Community:Shiren 1 DS Beginner's Guide

This Beginner's Guide is meant to be a quick overview to get newcomers started.

If you are already familiar with roguelikes and the basics of the game, skip this page.

If you are new to Mystery Dungeon games and roguelikes in general, there is a lot to learn. This page offers a better summary of the basics than you would find in the little booklet that comes with the game and better than the info you will find within the game itself.

Expect to die a lot

Unlike many modern RPGs, you will die in this game -- a lot. You will die and start nearly from scratch, with the same base character at level 1, without any equipment. Even experienced hardcore RPG players or those who have played other Mystery Dungeon games before can have trouble surviving and beating this game. Suffice it to say, it is not an easy game to master and the difficulty curve starts higher than many modern games. If you get your butt handed to you over and over again, you might be tempted to quit before coming to realize how amazing and awesome this game is, which would be a shame, because it truly is amazing.

Dying a lot is by design and not as bad as it sounds. For one, there are "meta game" aspects that you can unlock over the course of many runs (aka dungeon dives aka lives) and each unlock makes the games easier. This includes advancing side quests and also identifying items. But more importantly, you will (you must!) learn something from your deaths to improve your play, to help maximize the benefits and minimize the risks and costs of each situation you face.

Your deaths will roughly fall into one of these three categories:

• YASD aka Yet Another Stupid Death: You made a mistake like swinging the wrong staff or eating the wrong herb. Here, it is pretty easy to understand what you did wrong and to avoid doing it again. (You will still wish you could learn your lesson without actually dying and losing some progress, but perhaps that helps cement the lesson.)
• YAAD aka Yet Another Annoying Death: The game screwed you somehow. Maybe you started a floor inside a monster house, or you hit a Riceball Trap and died. Here, it seems like there is nothing you could have done about it and that the game is just cruel and that you will just need more powerful equipment to escape these kinds of deaths. (In fact, having more powerful equipment usually is what is needed to avoid deaths in this category, but as you master the game you will come to learn better ways to prepare for these kinds of situations earlier, including finding and creating better equipment on the fly -- and you will learn how best to judge when you need to escape from these situations and how best to do so.)
• You run out of food, or you hit a level where you can not handle the monsters at a fairly high dungeon level. Once you start to see these deaths more than the others you are not really a beginner anymore. (As before, better mastery of the game will help you maximize every opportunity you face along the way and allow you to ultimately prevail.)

Study

There is no way to provide a walkthrough, or even a short set of tutorials, to help new players beat this game. The only way to beat it is to become a master player. Experience is a wonderful teacher, but sometimes you just can not see how you could have possibly done anything better and your learning stalls out. If you have not already done so, this is exactly when you need to reach out to the community. Asking experts in online fora about your specific situation can really help, provided you can find a forum with an active community. (As of late 2018, there is at least an active community for Shiren 5 on GameFAQs.com and they might be willing to help for any game in the series.) It can also help a lot to watch videos of experts playing the game. (If you know the game very well, it is even possible to learn great new technique by watching experts play in a foreign language that you do not speak.)

But most importantly, use this wiki. it is very helpful, that is why it is here. You can find loads of great info about the specific locations within the game that you are trying to master and there are also loads of great "strategy guides" -- articles on specific topics (and please contribute your wisdom to the wiki too)!

Dealing with dying

First, you will need to make several trips to the villages from the start to progress in the subquests. Getting the Melding Jar is important, so just keep heading back into the game.

Since you will be dying (or just heading back to the start town, which will remove your levels) several times, you will need to know how to deal with it. There are three tricks that are vital to know:

• The Bartender will give you a free Riceballs every time you come to town.
• If you do one of Fay's Puzzles, that counts as leaving and coming back.
• You can keep things in the warehouse.

So before you head out to town, do Fay's challenges and visit the inn until your warehouse is full of riceballs and items. Before you set out, make sure you have at least 4 large riceballs in your inventory (dying of starvation sucks) and eat the rest to increase your maximum fullness.

Getting better equipment

Wait, You do not necessarily need good equipment to win dungeons, it is there as an option. You should know how to use these weapons so you do not die and lose your precious equipment. This point will be mentioned later again.

