Shiren 1 DS:Table Mountain Strategy

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Table Mountain
テーブルマウンテン

Table Mountain.jpg
Story Dungeon
Information
Entrance Location
Final Goal Floor
Various
Total Floor Count
30
Bring Items In
Yes
Bring Gitan In
Yes
Bring Allies In
Up to 4
# of Rescues
3
# of Rescue Attempts
3
Various, allies
Pre-ID'd Items
Inventory, Warehouses
floor 8 onward and towns
floor 8 onward: One room, Great Hall
floor 8 onward
Monster Spawn Rate
90 turns
80 turns
70 turns
60 turns
1,000 turns
2,000 turns


This walkthrough is made to provide advice, strategy, and tips to help newer players navigate and successfully complete the main dungeon or adventure in Nintendo DS Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer. As Shiren is a rogue-like game, it can be at times unforgiving and challenging. With some practice and knowledge, I believe anyone can overcome the games challenges and find success. This guide is going to be divided into 2 major repeating sections. You can quickly search this guide by any of the area names. At the start of each area will be the monster list, where I provide common tactics you can employ against the enemies, as well as brief descriptions on what they do. Following that will be the actual guide portion for the area, listing advice and strategies to consider while in that area. I am sharing a lot of information within this guide, so it may be somewhat overwhelming at first. If you take your time with each separate area though, I hope it will be manageable to you as I try to help teach you about things over time. A lot of the knowledge you will find here can help you with various other mystery dungeon style games, including outside of the Shiren the Wanderer franchise.

Walkthrough

Shiren the Wanderer being a roguelike game makes it naturally filled to the brim with randomness. Every single time you enter any floor, it is randomly generated with randomly placed monsters, traps, items, and situations that simply can not all be accounted for. With this guide I hope to provide only general advice regarding what to expect for each of the floors and common tactics or strategies that a player can employ to handle the various monsters and situations you may find yourself in. This way, you can prepare yourself or try to improve your gameplay to help you out. Your own ingenuity will see you to success from there. As you grow accustomed to things, you should not have too much trouble with Table Mountain.

"Shiren the Wanderer is a short game. You could probably beat it in an hour. But you probably couldn't."

Canyon Hamlet

Canyon Hamlet.

The main hub area. This is where you will end up every time you are defeated in a dungeon or when you successfully complete any dungeon. Canyon Hamlet contains numerous Characters or Characters that you can speak with. They mostly share information about the games world, or they provide useful advice regarding mechanics within the game. Character's can also be tied to side quests. This guide will not provide an extensive rundown of everything you can do in this town. Please refer to the Canyon Hamlet page on the wiki for information about each Character and the various side quests, as well as other information.

Starting from the left side, there are 4 buildings in the Hamlet lined up in a row. You have the Bar, the Warehouse, the Inn, and Fay's Puzzles. I advise visiting the bar in the upper left and speaking with the Barman at the counter. He will provide you with a free Big Riceball after some dialogue. Every time you return to the Canyon Hamlet by any means, you start a new "run." This means that everything is refreshed. Side quests can be progressed to their next stages. One time use Shops or events will regain their uses (Smiths for example,) and most notably, Shiren returns to level 1 with all of his stats reset to their starting values. Keeping this in mind, you can always return to the Barman once per run to receive a free Big Riceball, which can be very helpful.

Whether or not you decide to visit the barman, the next thing you may want to consider doing is entering Fay's Puzzle House to solve some of Fay's puzzles. The puzzles are very educational and teach you about things you can do in the game. Each time you solve 1 puzzle you will receive a random item which may help you out, though don't expect to be overly spoiled by the rewards.

You can find various other friendly Character's here. It is important to note that if you ever hit a Character by any means, they will aggro onto you. You can speak with them safely by pressing the action button while adjacent to them unless they are attacking you. I recommend speaking with the various Characters as many can be tied to quests or they can be helpful partner characters. For specifics on those Character's, refer to the corresponding wiki pages. If you do aggro or kill a Character, they will be friendly towards you again after you start a new run by returning to the hamlet or entering and leaving a building. Character's can also be found inside of the dungeons. They appear as yellow dots on the map.

When you're ready to begin your adventure, head all the way to the right and walk past the man blocking the way. This Character is here to teach you about how to walk through other friendly Character's so feel free to speak with him if you aren't sure how to get past him. After you enter the dungeon for the first time, he will move to a different location in the village and no longer be in your way. It's time to start our ascent!

Old Cedar Road: Floors 1 - 2

Floor 1 of Old Cedar Road.

I feel it is important to point this out now. Shiren has RPG elements, and so many new players start the game thinking about it like an RPG. They begin to grind up their items and then end up losing it in a disastrous way later and become devastated or give up. It is important to keep in mind that you can succeed at this game, by just utilizing the items you are given on a particular run. You do not have to grind at all, though you are capable of doing so if you desire. I will explain grinding tactics at the end of this guide as an alternative strategy. Shiren is more about your decision making as a player, and is not as reliant on the particular gear you happen to find or not find along the way. With that in mind we can begin.

The first 2 floors ease you into what to expect going forward. There are few traps scattered around, and they are not as debilitating as ones that come up later in Table Mountain. Feel free to refer to the traps page of this wiki for specifics. If you are rather unlucky, you may face an aggressive seed regarding monster spawns and get bullied into defeat. It doesn't happen often though, and even less so if you decided to bring supplies with you from previous attempts or the tutorial area of the game. Except when in great numbers, the enemy's that are here are not much of a threat to you. It is a good idea to explore all of the map and pick up every item you can before ascending the stairs to the next floor.

Just a few more tips to keep in mind before we move on. Check out the item reference tables on the wiki to learn cool additional benefits of various items. For example, Medicinal Herb and Restorative Herb heal your health usually. You may also eat them while at full hp to increase your maximum hp by a small amount instead. Lastly, they can be used as Weapons against certain types of enemies! (ghosts.) Items truly have vast amounts of ways to utilize them.

While this is not a hard rule to abide by, this may help newer players survive the dungeon. It can be a good idea to have Shiren's level be 1 higher than the current floor you are on before moving forward. This will keep you up to par with the enemies you will encounter however, at some point the floors will be outpacing your level right around the mid to late 20's usually. Just in this first area you will see first hand the astounding difference between level 1 Shiren and level 2 Shiren in terms of dealing with these monsters.

The last thing I want to mention is to always identify every item you can as soon as you get it. You want to eliminate unknowns as early as possible. If you need help with this aspect of the game, you can leave items in any warehouse and so long as the item is stored, it will always be identified for future Table Mountain runs. As long as you can understand what an item is doing, you can name it whatever you want that helps you to remember what it does. If you reach any of the towns while climbing up table mountain, all items in your inventory will identify themselves.

Talk to the Character's you encounter on your path. Oryu the Blinder will blind you the first few times you encounter her. But eventually she'll be able to join you on your adventures and will randomly show up on dungeon floors and offer to join you. Other Character's will give you valuable advice. Even seemingly useless items like weeds can be eaten to restore 5 points to your belly, tossed at an enemy to deal 2 damage or inserted into a Jar of Change to get a better item.

Mamel

A Mamel.

This franchise's mascot enemy. The Mamel is extremely basic with no special powers normally. It does gain unique abilities at 4 however, gaining quite a lot of power and protection from most forms of damage. In fact the level 3 and 4 variations actually require some care when dealing with them, the 4 is especially dangerous with double movement and attack.

Mini Robber

This is one of two generic enemies. The Mini Robber family stays weak as they power up, though their hp values rival that of their counterpart generic enemy, their power tends to be lower. They provide some nice variety for the beginning area but are otherwise very simplistic.

Chintala

A Chintala.

These monsters are sort of like the sub mascot enemy in my opinion, always right behind the Mamel. They are the second generic enemy in the game, with hp values near equaling the Mini Robber but they are a little tougher and stronger as they level up. Still, both this monster family and the mini robber serve the same purposes and merely exist to provide fun variety to what could have been only 1 generic low tier enemy.

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
Mamel.png Mamel マムル 1 - 2 2
Mini Robber.png Mini Robber Family 豆山賊 1 - 2 3
Chintala.png Chintala Family チンタラ 1 - 2 5

Mountain Stream: Floors 3 - 4

Bowboy

A ranged attacker that fires wood arrows in a straight line. Arrows tend to have lower accuracy and so miss you semi frequently. While not the best method for it, you may if you wish try to farm a few arrows off of the Bowboy's if you are feeling confident. Just allow them to fire at you and hope some arrows fall on the ground! Just don't go overboard with it. Make sure you know how many hits it takes you to defeat the Bowboy, and account for possible missing of your own when attacking the monster. Bowboy's also have a decent chance of dropping small bundles of arrows when they are defeated, so you can stick around on the floor for a bit hoping that more Bowboy's will spawn. Arrows are probably one of the most essential tools you can obtain and serve a myriad of purposes. Arrows are well worth obtaining. They are possibly the most versatile item you can obtain in the game, but it is not necessary to grind for them.

Snaky

This monster does not have any special abilities, but is noticeably stronger than the other enemies you have faced so far. Depending on the gear you have obtained, namely a Shields or not, the Snaky can be a serious threat, if they happen to level up at this point in the game, unless you came in prepared you will most definitely die if they hit you, but unless you go out of your way to achieve that, enemies should not be leveling up this early naturally.

Pickpocket

This is a relatively harmless enemy that only tries to steal your Gitan from you. If you have any Gitan collected, it will take them and teleport somewhere else on the map to then run away. If you find them and kill them, they will drop what they stole, or drop a random amount of Gitan if they have not stolen from you. Pickpockets also have a habit of standing on other Gitan on the ground and then protecting them. You can avoid their theft effect if you find a Walrus Shield, but other than that you will want to hit them with an arrow or item first before finishing them off when they approach you. Though, I wouldn't waste items on these harmless critters normally. Just let them take your Gitan, you will find plenty more later.

