit and infinite rune limit already. (If a new item sword or shield seems to have no magic effects, it probably got an inherent power boost.)

• The shield effect "May be upgraded when you are attacked" is particularly useful.

• The sword and shield effect "Might upgrade when you change floors", which corresponds to the Refining rune, is also quite nice.