If you just take your best stuff and keep pushing on into the dungeons, you will always have crappy equipment. With scrolls and the blacksmith, you might get up to +3 or even +5. You would really rather have some +30 equipment.

Bamboo Village has a blacksmith and Mountain Top Village has both a blacksmith and a warehouse. When you come through Bamboo Village upgrade the weapon you are using. When you get to Mountain Top village upgrade your best weapon and leave it in the warehouse for the next time. That way every time you come through you have one weapon that is getting better and better. Once you get a melding pot try to do the same thing. If you get a warehouse pot you can move your best stuff back to the start so you can hit both blacksmiths, but be careful with it.

Dealing with hunger

Shiren gets hungry fast. Exploring and fighting is hard work. Dying because you are out of food or having to spend money on an inn instead of the blacksmith is not good. Before you leave the first village try to have at least 4 large riceballs in your inventory. If you are low on food equip a hide shield which will halve your hunger rate-- and do not equip the armor ward, which doubles it.

Beginner strategies While many people would want to get started on the main quest right away, the best thing to do is begin by doing Fay's Puzzles. Doing Fay's Puzzles will not only give a good amount of items, but teach some of the finer points of the game which will help out in many situations. Though you will have to run every item given by Fay back to the warehouse, it is still worth the knowledge you will gain. Once you have completed Fay's dungeon or tire of it, you should run out and find a mastersword and a hide shield. Run back and forth between floor 1 and 7 / 8(town) in order to finish the side quests, buff up your items and most importantly; unlock the melding jar. Though the hide shield will max out at +15 you can always combine this with an armor ward(shield) later. The armor ward normally will make you hungry faster, but combining it with two hide shields will not only remove this feature, but reverse it. Once you have unlocked the melding jar, the easiest way to get more melding jars reliably will be to gather as much money as you can along the way and buy one for 7500. You can r andomly get some by going all the way to floor 15, I have only found one or two in this way. Beyond that point just collect items that give special effects and keep cramming them into your weapons. Once you have a +30 shield and weapon you should be able to run to floor 30 with no problem so long as you play smart.

Know Thyself (A Dissenting Opinion)

Building equipment is all well and good but it is no substitute for experience. Grinding between the town levels removes you from the survival mindset and gives you the illusion of safety - that illusion has a way of invading games when you are playing to win. Know thyself: can you separate the mindset of grinding from the mindset of regular play? No matter how good your equipment is, sloppy play will kill you on Table Mountain and losing great gear hurts bad enough that you will consider putting the game down for good. Instead of relentlessly building equipment, relentlessly build your ability to survive on as little gear as possible: start with just your riceballs. The advice under "Dealing with Dying" is good: select one item (a katana or mastersword) to upgrade at Mountaintop town each run through and leave it at the storeroom there. Another practice that is useful is to take slaying weapons from level 8 (air slayers, crescent arms) and deposit them back in the Mountaintop storeroom for eventual melding, since they're tough to use on their own. Otherwise, use just what the game gives you. you will spend more time just playing, learning and more time having fun (and that is what it is all about isn't it?). you will likely surprise yourself and win with mediocre gear on a game you thought was just a throwaway run.

More about Fullness and Regeneration

Shiren's Fullness is normally decreased by 1 every 10 turns. This duration is doubled when equipped with a Hide Shield and halved when wearing an Armor Ward or certain armbands. As long as you have any amount of fullness you will regain life from letting turns pass. Once your fullness has reached zero you will lose 1 hit point every turn until dead. Every consumable item gives you some amount of fullness. Even weeds will give you 5 fullness.

Death is not so bad

Mystery dungeon runs are unforgiving. Shiren Mystery Dungeon runs will kick your teeth out. If you die you lose all of your items that are not in storage. If you turn off your game at any point without first quitting you will lose all items except for what is in storage. Do not attempt to trick the game. Even if in town, turning off the game without being at the main menu will cause all items in the players inventory to be lost. It is a bad idea to turn off the game while your storage is being saved, as this will likely end in the storage data being corrupted and deleted.

Information and experience are just as important as equipment in Shiren the Wanderer. Learning how to deal with certain situations will help you get your items back much faster every time you play the game.