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
Chintala.png Chintala Family チンタラ 3 - 4 5
Snaky.png Snaky Family ハブーン 3 - 4 8
Bowboy.png Bowboy Family ボウヤー 3 - 4 6
Pickpocket.png Pickpocket Family ガマラ 4 8

The Mountain Stream area of the game starts to ease you in with a little more sophistication than the previous. While not necessary in the least, this can be the point of a tactical give up for many players. Most players will want to have found at least any shield or sword by the end of floor 4. If you are struggling with finishing table mountain, and especially for speed runners, you can consider starting your run over at this point looking for a stronger start. I personally like to see if I can manage with whatever the game gives me all the time, but there is no shame in selecting give up to end your current run and trying again for a stronger start with at least a sword or shield if not both.

Other than that tactic, it is still fairly early in the run, so you can get away with being rather careless here and there are not many strategies to consider employing. Since it is early in your table mountain run, you will want to thoroughly explore the whole floor to get all of the items before moving forward. I mentioned it in the monster list, but you can try and farm up a small bundle of arrows to help you out on your adventure. I don't think it is worthwhile to get carried away doing that, though you definitely can if you so desire. Just picking up a few arrows here can assist with some things in the next dungeon area.

Bamboo Village: Rest Floor

Bamboo Village

This is the second village in the game. It contains a few useful things besides being a point of respite. The buildings are from the left to the right, a Shop, a House, a Blacksmith, a Fortune Teller, and a Tavern. At the Top is the Kitchen God and at the bottom is another House and a Stable. See the corresponding wiki pages for detailed information about these locations and the additional things you can do here.

For this guide, the most notable locations are the shop and the blacksmith. The shop can contain many useful items to pick up. Definitely make use of this resource to help you succeed. The first time you enter it, there will be a cutscene featuring Pekeji, one of the Character's that you can take as a partner through dungeons to help you out. Until you progress his quest line, he will always be here and break a pot when you enter the shop, providing 4 additional items to choose from. Once you progress his story, he will no longer be here so you will not have the additional items at the shop. If you are feeling confident, you can steal from this shop. Refer to the wiki's Thievery for strategies on how to succeed at that. Now if you want to trivialize the final boss of the story mode, I recommend buying any monster meat you see here and then keeping it on your person all the way to the end if you can manage that. I will provide more details later in the guide. As with all of the information I share, this is merely an option you can use to your advantage and is not necessary to succeed.

The other location of note is the blacksmith. For 1,000 Gitan he will upgrade any metal weapon (so anything except clubs and shields with an exception to the shields bit.) He normally increases your weapon strength by 1 with a rare chance of increasing it by 3. While not necessary by any means, upgrading your weapon does help a lot. You can utilize his service once per run.

There are additional side quests that you can progress here as well. With the way Shiren the wanderer works, I recommend checking out the Quests in detail on the wiki page so you can get those started if you wish. Many quests require you to speak with a Character multiple times on multiple different runs in order to finish them. After you are done with your business, you should be ready to continue forward to the next part of the dungeon. Head all the way to the right of the middle section to proceed.

Pegasus Ridge: Floors 5 - 6

Field Bandit

This little guy isn't much of a force to fear in combat, but it prioritizes walking onto items on the field. Any item a Field Bandit touches, instantly turns into Weeds, thus leaving the original item destroyed and lost forever. For more advanced players, this little guy adds additional risk to sorting your inventory via placing items on the ground, something that is a bit of an art form in this game. Always respect higher level versions of this monster, especially if it levels up to 3 or 4. Those are the most dangerous enemies in the game to everything in your inventory. Now you might be thinking to yourself, why would I bother putting any items on the ground then while the Field Bandit is here? Well, you might be incentivised to do so because of our number one notorious monster that works in tandem with the bandit.

Rice Changer

Mahjong Shiren - Rice Changer.jpg

You will come to recognize this oddball creature by it's unique design and bright, warning colors just like any dangerous animal of nature. It is an entity that you will come to either love or loathe, perhaps both. This is the 1st monster that you will want to consider learning how to handle appropriately, as doing so can greatly aid you in your runs. Its ability is simple. It may breath its transformative breath over Shiren and then change any one non equipped item in your inventory into a Big Riceball. This monster can instantly destroy anything on your person, but at least you will have a riceball out of it! When it comes to combating a rice changer, once you see one on screen you may want to consider spending a few turns dropping your very important gear on the ground to safe keep it from the changer. Just make sure you keep an eye out for those bandits! I will discuss common strategy regarding this entity in a later paragraph, for now I will discuss the other enemies to take note of.

Firepuff

This is the first enemy that can utilize fire damage. Fire damage bypasses your shield and defensive bonuses unless you have a fire protection seal. A single fire puff can be a serious threat to you, as it will chunk your life down by 10 hp potentially. They more often than not spam their fire attack, but it does have a small chance of not working. They also count as "float" monsters, and can fly over all of the open gaps of the ridge to reach you.

Evil Soldier

When this monster is defeated, it will spawn a Dead Soldier after a few turns where it died. This monster seeks out other monsters. Upon being adjacent with one, it will level up the monster. Evil Soldiers are the second enemy you will want to learn how to utilize to your advantage. They can easily put you in great danger by leveling up an undesirable enemy. Or they can give you great advantages in a controlled environment.

Egg Thing

Sometimes you may encounter an egg monster that can move twice per turn. They are useful to defeat as they usually drop a Riceball. Higher level versions can drop other useful items though are difficult to kill as they warp away from you.

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
Bowboy.png Bowboy Family ボウヤー 5 - 6 6
Pickpocket.png Pickpocket Family ガマラ 5 - 6 8
Field Bandit.png Field Bandit 畠荒らし 5 - 6 7
Firepuff.png Firepuff Family ヒーポフ 5 - 6 10
Rice Changer.png Rice Baby Family 妖怪にぎり変化 5 - 7 12
Evil Soldier.png Evil Soldier Family 鬼面武者 5 - 6 15
Dead Soldier.png Dead Soldier Family ぼうれい武者 5 - 6 4
Egg Thing.png Egg Thing Family ぴーたん 5 - 6 7

A great Shiren player once claimed that the following 2 floors are the most dangerous floors in the entire standard game. I am inclined to agree with them to an extent. Pegasus Ridge introduces a handful of new enemies that are easily capable of sabotaging an inexperienced player and one upping experienced ones from time to time. If you respect your environment however, you can tame the danger present here. Or at least brace yourself to hold back those tears as you watch your precious items get destroyed.

Alright, lets discuss some strategy. Besides being a little more cautious on these floors but still exploring them in full for items, there are 2 objectives to accomplish here that while both are not necessary to do, can be tremendously useful to employ, especially for beginners.

The first strategy is to secure your food. The Rice Changer creates Big Rice Ball's out of items in your inventory. Having 5-6 is more than enough to make it through Table Mountain in full and keep your hunger in check so long as nothing happens to them. The first thing you will want to do is go about the floor and clear out as many monsters as you can. If you find a rice changer, consider keeping it alive. If you happen to have a Staff of Sloth or Poison Herb, that is all the better. Next, you will need some items that you are okay with sacrificing. If you happened to obtain at least 1 bundle of arrows, you can fire them all at a wall so each is on the ground. You can then walk on top of them without picking them up, and swap them with another item in your inventory. This allows you to store individual arrows. Each individual arrow can be hit by the rice changer to make a whole rice ball, so just finding one bundle of arrows is all you really need. Finally, you will want to put your important items on the ground. Anything you do not want to have changed. Make sure you keep an eye out for those field bandits! After this go get your fellow rice changer and let them breath on you. They may attack frequently so I recommend figuring out how many hits it takes you to kill one first so you know when your hp is in danger. While you let the changer do its thing, it is good practice to be standing on top of an emergency item you left on the ground. Your health will get low doing this more than likely. If you pass turns while standing on a Staff of Paralysis, Staff of Postpone, Knockback Staff, or any other useful item that can 100% deal with the rice changer in an emergency then you will be that much safer. You now have the knowledge to utilize the rice changer as much as you like. You can max out Shiren's fullness or increase it dramatically by eating a riceball while Shiren is full, so if you really want to go crazy with this strategy you can. The only other thing to keep in mind is that The Winds of Kron will eventually force you to move on.

The second strategy is to buffer your level. Thanks to the combination of 2 things being present here, you can increase your level very quickly. First, find a Rice Changer and get it to follow you around. You may want a Staff of Sloth, Postpone, Paralysis, Knockback, or Switching Staff to keep you safe in an emergency. You will now want to find and kill Evil Soldiers to level up this Rice Changer. Always keep a safe distance away from high level monsters when you're doing this. Due to the layout of the ridge, it is not difficult to ensure that the rice changer levels up. You will want to do this twice, as most monsters grow to level 4 (the Rice Changer, already is a level 2 monster.) Once you have a Rice Master, now you just have to kill it. The reason why we want to make a high level rice changer is two fold. It provides the most experience to you out of all of the monsters here. It also suffers from a cool feature Chunsoft included. Any member of the rice baby family dies instantly when you hit them with a thrown riceball. This highly dangerous monster will be put down in no time this way, and you will reap enough experience to on average hit level 18, giving you an insane power boost that should without carelessness, guarantee you make it to at least the Table Mountain floors proper. Just make sure you have an emergency item or multiple riceballs on hand in case the thrown riceball misses the Rice Master. Take caution about not leveling up the Field Bandit enemy, or the other enemies. They are not so easily dealt with and each is a highly dangerous threat to you at this point assuming you started with low tier gear or none at all.

I should mention that you can do either of these strategies in any order you wish of course. I should also mention that you can absolutely succeed and win at Table Mountain without doing either of these strategies, though it will make it quite a bit more challenging! This is Shiren the wanderer after all, you should always consider abusing anything and everything you can to gain advantage over the game.

