Monster Rancher 2 is a game that likes to pretend it's a very basic monster simulator. This is completely untrue as it hides the vast majority of it's mechanics from the player. This combined with the games complete lack of a tutorial results in most new players monsters dying quickly in a very frustrating experience.

This guide is designed to explain the features that the game doesn't and to help raise your first few monsters. The end goal of this guide is that you'll have a basic understanding of monster raising and some G in your pocket so you can continue the game at your own pace.

I know you are probably looking at all of these sections and thinking "this is a beginners guide". I am going to explain all of the mechanics in depth which is why it is complex. You don't need to read all of it if you don't want to. So just pick and choose. If you do want to skip to the Choosing Your First Monster section then come back to the explanation parts as you need to that's also a good plan.

When you start a new game you will be asked to enter your name, gender and to complete a trainer type test. The questions are semi randomised and have no impact on which monsters you unlock or which trainer assistant you will be matched with. So answer them however you want.



Once this is done you'll be matched with Coltia your trainer assistant and can ask some questions in the only tutorial the game provides. Click No More once you are done to move on to the Town.

At this point you'll be placed on the Town screen:


The Ranch option will not be available until you have a monster, so you'll need to choose one before we can go any further. Monsters can be obtained from either the Market or the Shrine. At this point in the guide you can either skip ahead to the Choosing Your Monster section or read through the Monster Information section to understand the Choosing Your Monster section a bit better.

The Monster Information sections will break down various hidden or not hidden mechanics which will help you to decide which monster you would like to start with. You can skip these sections and move straight on to the Choosing your First Monster section but some of it will not make as much sense without it.

Before we get started I recommend having a look at the Legend Cup Monster data:
https://legendcup.com/faqmr2dxcdlist.php

This is where you can have a look at the monsters and the stats that I will be explaining.

All monsters will have certain stats that affect how they will be raised. From how quickly they gain stats to how long they will live. These stats are determined by the Main Type and the Sub Type. Let's start by explaining that.

Main Type and Sub Type.
Lets start off with the one I've already mentioned in this guide Main Type and Sub Type. To view the Main and Sub breed of a monster open the Monster Info and then click View.



Main Type
The Main Type is the first monster that appears in the Main section below a monster's type when Viewing it. This determines what Techniques the monster can learn and creates a base line for stats such as Lifespan and Guts Rate. In the example above that is Gaboo. Once a monster has been created it cannot change it's Main Type with Worm being the one exception by cocooning.

Sub Type
Sub Types allow you to customise a monster and alter the way it plays slightly. The Sub Type is the second monster that appears in the Sub section, in the case above Tiger. The Sub Type will alter the lifespan, guts rate, stat gains, nature and life type of the monster from the Main Type's base stats. I'll cover all of these in this section of the guide. A Sub-Type will not allow the monster to use the techniques of it's sub-type outside of cross-over techs. Cross over techs are rare and require a specific Sub-Type to be able to learn. As with the Main Type, the Sub Type cannot be changed once the monster has been created with Worm being the exception as usual. If a monster has the same monster name as it's Main Type sub position it does not have a sub-type and is called a "pure-breed". For example:



Every monster has the choice of at least one Sub Type other than being a pure-breed but some monsters have more choice than others. For example Ghost only has one option for a Sub Type which is a ??? type. ??? Type sub type are special monsters that originally came from specific CDs, as a result they don't correspond to a monster in the game. They can also be what is called Enemy Monsters which I'll talk about in the Errantry section.

For the rest of the guide I will write monsters like this: Gaboo/Tiger where the first monster is the Main Type and the Sub Type is the second.

Should you always use a Sub-Type?
For casual play you can use any sub-type you like. Sub-Types are in no way required but some will make the task of raising your monster slightly easier. This will be either by improving their stat gains or nature which makes them easier to raise. Or increasing their guts regen which will make them slightly more powerful in battles. When we get to the Choosing your First Monster section of the guide I will suggest some sub-type for each monster but don't feel forced to use them if you don't like them.

Stat Gains
Stat Gains are one of the more important areas of monster raising, simply they determine how fast your monster will raise each of it's stats while Training or on Errantry. In Monster Rancher 2 there are 6 stats that a Monster can increase. These are: Lif, Pow, Int, Ski, Spd and Def. Each of these stats has the following effect on your monster:


Each monster has a number between 1-5 for each stat that determines how quickly it gains a certain stat when Training or going on Errantry. 1 is the lowest stat gain and 5 is the highest, for your first few monsters I wouldn't recommend trying to raise a stat which is lower than 3. Not because it isn't possible but just because it will take fairly long and you only have a limited amount of money.

It is best to focus on the stats that a monster is good at while it is young or old. So if your monster has one or more stats with a 4-5 gain start by raising those stats first. Once a monster reaches it's Prime you can focus on the stats which have lower stat gains. Then switch back to it's best stat gains as it ages.