Getting Rescued

When you die you can be revived up to three times in one adventure by other players before having to start from the beginning. Even if you do not have the ability to go online with your DS you can be saved by posting your rescue code here on the forums. If you are saved through the WiFi feature it is possible to send and receive items when you are saved. An item that you want to send as thank-you gifts must be in your storage. Any item that your rescuer sends to you will be next to you when you are revived.

The Winds of Kron

The Winds of Kron start to blow when you stay on a single floor of the dungeon for too long. The fourth gust of the winds brings a wolf's head shadow that is essentially identical to Giving Up -- you awake in Canyon Hamlet with no equipment, money, experience, or stat bonuses. The first gust occurs after 700 turns, as a warning. The next three occur after each additional 100 turns. If you were to arrive at a level with exactly 100 Fullness, the first gust would blow at 30 Fullness, the next at 20, the third at 10 and the final one would blow you back to the Hamlet as you lose your first HP from starvation. Getting blown back to Canyon Hamlet is another achievement number 58 in the Adventure Log.

Going back to town

Once you leave the first town it is possible to move backwards simply by choosing back instead of go when you reach an exit. This way you can bring items back to town to help prepare for your next adventure. When you move backwards there will be no items on the floor besides for those dropped by enemies. Once you have reached the 15th floor you will be prompted to make a choice on whether you wish to proceed, beyond that point you will not be able to move backwards. If you go back to canyon hamlet you will revert to level 1 but keep your money and equipment. This resets blacksmiths and advances side quests. This can only be done in the main dungeon.

Shops and Money

Shops are not only located in towns, but also inside indoor dungeons. To buy items pick them up and talk to the shop keeper, to sell items put them down into empty slots in the room and talk to the shop keeper. If you want to sell an item in a room that is completely full you will need to pick up an existing item and put yours down in its place. WARNING- if you pick up and item in a full room you must have the money to buy it if your going to sell something in that spot as you will no longer be able to put anything down without having to also pick something up.

Stealing from shops

Although you will not be able to melee the shopkeeper if he hasn't been provoked, you can throw items or cast spells at him which will result in him attacking you. The shopkeeper along with the guards and dogs are ridiculously strong. Even at level 99, it is hard to survive. If you are carrying any items that are owned by the shop keeper and take a step outside of the room the game will consider this stealing. There are several ways to become a successful thief. You can read up on them on the strategy page. If you do plan on stealing- it is a good idea to first sell everything on your person as you will be able to just pick the items up along with the money you made selling your items and just steal them back. Click on link: Thievery

Money

There are only a few important points to know about money.

Money can be used as a fairly powerful weapon by throwing it, but you have to move onto it without picking it up. You avoid picking up money by holding B while walking.

You can put money in your inventory by trading it for other items, once you combine your inventory though it will go into the pool of money.

You will not keep money after completing an adventure, or saving someone- so you could put the money you find on a rescue run inside your inventory in order to keep it.

Any money inside your pool cannot be removed and turned into a pick-up - the only possible way would be to get it stolen repeatedly.

Identifying Equipment

The easiest way to identify stuff is just to take it to town while it is in your possession. It will automatically be identified. You can also use a jar of identification (if it is not a jar that needs to be identified), an Identity Scroll, or just test things out. Once you learn the identity of an item you will never forget as long as at least one of that kind is in your inventory or your warehouses. If you buy something in a store that is not identified you will have to leave and return to get an ID.

Traps

Traps only appear in rooms, never in hallways and never under items. Apart from stepping on them traps can be detected by the use of Herbs of Sight which reveals all traps on the current floor. Swinging your sword will also reveal a trap should you be standing in front of one at the cost of a turn. Swinging all the time is possible, but very time consuming and annoying and not necessary to win the game. However it is a good idea to swing right before you entering a room. Monster houses are full of traps, so if the situation allows it, swinging at all empty spaces is recommended there.

What is a Monster House?

Monster Houses can be created on any indoor floor -- any area with boxy rooms rather than oddly-shaped ones. The first possible area is the Old Mine after Mountain Town and all subsequent areas are possible Monster House candidates except the two floors of Waterfall Marsh and the Ravine of Illusions. Monster houses have:

• Large amount of enemies.
• Lots of items.
• Lots of traps.

This might be best avoided unless you have a solid plan for dealing with it