Moutaintop Forest: Floor 7

Skull Mage

You will come to fear this monster family soon enough, but the 1st form present here is not so bad that you need to do anything different when dealing with it. It can actually be rather helpful to you as well. None of the spells it can cast are more than a nuisance to you. If it levels up though, well I highly recommend not allowing that to happen or leaving immediately if one does level up. The level 2 is not tremendously dangerous but 3 and above are very capable of killing you with how bad their magic effects are. Always mind your movement when in the presence of these enemies. One thing I do want to bring up with the Skull Mage, is to take extra caution when you are in a shop with one. If you are carrying items from a shop before paying and it hits you with a bolt to warp you out, it counts as stealing. Next thing you know, you're surrounded by Sheriffs and Guard Dogs and probably dying unless you planned for that to happen.

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
Pickpocket.png Pickpocket Family ガマラ 7 8
Field Bandit.png Field Bandit 畠荒らし 7 7
Firepuff.png Firepuff Family ヒーポフ 7 10
Rice Changer.png Rice Baby Family 妖怪にぎり変化 7 12
Evil Soldier.png Evil Soldier Family 鬼面武者 7 15
Dead Soldier.png Dead Soldier Family ぼうれい武者 7 4
Egg Thing.png Egg Thing Family ぴーたん 7 7
Skull Mage.png Skull Mage Family ガイコツまどう 7 17

I do not have much additional advice to provide for this floor. This is one of the last unique "set piece" style floors you will encounter for a little while. Outside of that, there is not any additional information for me to impart that especially pertains to this area. This floor is your last chance to utilize rice changers and dead generals for a time. It is also another floor that you can relatively safely explore in full before moving on.

Mountaintop Town: Rest Floor

Mountaintop Town

This town is quite the rest stop. It is probably the most useful town for a myriad of reasons. The layout for the town is essentially a giant square, or two parallel lines with an outcropping on the top right where the diner is. Starting from the entrance, from left to right you have an inn, a restaurant, and a warehouse. The bottom section from left to right you have a house, the blacksmith, then the path splits up and to the right. Up is just another house, and the right is Gaibara the Legendary Potter place and to the right of that is the Jar shop. As usual, resort to the wiki for detailed information regarding side quests and thievery. This is a pretty great town to recuperate at. For the purpose of this walkthrough, you may want to consider using the inn for 500 Gitan to restore your hunger to full, though if you have been messing with rice changers then this is normally not necessary. The restaurant on the cliff in the top right serves the same purpose but is free and provides stat boosts, but only after you unlock it by finishing a few side quests. If you do have it unlocked, feel free to always utilize the restaurant. The blacksmith here works the same as the previous one. The most notable feature here is the warehouse. This is a great place to store items you want to preserve for later. Or if you are a player that likes to collect things like I do, it makes an amazing storage space for size 5 Jar of Holding to pile up with stuff. Once you are finished with your business here if any, move all the way to the right to continue your journey.

Old Mine at Mount Nebri: Floors 8 - 9

Death Reaper

This enemies main feature is that it can move twice, though it can only attack once. It is not overly powerful, but is often times the first thing you will need to deal with considering its speed. If these enemies ever level up, they become insanely dangerous.

Curse Girl

These monsters have a chance to Curses any item in your inventory, including your equipped items. I think at first, you can conserve your resources and just fight these enemies normally. A few cursed items are not necessarily a bad thing. If you do get hit with their ability a lot, or if you are extremely dependent on a certain item not being cursed like an armband, then it might be worthwhile to treat these with respect and dispatch them safely with your resources.

Spike Bomb

This is a monster that takes a little bit of understanding. Spike Bomb's have 2 hp thresholds. When they hit low health but not critical, they will grow big and red set to explode. This makes them immobile at least but being next to them is risky. If their hp hits critical, then they explode and act as a Big Landmine Trap does. It will kill any monsters adjacent to it, and bring Shiren down to critically low health of about 2 hp unless you are packing a blast seal. This explosion can clear out walls and destroy items as well. Good behavior for dealing with them one on one is to hit them once with your weapon, then unequip your weapon and hit them with your fists afterward. They do not do much damage themselves, and these extra steps can be the difference between keeping you alive. Remember that they will remain in place when in critical health mode. If you lack arrows or a way to set them off safely, make sure you fight them out in the open so they do not block a hallway. Though, this can be useful to you if you are being chased by a lot of monsters, and the Spike Bomb is the one adjacent to you. This is a monster family that is worth memorizing their hp values so you can approximate when they might be close to detonating. Just keep this enemy away from the next one we will discuss.

Tiger Uho

A giant tiger looking monster that throws other monsters at Shiren, or can throw Shiren at other monsters. The throwing attack is not always bad, as it only does 5 damage to you and the target monster but the amount of crazy situations this can cause is unlimited. Always be aware of what a tiger is near and able to throw. This monster can be fine to take on one on one, but may require you to prioritize debilitating it with an item more often than not to avoid disastrous situations. It can be a good idea to retreat to any hallway to fight the tiger, as they can not throw you at anything they can not see. The exception to this is if there is a monster house on the current floor. The tiger is capable of tossing Shiren all the way to the middle of any monster house. It's an amazing ride to your potential death!

Thiefwalrus

Mahjong Shiren - Thiefwalrus.jpg

This guy like the field bandit prioritizes walking on top of an item and then stealing it. It will warp away and then forever try to avoid Shiren to keep it. You can get the item it steals back by killing it. If it doesn't get an item before becoming adjacent to Shiren, then it will attempt to steal one of your unequipped items. The first form of Theifwalrus is not that bad, but if it takes something you desire it can leave you spending additional time on the current floor tracking it down. All upgraded versions of the walrus can be dangerous however. Level 2 - 4 walrus have a chance of replicating when hit. This ability can happen infinitely, and when they replicate they immediately take a turn. You can easily lose a lot of your gear by messing with these monsters. I recommend Staves usage or a Walrus Shield being on hand before you mess with the higher level walrus. Later on in this guide I will discuss the usual way many players deal with these enemies.

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
Egg Thing.png Egg Thing ぴーたん 8 - 9 7
Skull Mage.png Skull Mage ガイコツまどう 8 - 9 17
Spike Bomb.png Spike Bomb ばくだんウニ 8 - 9 20
Death Reaper.png Death Reaper 死の使い 8 - 9 23
Thiefwalrus.png Thiefwalrus ぬすっトド 8 - 9 15
Baby Tank.png Baby Tank コドモ戦車 9 30
Tiger Uho.png Tiger Uho タイガーウッホ 9 35

Welcome to the old mines. This is the begging of the core mystery dungeon experience. You have fully randomized dungeons now, and Monster House Strategy can be generated along with a significant increase in the volume of traps. Not to mention that there are now some very threatening ones present. Consider your training wheels taken off, the next 6 floors are essentially a demonstration of the full challenge that will try to keep you from winning. If you can survive here, you will have a solid foundation for finishing the game and taking on the bonus dungeons.

Alright, so all of the monster information to the top; (you did read that right?) lets discuss a little bit of floor strategy. The first thing I want to say, is that you will want to learn good "behavior" for safely tackling monster houses. This is a rather extensive topic with a lot to think about, so I won't cover it here. You can learn a lot more through trial and error with personal experience though as opposed to me typing out an entirely separate essay! There are some things I do want to discuss though. When you enter or spawn into a monster house, you will want to figure out a few things. Ask yourself these questions.

Can you deal with the monsters present in this monster house? Can you safely reach the connecting hallway? Are the stairs present and if so, should you use all of your means to just rush the stairs and skip all of the loot and monsters? Remember that traps are abundant in a monster house, so moving around carelessly can lead to your death. Switching staffs are very useful here for maneuvering safely, as are any Scrolls you may have as they work on the entire room. Always holding onto at least 1 Herb of Sight can be very beneficial. If you are safe for a turn at the start of a monster house, eating a Herb of Sight is a good idea. Also if you ever see a bunch of sleeping monsters when you are 1 step away from entering a room. You are probably staring down a monster house. It can be a good idea to consider shooting arrows inside the room or even blindly swinging a staff bolt to try and get some monsters to wake up and approach you in a much more controlled way, emptying out the monster house a bit.

The next tip I want to share goes in tandem with monster houses mostly. One of the greatest dangers in Shiren is stepping into a dark room and then hitting a bad trap at the entrance. You can actually check for traps in this game by attacking with your weapon. If a trap is in front of where you are swinging, it will reveal itself. Revealed traps have a lower chance of activating when stepped on. It is currently too early in the run to bother checking every tile for traps, but it can be good practice to check the entrance way of every room you enter for a trap. Just this little habit will see your success rate increase. Though this is not a necessary chore to perform all the time.

The last bit of information I would like to share here regards secret passages. Sometimes there will be hidden paths via breakable walls. Figuring out which walls are breakable is not obvious, as there is no tell except for one intuitive detail. As you probably figured out by this point, you can hold down B to make Shiren move fast. This is especially useful for traversing hallways quickly. This feature has a second handy use though, and that is identifying breakable walls. If you fast travel while hugging a wall, or even when moving in a hallway, Shiren will stop if he comes into contact with a hidden path. This is because the game still recognizes the path is there. All you have to do is attack the wall you happened to stop at to reveal it. This trick will not help you if a hidden path happens to be on a corner as well, since you stop regardless when you hit the corner of a room.

Janus Valley: Rest Floor

This is just a straight rope bridge that adds a little to the world building of Shiren but is otherwise empty. It gives you a moment to take note of your inventory but is limited outside of that. You can accomplish some side quests here and later on access one of the post-credits dungeons. You can also Bungee Jumping if you have unlocked it from side questing. Bungee jumping in my opinion, never provides a worthwhile enough reward for doing it. It has a chance to straight up kill you which while humorous, will take all of your items away and immediately end your run. The only time I suggest considering bungee jumping is if you are doing some sort of naked run of one of the bonus dungeons and you do not mind the risk of starting over for some potential stat gains. Or if you just like to live dangerously of course.

