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One of the best ways of constructing an exceptionally powerful party member in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is by intelligent use of the Password system. By manipulating this system, the player can bring in demonic allies from other player’s games, re-use the normally single use Demon Sources, and in general, snap the balance of this game like a toothpick. This week, we’ll take a look at some basic strategies for abusing passwords for fun and profit.

But first, some basic information. The password system itself is not terribly complicated; it allows players to output a password for any demon currently in their Demonic Compendium, which other players can then input in order to summon that same demon, for a certain amount of Macca. Doing so does not remove the demon from the Compendium of the player who created the password, but it does add that demon to the Compendium of the player who inputs the password.

At first glance, you may notice that this system already lends itself to a certain amount of abuse. There’s nothing preventing players from throwing everything they have into one of the game’s expensive special fusions, producing a rare demon, and then simply writing down its password and reloading the game. However, to really start abusing the password system, we need to look at Demonic Sources.

We talked a little bit about Sources last week, but there’s one important part that I failed to mention. You see, each Source has between one and three base skills which will always be a part of that Source, and a single bonus skill which is determined by what skills the demon knows when it gives up its Source. The more powerful the skill, the more unlikely it is to appear as the bonus skill, but it is possible to get almost any skill on any Source simply by saving just before a demon gives you their Source, and then reloading if it isn’t the one you wanted.

At any rate, the process of re-using Sources is fairly easy. Simply save your game before beginning the fusion process, fuse whatever demon you would like using whichever Source will work best, register it in your Compendium and output its password. Next, and this is important, write the password down somewhere. Then reload your last save, input the password, and pay to summon your demon. You now have both the demon you fused, and the Source still in your inventory. Now, this process can be a bit expensive, but Macca is easy enough to obtain once you get the Enemy Search ability early in the game. The Forma dropped by enemies found with Enemy Search are worth absurd amounts of money, which will make summoning the fruits of your labor much easier.

However, the real power of this little exploit is available only after your main character is leveled to the mid-30s or so, when Mitama fusions become possible. You see, Mitama are unique little critters who, when fused with other demons, do not result in brand new demons. Instead, they act as a quick boost to that demon’s stats, usually determined by which member of the Mitama family was fused to the demon. However, in Strange Journey, fusing a demon with a Mitama also gives you the ability to mix another Source in. You see where this is going. In effect, doing multiple Mitama fusions with a single Demon allows the player to pick and choose which skills a particular demon will learn. By simply saving beforehand, performing multiple Mitama fusions, outputting the password, and then reloading, you can build a massively powerful demon with a host of useful skills whose only real cost is Macca.

That’s about it for the password system. Next week, we’ll be taking a look at some of the skills you may wish to make use of, and suggesting some setups for various demons. Until then, happy hunting!