Shiren 1 DS:InvHerbStory

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rhaining's Invisibility Herb - The Story

Sometime around April 2008, someone in the English fan community (BabyRomaine?) figured out that rescue passwords could be easily abused to allow other players to have reliable access to rare items. A full description of how to abuse rescue passwords can be found on the page Rescue Passwords for Items.

Once the technique was known, several players published passwords, and now the whole community had access to Windshields! Then Kabra's Blades! And over time, more and more passwords were added to the directory. Sensing an opportunity to provide something of lasting value to the Shiren community, I (rhaining) set about documenting and organizing as many passwords as I could get my hands on for several months.

Around June 2008, I was beginning to work on my Borg Mamel. I was particularly frustrated by the Herb of Invisibility requirement. By all accounts, this was an exceedingly rare item. It apparently only appears deep in Final Puzzle, and even then, only rarely in shops! I had already beaten Final Puzzle (obviously), but I had never seen a Herb of Invisibility (or an Ill Luck Seed or an Angel Seed). Some people had to beat Final Puzzle many times before they got their Herbs of Invisibility. Sounds like a great opportunity for an abuse-able password!

The problem is, no one in their right mind would rescue someone from way deep in Final Puzzle. It would be outrageously difficult at best and madness to even try it ...

... which is, of course, what made it so appealing, both to create the password and to throw down the gauntlet to the community to see who could do it. I still almost chickened out. I mean, I had sent my Herb of Invisibility back home via a Storehouse Jar, so I had what I absolutely needed out of this run. But try getting 99 floors of awesome loot out of Final Puzzle then intentionally dying -- you have to accept that you're never going to be rescued and be OK with losing all that precious gear.

This thread is about rescue passwords in general. Later in the thread, I threaten to create a way deep rescue password multiple times, and get mixed responses ranging from "you die that deep you stay dead, no one's coming to get you" to "hmm, it might be kind of interesting to try something that hard":

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=925583&topic=43600441

Finally, I just said screw it. I stood on the final staircase, took off my armor, and just waited for a monster to come by and kill me. I mean, how many people can say they died intentionally on 99F?! That's far more interesting than preserving a Kabra's Blade, Windshield, 3 Herbs of Revival, a 5-spot Strengthening Jar... OMG, WTF have I just done!

Anecdotes from my recent Final Puzzle "victory"

In this thread, I document several amusing stories about the run. The anecdotes are funny in their own right, but I'm also thinking the only way to get an expert interested in this rescue is to turn it into a public spectacle. Most players can't do the rescue, but perhaps if lots of players show interest in it, an expert will be tempted to rise to the challenge:

I have many interesting, weird stories from my recent Final Puzzle run. I considered posting them to the YASD thread, but it's now closed, and besides, I haven't died permanently yet.

Pt. 1

OK, strike that, I actually did die once on this run but was rescued. The death was definitely a YASD.

This run was the jackpot -- both a Kabra's Blade and Windshield! I was steamrolling everything in site, without even a challenge. I had plenty of emergency gear, but no reason to use it. (You can see where this is going.)

At one point, I was fighting a Tank of some sort. He was blasting me for 30HP per hit. No problem, I know exactly how close I can cut it before I have to use a Chiropractic Jar, right? I swing a few times, but not enough to kill him, and I'm down to 31HP.

Do I:

(A) Do the conservative thing and use a Chiropractic Jar charge now, just to be safe?

(B) Swing one more time, having forgotten the fact that a Hermit had cast a spell on me earlier which drains me for 1HP every turn?

Hehe, yep, I chose B.

Pt. 2

It's now ~30 floors later. I've been rescued and used a Strengthening Jar and Extraction Scrolls to great effect. I'm now very obviously going to win the run. I have loads of emergency gear including 2 Herbs of Revival, and plenty of staves including Sealing, Sloth, you name it.

Hmm, it's one of those pesky Skull Demons. This one is black. I wonder how bad he is? Well, lord knows I'm completely invincible, so I don't need to spend a single staff bolt to Seal him. I mean, I only have 20 or so Sealing charges left! I'll just approach cautiously and kill him hand to hand.

