Draft:Shiren 5 2020:The Pinnacle

Key Parameters
Initial Goal Floor	10F
Final Goal Floor	99F
Day / Night	Day
Bring Items In	No
Take Items Out	Yes
# of Allies	0
# of Rescues	0
Pre-ID'd Items	All
New Items	No
Shops	None
Monster Houses	None
Characters	None
Spawn Rate	Normal
Winds of Kron	Normal (slow)

Aksys Challenge, known in the PC and Switch rerelease as The Pinnacle, is a bonus dungeon in Shiren 5 focusing on the better part of valor. Virtually every monster can kill you one hit, so you must run away and try to find the stairs. You can't take items or allies into the dungeon, nor can you request rescues, but you can keep the items you have on hand if you win. The dungeon is daytime only and the initial goal floor is 10F. After first victory, the goal floor becomes 99F and stays there permanently.

Gaining Access

You can access this bonus dungeon 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

This bonus dungeon uses a small subset of the capabilities of the game to create a radically different experience:

• Almost every monster can kill you in a single attack.
• Only the following items appear in the dungeon:
  • Bracelets: Scout Bracelet, Can. Arm Bracelet, Waterwalk Bracelet
  • Scrolls: Navigation Scroll
  • Grasses: Perception Grass, Warp Grass
  • Staves: Swap Staff, Pinning Staff, Knockback Staff, Paralysis Staff
  • Pots: Hide Pot, Black Hole Pot
• Shiren starts with 3 Hide Pots in his inventory.
• All items are pre-identified.
• There are no shops or characters.
• Monster houses do not appear.
• Rooms in this dungeon often have water tiles or ponds in them.
• You do not gain experience for killing monsters.
• The dungeon is daytime only.

Final Reward

The final reward from this dungeon is unique and clearly intended to be a secret. The initial goal floor is only 10F, and there are plenty of items you can try to collect to help you exit every floor, so you should probably just go beat this dungeon to experience the unique final reward yourself! Here's the secret, with spoiler protection:

If you want to know the secret, expand this box.

When you beat this dungeon for the first time, you get a unique item that doesn't appear in the Item Book at all! It's called the Aksys Pot (Developer Pot in the PC and Switch versions). It's an open-type pot, not an insert-type pot (if indeed it is a real pot at all, because it doesn't appear in the Item Book and thus is not necessary to complete the Item Book, but it does sort with the normal pots in your inventory). It has a capacity of 1. When you open it, the capacity drops to 0 and you get a lot of text. It's like the Drama Staff or Hilarious Pot, except the text is much longer and there are no character images included. The text is about how the company has great things planned for the next game, so tell all your friends how much you love Shiren, so more people will buy the game and the company will be able to continue making games in this great series.

You definitely get this special reward once if you beat the 10F version of the dungeon. It is not yet known if you get it again if you beat the full 99F version of the dungeon.

Farming Opportunities

The Scout Bracelet is an excellent item and is very common in this dungeon. Since you cannot play the 10F version of the dungeon after you beat it, it is a good idea to collect at least one Scout Bracelet before beating the 10F version. You can then throw this Scout Bracelet into a secret pot to create a new item out of it, so you can buy more new item Scout Bracelets at any time.

If you missed the chance to get Scout Bracelets here, you can purchase Scout Bracelets from the Point Shop for 10,000 points. Once you have decent equipment, you can grind for points easily in places like Lost Well or Gorger's Manor.

Strategy

Most monsters will kill you in one hit. Level 1 Moseals are a notable exception, as they have a weak normal attack and their "harsh tackle" only does 10 damage.

Move as efficiently as you can; often this means moving diagonally. Find a Scout Bracelet as soon as possible, since it will help you decide which areas to explore and which to avoid. In general, you should move on to the next floor as soon as you find the stairs. Going out of your way for items is only worth it if you get more items than you spend trying to get there.

Once you have a Scout Bracelet, you can hide inside a corridor and wait until monsters move out of the adjacent rooms. The monster can see you if you stand in the doorway, but not any further into the corridor. If a monster can't see you, it will pick a random corridor.

The best time to use a Navigation Scroll is when you start a floor in a tiny room (with no immediate exit stairs), as such a floor would likely take a long time to explore.

There are two ways to use a Hide Pot. You can insert yourself into it so monsters will ignore you for a few turns. You can also throw a Hide Pot at a monster, which will seal it in the pot indefinitely (unless you attack it). With a Can. Arm Bracelet, you can seal multiple monsters with one Hide Pot. A sealed monster in a pot can be used to block off a doorway. Unlike other thrown items, a thrown Hide Pot will never miss.

Note that there is a small risk to inserting yourself into a Hide Pot or eating a Warp Grass: a monster can attack you right after you emerge from the Hide Pot or warp.

Sleeping monsters should be left alone. There is some chance they will wake up when you enter or exit their room.

Pumphantasms are particularly dangerous in this dungeon, since they can attack you from inside a wall. Be careful about inserting yourself in a Hide Pot around one, as they will wander randomly rather than leaving the room. Can. Arm Bracelet allows you to throw Hide Pot and other items at a Pumphantasm inside a wall.

Expert Badges

Expert Badges are not available in 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%d5%a5%a1%a5%df%c4%cc%a4%ce%c4%a9%c0%ef%be%f5 (Japanese wiki page for this location)

Open Questions

• Do you get any reward item for beating the longer 99F version of this dungeon?