Cavern in the Cliff: Floors 10 - 11

Pacorepkin

This enemy moves at random and can pass through walls. These are normally not an issue with the exception of a semi frequent scenario. They can be dangerous if following you through a hallway, as you can not hit them back if they are inside of any wall. Some strategies to combat this is to keep a Pickaxe on hand and take the time to switch to it to break the wall it is in and then kill the paco with it. You can try to ignore them as well but it could be problematic if another monster blocks your way. Silver Arrows also work wonders against them as those fire through walls. The last thing to keep in mind is that this enemy is actually one of the most dangerous ones to your allies. Your allies will get hung up on trying to attack the thing and just stand next to the ghost in a wall as their face gets smeared with pumpkin bits from that headbutt.

Hidden Eye

This monster family always stays 1 space away from Shiren. They have low hp but rather insane damage output. Their gimmick is that they always want to strike you first. They are easily dispatched with arrows or you can enter into the dark part of a hallway and then pass some turns by attacking. They will follow you into the hallway so long as they can no longer see Shiren. This will allow you to gain the first strike against them.

Soldier Ant

These enemies are generally a non threat in this game. They are capable of digging. Most notably if you are in a hallway and one of these is near you, they may break down the wall to get to you, opening it up for more monsters to come in. They also have a tendency to dig around the exterior of the stage. If they happen to dig the entire exterior of a floor (or if you do this as well using a Pickaxe.) The floor will turn into a great hall, as all the walls will disappear. This is often interrupted by the presence of water on the map edges.

N'Duba

Shiren 1 DS Source Book - N'Duba.png

This enemy will become a common sight moving forward. This is also known as the fake idol. It appears as a random item on the ground and can be picked up by you. If you ever try to equip or use the N'Duba, it pops out and reveals its true form. If you go to the next floor without trying to use said item, the monster will reveal its true form in your inventory. A common way to deal with these monsters is to understand how they work. They always pop out above Shiren. So you want to stand directly below a water tile or open hole tile. Then activate the N'Duba in your inventory and watch them warp as they enter an invalid space. If you do not do this, they will get a free hit off on you, and these enemies actually do somewhat unreasonable amount of damage to Shiren.

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
Death Reaper.png Death Reaper 死の使い 10 23
Baby Tank.png Baby Tank コドモ戦車 10 30
Thiefwalrus.png Thiefwalrus ぬすっトド 10 - 11 15
Tiger Uho.png Tiger Uho タイガーウッホ 10 - 11 35
Soldier Ant.png Soldier Ant 兵隊アリ 10 - 11 10
Hidden Eye.png Hidden Eye フイウッチー 10 - 11 30
Curse Girl.png Curse Girl ノロージョ 10 - 11 40
Running Egg.png Running Egg 逃げピータン 10 - 11 15
N'Duba.png N'Duba ンドゥバ 20
Piggy.png Piggy デブータ 11 25
Pacorepkin.png Pacorepkin パコレプキン 11 42

So this portion of the game is more or less the same as the previous. I want to remind you that nothing I have shared so far are hard and fast rules to abide by. Especially when you are playing a game that has such a high degree of variance to consider. Each run will be incomparably unique to one another, and if I am to be honest, writing a guide for a game like this is, well how am I doing so far?

Once you reach these floors, you are now 1/3rd of the way through Table Mountain. At this point you may want to consider having on hand at least 1 spare weapon and shield. Shiren players know all to well that for lack of a better phrase, "shit happens." Moving on past this floor to 12 and beyond is really the place where you may have to deal with some shit happening to you and most importantly, your gear. It is also the point where you still want to be thorough with exploring the floors if you can manage it. Which I will be forward with you now and say that you should definitely be able to handle it, otherwise your run might not be looking so hot.

Another thing to consider if you haven't yet, is settling on your main gear for the run. What I mean by this, is if you have not yet utilized Earth Bless Scroll and Air Bless Scrolls that you may be hoarding because you have been holding out for better loot then now is a good time to consider picking something you want to be your main weapon. Remember, you are always capable of tagging out gear as the situation calls for it. The power boost from focusing on one weapon and shield can be extremely helpful however, especially moving forward. +4 and higher gear will make a noticeable difference. Just make sure you take care of this gear now.

While it is not necessary as everything else I have shared, it is extremely helpful to have found any kind of Armbands by this point. Armbands are excellent tools that allow you to have an easier time at dealing with a particular situation. I will mention which armbands are extremely desirable and for what reasons moving forward in the guide. Again, they are not necessary but they are very helpful and of course you can not simply find everything in every run.

Cave of the Mountain Spirits: Floors 12 - 14

Piggy

These enemies are capable of hurling a rock at you from a range that increases as they level up. The only defense against a Piggy's rock in this game is out healing the damage and/or having a good shield with high defense. These enemies can be draining with other monsters, specifically if they are behind other monsters or out of reach. Later versions are exceedingly dangerous while being simultaneously impossible to play around or counter. When Piggy's are present, if you are not capable of dealing with the damage they dish out, it could be prudent to consider employing the tactic of stair running until you are no longer on a floor that spawns this monster family.

Inferno

This is the first of 2 enemies that have a unique level up system. Instead of only 4 tiers, it actually goes from 1 - 99. This enemy is a brute with the gimmick that its fire body burns up everything shot or thrown at it. This means Projectiles and items like Gitan throwing does not work. This enemy does a lot of damage as well. If you do not have an excellent weapon or shield to kill them in 1 or 2 hits, you may need to start aggressively utilizing any staves you have on hand to help you deal with this enemy, as extended fights with these enemies are not desirable. They also have 2 other abilities. Fire attacks that hit them such as your Dragon will instead power them up to the next level. Explosion attacks that hit them such as from another enemy on this floor or traps will multiply them. Always take caution when you see a potential explosion monster near this one.

Popster Tank

This is said explosion monster. The Popster Tank is permanently slowed down, so it acts every other turn. However, it can fire its cannonball in a straight line at or towards Shiren. Popster tanks have no qualms about hitting enemies or walls so long as it hits you. These are probably one of the most dangerous monster families in terms of just survival. If the tank ever levels up, you will have to seriously consider your best method of immediately dealing with this enemy despite anything else that is around you. They are susceptible to the Crescent Arm weapon and the Blast Shield helps mitigate their damage output.

Kigny

The second of the 2 enemies that level up 1 - 99. Kigny is a glass cannon. It hurts a lot but it is not very healthy. The other feature about the Kigny family is that they attack anything near them. This means other monsters. So you tend to hear the enemy level up sound semi frequently when on Kigny floors. This can actually be a blessing considering the other types of enemies that are present on these floors. If you see a leveled up Kigny, you will probably want to use some item or staff charge to support you in dealing with it. Also, make sure your health is high or that you know well how much damage they currently do to you with your gear on.

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
N'Duba.png N'Duba ンドゥバ 20
Curse Girl.png Curse Girl ノロージョ 12 40
Piggy.png Piggy デブータ 12 - 13 25
Running Egg.png Running Egg 逃げピータン 12 - 14 15
Pacorepkin.png Pacorepkin パコレプキン 12 - 14 42
Thief.png Thief ガマグッチ 12 - 14 10
Kigny.png Kigny キグニ族 12 - 14 50
Inferno.png Inferno 火炎入道 12 - 14 55
Popster Tank.png Popster Tank オヤジ戦車 12 - 14 65

As usual, this next area brings with it new challenges. This franchise is not without a great deal of variety. Moving onto strategy, the first thing I want to go over now is stair running, which I mentioned earlier when discussing monsters. Stair running is a simple idea, you just immediately find the stairs and use them. Avoiding as much danger as possible. Stair running is often done in a couple of fashions.

  1. You're speed running.
  2. You're near the end of the dungeon and feel confident that the current items you have on hand will see you to the end, also you are not concerned with gathering potential rare loot.
  3. You're ill equipped for the current floors set of monsters and want to reach the next set of enemies that you can (hopefully) better deal with.
  4. You're starting to starve to death.

I wanted to bring this up now, because this floor can be a strong contender for case C. The problem with stair running though, is you start to fall behind on experience and loot. Of course, you should grab what you can along the way, and you also should at this point be over burdened with loot, so stair running these 2 floors is not a bad idea if you feel you want to. Just keep in mind that if you are in a rush, you may fall prey to some nasty traps, but it is a very valid tactic.

The next strategy I want to mention is creating a monster blocker. The idea here, is that you throw a Poison Herb or use a Staff of Sloth, or anything else that causes the slow status onto a monster, normally in a hallway. Then you turn around, and go in the other direction. It is often times very useful to leave a slowed monster alive. Running into it again later is far less dangerous to you because it is slowed already, and it can cause a "clog" of other monsters that may be behind it. Try doing this when you have a chance.

Another strategy I want to bring up is firing first, walking later. This pertains to having arrows of course. A good strategy as you navigate difficult floors, is to always fire your arrow down a hallway first. If it hits something, you gain valuable information, and can opt to wait for it to enter your sight, instead of running into it and getting hit. Every 3 - 6 steps, you can continuously fire an arrow down a hallway just as a monster check. You will pick up the arrows you have fired eventually by walking down the hallway. Doing this in excess can see your supply start to run out however, but always keep this tactic in mind. It is especially useful if you are low on health and each step could be your last.

The last thing I will mention is that you may want to consider bringing the little purple haired girl, Surala with you to the next village. Remember that you can throw items at Characters, so you can heal the girl with medicinal and Restorative Herbs and just do your best to keep her safe. Escort missions in mystery dungeons game can be extremely annoying to deal with, at least for me, but this one is only a couple floor journey and the reward can be beneficial to you if you are having a hard time finishing Table Mountain.

Cryptic Rock Valley: Rest Floor

Cryptic Rock Valley

Welcome to another lovely village, Cryptic Rock Valley. As usual, feel free to refer to the side quest and town information for specifics regarding those things. The first building in front of you, if you brought the little girl back to the town is a warehouse, the smallest one in the game but still a warehouse none the less. The rest of the buildings here are only houses that feature some back story and side quests so check those out at your leisure.

