Draft:Shiren 5 Vita:Trading Items

There are multiple ways to trade items with other players or give items to other players. Most of these methods require the players to be physically adjacent—within Bluetooth or WiFi range—and must occur in real time. This presents a problem for Shiren 5 players in 2018 and beyond, as the community of players (at least the English-speaking community) is small and geographically sparse. But there is one method that (a) works over the internet and (b) doesn't require a synchronous connection, and there are enough Shiren 5 players worldwide to take advantage of this excellent feature. This method requires one player to die intentionally and request rescue, but regardless of who rescues whom, both players have the opportunity to send one item to the other.

Prerequisites

You can't use this method on a new profile. Both players must have advanced their game state a bit. Here are the prerequisites:

• Be able to join your PSVita to the internet (e.g. via your home WiFi network)
• Be able to use the Sparrow Transport to directly jump to the Lost Well
  • Why Lost Well? It's convenient, most players have access to it already, it's reachable via the Sparrow Transport, but most importantly it lets you take items in -- critical for internet trading via rescues.
• Be able to access the Points Shop
• Have a Points Card with at least 200 points on it (500 is more comfortable)
• Have at least 3 open spaces in your 80-space menu-based storage in Hotel Nekomaneki
• Have read an Escape Scroll in the past, so you can write Escape on a Blank Scroll
• Nice-to-have: Have read a Pot God Scroll in the past, so you can write Pot God on a Blank Scroll
• Nice-to-have: Have read a Blessing Scroll in the past, so you can write Blessing on a Blank Scroll
• Additional prerequisite for the rescuer only: have very powerful equipment, such that you can dominate a monster house in Lost Well on floor floor 1

Setup

This method lets you trade 0 or 1 items for 0 or 1 items, but, the item(s) traded can be Preservation Pots full of other items. New items cannot be traded. Note also that it's not possible to edit your inventory once the exchange has begun, so agree in advance with your trading partner what you want to trade, prepare the items, and store them directly in your menu-based storage in Hotel Nekomaneki. (You can't trade items in your main inventory or from your dungeon-based storage units in Nekomaneki Village, Hermit's Hermitage, or Sparrow's Inn.)

This method is more convenient for the rescuer, and the rescuer also gets an achievement and "rescue points" to advance on a leaderboard (though it's doubtful anyone is actually competing on this leaderboard given how rare rescues are these days). The rescuer also gets a random item for their troubles, though it tends to be laughably poor compared to the items being exchanged and compared to the effort of doing the rescue. While awaiting rescue, the rescue-e can do some things with their game, but not a lot, which is not true for the rescuer. Because of these differences, it's probably best for the trading partner who receives more of the benefit to offer to be the one rescued.

Regardless, agree in advance on a specific date/time when you'll do the exchange, so both players can prepare their trading items and get their games into the proper state, keeping in mind differences in worldwide time zones. The actual exchange is asynchronous, but if you don't coordinate date/time, you'll keep your trading partner waiting. And agree in advance who will be rescued and who will do the rescuing.

Performing the Exchange

Step 1: Performed by the Rescue-e

• Get an Escape Scroll.
  • If you don't have one, buy a Blank Scroll from the Points Shop and write Escape on it.
  • You must have the ability to escape the dungeon else you will not be able to collect the items exchanged, and you can't use an Undo Grass for this because the Undo Grass will trigger automatically when you die. So, always have an Escape Scroll on you!
• Store all your other items and gitan.
• Make sure the item for trade is in your menu-based storage in Nekomaneki Village (not the dungeon-based storage unit).
• Make sure you haven't asked any allies to join you.
• Use the sparrow transport to travel directly to Lost Well. You should have only an Escape Scroll with you.
• If you can spare the time before you die, confirm there are no traps around your immediate location.
• Let a monster kill you.
• You'll be offered a chance to request rescue—say yes.
• Choose to be rescued via the internet.
• Write down the rescue ID # or take a screenshot just in case it helps your trading partner find your rescue (unlikely this will be needed).
• Tell your trading partner you're ready for rescue and tell them the rescue ID #.

