Community:Shiren 1 DS Identifying Items

Identifying Items is a major part of Shiren gameplay, especially in the Bonus Dungeons where you may run across various items you have never seen before. Fay's Final Puzzle in particular requires a massive amount of ID work because everything except riceballs comes unidentified. This page is here for those who need or want to learn how to identify their items.

General Tips

• Save Identifying Scrolls for Jars. They are difficult to identify by use, while all other items can be identified by inserting them into the Jar of Identity. If not for Jars, use them for Armbands, as they are also difficult to identify by use.
• When testing staves, swing them at monsters that are the weakest or have no special ability. A good target on early floors are Pit Mamels, Rice Babies, or Dark Eyes.
• Pick up and name Herbs that Ghost Radishes and its leveled forms throw at you and miss. They will allow you to recognize some common harmful herbs early on without having to eat them.
• Avoid equipping items to identify them as much as possible, unless you are just starting out or you have a Scroll of Blessing in your inventory.
  • If you do equip a cursed item, the Unequip Trap is helpful. Be sure to make use of it if you step on one.
• Name Jars before breaking them. This makes it a lot easier to remember which jars you have come across before. Even if the resulting effect is not what you expected, then keep in mind the real effect of that jar to rename it next time you pick it up. If you come across the "real deal" later on, you can name that one with an extra tag, e.g. "Change - Real" to prevent confusion.
• Scroll of Identity sometimes identifies everything you are holding which is not inside a jar. For this reason, when feasible, keep your unidentified items in main inventory before reading unknown scrolls or a Scroll of Identity.

Easy IDs

The easiest ways to ID your items are:

• Enter a Town. Everything in your inventory will be IDed.
• Read an Identification scroll. This will ID one item. Occasionally, it will ID all items not in jars.

Price IDing

Using price charts on this site, or your own knowledge, it is possible to ID an item by how much it can be bought / sold for in a shop. Assuming accurate information, this is a very useful technique, but obviously it requires that you find a shop first, something that is not necessarily guaranteed even in long dungeons.

Note: All information in this section is pulled from various sources and highly dubious. Do not trust it. Any confirmation is wanted!

It is possible to identify various types of items by the price the shopkeeper demands for them. The following things are true about items' prices:

• Items have a "base price," which is the price at which the shopkeeper sells them in most cases. This is listed at most "type" pages on the wiki as the "buy price." Scrolls, herbs, and armbands nearly always sell at their base price.
• Weapons (and armor?) with no bonus or penalty to their strength sell at their base price. I think. The price of bonus abilities might be worked in there somewhere. The price is changed based on these bonuses and penalties, though, like so:

Buy price = (base price + 0.09 * base price * strength bonus / penalty) + special ability price
Sell price = (base price + 0.09 * base price * strength bonus / penalty) * 0.3 + special ability price

This information is cobbled together from the Weapons page.

• Staves and jars are simpler. Their formula goes like this:

Buy price = (base price + 0.1 * base price * charges (staves) or space (jars) )
Sell price = (base price + 0.1 * base price * charges (staves) or space (jars) ) * 0.3

I am not sure how the items inside a jar factor into its price.

• Finally, cursed items only sell or are bought for 0.9 of their calculated price.

A lot of this is untested hypotheses, so I urge anyone to do some research and update this section!

(See the Final Puzzle Printable Item Checklist)

IDing Individual Items

The most difficult, but most common way to ID an item, is by using it in some way. This section will detail the methods involved in IDing items without assistance.

Swords / Shields

Swords and Shields auto-ID when equipped. However, it is not necessarily a good idea to equip everything you find. A very easy way to test a bunch of equipment is to use an Unequip Trap; once you have found one, equip everything one by one. When you find a cursed piece of equipment. trigger the unequip trap deliberately to take it back off you. In this way, you can safely ID all your Equips.

Armbands

Armbands, like Jars, do not always have an obvious effect. In fact, they are one of the most difficult types of items to ID, as you basically have to put it on an wait until something related to its function happens. There may be a few armbands which are more obvious, however:

• Armband of Loss: Equipping this will make you drop items every several steps. You will see a message while walking that says you dropped an item.
• Armband of Sight: Equipping this will immediately allow you to see the locations of items and monsters on the minimap.
• Happy Armband: Equipping this will give you an experience point per step. It is easy to identify while being low level (<15), but on higher levels, you will have to check your stats.
• Pitcher's Armband: Equipping this then throwing an item will cause the item to fly away.
• Recovery Armband: Equipping this will restore 5HP per turn. It also increases hunger, but the HP regen is usually more obvious.
• Trap Armband: Equipping this will immediately allow you to see traps on the floor and on the areas on the minimap that you have explored.
• Other common armbands can be identified by specific occurrences that are less likely to come by:
• Antidote Armband: stepping on a Poison Trap or eating / being hit by a Poison Herb.
• Antidrain Armband: losing strength to the Leech Worm family.
• Armband of Calm: stepping on a Confuse Trap or eating / being hit by a Herb of Confusion.
• Armband of Regret: being inflicted by a critical hit by a monster other than the Taur family.
• Sleepless Armband: stepping on a Sleep Trap or eating / being hit by a Sleeping Herb.