This village makes it extremely clear to you that this is the final point of no return. If for some reason you feel you are not well off and you want to preserve your current gear for another day, now is the last chance you have to hike it all the way back to Canyon Hamlet. I guess since I have yet discussed this, I will mention now that as you go backwards, floors you have already visited no longer spawn items anymore. This is done to prevent endless loot grinding going in reverse. You are also still on your same run so you can not reuse facilities that you already used. The exception to this is that shops will always restock each time you visit a town. This is the point where the maximum grinding strategy reaches its end. See the bottom section of this guide for details about that.

Sort your inventory and steel your nerves. If you are ready to move on, then boldly step forth into the probably most notorious area known to the Shiren 1 player-base.

Waterfall Marsh: Floors 15 - 16

Daze Radish

This enemy is capable of throwing Herb of Confusion at you, so the only way to avoid it is to RNG dodge it or to be wearing an Armband of Calm which prevents confusion. Some other tactics for dealing with this enemy include keeping a decent stock of arrows on hand. You can always fire arrows and throw items while confused exactly where you want to without any issue. This goes for staff usage as well. If you are confused, this enemy will opt to throw poison herbs at you next, to weaken and slow you down on top of the confusion, so keep that in mind. You can normally try to fight them normally until they get the confuse off, then you may want to deal with them so they can't poison you. The level 4 version of this enemy is in my opinion the most dangerous enemy in the entire game, as it throws Kigny Seed at you, taking control away and very likely leading you to your death. The level 3 version throws Sleeping Herb which are equally deadly.

Leech Bug

This enemy has a chance of taking away your strength as its special action. While this is an annoying thing, it is not run ending to the point you should fear this happening to you. Both Chiropractic Jar and Antidote Herb will fix any lost strength. You can also equip an Antidrain Armband to prevent the effect and essentially be immune to these enemies. Just wait to restore your strength for the end of the area. If you do not have any of these options available to you, you can prioritize this enemy with item and staff usage but I don't recommend that unless necessary. Some lost strength can be the difference between 1 extra hit on an enemy, but it is again, not the end of your run and honestly, on average you can kill these in 2 hits or 1 hit after an arrow. This enemy is also a cyclops type so is weak to the drain and Cyclops Killer weapons.

Twisty Hani

This enemy is on average, a nuisance but if you let it get out of hand, can be detrimental. It has a chance of reducing Shiren's level by one. So long as you can consistently kill this enemy in two hits, you really shouldn't fear fighting it. Your level will probably stagnant on floors that have hani's. Just make sure if your level does drop by 1, that you do kill the hani afterwards or kill something to maintain level parity. Again, the Antidrain armband helps a lot here as it prevents the effect from working, or a drain killer weapon will easily help one shot this enemy.

Flutter Fowl

Another flying enemy. This is an enemy that some knowledge benefits you the most. In order of level 1 - 4, this enemy has a chance of destroying either a herb, scroll, staff, and lastly your Jars. These effects stack, as in a level 4 Jet Fowl can destroy any of the 4 listed, and a 3 can destroy staves and below, etc. Not only do they destroy your items, but they leave an Miscellaneous Items in your inventory. It will vanish on the next floor you reach but takes up inventory space until then. So for levels 1 - 3 of this enemy, the best counter-play is to have the items that they can affect safely stored in your jars. Or you can place them on the floor and then engage the enemy if you have the leeway to do so. The level 4 version of this enemy I will stress is an extremely high priority threat and should be dealt with immediately by your most efficient staff. Seal, paralyze, postpone, or anything that keeps them away from you. The other 3 fowls are not that troublesome as honestly speaking, your run should not depend on any single herb, scroll, or staff being destroyed suddenly.

Purple Slime

This monster can rust your equipment by an amount depending on its level. It also has a chance to split into a new slime with every and any hit it receives from any source. The level 3 and 4 versions of this monster are also capable of stripping your equipped gears Melding and Seals as well. If you are stubborn and not one to take the extra effort in dealing with them properly, this enemy can ruin your overall power and defense. I see a lot of Shiren players inefficiently deal with Slime's either because they don't think about this tactic or they are too lazy to do it. If you have the luxury of seeing this monster approaching you, you can simply unequip your weapon and shield. This monster causes no physical harm to Shiren unless it is sealed and even then can barely hurt you. Of course, un-equipping can be made complicated when additional monsters are present, so figure out your current situation for the best way to deal with an approaching slime. If un-equipping your gear is too inefficient for the situation, then consider staffing the slime. Especially if there are bigger threats around as you do not want your gear to rust. If you have a Rustless Armband, you can ignore the rusting part of their effect. Keep in mind though that this armband does not stop the level 3/4'sability to strip your seals away. So un-equipping important gear is still the best strategy as there is no counter-play to that ability. They also can not rust Wooden gear so those do not need to be removed except to prevent the loss of a precious seal from the level 3/4 Slime's. When punching Slime's, don't worry about multiplying them when you are unequipped. They will eventually die out to you, giving a little xp boost though they are not worth intentionally grinding. Consider bringing them into hallways first before punching them to death to limit their spawns.

Saber Gator

This enemies ability is that it can attack as many times in a row as the monsters level is. For example, the level 3 gator attacks 3 times in a row. Their damage output is on the lower end but the amount of attacks add up into a fair amount of damage. Just make sure you understand if you are capable of dealing with them or not. Having a higher defense can make this enemy a complete non issue, where as being weaker makes them a larger threat.

Gather

The strongest, basic enemy in the game. It has no abilities in this game, though I guess I will mention in nearly all future titles of Shiren the Wanderer, they become immune to nearly every single spell from scrolls and staffs as well as items, turning the effect into just 2 damage. In this game, however, they can hit hard but aren't so bad and are definitely susceptible to all of your items and tricks. Fight them as you see fit to, though the higher-level ones may need your respect because they are very powerful.

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
Leech Worm.png Leech Worm 吸引幼虫 15 - 16 15
Twisty Hani.png Twisty Hani くねくねハニー 15 - 16 35
Purple Slime.png Purple Slime ゲドロ 15 - 16 40
Daze Radish.png Daze Radish めまわし大根 15 - 16 50
Flutter Fowl.png Flutter Fowl パタパタペンペン 15 - 16 60
Sabregator.png Sabregator サーベルゲータ 15 - 16 75
Gather.png Gather ギャザー 15 - 16 110

A lot of players have fond memories of this location. Nearly every enemy here can be debilitating to Shiren. Based on what I have read from various different sources and players. I have seen that this area tends to be considered the most dangerous. I would respectfully disagree with that claim though. It certainly is a memorable area for a lot of reasons, but it is not so bad to handle. Let's get into the strategies that will see you safely navigate these floors time and time again. Some good tactics and knowledge can go a long way.

So let's discuss these floors. Most of the strategy detailed in the monster section is what you want to concern yourself with for the swamp area. As you can tell from the look of the area, it is more like the beginning of the game in that it is more akin to a "set piece." As such, it is more limited in its randomness. The stairs are often found at the top sections though can be in the middle somewhere. You can not encounter any monster houses on these floors and traps are back to being fewer, though still present. If you take your time with these floors, you should very easily be able to handle each enemy situation, as you are never really overwhelmed by enemies on these floors.

A lot of Shiren players suggest just stair running out of this location, and you can do that if you want. I think it is worthwhile to just treat it normally, however. If you have a Rustless, Calm, or Antidrain armband, this area becomes a lot safer to you by negating some of the enemies. The Drain Buster sword is also a boon. If you have been holding onto Gitan as weapons, they can be very useful here as most of the enemies have very low hp. Purple slimes have 40 which is the most in this area, Gathers 36, and everything else 35 or less. So any Gitan bags of at least 300+ values will definitely deal with most of the threats here. The only thing to keep in mind is to hold onto using your Chiropractic Jar charge or Antidote Herb until after you leave this area to fix any potential strength loss. In fact, because of this area, early on in the game you should try to hold onto at least one Antidote Herb if able. More than likely, you will have found one in nearly every run. So long as you respect each enemy and tackle them ideally, this area is really not so bad.

Table Mountain Early: Floors 17 - 21

Chainhead

This monster has a range up to 2 tiles, and is quite the bruiser. This is one of the most powerful standard enemies in the game, more so than the gather. As this enemy is simply powerful, though manageable, there really isn't a sound strategy that you can employ to tackle them efficiently every time without item usage. The best advice I can provide, is always mind your movement if you decide to move near these enemies. I can't really stress how many times I have seen players move in haste and then they take an extra hit or two. You don't want your back smashed in by their head for free! You may as well just have fought them at that point. Try to keep in mind that unlike arrows and staff bolts, they can not throw their head around corners. Giving you a slight advantage in that scenario as they are safe to debilitate if on the other side of a hallway corner from you. They also count as cyclops, so bearing the cyclops killer weapon will assist greatly.

Master Hen

This enemy can move twice and attack once. Higher level versions can also attack twice. The big gimmick to this enemy is that it is a high reward enemy if you can kill it. Providing a solid 400 experience per kill, but only if you actually kill it. Upon reaching critically low health, they instead turn into their level 1 form, the Chicken, and then they run away. The Chicken is completely harmless, though somewhat beneficial because it often blocks other enemies. However, this means you earned nothing except for the damage you took for any engagement you have with a Master Hen. I will discuss a good strategy on how to try and kill the hens without reverting them further down in the guide portion for this area.

