Monster Rancher Helpdesk

[RPGD]

Lo, persons.

With the recent spread of MR throughout the community, I have taken it upon myself to answer any Monster Rancher-related questions as well as provide breeding advice to help you get the most out of your battle-thirsty companions, including helping you choose which breed is right for you.

If anyone feels like they're in need of help in any matter, don't hesitate to ask, no matter which MR game you may own.

Happy Ranching!

[d2king10]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

Hmm, whenever i go exploring on season changes, i hardly EVER find anything good that raises my stats. Is it because im still in the first area? Also, how can i increase my monsters rate of blocking attacks? Thanks.

[Caciss]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

How do I get new areas?

How long does a monster generally live.

Some tips?

[hitogoroshi]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

Note: All advice pertains to Monster Rancher 4. I've never played MR3.

How do I get new areas?

Raising your breeder rank. You get it to C by beating King Shiden in Togle Caves. Then you will be able to go to a new town and, after several return trips and an herb picking trip in Togle caves you will earn Kalaragi Jungle.
Just follow the story.

How long does a monster generally live.

3 and a half years-ish. You will be told when your monster is getting too old to fight.

Some tips?

Never raise two monster the same rank. Meaning, when you get an E class monster, don't raise another E class mosnter until your first one gets to D class. Idealy, it should only take 1-2 Offical tournaments to rank up.

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

I still haven't figured out how to learn new skills in either MR3 or 4. Well, I've only had 4 for a couple hours now lol.

[d2king10]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

Well i figured out how on MR3...when you are exploring, find a crystal peice, and then find the ancient monster, and he will teach you a new skill if you give him the crystal.

[RPGD]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

Hitogoroshi: What the blooming hell are you doing? This isn't your help topic!

Okay, Caciss, to gain access to the other regions in MR3, you simply have to gain popularity in those regions by competing in tourneys. It won't take too long. The easiest to gain access to is Kalaragi (jungle) and the hardest is Goat (ocean). You should be able to gain access to all the regions by the end of your first monster's lifetime or so.

In MR3, Monsters generally live for 3-5 years. The lifespans differ from breed to breed, though. Battles reduce lifespan marginally, and tiredness and stress can reduce lifespan as well if not managed properly. For reference, the longest-living monster is Plant.

As a monster ages, it goes through a few growth stages in which your monster increases in size and/or improves in performance. The first is the transition from infancy to childhood. You'll notice a large increase in stat boosts from training. The second growth spurt leads to adulthood, which is the most important time of your monster's life by far, as training is most effective during this period. Finally, it goes into the elder stage, in which stat boosts from training taper gradually until they reach infancy levels. Your monster should have a year or less of life left when it reaches this stage. After that, your monster passes on to the great beyond. Keep a hanky handy.

For tips, at this stage I recommend you train your monster in the stats it's good at early in it's life, and raising the stats it's not too good at during prime, in which stat boosts peak, memorize the locations of the attack-training "Noisy Halls" because they're always in the same place, and balance likes and nutrition at feeding time to keep a monster's stress low.


D2king: The special items you find in ventures which boost stats pretty much varies. Sometimes you can find a good ammount, sometimes you cannot. The real thing to focus on during ventures, besides getting nice stuff, is to find bits to learn new techs and train them via the Noisy Halls. There are 4 bits, each one corresponding to a certain region. In Morx, you can find all four types, but in the other regions you'll always find a certain type of bit.

There're certain places in which Fleria will say she has a bad feeling. If you search there, you may find a bit, saucer stone pieces which can generate monsters if you lack CDs, or a battle. If your monster is of a high enough rank, you just might be able to battle a secret monster. If you beat the secret monster, you'll get an Orb, which yeilds the best techniques your monster can learn.

Once your monster gets stronger, look out for the Free-For-All tourneys; they have stones as prizes which can be used to teach far more powerful techs than the bits, but more costly Guts-wise than the Orbs.

Just remember that you can carry only one bit/orb/stone at a time. Go to the Lord monster of the region during ventures (he'll always be in the same place) to teach them to your monster.

Also, the blocking is influenced by the Speed stat. The higher your speed, the more often you block. It's identical to dodging attacks.

Pandemonium: You gain new techs in MR4 by going on ventures and leveling up. You'll get a full tutorial on that once you gain access to ventures.

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

There're certain places in which Fleria will say she has a bad feeling. If you search there, you may find a bit, saucer stone pieces which can generate monsters if you lack CDs, or a battle.

No wonder I never found any, I always didn't search when she said that. Figured it'd be something super bombad.

Also, is there not a way to combine monsters in MR3? Gamestop didn't have the manual so I don't know much about the game.

[RPGD]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

You cannot combine monsters in this game, as technology hadn't reached that level during the Tochikan era. However, there are other means of getting stronger monsters and new monster subtypes without using disks.

You should be able to find out by the end of your monster's lifetime, but if you're curious, check if your monster is native to Morx (forest), and if it isn't, feed it the local Morx food regularly (every region has one unique food item).

[TheHonorableRyu]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

Dr. Prog,

What's your favorite MR monster?

[RPGD]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

That would be Suezo.



Would you like an elaboration?

[TheHonorableRyu]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

Sure! You can tell me what's good about him.

[RPGD]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

Suezo, former mascot of the series, is an odd breed of monster that has been around since the very begining. It is regarded as one of the series' most popular monsters due to it's amusing human-like expressions.

Suezo's greatest assets would be it's sky high intelligence and excellent accuracy. However, Suezo isn't primarily a powerhouse. Rather, it's forte is to lower the opponent's guts to rock bottom and keep it there. It has a number of effective guts-draining moves which consist of psychic power, licking and the like, but it also has some very powerful Int moves for great damage when necessary. In addition, it has a nice array of Pow. moves which are quite effective as well.

While it's forte may be withering, it's a very versatile monster, especially in the latter two games. It can be a tank-like monster to weigh the opposition down, a physical/special sweeper to knock out monsters before they know what hit them, a combo king which can pull of a number of moves consecutively without giving the opponent a chance to strike, plenty of applications. Choose whichever you wish.

However, Suezo is a rather difficult monster. It tends to be lazy, mischevious, undiciplined and hard to raise, therefore unrecommended for first-timers. If you want to get the most out of Suezo, you have to be very firm so as to keep it in line.

If you can handle it, though, Suezo is a great monster to use.

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

How come all my monsters are always chubby?

I am loving both MR3 and 4 but I like 4 more. It feels more active to me, 3 starts to feel like you're doing the same thing over and over, which of course you are in both but the extras in 4 (Ventures, customizing your ranch, more characters popping in for a visit, etc.) add a lot of variety.

[RPGD]

Re: Monster Rancher Helpdesk

Have you been moving abouts the regions in MR3? Each one has a storyline. What Rank are you at?

Also, monsters get chubby if they don't battle much and you feed them rather filling foods often. It's not really a bad trait. It lowers damage done somewhat, yet slightly decreases the chances of avoiding attacks.