Meta:Passwords

Passwords are a recurring gameplay mechanic in the Mystery Dungeon games. They were introduced in  Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 2 - Shiren's Castle and the Oni Invasion in 2000. By entering passwords during gameplay, players might receive various in-game items, recruit new characters, receive a reaction, or various other responses. Not to be confused with Rescue Passwords, which are a different mechanic entirely.

Shiren the Wanderer

The initial batch was introduced through various sources, such as cards included in bags of BBQ-flavored snacks, official source books, and characters in-game. They were later released in full on Chunsoft's official website. They were brought back in 2001 for  Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer GB2 - Magic Castle of the Desert in much the same way. First-run copies of the game included a code card, and additional cards could be obtained from purchasing snacks from Japanese convenience stores.^{[Citation needed]} The Nintendo DS remake of Magic Castle would take a different approach in 2008, and they wouldn't be seen in the Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer series again until  Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 5 - The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate in 2010 introduced the Tanuki Passwords mechanic.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon

In the / Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red and Blue Rescue Team titles, and  Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Darkness players can enter in Wonder Mail codes that work similarly to rescue passwords, meaning they were calculated by the games programming rather than pre-set codes, to unlock special event dungeons and in the case of the Explorers titles, recruit Legendary Pokémon. Non-rescue passwords were introduced to the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series in  Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blazing, Light, and Stormy Adventure Squad. Players could enter in Friend Passwords that were distributed through various sources to automatically recruit new Pokémon, some of which were the rare Shiny variant. The mechanic returned for  Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity,  Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, and  Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX under the name Wonder Mail, but didn't function as the original Wonder Mail mechanic did.

Wonder Mail passwords were distributed through the Internet and in various locations such as stores, magazines, guidebooks, and through the game Victini's V-Spin Dungeon. In the case of the earlier titles, rescue missions were revealed via the official websites for Rescue Team, and Explorers of Sky, and through Internet rescue requests for Explorers of Time and Darkness.

Gallery

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  Shiren 2 snacks in a promotional video.

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  Shiren 2 snacks ad in the Kind Adventure Guide.