Air Devil

Are you trying to walk forward but you can't for seemingly no reason at all? This invisible enemy is actually floating right before you! These enemies have quite a lot going for them. They are always invisible unless you eat a Herb of Sight or are wearing an Armband of Sight. They have chaotic movement just like the Pacorepkin, so they move and attack randomly. They also have a magical barrier, and will reflect any staff bolt you swing at them back directly at you. This also applies to enemy bolt attacks, such as from Skull Wizards. You can use this to your advantage rarely, but if you absolutely need to staff an Air Devil for some reason, then you need to throw the staff itself. If you are getting hit by this enemy and are alone, a good tactic is to head straight for the hallway and enter it so you are 1 tile outside of the room. Then turn to face the room and just spam attacking. Eventually the Air Devil will come to you and get hit. If there are additional enemies around, it is probably best to immediately move to a better location until you deal with the enemies. The Air devil is not particularly strong, but its damage adds up in tandem with others, and it could get in your way without you knowing it, making dealing with other enemies via item usage, specifically staff usage potentially hazardous to you if you accidentally hit the devil at a crucial moment. Another pro tip is to never rely on speed healing on floors with Air Devils. If you step on a Landmine or Large Landmine Trap and try to speed heal, you may very well get bopped by this entity because you don't know its there with you. Always respect its mere existence and immediately use an item to heal, unless you can see them currently.

Fluffy Bunny

This monster is probably one of the greatest pains in the ass to deal with. It works in tandem with the various bruiser style enemies on these floors. This monster can jump next to a damaged monster from anywhere on the floor, and then heal it for a hefty amount. This fact forces you to have to deal with the bunny first, because it will out-heal your damage output unless you are insanely geared up. If you are in a hallway and it gets behind a monster, this can be most problematic, but there are some solutions for this problem. Firstly, you can use a Knockback Staff to push the monster into the bunny, which will kill the bunny. Second, consider just using any item you have to disable the monster in question and then walk away from it or ignore it. Silver Arrows also work wonders at reaching the bunny. Outside of that, you would rather find the bunny in an open room, so you can then deal with it however you want.

Ghost Owl

This enemy never moves from its spot and turns any room it is in into a dark room, so you can only see the 8 tiles around you at any given time. This can be helpful because it also blinds monsters. The Ghost Owl is fairly sturdy, but weak. You can either leave them alone or spend some time taking them out.

N'Dulu

We have discussed this enemy already, it is the level 2 N'Duba, so be careful when you are messing with new items you pick up on these floors.

Greenwalrus

We have discussed this enemy already. I do want to mention here though a common tactic for dealing with these enemies. Since they split when damaged, they are actually semi dangerous and can get out of hand, so a common tactic if you see a walrus is to fire an arrow at a wall near it. This is lovingly known as paying tribute in the community, or tax collection. Paying tribute to a walrus can save you a lot of headache later because once they steal the 1 arrow you don't care about, you can just ignore them moving forward or wait to try and abuse them after you go around the floor clearing out most other monsters. If you are low on arrows or out of them entirely, feel free to donate to the walrus fund any one item you don't care about like an herb or used up staff by tossing it near them or simply placing the item on the ground and stepping away. Just remember not to hit them with your donations, and to take 2 steps because they will prioritize you if you are next to them and not the grounded item.

Young Tengu

The last enemy for this area, is a gotcha style enemy. Young Tengu takes on the appearance of any other enemy that is capable of spawning on the floor. It then approaches you as normal trying to attack Shiren, but has low attack and health. The purpose of this enemy is to get you to waste items on it, because you think it is a threat. There are a few ways to counter this enemy. One is to pay attention to the finer details. For example, if the tengu is a walrus, it doesn't care about items on the ground. If it is a hen, it only has single movement instead of double. The other tactic is with the exception of certain enemy types (like walrus,) to man up and always do at least 1 swing at every enemy before you use an item. This is not always viable, obviously but can save your resources. Just pay attention to the damage numbers and enemy behavior and you should be able to realize when you are dealing with a tengu. In a crowd scenario or monster house, just treat every enemy as though the tengu do not exist.

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
Young Tengu.png Young Tengu カラス天狗 17 - 18 20
Master Hen.png Master Hen マスターチキン 17 - 19 400
Chainhead.png Chainhead チェインヘッド 17 - 20 200
Greenwalrus.png Greenwalrus みどりトド 17 - 21 30
Ghost Owl.png Ghost Owl ようまふくろう 17 - 21 50
Air Devil.png Air Devil エーテルデビル 17 - 21 30
Fluffy Bunny.png Fluffy Bunny いやしウサギ 17 - 21 8

Still climbing Table Mountain by this point? Good, because you finally entered it proper now. These 5 floors are essentially the last trial by fire for what to expect the rest of the game to be like. Alright, quite a mouthful of enemy strategies to review up above yes? All of this knowledge will see you become a stronger Shiren player. As for Table Mountain proper, I wanted to insert some strategy here as a break, because we actually have a few more monsters to discuss. All of the above appear from floors 17 thru 21. Well, we are in Table Mountain proper. Once you reach floor 20, more congratulations are in order, because you are now 2/3rds of the way there. On floors 20 and above, you will see some new additions. Before we get to those though, some Table Mountain strategy to consider.

Firstly, you may have noticed a theme with the monsters, and that is direct combat. With some of the hardest hitting enemies and Fluffy Bunnies combined, these floors can be brutal to tough it out with constant combats. You will need to rest up a lot so the toll on your hunger naturally increases here. So how do we deal with a lot of this stuff?

One thing is to consider using up at least 1 Power Up Scroll. Just one scroll usage should on average see you killing every monster here in 1 less hit. Remember that the Power Up Scroll actually stacks, up to 8 times, but that is entirely unnecessary. The other thing the scroll will help you do is actually kill off the Master Hens so that you benefit from their experience. By this point your level should be at about parity or falling off with the floor, depending on how much fighting you have done up to this point, especially if you did the Rice Changer abuse on floors 5-7. So a Power Up Scroll is very useful here, especially earlier on, floors 17-19 where Master Hens spawn.

The Pain Sharing Staff can be substantial on these floors as well. Allowing you to lesson the combat time with any monsters you are facing. It is also a boon to have on hand Doppelganger Staff or any of the really supportive staffs like Knockback, Paralysis, Postpone, etc. If you ever need some time to take a break, just debilitate a monster in a hallway and walk away to heal for some time.

On that note, remember that Shiren is often times like a survival horror game more so than an RPG. You do not have to fight every single monster you see. This is the point where you will start using up your items you have been hoarding. Ideally, you will want to try and minimize what you use to be no more than what you are replacing it with. If you find yourself constantly passing up on items on the ground due to storage issues, then you're probably not utilizing your inventory enough. That or, you're insanely powerful.

Another tip I want to share at this point is dealing with the multiplication trap. If you ever step on this trap, and I have discussed this idea earlier in this guide but you will want to definitely consider swinging your weapon before taking a step, for every step you make. Doubly so after hitting this trap. These floors can quickly kill you if you fall asleep, turn into a riceball, or explode on a landmine. Take the extra time, even if you are starving and check for traps.

Underground Stream Village: Rest Floor

Welcome to the final village of this game, the Underground Stream Village. This village does not have much. There is a shop straight up at the top left which can contain very decent items. Outside of that, there is only backstory to be found here, so I won't describe the town layout. Feel welcome to chat with the Characters at your leisure. Once you are ready to move forward, you will be heading up Table Mountain some more before facing the "final trials" which are the last few floors.

Since there is not much to say about this town, I want to describe in detail a prime grinding strategy that you may employ at your leisure now. Remember when I said going back to towns would reset the items in shops? Well that holds true here. This town produces one of the most famous grinding spots. Again, I want to stress that it is absolutely not necessary to bother doing this to succeed. Doing this can however be of great assistance to you. The general premise is simple, you just need to find and activate a pitfall trap on the very next floor, floor 22. Doing so will return you to this town. The benefits of doing this is that items will actually re-spawn on floor 22 for whatever reason when you do this. So you can constantly look for new loot and then go shopping at the shop so long as you can keep this up. The Mecharoid enemy spawns on floor 22. If you find one, you can lure it around the various rooms until it makes a pitfall trap for you to utilize. If you happen to have a Bufu's Cleaver meld on your weapon, you can constantly make Mecharoid meat from the enemies to make your own pitfalls.

Be mindful will doing this grind that it is a major hunger drain. Riceballs are semi frequent at the shop but not guaranteed. They are also harder to find on the upper floors so only do this a few times so long as you have the food to do so. But you can infinitely do this strategy at your leisure, and like I said the shop actually provides some decent items so it can be worthwhile. This method is also how you can grind up gear easily with a strengthening jar, but that's not important to worry about for this guide so I won't go into more details. For more on this, see: Stream Village Shopping Spree.

When you are prepared, begin your final ascent. It is going to be 8 straight floors of Shiren challenge before the final boss of Table Mountain.

Table Mountain Late: Floors 22 - 25

Monster List

Blazepuff: The leveled up Firepuff. This again does fire damage so can drain your health rapidly.

Mistonos

This enemy is fairly sturdy though weak. If you are ever adjacent to this enemy and then try to move, it holds you in place and wastes your turn for trying to run away! Not a big deal by itself but when other things are coming and this monster is locking you up, you may need to do something about it to get into a better position. Normally you can just fight it though.

Super Gaze

Ah, here's our boy. The Gaze family, notorious like many monsters, probably more so though. It can hex Shiren, forcing him to do any 1 random action thus skipping your turn. These actions can involve throwing any item like your precious jars in any direction or using any item, or attacking randomly, etc. Everything is possible except it will never make you move. The Gaze can chain this ability as many times as it wants in a row. If there are two of these near you, good luck! This is probably one of the highest priority monster families. Deal with them by any means necessary. Even if you can kill them in one hit with the aid of a cyclops killer for example, you will do well to consider doing something to them first to help you out. The only counter to their hex is a rare shield hidden away deep in a post-credits dungeon, meaning you will never get to utilize its benefit on a regular play through.

