Clearing Serpentcoil Island to the Credits in Shiren the Wanderer 6: Gathering Gear, Making Use of Pots, and Fighting the Boss in Dosukoi State

The protagonist, Shiren the Wanderer, is on an aimless journey with Koppa, a talking weasel, and this time they're headed for Serpentcoil Island. The island is said to hold pirates' treasure, and deeper in lives a giant monster with an extraordinary treasure in its belly. The two are half-skeptical until one day they share a strange dream: a monster that roars "like a middle-aged guy," and a girl calling for help from inside its belly. The player sums up the purpose of the adventure from this: grab the treasure, and save the girl while they're at it.

Serpentcoil Island is a large dungeon with 31 floors in total. According to the player, the dungeons in this game are divided into several sections, and you can also check other players' clear rates and average levels.

Enemies show up as soon as exploration begins, and the player feels that enemy attacks hurt quite a bit even early on and that underestimating them could get you killed easily. They say level 1 may be the hardest of all, explaining that because whether you can kill an enemy in one hit makes such a big difference, there's a "difference of fate" between levels 1 and 2.

They also touch on combat strategy. Since HP recovers substantially as turns pass in this game, the player's view is that it seems important to fight while keeping an escape route open. They also observe that the octopus enemy appears to be the type that fights around its allies.

On the equipment front, they picked up a shield first and then the Dotanuki weapon. Wandering around bare-handed and unarmored is quite tough, so the player is glad to have found gear early. With the Dotanuki equipped they can kill enemies in one hit, and they rate it as a good sword.

Finding an arrow trap along the way, the player uses a technique of placing a suitable item near the trap's launch point to farm the arrows it fires. At one point they almost select a herb they had meant to eat by mistake and switch to a different item. The player jokes that it looks like a pretty bizarre scene from the outside, but "poor folks" like them all do this. These arrows end up being used later with a pot.

Next, they obtained the Fuma Shield, a high-quality shield with high defense. According to the player, there seems to be some kind of set effect when it's equipped together with the Manjikabura Sword, and they say they're hoping to try it if they find one later.

They then run into a Monster House, a room packed with enemies. The player says it's reassuring to keep at least one item on hand that can break through situations like this, and since it's still early and enemy HP is low, they decide to wipe them out with a Vacuum Slash Scroll. Even after defeating the remaining enemies and getting through, they stay cautious, noting that the moment you're basking in victory is exactly when you let your guard down, and that Monster Houses are full of traps, so you should keep checking for traps until the very end. On the other hand, the player notes that Monster Houses let you restock items, farm various things from traps, and are packed with experience, so if you can handle them well they can actually be a help.

Finding a pot, the player identifies it while saying "I love pots." It turns out to be a Transform Pot, which turns whatever you put in it into a random item. This is where the arrows farmed earlier come in handy. Rather than putting the arrows in as a bundle, they scatter them on the floor one at a time, dash over them to pick them up so they don't get bundled together, and put them into the pot one by one. The result, however, was "all herbs," prompting the player to call it out.

As for bracelets, the player says they're often unidentified but many have powerful effects, so they'd like to identify them proactively if possible. The one they got was a Sense Enemies Bracelet, which always shows where enemies are. Enemies appear as red dots on the minimap and you'll no longer bump into them in corridors, so the player is happy that they can explore with peace of mind.

A room with a red carpet is a shop. In shops you can buy and sell goods, and you can also steal by dashing to the stairs, but the player says that "since I'm a good person" they'll shop normally.

On offer were a Transform Pot, a Strength Herb (eating it raises the power of your sword and arrows), a herb that makes you temporarily invincible, a Happiness Herb that raises your level, a scroll that strengthens your weapon when read, and more, and the player praises it as a well-stocked shop. They hesitate over a selection-type pot that seems handy but is a bit pricey, but in the end they want everything and buy it.

During the "fun gacha time" of breaking the Transform Pot they bought, a sword came out, and it was the Manjikabura Sword they'd been wanting earlier. Equipping it together with the Fuma Shield triggers a resonance that increases the damage dealt by normal attacks. The player is pleased to have found a good weapon.