Herbs

Some Herbs have an effect on enemies when thrown, but throwing is rarely a viable alternative to eating -- most herbs will simply do two damage. For obvious reasons, Herbs of Revival will auto-ID when you die, in addition to when you eat them (and thereby waste them).

Scrolls

Reading unIDed scrolls can be dangerous. Reading a Scroll of Silence while in a Monster House is not a good experience if you lack in useful equipment. Avoid doing getting into bad situations by reading unID'd scrolls only before going on to the next floor.

The optional conditions for reading an unIDed scroll:

If you want to ID a scroll by reading it, it is best (a) to be as safe as you can be and (b) to be as prepared as you can be for as many possible outcomes.

Clear the floor first

Pick up the stuff you want first

Be in good condition (HP / Fullness)

Have at least one healing item handy if you have not already identified the Scroll of Explosion

Have your equipment on if you have not already identified Air Bless Scroll and Earth Bless Scroll and Plating Scroll

Be prepared for a Monster Scroll if you have not identified one yet -- see Monster House Strategy (the "rolling your own" section in particular) for details. (Basically, stand right next to the exit of a large-ish room, where the adjoining hallway leads to the room with the staircase in it.)

Identifying Scrolls

While most scrolls will immediately take effect and be IDed when read, there is a small group that will instead ask you to pick an item. To minimize the chance that you will either waste a good scroll or destroy a good item, you should pick carefully based on what scrolls you already know you have. The following scrolls ask you to pick an item:

• Scroll of Identity
• Scroll of Blessing
• Riceball Scroll^{Fay's Final Puzzle only}
• Extraction Scroll

If you first encounter an unIDed scroll and it asks you to pick an item when read, preferably you should select one that will get use out of any of these scrolls but without risking great loss. Therefore, pick an item with the following attributes:

• un-IDed
• Cursed
• Something you are not afraid to lose.^{Fay's Final Puzzle only. Having an excellent item turned into a riceball is painful.}

One more thing: if you read an unknown scroll and it asks you to pick an item, you can actually back out of the item selection menu without penalty, and you get to keep the scroll.

Jars

There are two types of jars: "Press" jars and "Insert" jars. Only "Press" jars can be pressed, and only "Insert" jars can have items inserted into them.

Insert Jars

IDing here is best done by "symptoms", as it can be subtle; jars that you can insert items into can be rewarding or frustrating. Minimize the risk of putting in valuable items by putting the two of a kind of your most common staves (or two of the same weapon -- in this case, equip one to identify the bonus on that one and then insert that one first) just before you go on to the next floor.

• Jar of Hiding: If the Jar is a Jar of Hiding, when you select "Insert", you will insert yourself into it and the Jar will be automatically identified.
• Melding Jar: Consecutive weapons, shields, or staves vanish and the jar shrinks.
• Jar of Identity: UnID'd items will be ID'd. Be careful not to confuse this with a Jar of Change transforming it into an ID'd item of the same type.
• Jar of Change: Items inserted into the jar will become different items.
• Jar of Holding: You can remove items from the jar.

• Bottomless Jar or Storehouse Jar: Items will disappear when placed into the jar. In this case, name it Storehouse Jar and throw it; it is a waste this way, but it is probably better than putting valuable items you come across that you want to send to Canyon Hamlet thinking it is a Storehouse Jar but in reality it was a Bottomless Jar. A thrown Bottomless Jar creates Pitfall Traps. Or, you could keep it with you until you can properly identify it with a Scroll of Identity. Alternately, if you set out with Canyon Hamlet's warehouse full (no empty spaces), you can tell a Storehouse from a Bottomless Jar because the Bottomless will make the item disappear, while the Storehouse will make it fall on the ground. If you have cleared Table Mountain, you can then Quit (not Give Up!) and go to Time Attack to rearrange your storehouse. If that feels like cheating, you could also get yourself killed and use Adventure While Awaiting Rescue to do the same thing. If you are going to throw the jar to break it, try to do this inside a store, and swing your weapon to reveal if it created any pit traps. If you ended up creating a pit trap inside a store, this is basically a foolproof way to be able to steal everything you can carry from the store.
• Strengthening Jar or Weakening Jar: IDed weapons, shields, and staves will increase in power / charges every time you go to a new floor if it is a Strengthening jar, and Gitan will increase in quantity. The opposite will occur on a Weakening Jar. However, if the item is unidentified, the charge will not be shown.
• Venting Jar: Throwing it will cause it to explode, unless it is cursed. Unless you are in the habit of throwing all your unIDed jars, this one may be difficult to find.
• Unbreakable Jar: When thrown, the jar will bounce around and fly off, disappearing, even if it is cursed. Chances of IDing are similar to the Venting Jar.
• Pointless Jar and Gaibara's Jar: Nearly impossible to use-ID, as they have absolutely no effect on anything, ever. Gaibara's Jar can be price-ID'd easily, as at 15,000 + 1,500 / charge Gitan to buy and 4,500+450 / charge to sell, it is the most expensive jar in the game.