Schubell/Menbell

The bell family monsters. These guys have a chance of ringing their bell and spawning any random monster from all of Shiren. The monster will be the same level as the bell enemy. They can spawn more than one at a time as well if they have the space to do so. Enemies that are spawned do not get to act immediately, so if you are well prepared, you can abuse these enemies for experience and what have you. To deal with them efficiently if you are not well prepared to tackle anything, you always want to lure them into a hallway, and into the middle of it at that. In a hallway, they can only ever spawn 1 enemy and directly behind them. This is the safest way of dealing with them. If you have to fight them out in the open because they will get a turn as you walk by or something, I recommend using an item on them potentially.

Curse Sister

Identical to the previous form so same strategies apply. Just slightly stronger. Having your things cursed at this stage can be annoying so these enemies may demand a little more attention from you at this point.

Mecharoid

Mahjong Shiren - Mecharoid.jpg

The Mecharoid can move twice in a turn but only attack once. The main thing it can do is plant a trap down. The trap variety has to be able to spawn on the floor. This can be extremely helpful in certain situations which I will detail one later. Otherwise, this enemy is not normally much trouble, because you can see the traps it can spawn. It also has to rest after making a trap. They can be problematic if you try to run from them in a hallway, as you can never take a step without getting hit due to their movement.

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
N'Dulu.png N'Dulu ンドゥルー 22 60
Super Gaze.png Super Gaze スーパーゲイズ 22 150
Blazepuff.png Blazepuff カエンポフ 22 220
Mistonos.png Mistonos ミストノス 22 300
Curse Sis.png Curse Sis ノロージョの姉 22 - 23 100
Mecharoid.png Mecharoid カラクロイド 22 - 23 250
Ghost Owl.png Ghost Owl ようまふくろう 22 - 25 50
Air Devil.png Air Devil エーテルデビル 22 - 25 30
Fluffy Bunny.png Fluffy Bunny いやしウサギ 22 - 25 8
Schubell.png Schubell シューベル 22 - 25 100
Menbell.png Menbell メンベルス 22 - 25 200
Flying Egg.png Flying Egg 飛びぴーたん 22 - 25 50
Pacorepkina.png Pacorepkina パコレプキーナ 22 - 25 200
Spike Blast.png Spike Blast ばくれつウニ 23 - 25 100
Haze Hermit.png Haze Hermit みの仙人 23 - 25 200
Polygon Jive.png Polygon Jive おどるポリゴン 23 - 25 300
Minotaur.png Minotaur ミノタウロス 23 - 25 400
Hover Fowl.png Hover Fowl バババペンペン 24 - 25 250

If you manage to survive this far, then you are fully capable of finishing the game. As you can see, the monster portions provide most of the strategy here. There are more subtle things that I can add at this point, but I don't want to overwhelm you with additional information. You should be able to navigate these floors successfully as you learn the monsters and keep in mind everything else you have learned up to this point. There are a lot of other small things that you can keep in mind which you will learn as you play naturally.

Ravine of Illusions: Floor 26

Skull Wraith

We discussed the Skull Mage family earlier but to reiterate here, respect this enemy. In the regular Table Mountain run, this is the most dangerous enemy. Its various spells can guarantee your death. Highly recommend wearing a Sleepless Armband if you have one to at least block the sleep effect. It can turn you into a riceball as well which is not blockable so you may very well die if that occurs. Take my word for it, never give a Skull Wraith the chance to bolt you. Always guarantee preventing them from doing so if you are able.

Death Angel

We discussed the Death Reaper earlier as well. This enemy can move twice and attack twice. The other thing to note about this enemy is that it can lock onto where Shiren is and home in after you. Because it can go through walls and over pits, it is extremely dangerous. You will be forced to deal with these enemies. I will discuss a strategy about them moving forward as it is not as pressing of an issue on the Ravine of Illusions.

Metal Armor

The Metal Armor family is one to pay attention to. Whenever you are about to fight one, try to make sure that your back to them is facing a wall. These monsters can knock your equipped sword or shield off of you and it will go flying back. If it hits anything like another monster, your gear will be instantly lost. If you can not get your back against a wall, then make sure you staff these enemies to prevent their effect. The higher level versions can also knock off your armbands.

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
Air Devil.png Air Devil エーテルデビル 26 30
Hover Fowl.png Hover Fowl バババペンペン 26 250
Skull Wraith.png Skull Wraith ガイコツまおう 26 350
Metal Armor.png Metal Armor クロムアーマー 26 600
Death Angel.png Death Angel 死神 26 700

A few things to take note of here. This area is very dangerous to you. You are in vision to the monsters. This means the Skull Wraiths can use their magic against you if they are across from you from any distance. This is also an extremely open area so there is really nowhere to hide and a lot of your defensive options are limited. Also keep in mind that if the metal armors use their ability on you, you better make sure you are up against one of the few walls opposite of them, because your weapons will go flying about 10 spaces. If they do not land on solid ground by some miracle, they are more than likely going to be lost to the ether, forever destroyed by flying off of the map. Remember that they target your equipped gear, and now so close to the end is not the time to lose your things.

If you have saved a Scroll of Light, this is probably the most prudent floor on Table Mountain to utilize said scroll of light, so you can find the staircase and go to it. There are very few items from this point forward, so stair running the rest of the way becomes a very valid tactic. If you want to risk teleporting around, you can switching staff with any enemy that is off of solid ground to warp yourself, but this can be extremely risky as well.

Most players rush this floor in particular due to the lack of items and high danger so I recommend you do likewise. This is the actual last "set piece" area in the main table mountain run, but the staircase has a decent amount of spawn locations so it can be troublesome to find.

Keep in mind that Air Devil monsters do spawn here! If you are at critically low health, do not speed heal. In fact, for this floor in particular, it can be a good idea to avoid holding down B to speed walk at all, unless you are speed running or something. The odds of you running into something bad here are very high.

Phantom Trials: Floor 27

Dragon Head

This enemy can feel more on the generic side most of the time. Its special ability is that it can skip over an occupied space by going underground and then reappearing 2 spaces forward. It does this anytime there are other monsters nearby it, so it essentially moves out of the way to try and trap you while letting other monsters take its old occupied space up, to surround you. It can be troublesome in hallways but more often than not this is the least threatening enemy of this area and often times you do not need to go out of your way to deal with it. It can be a good idea to try and face this enemy on your 4 corners, or diagonals so that you can always walk away without it getting behind you though. Dragon Heads do deal a serious amount of damage however, so they are not something you can just ignore.

Dragon

The big bully in the flesh. Dragons hurt tremendously. Dragons can also attack you with fire that goes in a straight line and deals 30 damage a pop without fire protection. They have a lot going for them with higher defense as well. This is not to say they are impossible to deal with but Dragons can often be the death of a player. Should it level up once, its fire now deals an oppressive 45 damage and can hit you from anywhere so long as it is in the same room as you. If it hits level 3 or 4 then you better get off the floor immediately. Ark and Hell dragons can attack you with fire from anywhere else in the universe. You're just relaxing there playing this video game and suddenly, 50 fire damage to your face from the next galaxy over, not even from our solar system man! The homing capability of their fire needs a nerf! Jokes aside, they are oppressively deadly to you and if you can't see the dragon to do something about it, they can choose to spam fire as many times as they want in a row after you just because they feel like it.

Piggo

As if fire breathing dragons were not enough, the Piggo family is back and this iteration can hurl its rocks further. If it levels up again, it can essentially do what the dragon does and hurl its rocks from nearly anywhere to you. Since we already discussed this monster I won't discuss it further.

Madremlas

This armored rhino looking monster is probably the toughest enemy to defeat in terms of defense and high hp. They are like everything else around here, in that they hurt a lot. Their special ability is essentially a Knockback staff. It will knock you back about 10 spaces. When you get knocked back, you have a chance to drop your items. If you are against a wall when this occurs, you are less likely to drop your items. Your precious jars are vulnerable to shattering from this effect. The other counter-play to this attack is to have in your inventory a Staff of Stability to protect you from stumbling after being knocked back. If times are desperate, and you are in a difficult position and need to get away from a bad situation, you can opt to risk getting hit by a Madremlas by moving next to it in a way that if you are to be knocked away, you will go flying into a hallway or something. If you're lucky, it will knock you away and send you flying to a hopefully slightly safer location. This is a desperation tactic however, and you probably shouldn't rely on this happening at critical health. In fact, if you need to escape a bad scenario, the more health you have to tempt the knock back happening, the better. The Knockback attack only deals 5 damage to you so it is actually preferred over them punching you straight in the gut.

Tiger Uhoho

We already discussed this monster. I just want to add here that they may be more worthwhile to avoid now due to the high danger level of every monster present. If there is a monster house on the floor, you will be thrown into the middle of it. Should that occur, then I hope you have a scroll for solving that problem, because you are not likely to get out.

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
Skull Wraith.png Skull Wraith ガイコツまおう 27 350
Metal Armor.png Metal Armor クロムアーマー 27 600
Death Angel.png Death Angel 死神 27 700
Piggo.png Piggo デブーチョ 27 500
Tiger Uhoho.png Tiger Uhoho タイガーウホーン 27 550
Dragon Head.png Dragon Head ドラゴンヘッド 27 650
Madremlas.png Madremlas マッドレムラス 27 800
Dragon.png Dragon ドラゴン 27 1,300

You are almost finished with Shiren, but you can not let your guard down yet. For these last few floors, I have decided to combine them for the purpose of this guide. While they all exhibit different names, they feature the same monsters and the same final challenges for you to overcome, so it does not make sense to make them separate sections. Lets move onto strategy then.

