--------------------------------------------- |I. Intro and version | |II. Choosing a monster | |III. From the beginning | |IV. Farm Items : Things you need | |V. Drills | |VI. Over-drive monsters & Advanced Training| |VII. Disclaimer | --------------------------------------------- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890123456789012345 ---------- |I. Intro| ---------- Welcome to my first FAQ. Within this guide are suggestions on how to raise your first monster, along with information and suggestions for once you get into the game a ways. This includes hard-training and eventually over-drive monsters. Is this the only way? by no means, no. Is it the perfect way? Again, no. This is simply ways I have created through trial and error and via information I have gotten from http://www.monster-rancher.com This guide is not intended to help you raise a 'perfect' monster, but rather it is aimed at helping the new player and experienced player get a grip of the new training methods, drills and eventually over-driving your monster. version 1.0 - FAQ Made ------------------------ |II. Choosing a monster| ------------------------ First off, choosing your monster is important. For those just starting the game, I would recommend a monster that is NOT speed based. Pixie, at least in my humble opinion is a bad monster for your first. They have relatively low life-spans, low defense gains and not that great in the life department. However, there are ways around the life gain weakness. Also, I will say this now; and probably quite often in this FAQ, choose only FOUR (4) stats and raise them. Either POW or INT, then Ski, def and lif. The attack type (Pow or Int) that you did not choose, plus spd should be neglected. I will explain why in full in the next section. For a first monster I would recommend one of the following: A) Tiger - ANY breed/sub-breed would work. Pure tiger and Flazer (tiger/abyss) seem to be rather easy to obtain via magic field. Tigers get a very good move called Somersault, which is a close range move with low gut cost (24) and great accuracy. B) Lobearta - This monster is GREAT as a starter. It takes some mild work to obtain, but it is very possible to get it in just a few extra minutes. First off, you will need to make a total of 3 monsters, one of which has to be an abyss breed (any sub will do). Second, check www.monster-rancher.com and get two monsters that do NOT mix. An Abyss and Ogyo, or Color Pandora and Abyss are two good examples. Combine them and this will make an -ish monster. -ish monsters are good because they can be combined to make special breeds. Now then, take the -ish monster and mix it will an abyss, using the Abyss as main breed, the -ish SUB-BREED as the sub-breed. This will make Lobearta. Now, release this Lobearta using the release function on the lab. Go back to the shrine and make a new Lobearta using the Encyclopedia. The reason for all of this foot work is Lobearta has the following stats: Pow: 154 Int: 185 Ski: 117 Spd: 89 Def: 177 Lif: 117 Clair; middle-range INT attack. STAR accuracy, which is as high as you can get. Very accurate attack for a low (24 gut) cost. Also, it has Peppy, which means your fatigue won't build as fast during Training and Drills, also Tough - which raises defense faster - helps too. This is the reason I recommend a small amount of work to get the Lobearta. ------------------------- |III. From the Beginning| ------------------------- Okay, so now you've chosen your monster. For this guide I went with the Lobearta, because it offers the most bang for buck for a new monster and just starting the game. Now, I will explain why you want to focus on just four stats: in the early game, and even late game, you will want to maximize your potential and abilities. Raising all six stats is just not possible early on and not recommended at any time during the game. Power or Intelligence : Again, this is where you decide what kind of attacks you will use. Skill : You have to have this stat, even with a high accuracy attack, skill means a lot. Defense : Defense helps you take hits, the more, the better. Life : Life helps three-fold. 1. You can take more hits, 2. More dice rolls in drills, 3. More life equals longer time away on errantries. Why not Pow and Int? Because only ONE is needed. Raising both means mediocre damage for both, rather than superior damage for one. Why not Speed? Simple, in this game you have what are called Defensive Squares. They up evasion a lot and reduce damage. Plus, speed helps very little in evading unless you have a big advantage over your opponents skill stat. Thus, it is better to pour your training time into defense. Anyway, now that we have our monster let us go over the training types. Light training: At the start it will raise your monster's stat 3-7 points A) Pound - Raises your monster's POW stat B) Study - Raises your monster's INT stat C) Shoot - Raises your monster's SKI stat D) Jump - Raises your monster's SPD stat - you should NEVER use this. E) Crush - Raises your monster's DEF stat F) Run - Raises your monster's LIF stat Hard Training: these should not be used before your monster is AT LEAST 8 months old. You obtain Hard Training methods when you upgrade your house and barn. First upgrade nets you Climb (++ Pow, +lif, -int) and Meditate (++Int, +ski, -pow). The second upgrade will get you Evade (++def, +lif, -spd), which is VERY nice, as well you get Hit (++spd, +ski, -def) you should never use this either. Okay. So now you are ready to begin training your monster. I would recommend something similar to this: Month 1: Week 1: Pound or Study Week 2: Shoot Week 3: Shoot Week 4: Run Month 2: Week 1: rest Week 2: Crush Week 3: Crush Week 4: Pound Month 3: Week 1: rest Week 2: Shoot Week 3: shoot Week 4: run You want to try and rest every 4th week unless your monster gets tired/stressed before then. If they do get stressed or tired, ALWAYS rest that week. This will be good enough to get your monster up to at least 200 in Pow OR Int, Ski, Def and Lif. You want to wait until you reach the 200 mark before you start doing competitions. Also you will need to adjust your schedule to compensate for tiredness from battles. Once you obtain hard training methods, which you will need eventually, begin doing them if your monster is at least 8 months old. A schedule using hard training should look kind of like this: Month 1: Week 1: Climb or Meditate Week 2: Shoot Week 3: Climb or Meditate Week 4: Rest Once you get all 4 hard training methods, you should switch in Evade occasionally for the Climb/Mediate weeks. Being as Climb & Evade both take up life, you will not need to put in any run trainings. However, if you use Meditate instead of climb, replace Shoot with Run being as Meditate takes up Skill. ---------------------------------- |IV. Farm Items : Things you need| ---------------------------------- There are seven items you can get for your farm that help your monsters with stress and fatigue. They will be listed below with the date and rank of the competition. 1. Gemini Pot; Month 6, week 1. D rank battle 2. Weather Doll; Month 8, Week 3. D rank battle 3. Sculpture; Month 9, Week 1. D rank battle 4. Cricket Chime; Month 9, week 1. C rank battle 5. Ice Cube; Month 9, week 1. B rank battle 6. Music Box; Month 10, week 4. S rank battle 7. Fire Stone; Month 2, week 3, A rank battle Gemini Pot : Reduces Stress a great deal Weather Doll : Reduces Monster's fatigue in spring Sculpture : Reduces Fatigue Cricket Chime : Lowers stress in autumn months Ice Cube : Reduces Stress in Summer Months Music Box : Increases effects of resting Fire Stone : Reduces Fatigue in Winter Months So there you are, not all can be obtained immediately, but be sure to get them whenever you can. ----------- |V. Drills| ----------- Drills are obtained as you gain Breeder Ranks. They are unlocked as follows: Trigonon Forest : D Rank : ++ Pow, + Lif Gupuka Bay : D Rank : ++ Int, +Lif Ugalu Woods : C Rank : ++ Ski, +Lif Erips Ice Ridge : B Rank : ++ Spd, +Lif Dendron Ruins : A Rank : ++ Def, +Lif Kawrea Volcano : S Rank : ++Lif, +Ski Here are what the best months are SUPPOSED to be, but your luck may vary. Trigonon : Winter Gupuka Bay : Summer Ugalu Woods : Spring Erips : Fall Dendron : Summer Kawrea : Fall Kawrea, if you can get to it, there is a 3x3 area where you can raise your life from base to 700+ in one drill if you're lucky. This is VERY nice, but Kawrea is not available until you have hit Rank S with at least one monster, which means beating A Rank. Drills are very good if you have the luck and LIFE stat to support them. You get 4 - 9 dice rolls initially and can increase them via plus rolls spots on the board. It is an interesting and occasionally fun mini-game that can be very beneficial to raising your monsters. Some people recommend only doing drills, but I do not. Drills cost 1000-2000 per drill, which is not feasible for when you first start out. Plus, hard training can usually give just as good of results, the exception being Kawrea in the fall. --------------------------------------------- |VI. Over-Drive Monsters & Advanced Training| --------------------------------------------- Over-Drive Monsters are unlocked via the Icicle Festival, which you must be invited to. I am unsure of the conditions, but some have claimed to get this invite before beating the big four tournaments, myself I got it afterwards. Over-Drive Monsters are monsters that can break the 999 stat limit, but you are still limited to 5994 total points. This is one reason it is good to get into a habit of only raising 4 stats. Speed and either Power or Intelligence will take big hits while your other 4 stats will easily hit 1000-1500 depending on your raising method. This part of the FAQ is to HELP you obtain a good over-drive monster. But, by this point, you should have some idea of how to raise them yourselves. Here is how -I- do it and even though successful, I will keep trying to improve it. First, you need A LOT of money. 200-300 thousand is not unheard of being spent on a single over-drive monster. This is chump change if you have done several money monsters over your early years. Months 1 - 8 you should raise your monster normally, feeding him plenty of shrooms & sea angels to keep him in GREAT health. Once you hit 8 months old begin doing hard training. Again, feeding shrooms and sea angels as needed to keep him great. Once you get the 'prime' message for your monster it is time to start mixing your training with drills. Kawrea in the fall is awesome for this. You should always do Kawrea in the fall until your monster has 1500 life, less than 1500 is a waste for an over-drive monster. Alternating between drills and hard training should be the remainder of your monster's life, along with enough competitions to hit 100 fame. While it may be meaningless, I believe fame -does- help in combining. ----------------- |VII. Disclaimer| ----------------- This FAQ was written and copy-writed to XxRisonxX (John Bass Jr). It may not be sold, changed or redistrubted without my express written consent. Only www.gamefaqs.com has the right to host this FAQ at this time. If you wish to host this FAQ you must contact me at zalsphere @ hotmail . com and if approved the FAQ must be posted in its entirety and unchanged, the only exception is if you wish to place it in HTML format, but this disclaimer must remain in place! Also, I would like that to thank www.monster-rancher.com for some information and advice that helped me along, which helped in the creation of this FAQ.