Community:Shiren 1 DS Meat Strategy

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Monster Meat is a type of item in  Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer. This page covers strategies for using, abusing and utilizing monster meat to its potental.

General strategies

• Saving high level monster meat from a previous run to throw in the early levels of your next one is a quick way to gain large amounts of XP without needing a Staff or Happiness, and works faster than wearing a Happy Armband. Just make sure you're wearing a good shield or are otherwise ready to face whatever you throw. Particularly good meats to throw are those which create aggressive melee monsters with weak hits that are absorbed easily by a +30 or better armor ward, such as Great Hens and Tengu Elders.
• Meat thrown when wearing a pitcher's armband will transform more than one monster. Throwing Sabergator meat at a path full of Slimes and draining monsters on a swamp level is a good way to both keep yourself strong and raise the amount of experience you get for defeating your enemies.
• Several high-level monsters, notably Curse Gran and Evil Shogun, have the same effects as their first-level counterparts when eaten. Eat the lowest-level meat you have when you need the effect, and save the higher-level meat to sell in shops or to throw at weaker monsters for the XP boost.
• Monsters are not immune to the effects of others of their kind. For example, if you are transformed into a sleep radish, you may put other sleep radishes to sleep, but you remain vulnerable to their attacks. (If you were wearing a sleepless armband, you're not getting its effect when transformed.)
• Eating meat or reverting to your normal form erases any status effects you are experiencing, such as sloth or confusion. Traps detected using a Herb of Sight will disappear, but those you have attacked or stepped on will remain visible.

While you are transformed

• You cannot use stairs, nor items you have stepped on.
• You have no access to your inventory
• You can pick up items only if you are a walrus (and there is space in your inventory), or Gitans as a walrus or member of the pickpocket family. Otherwise, you cannot take anything found on the ground.
• You are immune to traps. This is very useful when in the Ravine of the Dead, as you can revert to your true form after stepping onto a stairway and look underfoot to see whether the stairs are real or fake.
• You receive no effect benefits from your weapon, armor, or armbands. E.g., your hunger rate will be the default, you will not receive XP or attack bonuses, and your inventory is subject to theft. One fun side effect is that purple Slimes can rust your weapons and shields without removing their Gold plating.
• You will gain experience from killed enemies. However, but will not get the benefits of any Level-Ups you earn until you revert.

Specific meat effects are categorized below.

Item generation:

• Bowboy, Crossbowboy, Baby Tank: Tile some rooms with arrows, then revert and grab them. Arrows will not land on trapped squares. Shoot arrows in town to gain a (nearly-) full stack without consuming food.
• Ghost Radish, Daze Radish, Sleep Radish, Fear Radish: throw a couple of dozen herbs, and collect them (poison, confusion, sleep, and Kigny herbs, respectively); fill shops for quick cash
• Pickpocket, Thief, Burglar, Kleptomaniac: steal some Gitans (400-1500? vary with level?) and teleport, once per enemy. Will take and warp when stepping on Gitans.
• Thiefwalrus, Greenwalrus, Ironwalrus, Roguewalrus: steal and warp once per enemy, adding an item to inventory (unless there's no room). Will take and warp when stepping on items.
• Rice Baby, Rice Changer, Rice Boss, Rice Master: killed enemies have higher chance to drop riceballs; can throw RC meat at normal enemy when stronger after dropping important loot and stocking up on Gitan bags or arrows to let the RC breathe on it to make Big Riceballs
• Cell Armor, Metal Armor, Steel Armor, Alloy Armor: knock away one random equipment item per enemy; can also attack.

Inventory effects:

• Curse Girl, Curse Sis, Curse Mom, Curse Gran: un-curses all items in inventory not in jars, acting as a lucky Scroll of Blessing

Map effects, Item replacement:

• Dark Owl, Ghost Owl, Dusk Owl, Chaos Owl: Scroll of Light, (some?) enemies can't attack at range
• Soldier Ant, Corporate Ant, Captain Ant, General Ant: Unbreakable Pickaxe

Enemy evasion:

• N'Duba, N'Dulu, N'Bama, N'Balun: acts as Jar of Hiding on demand.
• Air Devil, Wraith Devil, Mirage Devil, Astral Devil: Invisible to enemies, can fly over water.
• Half Warrior, Half Fighter, Half Master, Half Lord: 1 damage from front, increased damage from sides/back
• Inferno, Inferno2, Inferno3, Inferno4...: Immunity to fire attacks from dragons and puffs. If hit by tanks, however, you will clone enemies of same inferno level.
• Pacorepkin Pacorepkina Pacorepking Pacorepgod: Move through walls, can attack enemies and recover hit points safely. Will not be targeted by most long-range attacks (high Dragons, Piggos, Radishes), but will be shot by Tanks for collateral damage, possibly opening a vulnerability by blowing the wall away.
• Egg Thing, Running Egg, Flying Egg, Hiding Egg: double movement, all but Egg Thing will warp when attacked
• Floor Dragon, Dragon Head, Dirt Dragon, Earth Dragon: can tunnel underground to move 2 tiles, even under an enemy.
• Hen: Double movement
• Dark Owl, Ghost Owl, Dusk Owl, Chaos Owl: Won't wake up sleeping monsters

Recovery:

• Evil Soldier, Evil Veteran, Evil General, Evil Shogun: If killed as one of these, revive as a ghost with full HP and Fullness. Can then possess another creature.
• Fluffy Bunny: skill recovers max of 50 HP per use for yourself and adjacent allies; allows you to stay on a level killing enemies until the Winds of Kron blow you away, even if you're starving.
• Polygon Spin, Polygon Jive, Polygon Song, Polygon Jig: Spin and Jive can use special next to an enemy to recover fullness; Song increases max fullness by 10%. Can also attack, so again can stay on a level till the Winds start blowing, and still get out with max fullness. (Does Jig increase Max Fullness and Fullness? only one?)
• Dead Soldier, Dead Veteran, Dead General, Dead Shogun: can Possess another creature to take over its body, as if you'd eaten its meat.
• Hen: Recover 100 fullness as opposed to usual 10 from monster meat.

Safe Leveling:

• Schubell, Menbell, Bellthoven, Showpin: can be used to summon enemies in town in a situation where they can't reach you. This, combined with a good shield and a Razor Wind modded sword can let you kill creatures forever, without fear of starvation, to raise yourself to Lv. 99 before even leaving Canyon Hamlet.
• Greenwalrus, Ironwalrus: Wear a Walrus Shield and no sword, throw one of these at one of the townspeople, then beat up on it until it multiplies. Hit each walrus once as soon as you can so that it goes for you instead of the items, and kill them one by one, grabbing the items they drop and raking in the experience. A sword with the Homing mod helps to ensure that you force a walrus to re-target rather than pick up the item it just stepped on after you kill a walrus next to you. A Razor Wind mod helps you clean up after some particularly prolific spawning. A Pitcher's Armband will let you line up several people in Canyon Hamlet (e.g., the two wanderers and the running boy) to reduce the detriment from missing and the chances of slow multiplication wasting your meat. Having a Bufu Staff or Bufu-modded weapon would let you stow a leveling pack in a Jar in the warehouse (e.g., Walrus Shield, Bufu'd weapon or staff, Pitcher's Armband, and Two Ironwalrus meats) for leveling before tough runs or rescues.
• Green Slime, Purple slime, Grey Slime, Red Slime: Cannot directly attack Shiren, and its special attack only affects equipment. Unequip your sword and shield (unless it has a gold seal for level 1 and 2), and throw a meat at one of the townspeople. As you attack, it tends to multiply, allowing you to create many monsters from 1 meat. It is beneficial to attack slimes that have empty spaces surrounding them, to ensure a slime can be spawned in one.

Ranged damage:

• Bowboy, Crossbowboy, Baby Tank: Shoots arrows
• Mini Tank: silver arrows pierce walls and multiple enemies as though thrown with Pitcher's Armband
• Popster Tank, Dadster Tank, Oldster Tank, Cranky Tank: explosive, can dig. Infernos clone if hit. Oldster and Cranky have double movement; Cranky attacks twice.
• Dragon, Sky Dragon, Ark Dragon, Hell Dragon: fixed damage (30, 40, 50, 60 HP respectively). Dragon attacks straight ahead, Sky nearest enemy in same room; higher ones attack through walls. Dragon flame levels up Infernos.
• Field Bandit, Jar Bandit, Item Bandit, Trove Bandit: weak weed throws; stepping over items turns them into weeds.
• Ironhead, Chainhead, Gigahead, Deathhead: just range 2
• Piggy, Piggo, Piggora, Piggaron: range increases with level; by Piggora level the rock throw ability auto aims (like a Lightning Staff) higher ones attack through walls
• Ghost Radish, Daze Radish, Sleep Radish, Fear Radish: Herbs deal 5 damage per in addition to status effects.