Against sludgy enemies that lower the stats of your equipment, they take off the gear prone to rusting and punch bare-handed. Since their strength had gone up from the Strength Herb, the player says they can throw a good punch.

Just as they're about to collapse from hunger, they find a rice ball shop and buy all 10 rice balls on sale. They keep eating even after they're full because, as the player explains, eating rice balls while full expands your stomach and raises your maximum fullness. The decision is to cram in as much as possible while they have the chance. This fullness topic comes up again later in the boss fight.

Progressing smoothly to floor 24, the player feels the enemies are gradually becoming more vicious and the atmosphere more ominous. They pick up a Plating Scroll, which plates your equipment so that it no longer rusts from things like the sludgy enemies' attacks, but they're also ambushed by a monster disguised as an item and driven from full HP to near death in one go. Against an enemy that throws rocks from the darkness, closing the distance would mean getting pummeled in the meantime, so they use up a staff to deal with it safely.

On floor 28, dragon and radish enemies begin to appear, and the player describes it as "a world where dragons and radishes are probably equally vicious." They move carefully and think things through since underestimating enemies gets you killed easily, but also note that since it's their first playthrough, they don't know what the enemies will do. After taking a hit from the radish they used a scroll, but it ultimately turned out to be "a gentle radish that just has a lot of HP," and they managed to defeat it by firing wooden arrows as if praying.

On floor 30, true to their remark that the moment right after going down the stairs is the scariest, a dragon is glaring at them right away. Since underestimating unfamiliar enemies can lead to disaster, the player is wary of things like homing fire that can be shot from anywhere or double-speed actions, and deals with it by waving a staff they had on hand for the time being. They also use a staff just in case on a troublesome-looking tank enemy that appears right after a level-up.

Here the player shares their thoughts on the game's combat balance. Enemy attack power is somewhat high in this game, but the protagonist's recovery is also quite high, so they like that even simply holding enemies in place is effective enough. The player says a tense adventure where you carry the wounds from battle and your health gets whittled down bit by bit is nice, but a "lively style" like this game's, where you can refresh once you get through a fight, is fun too.

Finally reaching the summit, they find the girl from the dream calling for help. The player laughs that, to be honest, they came for the treasure, but they'll go with "I came to rescue you."

In the boss fight, they first check the enemy formation. There are several minions, and for some reason items are scattered around. They wondered if there was an enemy that throws items, but that doesn't seem to be the case, so the player guesses they may simply be lying around. Partly because Koppa told them not to be stingy with items, they first whittle down the minions with a Vacuum Slash Scroll. The effects are so flashy they can't see, but they judge that it probably worked and that every enemy is now one hit away from defeat.

Here the player tries out "Dosukoi state," newly added in this game. When fullness reaches 150, you enter Dosukoi state, which temporarily boosts your HP and attack power. After eating rice balls and growing bigger, their HP bar extended dramatically. The expansion of maximum fullness earlier in the game paid off here.

Meanwhile, a dragon approaches from the right, and thinking it would be a problem to keep getting hit by its breath, they throw a Paralysis Staff to stop it in its tracks. The player jokes that it can watch helplessly as its allies are defeated before its eyes. With the attack power of Dosukoi state, they defeat the minions one after another.

When the boss closes in, the player considers their options. Since it would be scary if the boss had resistance to or reflected status ailments, they avoid inflicting ailments and instead shore up their defense with an Invincible Herb. The boss rammed into them and knocked them back, but being invincible nullified the damage. They then doubled their speed with a Speed Herb and, still in Dosukoi state, landed a series of attacks to take it down.

When the boss falls, the monster that had nested on Serpentcoil Island vanishes and the whole of Serpentcoil Island rises up. Next comes a scene of rain falling on the struggling people they met on the way to Serpentcoil Island, leading into the credits.

This brings the exploration of Serpentcoil Island to a close. The player reflects that it was their first Shiren the Wanderer in a long time, and says the adventure keeps you swinging between joy and despair the whole way, and that the core fun of the series is alive and well. They add that attention has been paid to even the finer details, making for an experience that feels very good to play. By the player's own reckoning, everything up to this point was the tutorial, and they close the video by saying they're looking forward to the adventures awaiting them in new dungeons.