Meta:Item Mechanics in Mystery Dungeon

Item Mechanics in Mystery Dungeon are often re-used by other games or series in the franchise. This page aims to illustrate as many of these similarities as possible.

Items

Damage for Experience

• Shiren: The Happy Shield (Japanese: しあわせの盾) is a shield that awards Shiren experience for damage.
• Pokémon: Joy Ribbon (Japanese: しあわせリボン) in Rescue Team and Explorers is a held item that earns the Pokémon Exp. Points when taking damage.

Experience for Turns

• Shiren: Happy Armband (Japanese: しあわせの腕輪) is an armband that gives Shiren experience for each turn that passes.
• Pokémon: Joy Ribbon (Japanese: しあわせリボン) in Gates to Infinity and Joy Looplet (Japanese: しあわせリングル) in Super MD are held items.

Great Hall

• Shiren: Great Hall Scroll (Japanese: 大部屋の巻物) converts the entire current floor into one big room.
• Pokémon: One-Room Orb (Japanese: おおべやのたま) is a destructive item that tears down all walls on the floor, turning the floor into one vast, open room.

Level Up

• Shiren: The Happiness Herb (Japanese: しあわせ草) increases Shiren's level by 1. It also levels up monsters by 1 when thrown.
• Pokémon: Joy Seed (Japanese: しあわせのタネ) is a food item that raises the Pokémon's level by 1.

Tunnel

• Shiren: The Tunnel Staff (Japanese: トンネルの杖) A wall hit by this staff's blast will become a traversable tunnel.
• Pokémon: The Tunnel Wand (Japanese: トンネルのえだ) destroys up to 10 tiles in a non-diagonal direction

Item Types

Consumables

• Dragon Quest: Torneko's Great Adventure has Herbs/Grasses that can be consumed or tossed at enemies to inflict various effects.
• Shiren: Shiren the Wanderer has Herbs/Grasses that can be consumed or tossed at enemies to inflict various effects.
  • Starting in Shiren 2, certain Grasses could be combined with equipment using monsters from the Mixer family.
• Final Fantasy: In Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, Tonics/Potions act as the equivalent to herbs.
• Pokémon: In PMD, Seeds serve the same purpose as Herbs.

Staves and Wands

• Dragon Quest: Torneko's Great Adventure has Staves: multi-use items that fire a ranged blast with varying effects.
• Shiren: Shiren also has Staves, which are functionally identical to the Staves in DQMD.
• Pokémon: Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon introduced Wands, items that act similar to Staves in DQMD and Shiren. Wands can be stacked up to 40 wands in the inventory, as opposed to each Staff being a separate item with a charge count like in DQMD and Shiren.

Item Mechanics

Blessed, Sealed, and Cursed items

• Shiren: In Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer, all items Shiren finds have a chance to be cursed. Originally, cursed items lost any special effects, and if they were a weapon, shield, or armband, the player could not remove them unless they removed the curse or stepped on an Unequip Trap. In Shiren 3, items could also be blessed. A blessed item has more potent powers: some items deal more damage, others can inflict stronger/longer lasting status effects, and some items could be used a second time. In Shiren 4, cursed items were split into sealed items and cursed ones. Only equipment could be cursed, and cursed equipment could not be unequipped except by previously mentioned means. Any item can be sealed, and sealed items lose all their effects. In Shiren 5, talismans, arrows, and rocks could no longer be sealed.
• Final Fantasy: In Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, equipment can be cursed. Cursed equipment functions the same way as cursed equipment in pre-Shiren 4 Shiren titles.
• Pokémon: In Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, items can be sticky. Sticky items act the same as cursed items Shiren the Wanderer, pre-Shiren 4.

Equipment Seals and Melding

• Shiren: In Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer and all subsequent Shiren titles, most swords and shields have unique seals with varying effects. Swords and Shields can be melded/synthesized together in order to combine the upgrade values and equipment seals into one item. In Magic Castle, Shiren 3, (Others? ^{[Research required]}) Armbands can also be melded together in order to create a single armband with multiple effects.
  • In Shiren 5, bracelets can have two separate effects in tandem when turned into new items, although this is not the same as bracelet synthesis in other games.
• Final Fantasy: In Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon, talons and saddles had a similar seal system to that of Shiren the Wanderer. Additionally, brewery rooms containing pots could appear in Dungeons. By inserting two talons or two saddles into a pot and using a Fire or Thunder Spellbook to light the pot, the two items could be combined together. In Chocobo's Dungeon 2, these rooms make a reappearance. In Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon and its various remasters, the blacksmith Freja can combine talons or saddles together.

Equipment Upgrade Values

• Shiren: In Shiren, all equipment has upgrade values. If a weapon or shield is denoted with a positive value,(e.g. Katana +3) it means that the equipment's strength is that value higher than the equipment's base value. If it has a negative value,(e.g. Shoddy Dirk -10) it means that the equipment's strength is that value lower than the equipment's base value. If there is no number beside the equipment, (e.g. Windshield) the equipment's strength is equal to its base value. The upgrade value can be increased with certain scrolls, blacksmiths, and by combining two pieces of equipment with upgrade values. Cursed equipment always carries a penalty of -1.
• Final Fantasy: In Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, upgrade values work similarly to upgrade values in Shiren.

Item Durability/Breakable Items

• Shiren: In Shiren the Wanderer, the Glass Sword has a chance to break every time it deals damage and the Glass Shield has a chance to break every time Shiren takes damage. Pickaxes can break whenever they destroy a wall, and Mallets can break when destroying traps or items. In Shiren 2, Magic Castle GBC -, and Asuka the Swordswoman!, Armbands have durability and can break. In Magic Castle GBC, armbands can be repaired by the blacksmith.
• Final Fantasy: In Chocobo's Dungeon 2, all Talons and Saddles have durability. Whenever Chocobo deals damage or destroys a wall with a Talon, or whenever they are hit while equipped with a Saddle, there is a chance for the equipment's durability to decrease by 1. Durability can be increased by 10 by using a Repair Card or decreased by 10 by using a Rust Card. Starting durability of equipment is randomized^{[Research required]}.

Items That Can Destroy Walls

• Shiren: In Shiren the Wanderer, the Pickaxe item can destroy walls when swung at a wall. Additionally, Great Hall scrolls destroy all walls on the floor and Venting Jars can be thrown at a wall and destroy the 8 surrounding wall tiles on impact. In later games, the Tunnel Staff destroys up to 10 tiles of the wall in a straight horizontal or vertical line.
• Final Fantasy: In Chocobo's Dungeon 2, the digging claws act identically to pickaxes in Shiren the Wanderer. There are also two items known as Nitro Tonics and Crash Stones which, when thrown, destroy the surrounding 8 tiles it comes into contact with, similar to the Venting Jar in Shiren.
  • The Nitro Tonic can also be consumed to destroy the 8 tiles surrounding Chocobo, but it deals damage when consumed.
• Pokémon: With the exception of Gates to Infinity, the One Room-Orb (introduced in Red and Blue Rescue team) serves the same function as Shiren's Great Hall Scroll. In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon and Rescue Team DX, the Tunnel Wand destroys up to 10 tiles in a non-diagonal direction, similar to the Boring Staff in Shiren.