Did you know that Skull Demons can shoot a bolt that drops you *3 levels* in one shot?!

Did you also know that they can blind you?

I kid you not: I was blinded, then turned into a riceball, then drained of AT LEAST 10 LEVELS!! All because I was super stingy and didn't want to use a Sealing Staff bolt! Now, even being super stingy, I absolutely shouldn't have failed that badly. I guess I kind of panicked when I started losing 3 levels, then 6 levels.

Did you know that one of the best strategies for a blind riceball who is rapidly being de-leveled is to die as quickly as possible? This strategy works especially well if you happen to be carrying a Revival Herb, which I was.

But still: having lost in the neighborhood of 9-12 levels, putting me back around ~level 38, changed the game from a cakewalk easy victory to a game that I wasn't so certain I could survive.

Pt. 3

OK, that last post was just abominably stupid, right? I couldn't possibly have done anything more stupid than that, right?

So no one who possibly failed that dramatically could possibly, say, fail in PRECISELY THE SAME WAY not 3 floors later, right?

I again saw a black Skull Demon, and I again failed to use a Sealing bolt on him right away -- I think I only used Sloth or somesuch. And he AGAIN drained me of 3 more levels, and he again blinded me, and I again died and used another Herb of Revival.

I was extremely grateful to have only lost 3 levels!

As the saying goes, "experience is that wonderful attribute that lets you identify a mistake as you're making it for the second time."

I'm not worthy of this game. My only excuse is that I was staying up late trying to finish this great run and was over-tired. I put the game down and went to sleep after this fiasco.

Pt. 4

OK! I'm refreshed and it's time to play a MUCH smarter game and come back from this massive de-leveling experience. (OK, two massive de-leveling experiences -- don't remind me.)

I've been only half-heartedly using my 4-spot Strengthening Jar. I've been putting in only a single weapon + armor, plus 2 staves to round out the jar, then baking for 5-10 floors, then melding. If I were really serious about my equipment, I'd put 2 weapons + 2 armor in the jar, or 4 of one type. Given that the dungeon is now far more dangerous, I figure I need more rare equipment. In particular, I'm missing a Dragonward, Crescent Arm, Blast Shield, and a bunch of other meldables I'd really like to have.

Aha! An Alloy Armor! I can use his meat to farm for rare meldables! Oh, and here's a great place to start, a new floor with lots of monsters (but no monster house)! (I can see them with my Armband of Sight -- did I mention how this run had everything an adventurer could possibly want?)

So I become the Alloy Armor, and I start moving through the dungeon, creating a few items here and there. It's a bit rough, as I'm still under leveled for this floor, but I manage to survive and not need to revert.

I come to a room with ~4 monsters, tightly packed. The problem is, I can't knock items away, because they'll just fly backwards into the next monster and be destroyed. I can't (e.g.) Paralyze the first monster to get the others to spread out, as I'd have to give up my Alloy Armor form. So I decided to just retreat into the hallway and turn the corner. This way, my monster foe would have his back against a wall, and I could knock an item away safely.

In fairness, this plan actually did work, I did manage to create a useful item this way. But I was apparently not paying attention to my map, because a 2nd Alloy Armor had walked up behind me, and I was now trapped!

I definitely realize how dangerous this situation is. In a straight line, it's enemy Alloy Armor, then me, then another monster. I'm not worried about dying, but in a single turn, that Alloy Armor could knock away my uber equipment and it would be lost forever! I also know I'm not strong enough to kill the Alloy Armor outright, even if I wanted to risk swinging at him. What I'd really like to do is use a Switching Staff to get behind the Alloy Armor. I'd better check my inventory to see what my options are.

Guess what? You can't check inventory when you're in monster form. And the same button presses you would use to check inventory cause you to use your monster form's special power.

OMG, I just accidentally tried to knock away an item when I wanted to check inventory, AND THE ALLOY ARMOR SUCCEEDED IN KNOCKING AWAY MY EQUIPMENT ON THE FIRST TRY. Sure enough, I heard the awful sound of a piece of equipment hitting a monster and being lost forever. OMG, not my Kabra's Blade +30 with 4 mods! Not my Windshield +45 with 5 mods!