Step 2: Performed by the Rescue-r

• Store the item(s) for exchange in your menu-based storage unit.
  • If you don't have a reason to choose otherwise, it's a nice touch to send a Preservation Pot with the item(s) for trade as well as an Undo Grass. This is an extra safety precaution to make sure that your trading partner can definitely get their items out of Lost Well in case they forgot to take an Escape Scroll in with them.
  • You can get both Preservation Pots and Undo Grasses from the Points Shop.
• Leave at least 2 open spaces in your menu-based storage.
  • This is to ensure you have enough space for the exchange item + reward item.
  • You would hopefully be offered the chance to arrange inventory if your inventory overflows, but don't take the chance.
  • For good measure, it couldn't hurt to leave 2 spaces open in your main inventory too. (Re-test and confirm precisely where the exchange item + reward item appear.)
• Gear up for Lost Well.
  • Make sure you have a strong sword, strong shield, whatever bracelet(s) you want, and other emergency items including at least one Undo Grass.
  • You will be facing a guaranteed monster house on Lost Well floor 1, and you'll be level 1, so don't go in with half-baked equipment because if you die, you lose everything with no chance to request rescue!
• Save your game and go to the top menu.
• At the top menu, look for someone to rescue over the internet.
  • If there are multiple rescue requests, look for the one on Lost Well floor 1 with the specific rescue ID # your trading partner gave you.
  • It's unlikely, but if you've been talking about a valuable trade online, a 3rd party could try to intercept it. If you're worried about it, make arrangements privately, send the rescue ID # privately, and only perform that rescue.
• Once you've accepted the rescue request from the top menu, start your game again and talk to the rescue desk in Hotel Nekomaneki to begin the rescue.
• You'll now be in Lost Well on floor 1.
  • It may or may not have the same layout as the Lost Well floor 1 that the rescue-e faced, but it will definitely have a monster house, and Shiren will be collapsed inside that monster house.
• Survive the monster house and talk to the collapsed Shiren to complete the rescue and end your run.
  • Talking to Shiren ends the run, so if you want to loot the monster house, do it first.
  • I assume if you were to hit a Pitfall Trap here, it wouldn't let you fall through and miss the rescue, like in Shiren 1, but this has not been verified in Shiren 5.
• After performing the rescue, you'll have a chance to send an item to the rescue-e. Send the item.
  • If you were not offered a chance to send an item, did you try to perform the exchange in a different dungeon other than Lost Well that doesn't let you take items in?
  • Multiple players have reported problems trying to send both a message and an item, so if you were trying to send both and sending the revival spell failed, try again and only send the item.
• Communicate to your trading partner that they have now been rescued.

Step 3: Performed by the Rescue-e

• At the top menu, receive the revival spell over the internet.
• Before leaving the top menu, you have the option of sending a thank you—say yes.
• As with the rescuer, you will also have the option to send both a message and an item.
  • Multiple players have reported problems trying to send both a message and an item. If you can't send both, just send the item.
  • Do not leave the thank you screen and don't start playing Shiren again until you've successfully sent the item! This is your one and only chance to send an item back!
• Revive. You'll be back in Lost Well on 1 F in the same place you were before, but, there will be no monsters around.
• Do not escape from the dungeon yet! The item you were given in trade will be at your feet, not in your inventory, and not in your menu-based storage back in Hotel Nekomaneki!
• Pick up the item from the dungeon floor using the Feet menu.
  • Do not even move a single square, as it would royally suck to hit a Pit Trap or Explosion Trap and lose your trade items forever.
• Read your Escape Scroll to escape the dungeon.

Other Considerations

Trust with near strangers across the world can be nerve-wracking. There's probably no reason for concern. The community of players is small, and everyone seems to be pretty cool, etc. etc.. If you are worried about a 3rd party interfering with your rescue, you can lock your rescue to be performed just by friends, but this is probably overkill. Making arrangements for a specific date/time and a specific rescue ID # in private should be fine.

That being said, one thing that is low effort and a good idea is to take multiple screenshots that show you performing all parts of your end of the bargain in good faith and showing what item(s) you are sending. Shiren 5 doesn't have a ton of bugs, and the game goes to extra lengths to safeguard items in transit, but still, the game has at least one crasher bug that affects dungeon play and it's possible something could go wrong with your trade. It's probably not worth the effort to send screenshots every time, but having them handy could help you demonstrate that you didn't betray your trading partner if something does go wrong.

It's also a good idea to positively confirm that the trade was successful on both sides after step 3 is concluded. If you took screenshots as "proof of performance", it should be safe to delete them after your trading partner confirms receipt of the item(s).