The first thing to consider for these floors assuming you did not spawn inside of a monster house, isto clear out whichever room you did spawn then. Then, head to a more central section of the room. Afterwards you will want to pass some turns very carefully. Either by attacking or using the speed heal but take caution with speed healing. This is something you will want to do for every floor that has Death Angels. Death Angels as I mentioned before, lock onto Shiren and then come after him from anywhere. You have to make sure you clear out all of the Death Angels you can before entering any hallway. Facing a Death Angel in a hallway while they are inside of a wall and untouchable is a near certain way to die, especially since you will have to spend turns walking to get them into the hallway with you, taking damage as you do so. Remember that they attack twice, so that damage is not sustainable normally, especially when you take 2 free hits in a hallway, 4 to move twice and have the Death Angel enter the hall with you. If any other monster blocks your way while a Death Angel is wailing on you, you will probably quickly succumb. In an emergency, you can hide in a Jar of Hiding, or utilize the Pickaxe method in advance to open a wall near you so you can staff the monster. Better than those ideas though, is to avoid the situation in the first place. Always pass turns at the start of these floors to deal with the Death Angels that come charging at you, then after you kill some, proceed with exploring.

You are only 3 floors out from reaching the final boss. If you have sufficient items on hand to see you to the end and deal with the final boss, now is a great time to consider stair running. You can find some decent loot on these floors but nothing astounding, as most of the best loot comes from post-credits bonus dungeons. Remember your goal with Shiren is to reach the end alive and beat the game, so there is no need to keep picking up stuff if you have ample supplies left to achieve just that. With this in mind, you will also want to make sure you know how you plan to deal with the final boss. I'll go into detail about it shortly but all you really need to know now is that Shiren 1 is actually very generous in this regard. The boss is susceptible to every single trick and item you have on hand. Every single thing works, so there is actually a myriad of ways to succeed.

Dragonkiller can be a boon here for fighting Dragons and Dragon Heads. The Dragonward is also a very good idea to have equipped to lesson the damage from fire. Or you can use a Sickle Slayer to help with the Death Angels. Just like with the table mountain floors, utilizing power up scrolls can be extremely helpful here if you have any on hand.

Monster summon traps I have not discussed yet, and have been around for a while now. On these floors, they are exceedingly deadly. If you can manage it, always keep an emergency scroll on hand just in case you step on one of these traps. Scroll of Confusion, Scroll of Sleep, Scroll of Need, and even a Scroll of Explosion can save your life in this scenario. Though the explosion scroll is extremely risky if you do not have a chiro jar to heal after, or if there are any Piggy's or ranged attackers nearby.

Just keep everything up to this point in mind, and take your time. Use your items if you need to, and you can get out of these floors alive.

Dragoncry Trials: Floor 28

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
Death Angel.png Death Angel 死神 28 700
Piggo.png Piggo デブーチョ 28 500
Tiger Uhoho.png Tiger Uhoho タイガーウホーン 28 550
Dragon Head.png Dragon Head ドラゴンヘッド 28 650
Madremlas.png Madremlas マッドレムラス 28 800
Dragon.png Dragon ドラゴン 28 1,300

Final Trial: Floor 29

Sprites Monster Floors Experience
English Japanese
Death Angel.png Death Angel 死神 29 700
Piggo.png Piggo デブーチョ 29 500
Tiger Uhoho.png Tiger Uhoho タイガーウホーン 29 550
Dragon Head.png Dragon Head ドラゴンヘッド 27 - 29 650
Madremlas.png Madremlas マッドレムラス 29 800
Dragon.png Dragon ドラゴン 29 1,300

Golden City: Rest Floor

Amteca: The Golden City

So hopefully your trials went well and without too many hitches that you couldn't handle. Welcome to the Golden City, the final destination for Shiren and his main adventure in this game. You have one final challenge to prepare for. The Golden City has a lot of back story plaques that you can read if you wish. There is also a bonus dungeon that you can branch off into later, which is sort of like the full 99 floor Table Mountain DLC experience known as the Tainted Path. Feel free to read all about that stuff in the wiki as usual. Once you're ready, head all the way around the linear path to get behind the waterfall.

Rainbow's End

General Tips and Advice

The following information is generally useful to keep in mind and it may help you survive in Shiren the Wanderer. I probably discussed some of this up above in the guide but these are other tips that came to my mind.

  • Identify your items as early as possible. Knowledge is power in rogue-like games. Removing uncertainty and chance/risk is essential.
  • Utilize traps to your advantage. You can always guarantee a trap activating when standing on it and manually tripping it. There are many ways to use traps for your benefit.
  • Check out the item pages on this wiki! A lot of items have multiple uses that you may not be aware of.
  • Adapt to your situation. A lot of newer players take their one weapon and one shield on them and then never change those out until they find "better" gear. You can swap weapons, shields, and armbands at any time. You can even unequip them entirely if that is more advantageous.
  • Prioritize your items. In many situations, figuring out what items are more valuable to you at the moment or for the current floor you are on will help you tremendously. There are a lot of situations where you will want to do your best to first preserve essential survival items and these items change constantly depending on the situation.
  • Feel free to take some notes. This more pertains to a Final Puzzle attempt, but doing 99 floor runs can be a long endeavor. Write information down and make use of resources to help you with identifying unknown items. One of the best way to figure out what an item is, is to drop it on a shop floor and check its sale price for example.
  • If you are safe, heal up before going to the next floor! You never know what you will encounter upon entering a new floor. Going in at low health can easily be your end. If you are facing hunger problems you may not have the leniency to do this.
  • Take advantage of initiative. Enemies almost always come to you. You will perform better if you always allow them to approach you at the end of their turn, so you get the first strike upon them if able. The difference between taking 1 or 2 hits as opposed to 3 or more can not be stressed enough.
  • Staves that are at zero charges can still be thrown to produce their effect on the enemy they hit. Though keep in mind this has a chance to miss the enemy.
  • Gitan as weapons. The money that is lying around can be swapped with another item in your inventory instead of being picked up. This allows you to throw it. You can also throw a bag of Gitan from the ground if you walk on top of it without picking it up. Gitan when thrown at an enemy provide a serious source of damage. In deeper parts of many dungeons, Gitan become commonplace over other useful items, and so are a very real weapon at dealing with dangerous enemies from a distance. If you don't want to do this though, you do not have to. Gitan throwing was actually originally an unintentional side effect in the SFC version that the developers liked so much they left it in. You don't have to throw money at all of your problems though if you do not wish to. If you do utilize this tactic, remember that organizing your inventory will immediately move any Gitan not in jars into your wallet instead, so you do have to avoid organizing when doing this.
  • Funnel your enemies into the hallway. Taking on more than you can handle is often the death of many players. Shiren is in a lot of ways, more like a survival horror game than an RPG. Take the time to reach a hallway or retreat to a better position to take enemies on one at a time.
  • Utilize corners strategically. If you have a monster next to you that is not very threatening to you, but a far bigger threat right behind it, around a corner that you can reach diagonally. Consider using arrows, staves, and whatever ingenuity you have to deal with the bigger threat first.
  • Use everything a town has to offer. There is nothing wrong with utilizing the features of a town to your advantage. You can always receive a free Big Riceball by speaking with the Barman once per run. You can pay to rest at the inns in various villages, or get some bonus stats by eating at the restaurant if you unlocked it for example!
  • Identify your critical moments! This is what a lot of rogue-like players refer to as any instance where you could easily die according to the next action you take. You are always able to stop and think for awhile. The game will not move until you do.

The Cave Behind The Waterfall: Floor 30

Sprites Monster Experience
English Japanese
Tainted Insect.png Tainted Insect 魔蝕虫 7,777
Madremlas.png Madremlas マッドレムラス 800
Tiger Uhoho.png Tiger Uhoho タイガーウホーン 550
Skull Wraith.png Skull Wraith ガイコツまおう 350

This is the final boss floor for the main dungeon of the game. Here we meet the Tainted Insect. The Tainted Insect is for Table Mountain, the most powerful monster. Any hit from it will chunk your health down immensely. It has a lot of health and defense as well, making it formidable by itself. On top of that, the Tainted Insect is not alone, but is accompanied by some of the threats you have come to love over the trials floors. So it looks all doom and gloom until you remember that this boss has no special abilities. Unlike other bosses in the franchise later down the road, the Tainted Insect has no protections or insane recovery from your items, which I think makes him one of the most interesting bosses in the franchise personally, because it doesn't boil down to the boring "well I guess I gotta out-heal him because nothing else works." mentality that game developers love to force you into. No, you can actually do whatever you want to do to this boss.

The first thing you will want to consider when you hit this floor is figuring out if any monsters are lined up with you, particularly Skull Wraiths. They are actually your largest threat in this boss fight because if they bolt you, well you know how bad that is by now surely. Any scrolls you have left over are super handy here. 1 Scroll of Confusion and a lot of this room can sort itself out. Be careful about using a sleep scroll because after monsters wake up they will have double speed.

If you want to make this boss remarkably easy, you can take that monster meat I suggested holding onto way back in Bamboo Village and chuck it at the Tainted Insect. If you don't miss with the throw, you will turn it into a measly Mamel or Bowboy or what have you and then completely trivialize the boss. With that in mind, of course any monster meat you stumbled upon works. Other options include using the Staff of Sloth or Poison Herb to slow the boss down. You can just paralyze the boss and leave it there to deal with later. No matter how you decide to tackle it, I think a lot of players end up disappointed with the actual boss fight itself because it is not very difficult unlike the rest of the game. This is very true, I think boss fight design is something that has not been successfully executed in Mystery Dungeon games personally. Alas, my thoughts aside, bosses are more a means to an end and this one is a fine ending. After you deal with the Tainted Insect, all remaining monsters will disappear and a hole will open up above. Congratulations are in order! Once you step through to free the Golden Condor, you have completed the main story of Shiren! With this, that concludes my guide. Below I will simply share general tips and some random bonus information to keep in mind for anyone interested. But I hope you enjoyed your experience and found success. Maybe you will consider giving the bonus dungeons a shot, especially Fay's Final Puzzle.

See Also

vde
Nintendo DS Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer - Guides
Beginner's GuideTable Mountain StrategyFinal Puzzle StrategyFinal Puzzle Printable Item ChecklistMonster House StrategyTrap StrategyMeat StrategyThieveryTips and TricksIdentifying ItemsFun with GitanFun with Gitan MamelsRescue Passwords for ItemsStream Village Shopping SpreeLast Resort Strategy

References