I’ll teach you some of the old rogue ways in Shiren The Wanderer 6

If I could only offer you a single piece of advice for the Mystery Dungeon series— and the traditional roguelike in general— it would be to think before you move. Your greatest weapon in this game is the fact that it is turn-based. It’s easy to forget this, as you can move through the dungeon about as fast as you please.

Though Shiren’s every adventure is a little bit different from the last, the rules— the way the monsters behave, the way the items work— all stay the same, to the exact letter of the wording in their descriptions. Everything in this game does exactly what it says it does.

And when you stop and look at the menu, Shiren 6 supplies an actual compendium of that information, a handbook that will tell you all about every item, weapon or monster you have ever encountered in your time playing the game. The developers have effectively built the guide wiki into the game. Often these have vital tips on how to beat a particular monster, or hints on a less obvious way to use an item or magic spell. This game is so full of such tricks that they put one in the trailer. (At about 2:05 behold the result of waving a Fortune Staff at a Hoppin' Hitter.) Finding out one of those tricks is often the difference between life and death.

So I’m going to teach you one of the oldest tricks in the Shiren book: the Transmute Pot trick. If the trick seems obvious to you… well, too bad, I’m trying to make a point here.

The Transmute Pot transforms any item you put into it into another random item. The Pot doesn’t care what you put in it, how valuable the item, what type. It just spits something out. Anything. Maybe some money. Maybe a high-end sword. Maybe another scroll you didn’t need. Maybe a rock. Either way, you want to fill it up fast, turn some trash into treasure. Or different trash, if you’re unlucky. The important part is to roll the dice.

The cheapest single item you’re likely to run into, something literally worth a penny, is probably a rock or other projectile. But as you know, when you pick these guys up, they all pile into one heap in your inventory to save space. If you try to just “put” your arrows or rocks into your Transmute Pot, the game will happily dump all 20 of them in.

There’s a way around this issue. Find a nice empty room where nothing is going on (this is an important rule in Shiren in general: you don’t want to get interrupted) and start throwing as many rocks out there, in various directions, as you have spots to fill in your Transmute Pot. With arrows you’ll have to be a little more careful: make sure you’re hitting walls and not throwing them down hallways where you can’t pick them back up or accidentally hit something you might not have wanted to hit, like a shopkeeper or other friendly NPC. Once done, put down your existing stack of rocks or arrows on the floor. Do you see where this is going?

Yup! Just go and pick up one rock or arrow, toss it into the Transmute Pot, and repeat. Pretty soon you’ll have a randomly-generated treasure chest at an absolutely microscopic cost to you. It’s hands-down the best way to use the pot!

Now maybe you caught on to this as soon as I started describing it: it’s a pretty straightforward affair. But the important part is to think of it in the first place. Mystery Dungeon's old-school interface appears clunky at first, but it's granular: you have very precise control over exactly how things play out, and by the same token, a careless move can start a chain of events that spins your game wildly out of control.

Shiren gets a lot easier when you realize that a lot of it is a knowledge check: do you know why you can’t cast spells on the grasshopper batter? Or that enemies who use water abilities can get your scrolls wet and render them temporarily unusable?

Or say you’re surrounded right now, and it looks like checkmate if you try and fight back. But if you stop and think about it before you hit the A button, you might find something in your pack that helps you to escape. Remember: everything in this game does exactly what it says it does, and it’s your job to play with the rules.

Leveling up and packing strong gear is certainly helpful and necessary, but Shiren the Wanderer ultimately gets by on his wits. Think creatively, level up aggressively, and pack a diverse set of preparations, and you’ll be able to beat the main quest pretty easily. (You could also just stockpile Revival Grass and Invincible Grass for the dungeon bosses, that would certainly help.)

But as soon as you start moving ahead recklessly, or thinking that you’ll blow through a dungeon based entirely on your overpowered gear… that’s when the game will grab on to that one moment of weakness and take everything away from you. Don’t look down on the Mystery Dungeon: It’s ready for you. And even if you think you’re ready for it, you might not be.