Universal Ydanji: The Roguelike (by KEMCO)

I actually unlocked all 20 yokai after a while, so I'll work on a bit of an effortpost.

First a disclaimer: once you unlock all 20, yokai hunt/picnic is sealed off - the only option available is endless dungeon mode. I was a little disappointed because I like having a set goal besides 'continue until your guaranteed loss', but whether it's a dealbreaker is up to you.

For unlocking yokai, the scythe weasel is probably one of the easiest starters to work with. Upgrade the healing move, the multi-hit move and the one that gives you a speed boost. If the multi-hit alpha strike doesn't kill enemies, finish them off with bump attacks.

You only level up by killing hitodama, so there's no need to hunt down and kill every enemy. It can be worth it exploring for useful items, but there's no need to go too out of your way on the earlier floors. Once past floor 5 or so scrolls will start spawning, so you'll have to go hunt for those. Scrolls can spawn out of order, and while all three will spawn, they won't spawn on set floors.

Item-wise, search the floors and hold on to stuff that seems useful. If you find a scroll, you can pick it up, drop it by the exit you intend to take, then leave it at the entrance to the next floor until you're ready to leave it. You can also do the same for useful consumables, like powders or sake. If you find any food you can't carry and you're not stuffed, eat it right there.

Omamori are the only real type of equipment in this game - each one provides a passive effect when you find them. Some of the more common and useful ones off the top of my head:

Wood Omamori - usually found in a spiral loop of trees, sometimes guarded by a kodama. Lowers your hunger costs, very useful.

Fire Omamori - usually surrounded by lanterns, some of which might be lantern enemies in disguise, so be careful. Increases your offense, very useful.

All-Purpose Omamori - has a 50% chance to protect you from status effects, found lying around anywhere.

Earth Omamori - shows you the location of all enemies on the floor, good for tracking them down. There's a variant that reveals the location of hitodama and exits only, forget its name.

Metal Omamori - often guarded by a pack of Jorogumo, raises defense by one.

There's also a couple of rare ones that do stuff like increase your HP/SP regeneration massively, or give you a chance to revive, count your blessings if you find them. For most of my runs I rely on carrying as many omamori as possible, ferrying useful consumables and scrolls back and forth through staircases once the path between them is cleared of enemies.

For the final boss, you'll want to keep some consumables on hand so you can buff yourself up before he attacks. He can inflict bleeding on you and summon a helpful oni, so luring him to a corridor might be helpful. How you fight him depends on your character, some work better by shredding him before he can hit you, others through wearing him down over a battle of attrition.

As you unlock more youkai, you might want to switch out the weasel for other ones. For yokai hunt/picnic, I find it better to rely on decently strong ones with little reliance on spells, so as to ease up on nutrition costs - you'll have to do a lot of searching for scrolls sometimes. Some decent ones for yokai hunt mode:

Baku: decently strong and buff, gets a HP-restoring spell that also restores its nutrition and can gain nutrition from sleeping enemies, making it reasonably self-sufficient.

Nurikabe: Colossal defense and massive HP pool, enough to shrug off standard attacks from most enemies in the game. Watch out for damage over time effects though - don't use the defense-buffing spell that lowers your speed near a lantern, for instance.

Oni: Same reason as the weasel, decently strong and buff with strong offensive spells. Not quite as tough as the nurikabe though so be a little careful.

Hitodama: one of the more interesting ones - you have only 1 HP/SP, and your only move is to possess an adjacent enemy's body, which instakills them and gives you their body. Upon dying in this form, you revert back to hitodama form, and can usually instantly revenge yourself by possessing whatever last killed you. Not sure whether this will count as a defeat if you do it on the final boss.

Enma Daio: Yes, the boss is an unlockable character. Not many downsides - strong, tough and with very good spells. His main weakness is an inventory that only consists of three slots, so you'll have to deal with more inventory shuffling on yokai hunt mode.

As for the other unlockable characters, I'll leave you to find out what their deal is - though seeing as how you'll be coming into conflict with most of them over the course of the game, it probably isn't too hard to guess.

 

Thanks for that. Man this game is hard. I even found the amazing passive that grants you +5 hp and regen and I still die on the 5th floor. Got immobilized and that enemy that disagrees and reappeared killed me.... brutal. Game is difficult. Wonder if I should try picnic mode and unlock yokai that way...