Turns out it was my Armband of Sight. :^D :^D :^D

How do you spell relief!

I was able to revert and switch places before the Alloy Armor destroyed any of my other equipment.

Pt. 5

One tactic I began using to re-level myself was to use a Staff of Happiness to level up monsters. This gives you EXP + more EXP when you kill the higher form monster. I was particularly saving this trick for an Ark Dragon. Ark Dragons are incredibly buff and give you 4,000 EXP, but Hell Dragons are even more buff and give you 7,000 Exp.

(Just what kind of an idiot am I?! But I have plenty of emergency gear including more Herbs of Revival and Chiropractic Jars. I also had a Staff of Misfortune to undo my hubris should I need it.)

I didn't die because of this, nor was I ever in any real danger. But I learned the hard way that I was simply incapable of even denting a Hell Dragon in my current, weakened form. I got a critical hit and did 10 damage! Normal hits did 1-2 damage. He hit me for 50-80 damage. I really didn't want to give up on 7000 EXP, but I didn't have a Pain Sharing Staff at the time, so I was instead relying on a Staff of Sloth. I hit him, backed up and hoped he'd follow me, then hit him again.

I used multiple Chiropractic Jar charges and must have been halfway through the Hell Dragon's HP, when I stepped on a pitfall trap and exited the level. Well, at least it wasn't a sleeping trap. :^) That pitfall trap probably saved my life.

I used the same tactic again once I had a Pain Sharing Staff, and I re-gained many lost levels quickly.

Pt. 6

Last anecdote from this most amazing run. I finally hit the jackpot -- found a Herb of Invisibility. The whole point of this run was to get this item, and I finally did. I had tossed my Storehouse Jars long ago for space reasons, but I eventually found another and sent the Herb home.

The Herb was on 82 Fl, and the Storehouse Jar a few floors later. I decided to just explore the last few levels...

...then die on purpose, standing on the final staircase on 99 Fl. I figured there might be a few people in the community who would like a repeatable password to get a Herb of Invisibility, plus, if anyone ever did use this rescue password, they'd likely get an awesome reward from Hoi the Missionary.

So, I'm dead now, and I'd like a rescue. :^)

Details about the abusable password run can be found in Rescue List pt 4 and here:

Rescue Passwords for Password 27

The Rescue

Then I crafted a special "rescue me" advertisement, linking my pathetic rescue request to the real world, heroic (and failed) Shackleton / Endurance expedition to the South Pole circa 1914. I tried to make the run sound both hard to appeal to potential rescuers' competitive spirits and easy so people won't be frightened away by it. :^)

Here's a copy of the original advertisement with references to historical bad-assedness:

InvHerbRescueAdvertisement

NOTE: this is the original rescue advertisement. Parallels to rescues from the South Pole seemed apt, given the depth of the rescue and the fact that beating Final Puzzle leads to "the other side of the world".

"MEN WANTED: FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS, CONSTANT DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOUR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS."

- Advertisement by Sir Ernest Shackleton, seeking to crew The Endurance for an expedition to the South Pole. ***

This may well be the single hardest rescue request of all time. Are you up to the challenge?

Seem impossible? Here are some things that make it easier:

  • This run contains the best gear you could ask for.
  • This is the same dungeon run as Rescue Passwords for Password 26. That page has excellent details of the first 24 floors.

Why would you possibly want to attempt this?

  • Bragging rights! Who else can claim they've rescued someone from FFP 99 Fl?!?
  • Get great loot from the run itself, see above
  • Get an absurdly rare Herb of Invisibility, required for Borg Mamel growth
  • Hoi will likely give you a reward that you cannot get any other way
  • I will give the first player to rescue me anything that is within my power to give. 5-spot Strengthening Jar with 5 99-charge staves, or something equally valuable. To collect my reward, you'll need Nintendo WFC and we'll have to coordinate on a 2nd rescue via Nintendo WFC on Table Mountain 1 Fl.

Why did I create this password?