Press Jars

For safety reasons, it is best to press your jars in a small corridor; this reduces the impact and subsequent danger of pressing a Monster Jar. If you can, find a corridor with a dead end or create one if you have a pickaxe so that you only have to deal with monsters coming from one direction. All press jars auto-ID when used.

• Monster Jar: Spews forth monsters. A thrown Monster Jar will spew forth confused monsters.
• Chiropractic Jar: Heals you. A thrown Chiropractic Jar will do nothing.
• Walrus Jar: A walrus flies forward until it hits an item or a wall. The item will be placed in the jar. A thrown Walrus Jar spews forth confused Thiefwalruses.

An interesting note

The Melding Jar is the only jar in the game that can have a buy price between 7000 - 8000. Because of their extreme usefulness and rarity, it is highly recommended that even if you find one and cannot afford it, you name the jar sitting in the shop so that you can tell when you find one later.

Greater Jar Identification Method

For those working the Final Dungeon, identifying jars is necessary. During my frequent tries at beating said dungeon, I have come up with the following method for identification.

Necessary for this technique is either two weapons or two shields, both disposable. One of the two needs to be unidentified (Hopefully the stronger one). My favorites are an Unidentified Armor Ward and a Walrus Shield

1. Look if it is a press jar. If it is, then try it (In a corridor mind you). This will identify it.
2. Try inserting something in it. This will remove the possibility of it being a Jar of Hiding, which will then auto-identify itself.

Now, If you have gotten to selecting an item, select the unidentified item out of the two you have selected and insert it. This will allow you to identify the following:

• Jar of Holding: It is one if you can remove the item.
• Jar of Change: If the item changed, then it is this one.
• Storehouse Jar or Bottomless Jar: If the item disappeared, it is one of those two. If you want to test further, save and Quit, then go to Time Attack. If the item you inserted is in the storehouse, you have found a Storehouse Jar. If that feels like cheating, you can instead rename then throw the jar; if pitfall traps are created, then it was a Bottomless one.

If you still have not found out what jar it was, now insert the second item.

Melding Jar: If after this you have only one item in the jar.

There are now only six possibilities left. Now you go down a level.

• Strengthening Jar: If the identified weapon / armor rose in power.
• Weakening Jar: If the identified weapon / armor lost in power.

Now only four choices left, with all those being the less useful ones. Rename the jar something descriptive (aka Disposable) and throw it.

• Venting Jar: Look for an explosion.
• Unbreakable Jar: Identified by the bouncing.
• Pointless Jar or Gaibara's Jar: If the jar breaks and releases your items. Keep the items for further identifications. There's little point in further identification, as the only difference at this point is price.

Staves

Most staves are extremely easy to identify simply by what they do when zapped, but there is one exception; when a staff shot appears to do nothing at all. This means it is either a Pain Sharing Staff, Recovery Staff or a Staff of Stability.

• If the enemy you zapped attacks you afterwards and does damage, it should receive an equal amount of damage back if it is a Pain Sharing Staff.
• If you swing the staff at a Ghost monsters and does 50 damage, it is a Recovery Staff.
• If nothing at all happens, then it is a Staff of Stability.

The Staff of Misfortune can also have this effect, if you zap an enemy with no lesser form; however, there is no shortage of weak but leveled monsters (like the Pit Mamel, Robber or Rice Changer) that you can test even early in the game. The same applies to the Staff of Happiness for monsters that have no higher form. The Robbers seem to be the best family for this if they are available, as they remain pretty weak at all levels.

Advanced Technique: Determining or Guessing Identity Based on Probability:

If you know the dungeon you are playing in well, then you probably have an intuitive feel for how likely it is to find various items. One contributor (rhaining) gathered empirical data over the course of a large number of runs for Final Puzzle, determining how likely it is to find each specific item in the 1st 3 floors of Final Puzzle.The results can be found on the Printable Final Puzzle Item ID Checklist page under the section for Final Puzzle Printable Item Checklist#Rhaining.27s%20Improved%20Checklist%20PDFs.

The upshot of it is, for every item you find early in Final Puzzle, you can look up the odds that it will be any given specific item of that type and adjust your item identification strategy accordingly. If you also know the price of the item, between price + Final Puzzle statistics, you can narrow down the item to a very small set of likely items. Example #1: if you find a scroll in floors 1-3 of Final Puzzle that would sell for 600 Gitan, it is virtually guaranteed to be a Great Hall Scroll even though there are 2 other scrolls that also sell for 600 Gitan. Example #2: if you find an insert-type jar with 3 spots in the 1st 3 floors of Final Puzzle and it would sell for 1,170 Gitan, it is 4x more likely to be a Jar of Identity than an Unbreakable Jar.

References

• Rhaining's original PDF post.