Manipulating Monster Manor

If you've played it, you know that you want stuff from chests.  You may want better chests, though.  You might also want to find a Mii for a team-up, a Mii for a puzzle box, or an orb.  Well, I've figured out how to manipulate most of that.

This makes heavy use of sending Miis to the back and dismissing them.  Obviously if you're on the first floor, you probably won't be able to dismiss, so this works best starting on the second floor.  To dismiss a Mii, go to a floor that's full and select "Take Piece".  Basically, if none of their pieces will fit on the floor you're currently on, then you'll be able to dismiss them.  However, this dismiss option replaces the "Take Piece" option, so if you want to use one of that Mii's pieces on a different floor, you'll have to use the stairs to reset it.  You can always back out and not place a piece, even if you've already selected the piece and progressed to the screen where you put it somewhere on the floor.

Actually, let's start with going up floors.  To do so, you need to find the stairs.  The stairs are in a random, hidden location that doesn't touch the walls of the manor.  When you reveal their location, go up them immediately.  Doing so refills your health, gives you more health, and most importantly, gives you another floor to put pieces into.  The only exception might be if there's a boss guarding the steps.  In that case, you might want to hold off, either for a team-up, or simply to get to an orb and power up your weapon.

Getting orbs is the one thing I haven't yet figured out how to manipulate, but it doesn't matter.  You won't always be able to make the giant rooms required to get the good chests, so you're very likely to get orbs generated in the smaller rooms you'll have to create in the meantime.

People who haven't purchased the game will give gifts of gems, and a random puzzle box.  If you want to raise the chances of these showing up, dismiss anyone who doesn't have a weapon on their back before making a room.  Placing their piece is also an option.  Keep in mind that the first time you meet someone who hasn't purchased the game, all you're going to get is gems, but starting with the second time you meet that person, you'll get the puzzle box.

People who have purchased the game will give you the option to team up, or get an item and a puzzle box.  If you want to raise the chances of these showing up, dismiss anyone who has a weapon on their back before making a room.  Placing their piece is also an option.

Getting better chests is simple.  You need to make a 4x4 room, all one color, that's connected to a room with an orb in it.  However, the order in which you do things matters.  Specifically, you'll need to make a 4x4 single-color square with room for a 2x2 piece in the center.  Every time you get a group of streetpasses after that, check for the color you're interested in.  Check that Mii's pieces and look for the 2x2 piece.  If you have a can of magic paint, check everyone's pieces.  Place this 2x2 piece first, whether you have to recolor it or not.  You'll also need to do all of this before dismissing anyone or placing any other pieces.

Generally speaking, you want to pick a color and stick with it, filling each floor with that color.  However, the game pre-generates sections of each floor in random colors, so you'll have to either force yourself to path through the room, or place a piece of that color next to it, preferably making a room.

However, once you've got a Rank S weapon that's been upgraded to +2, you'll want to fight a bunch of stuff to level it up.  To do this, you need to not make rooms.  Place pieces of as many different colors as possible next to each other and just make hallways.  This will increase the chance of finding something to fight.  As for the whole "five different elements, things are weak against one of them" thing, ignore it.  Just powerlevel a single weapon.  Remember: don't max its experience bar out if it's not +2.  Also, the maximum possible level for a weapon is 30.  You can make getting this easier by using weapons with a high max level (15 and up) to gain +1 and +2 on your desired weapon.  This may mean upgrading a weapon just to use it as materials for another weapon.

If you're going for completion, then you'll want to continue making big rooms to get gold chests and increase your chances of getting weapons until you've gotten that counter to 40.  You'll have plenty of smaller rooms to make in the meantime, so manipulate yourself some puzzle boxes and get that counter up to 50.  Getting the big rooms will get you the plaza tickets that you find from chests pretty quickly.  Those cans of magic paint, rare as they are, are really valuable for speeding up your ascent through this manor as well as making rooms.  You can also use them to deal with not having a specific color that it's pre-generated, particularly brown since approximately nobody selects brown as their favorite color when making a Mii.

The thing that ends up mattering least is the gift you get from a Mii every 10 times you StreetPass them.  If it so happens that you need a piece from that Mii, go ahead and get the gift, but don't feel too bad about dismissing a Mii that has a gift.

I hope this helps other people in their quest to get all the plaza tickets, or just simply helps people get through the game.