Draft:Shiren 5 2020:Aura Ruins

Key Parameters
Initial Goal Floor	10F
Final Goal Floor	30F
Day / Night	Day
Bring Items In	No
Take Items Out	Yes
# of Allies	0
# of Rescues	0
Pre-ID'd Items	All except for swords, shields, bracelets (confirm)
New Items	No
Shops	Normal (all 3 types)
Monster Houses	Normal (including pop-ups)
Characters	Shopkeepers only
Spawn Rate	Normal
Winds of Kron	Normal (slow)

Aura Ruins is a bonus dungeon in Shiren 5 focusing on auras, both for Shiren and for monsters. You cannot take items or allies into the dungeon, nor can you request rescues, but you do keep the items you have on hand if you win. The dungeon is daytime only and the goal floor is initially 10 F. After first victory the goal floor becomes 30 F and stays there permanently, making it one of the shortest bonus dungeons. It's also easier than most bonus dungeons that don't allow you to take items in.

Gaining Access

Aura Ruins can be started from the Dungeon Center in Nekomaneki Village. Access is not restricted; you can play as soon as you can reach the Dungeon Center.

Unique Features

• Every monster has one of the 3 possible auras by default: higher attack power (a yellow aura with a sword icon), higher defense power (a yellow aura with a shield icon), or hasted (a yellow aura with no icon)
  • Applies to all pre-placed and spawned monsters, but summoned monsters do not usually have auras, and of course you can cause a monster to lose its aura in various ways (e.g. by sealing it).
• Shiren gains Awakened-ish status and Super status much faster than normal
  • Shiren can go from Regular -> Awakened-ish -> Super by killing as few as 3 monsters
• Shiren loses Awakened-ish and Super status when he changes floors
• Item distribution differs from baseline but it's hard to be very precise
  • E.g. Onigiri Shield, Parry Shield, Rush Shield, Hatchet, and Extreme Sword all appear with non-rare frequency before 10F

Final Reward

Every time you beat the dungeon, you are given a Master's Mallet as a reward item, which isn't a particularly great reward item. It's the ultimate / level 8 form of the Old Mallet, but receiving an item at level 8 doesn't unlock all levels of that item in your Item Book, so it doesn't really help you gain the PSVita trophy for unlocking all items. (See the Shiren 5 Strategy page for the Level 8 Equipment Easy Trick for information on the fastest way to complete your Item Book.) Old Mallets of all levels destroy traps and items on the ground when you swing it over them, and, when this happens, the Old Mallet has a chance to break. The Old Mallet has no chance to break when you use it to attack a monster, and any trap or item under the monster won't be destroyed either, it only has a chance to break when you swing it over open air with a trap/item underneath, and that will definitely destroy the trap or item. Because of the chance to break, it doesn't make a great primary weapon or a great rune. If you really want the ability to break traps/items with your weapon, use the Sturdy Hammer either as a base weapon or as a rune—see the Bizarre Tower location page for details. But, the ability to destroy traps/items even with no risk to your weapon is still dangerous as you could accidentally destroy very valuable items (or traps for that matter) if you're not careful.

Farming Opportunities

This may be the easiest dungeon from which to farm rare-ish synthesis materials. Onigiri Shield, Parry Shield, and Hatchet can all appear before 10 F, and based on limited data it seems that there's about a 50% chance of seeing at least one of these items somewhere on your run before 10F. This dungeon may also be the easiest to beat of any dungeon that carries these items. It's certainly one of the shortest dungeons that carries these items, with an initial goal floor of 10F then a final goal floor of 30F, but I also find it easier to play and win this bonus dungeon as compared to the other bonus dungeons that carry these items. And even if you aren't able to win your run, this dungeon offers enough money and other items to sell for money that you have a high chance of finding a shopkeeper and tagging the item you want to farm out before you die, after which it is very likely to show up in the lost-and-found at Hermit's Hermitage (though you may need to pay a fee to recover it). Undo Grass and Escape Scrolls can also appear in this dungeon, making it easier to escape with your farmed item(s). In one run, on floor 1, I found a Parry Shield in room 1 followed by a shop with an Undo Grass in room 2.

Strategies

When you start every floor, the monsters will have auras but Shiren won't. Never fight more than 1 monster at a time! This is a great time to use some of your consumables if you have any to make sure you don't die and to help Shiren gain Super status as quickly as possible. Once you have Super status, try to retain it as long as possible by not letting yourself get hungry and by not letting yourself dip into red HP territory. You can also lose Super status by getting hit by a trap, but even while Super, it's still not worth it to go very slow and check for traps on every tile before you walk on them, unless you're in a monster house, because you can regain Super without too much difficulty and because it means you'll burn more food. However, it is always generally a good idea to try to walk on as few tiles as possible and on tiles you know are already safe, whether you are Super or not.

Pay attention to which aura the monster has and respond accordingly.

• If the aura has a sword on it, the monster has a higher attack power than normal.
  • A powerful monster, such as a Tiger Thrower, with extra attack power might be able to kill you in one shot. Disable them or slow them down, or fight them at a distance.
• If the aura has a shield on it, the monster has a higher defense power than normal.
  • Don't get sloppy and fight in the middle of the room, thinking you'll kill that aura-shielded monster in a single shot. It will likely survive and hit back, possibly a few times.
  • On floor 1, you may have to find a way to retreat safely or loop around in circles to kill your first few shielded monsters before you have your own Super aura.
• If the aura has neither symbol, the monster is hasted.
  • If you're one space away, retreat and let the monster move 2 spaces to be right next to you, so you can get in the first attack.

Go as slowly as you can and plan out every move, as monsters are more deadly than you're used to. The Fearrabbits appear very early (4-6F) and can be quite deadly, especially when hasted, and should be disabled at the first opportunity. Gazers (6-8F) should be fought at a distance if possible.

The unique aspects of this dungeon open up some interesting possibilities that aren't normally available. Some examples:

• I once had a Shoddy Dirk, Sky Splitter, Heavy Shield, and Gold Shield. The Shoddy Dirk and Heavy Shield were far stronger than their alternatives but not good choices for long term use. But this dungeon offered the perfect opportunity to equip the Shoddy Dirk and Heavy Shield just before using the stairs, using them to kill a few monsters quickly on the next floor and thus re-acquire Super state quickly, then switch them out for the Sky Splitter and Gold Shield for the rest of the floor.
• I once found an Extreme Sword. I was tempted to just sell it, but then I remembered something I had tested long ago. When you're in Regular/Normal state, the Extreme Sword hits critical ~25% of the time and misses ~75% of the time. But when you're Super, the Extreme Sword hits critical ~90% of the time and misses ~10% of the time. I ultimately decided not to use it anyway due to having another great choice for a weapon (Burning Blade) but the Extreme Sword might have worked very well once I re-established Super state on any given floor.

Expert Badges

Expert badges are not available for this dungeon.

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/%a5%aa%a1%bc%a5%e9%a4%ce%b0%e4%c0%d7 (Japanese wiki page for this location)