Augmented attack:

• Taur, Minotaur, Megataur, Gigataur: chance to deal a critical hit
• Knifegator, Sabregator, Bladegator, Swordgator: multiple hits per round (2, 3, 4, 5) hits in one attack, respectively)
• Dremlas, Madremlas, Hardremlas, Heavydremlas: skill is reusable knockback -- kill any melee with 0 risk (but it takes a while....)
• Tiger Uho, Tiger Uhoho, Tiger Uhon, Tiger Uboho: throw creature in front of you (enemy or ally) at nearest enemy in room, doing 5 HP damage to each. If no second enemy nearby, just tosses one space for no damage.
• Master Hen, Great Hen, Miracle Hen: attack twice per round

"Ultimate Weapon":

• Death Reaper. Hell Reaper. Death Angel. Death Master: Double movement rate; fly over water. Death Reaper and above attack twice. Death Angel and Master can move and attack through walls.

Enemy effects:

• Gaze, Super Gaze, Hyper Gaze, Ultra Gaze: Confuse enemy
• Twisty Hani, Floppy Hani, Droopy Hani, Wrinkly Hani: de-level enemy
• Green Slime, Purple Slime, Grey Slime, Red Slime: reduce enemy strength and defense, but must revert to attack normally

Detrimental:

• Kigny: lose control for 50 rounds, Shiren wanders, approaching any enemies and attacking hand-to-hand, possibly setting off traps
• Schubell, Menbell, Bellthoven, Showpin: Spawning monsters next to you with you being unable to use items for a turn can lead to an unavoidable death.

Utility when thrown:

• Dark Eye, Hidden Eye, Shadow Eye, Fear Eye: Can be used to block off a room for safe healing and such, by finding a room with one entrance, throwing the meat at an enemy standing in it, and staying two squares away. The assassin won't approach you in the light, and monsters won't be able to get past it.
• Gitan Mamel: drops 2,000 Gitans when defeated or converted to meat with Bufu's Staff.
• Ultra Gaze: Drops 5,000 Gitan upon defeat
• Egg thing, Running Egg, Flying Egg, Hiding Egg: Can drop riceballs to keep fullness up.
• Field Bandit: Can convert items such as arrows into weeds, or throw them, to restore 5 fullness per. Higher levels have special abilities which make this more risky.

Just normal attacking:

• Baby Tengu, Young Tengu, Tengu Chief, Tengu Elder
• Chintala, Mid Chintala, Big Chintala, Giga Chintala
• Gather, Killer Gather, Hell Gather, Fallen Gather
• Mini Robber, Robber, Robber Chief, Robber Lord
• Snaky, Vipy, Pythy, Anacondy
• Mamel, Pit Mamel, Cave Mamel , Gitan Mamel, Borg Mamel(?)
• Parthenos, Mistonos, Verginos, Goldinos

Hardly better than normal attacking:

• Fog Hermit, Haze Hermit, Mist Hermit, Cloud Hermit: cast a spell to halve enemy HP.
• Firepuff, Flamepuff, Blazepuff, Infernopuff: chance to breathe fire for fixed damage, but chance to fail, doing nothing.
• Leech Worm, Leech Bug, Leech Fly, Leech Queen: reduce enemy attack strength
• Flying Fowl, Flutter Fowl, Hover Fowl, Jet Fowl: fly over water, just normal attack
• Spike Bomb, Spike Blast, Spike Fire, Spike Erupt: explosion after an attack when you are with low HP, after the explosion Shiren returns normal and remains with only 1 HP

Weakeners:

• Skull Mage, Skull Wizard, Skull Wraith, Skull Demon: More of a defense meat. Cast spells to give monsters horrible statuses. Skull mages can give monsters a haste status so try to avoid skull mage meat. Use Skull Wizard to get more Exp by changing a monster to a Lv. 2 monster. Skull Wraith and Skull Demon can lower monster levels and other horrible status such as confusion or turning into a riceball.
• Ghost Radish, Daze Radish, Sleep Radish, Fear Radish: Inflict slow, confusion, sleep and Kigny respectively

Free Exp (Super Famicom):

• Hen: Hens will not even go after you and they give you 200 Experience They can't attack unless confused and are very weak. You could easily corner them in a small one exit room. You can also use hens to block in a passage. There is a likely chance the monster will kill the hen making it level up, you can kill the leveled up monsters to get more Experience