  • I wanted to make it possible for future players to get the Herb of Invisibility and grow their Borg Mamel more easily. (Note: don't use this password or any Rescue Passwords for Items if you want to experience the full difficulty and rarity of this game.)
  • I wanted to create a password that might help other players get rescue-only items from Hoi the Missionary.
  • Because I thought it was kind of dramatic to stand on the final staircase exiting 99 Fl and remove my equipment, stow my Herbs of Revival, and wait for a monster to come by and kill me.
  • But, I do actually want to be rescued! I sent my copy of the Herb of Invisibility back to my warehouse via a Storehouse Jar, so at least I've fulfilled my primary objective. But when you see the loot you can get out of this run, you'd have a hard time giving it up, too.

Additional notes:

  • Herb of Invisibility is for sale (4000 gitans) in shop on 82F
  • First Strengthening Jar I found was 4-spot on 33F
  • 5-spot Strengthening Jar is much later -- make good use of your first one
  • Lots of Monster Scrolls -- use them early and often in big rooms, just put on Sleepless Armband first
  • I used lots of Blank Scrolls as Monster Scrolls, too
  • I highly recommend melding a Hide Shield and Spiked Ward onto your Windshield. Melding in general is good, but those melds helped tremendously
  • If you manage your gear properly, there are several shops from which you can steal easily. (For instance, there are multiple Great Hall scrolls and Switching Staves available.) But, there really isn't much need. I ended up with 150K gitans on 99F. (I got an early Discount Armband + I did steal once just for the hell of it, but even without those expenses & risks, you should have plenty of money.)

Brave souls willing to attempt the challenge should post progress here, as I won't wait for rescue forever. I look forward to your rescue!

*** The Endurance became trapped in the Antarctic ice floes and its hull was crushed. The crew abandoned ship on foot with no seaworthy vessels and no hope of rescue. 18 months later, against impossible odds, Shackleton and his 22 men rescued themselves with no loss of life.

Penny Arcade

Here's another post to penny-arcade.com. The two replies are priceless! :^) Gamefaqs is my "home" message board, but IdolNinja on penny-arcade.com had written such a masterpiece about how to beat Final Puzzle, in this very thread in fact, that I had to at least ask him to consider the rescue:

July 20th 2008, 7:30 PM edited July 2008

I'm looking for a champion, a real expert, someone who can do the impossible. Have I come to the right place?

Who can rescue me from the south pole?

Long story short, I've died intentionally on 99 Fl of Final Puzzle, sacrificing my game for the greater good of future generations. I took precautions, of course, sending the most important items back to my warehouse. Still, I'd hate to sacrifice all the other great gear I've acquired. Plus, I'm really curious if anyone is capable of doing a rescue on 99 Fl and what rewards the game would give them for succeeding. :^)

My Nintendo WFC rescue request number is:

0000-0000-7601

My rescue request password is:

XX4BH L2!2 98XMG

DGNBH 49WQ H0K!P

!ZP3D HZ06 ZWZ!9

WPT1L YPXY P4Z10

The Wait

By this point, I had done all I could do to hype this rescue request. I then spent the next 4 days writing Final Puzzle Strategy (which still isn't complete) and checking all 3 websites ~5 times a day hoping someone would take an interest.

I knew of 3-5 players who definitely had the capacity to rescue me. On GameFAQs, 3 active posters definitely had access to 99 Fl:

  • smarfle was an expert player when I first started the game. He noticed the ad and suggested a race to be the first to rescue. (Interesting idea -- perhaps we should create actual races.)
  • Hobserk is active on both GameFAQs and wetpaint, and in particular has done a lot to help the Rescue Passwords for Items initiative.
  • EchoNull likewise spans both boards and I assumed he had already beaten Final Puzzle based on his input to the various fora.

It wasn't clear to me if anyone else still actively participating on the GameFAQs forum even had access to a 99 Fl rescue. Though I'd never interacted with him before, IdolNinja from penny-arcade.com clearly had the ability, and he sounded intrigued by the prospect. Plus, there was a 5th mystery player who had downloaded my rescue request from the Nintendo WFC and was "on the way" for 5+ days.

