Draft:Shiren 1 DS:Fusion

Melding Overview

Melding is the key to creating powerful equipment in Shiren 1. The most you can get from a blacksmith or an Air or Earth Bless scroll is +1 and on rare occasions, +3. Melding is the only way to increase the number of charges of a staff. Inserting two or more items of the same type into a Melding Jar will combine them into a single item, melding their bonuses, charges, and/or effects. This can be done with weapons, shields, and staves. In shops, placing an item in a melding jar that you haven't paid for will not combine with a similar item in the jar. However, the jar will still lose a slot. (This works the same for a Jar of Change.) Inserting items that are not weapons, shields, or staves into a Melding Jar will use a slot, but produce no other effect. You can retrieve such items normally. You can use one Jar simultaneously with different types of items. The first weapon or shield inserted will be the "base" item. All subsequent items of the same type Inserted into the Jar will add their bonuses (+1, +3, etc) and any and all effects (e.g. rust-proof, sped up hunger or slow hunger, etc.) to the base item. Weapon and Shield effects are not interchangeable. Bonuses from shields cannot be Melded onto weapons, and vice-versa. Melding with items that either already have the given effects or that are at their maximum bonus value will waste the "extra" effects or bonuses. Although it may seem obvious to some, many people miss the fact that melding is by far the easiest way to quickly boost up your Katana, Mastersword, Windshield (or what have you) to their maximum bonus. You should never waste a blank scroll on an Air or Earth Bless scroll to upgrade your weapons. Melding jars need to be unlocked by progressing side quests.

Extracting

Once items have been melded, you must either break the Jar open (by Throwing it against a wall) or use an Extraction Scroll to retrieve the items. Using an Extraction Scroll on a Jar of Melding will remove the items from the Jar, but will only restore a number of slots equal to the number of items retrieved. So, a Melding Jar that contains a single melded weapon and has no remaining slots will become a Melding Jar[1] after an Extraction Scroll is used on it.

Examples

For purposes of illustration here are some examples:

Base	Additions	End Result
Katana +1	Polearm +4, Razor Wind	Katana + 5 with the ability to attack in 3 directions at once.
Armor Ward	Hide Shiled, Hide Shield +3, Wood Shield + 5	1Armor Ward with slowed hunger rate and + 8
1Polearm	Wood Shiled, Armor Ward, Homing Blade	Polearm, Wood Shiled with increased hunger rate, Homing Blade
Knockback Staff [4]	Knockback Staff [3]	Knockback Staff [7]
Switching Staff [6]	Knockback Staff [5]	Switching Staff [6], Knockback Staff [5]

¹Melding a Hide Shield into an Armor Ward will not give the Armor Ward Slow Hunger - it will only remove the Armor Ward's Increased Hunger effect. You must meld a second Hide Shield into the Armor Ward to give it Slow Hunger.