6 days after my initial advertisement, Hobserk sent word that he had taken up the challenge and was moving well to victory. In the next 4.5 hours, he completed the remaining 48 floors *and* documented the run completely.

Success

My initial ad promised rewards from Hoi, rewards from me, and fame and glory for the rescue. Poor Hobserk! Hoi only gave him a Big Riceball for completing the rescue, and then an Armband of Calm for the thank you password!! That cinches it: there is no justice in Hoi's rescue rewards. Hopefully, Hobserk is able to laugh about that now. :^)

For my own reward, I offered to meet in the Old Cedar Road and pass any item that was within my power to pass, including a 5-spot Strengthening Jar either full of other items or empty. But as I suspected for players capable of performing this rescue, there's really nothing you have that they might want. So I did the only thing I could do: shower him with fame and glory.

Here's the best "thank you" I could devise. He seemed to like it, as did several other players:

The thank you

Let it be known that Hobserk has just completed the single most difficult rescue of all time. He rescued me literally from the South Pole -- Final Puzzle 99F.

It's official: Hobserk has gone beyond mere legendary wandering status and become a Shiren immortal. He could frighten Hell Dragons to death with just a baleful stare, except he no longer has need for his mortal flesh, having transcended to a higher plane of being.

Thanks, man, I owe you one!

Some interesting facts:

Rescue request first posted on 7/15 4pm (page 28 of Rescue List pt 4)

Hobserk began the run sometime on the weekend of 7/20?

Hobserk completed run on 7/21 7:30pm (page 35 of Rescue List pt 4)

Hoi gave him a *#@^&@ Big Riceball. LOL!

Hopefully Hoi will give him something better for the thank you password.

As promised: Hobserk, anything that's within my power to give, it's yours! I'm happy to arrange a rescue in the Old Cedar Road to transfer the item or even a few items your way. Strengthening Jar with 5 spots and full of stuff (or empty) is still a possibility.

P.S.: for those who haven't been following this little saga, refer to these older threads:

Hobserk 10 years ago 7 - 22 - 2008, 5:48

Wow... thanks a lot. That thread just made my day. It was a pleasure to rescue you :)

I'm afraid I can't help you clean your warehouse though, mine is full. And now I need to store that ultra rare Big Riceball somewhere as well. I won't eat that one for sure

Final Thoughts

Now I'm just sorting through the loot that was rescued, trying to find some space for it in my overcrowded warehouses. Once that's done, I have some karma to repay by rescuing several other people. After that, I really like the idea of participating in or organizing a race of some sort.

Notes

This story contains rhaining's original Invisibility herb story. Along with all of the side stories across GameFAQ's, the old Shiren wiki and Penny Arcade. This thread is from before the time of the rescue password generator. This is before we had datamined info for the game and 10 - 11 years of experience with Shiren 1 DS. It's like a time capsule into the past for what the game, fandom and community was like back in mid-2008. I leave this here in the hopes that future wanderers enjoy it as much as I did. I've only been a Shiren fan since 2012 and this is as much a view into the past for me as it is for other fans and future fans. I felt it was worth it to preserve this thread on the Shiren wiki for several reasons.

  • The old Shiren community was based around all kinds of different forums and websites but we were all pretty tight-knit from the beginning. The Shiren wiki had a more approachable and personal feel than other wiki's have.
  • Both rhaining and Hobserk deserve their place in the English Shiren fandom's history for the amount of work that went into getting a farmable Herb of Invisibility with a step-by-step walkthrough to boot.
  • Not every thread on the old wiki can or should be preserved. But not every rescue password for an item has such a deep and well written backstory, let alone one as hilarious as this was to read.

- SungHerSong

References

http://shiren.wikifoundry.com/page/InvHerbStory

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=925583&topic=43600441

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=925583&topic=44289105

http://shiren.wikifoundry.com/page/InvHerbRescueAdvertisement

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=925583&topic=43777558

https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/52525/ds-roguelike-you-have-failed-me-pa-shiren-the-wanderer/p43

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=925583&topic=44417264