For the example lets use a Mocchi/Mocchi. Mocchi is the jack of all trades of Monster Rancher 2, it can do anything but doesn't do anything particularly well. Lets have a look at it's stat gains:


As you can see no gain value is below a 3 which means that Mocchi has average gains in all of it's stats. Skill, Speed and Defence will all increase faster. While Life, Power and Intelligence will be slightly slower. But not so slow that it wouldn't be possible to raise it.

Now lets have a look at a very different monster:


Unlike Mocchi, Pixie is a glass cannon. With massive gains in Intelligence and large gains in Skill and Speed. However with a stat of only 1 in Defence and Life raising these stats would be extremely slow and certainly not recommended.

So what happens when we combine these monsters together?


The combination of these monsters has changed Mocchi's stat gains. It now has an Intelligence stat of 4 but it has lost a point in both Lif and Def.

Selecting a Sub-Type will (usually) slightly alter the stat gains of the Main Type monster. If you would like to use a Sub-Type I would recommend looking it up on the Legend Cup Monster Data list just in case the stat change will affect what stats you plan to raise.

Monster Data List[legendcup.com]

Starting out you will want to raise 3 stats on a monster Skill, either Power or Intelligence and either Spd with some Lif so you can survive a hit if you want to dodge or just Lif if you want a tank monster. Defence is not recommended as it behaves strangely with the damage formula and isn't efficient. Lif is better if you want to just tank hits, so if you don't want a dodging monster go for Lif instead.

This is only strictly true for the beginning of the game. Once you have a good training method and the money to fund it you can make monsters with 999 in each stat if you wish. But generally the 3 stats rule is still a lot easier.

Lifespan
Lifespan is simply how long your monster will live, each week a monster is on the ranch the number will decrease by at least 1. Once it reaches 0 the monster will die, so high numbers are generally better. Not all monsters have the same lifespan and some will be drastically different than others. A monsters lifespan is determined by it's main type and is then altered by the sub type.

Monsters with shorter lifespans usually have higher stat gains to make up for it. While monsters with long lifespans have lower stat gains as a compromise for being able to train for longer. This isn't a rule that is set in stone but I'm trying to keep this as beginner friendly as possible. For your first few monsters I would not recommend choosing a monster with a short lifespan. You want time to learn and to be able to make mistakes. Monsters with short lifespans don't provide that luxury. You can alter a monster's lifespan by using a Sub-type, we'll talk about that at the bottom of this section.

Does this mean that monsters with short lifespans are bad? No some of the monsters in the Short lifespan category are among the best in the game. It's just not ideal for your first few monsters, if you ignore my advice and choose a short lifespan monster you'll still be able to progress. You just won't have as much time as with a monster with a longer lifespan.

Below is a list of all the monsters in the game with their lifespan. These values all assume that the monster is a Purebreed and are just for a general idea of how long each monster will live. As a quick side note 2DX is a port of the original Monster Farm 2 not Monster Rancher 2. So all monsters will have 100 less lifespan compared to their Monster Rancher 2 counterparts.






How Sub Types affect Lifespan
A sub-type can either increase a monsters lifespan over it's main breed or decrease it. When a monster is created using a sub-breed the lifespan of the main type is combined with the sub type using the 60 40 rule.

(Main Type Lifespan * 60) + (Sub Type * 40)

I'll use an example rather than just showing formulas. Lets use a Naga/Naga which has a lifespan of 250 weeks and a Plant/Plant which has a lifespan of 450 weeks.

Lets start off with the Naga as the Main type and Plant as the sub-type here. are a Naga/Naga's and Plant/Plant's base stats.



We enter the Main Type of 250 for the Naga and the Sub Type of 450 for the Plant.

(250 * 60) + (450 * 40)

Which equals:


A Naga/Plant has a lifespan of 330 weeks which is a massive increase of 80 weeks over a pure-breed Naga.

Lets have a look at the Plant and Naga combination next.


We enter the Main Type of 250 for the Naga and the Sub Type of 450 for the Plant.

(450 * 60) + (250 * 40)

Which equals:


A Plant/Naga has a lifespan of 370 weeks which is a loss of 80 weeks of life!

Sub Types are a useful way of altering monsters, allowing you to change a monster's stat gains. However be careful as some Sub Types can cause a drastic reduction in a monster's Lifespan. This isn't always the case but to avoid making this guide even longer so we'll stick with it for now. For your first few monsters I wouldn't worry about it too much, it's just something to keep in mind if you decide to experiment with sub-breeds.

Monster Life Cycle
All monsters will go through the exact same stages in their lifetime. There are 10 stages which start with Infant and end with Twilight. When a monster is an infant it will be very small and as it grows it will get larger until it reaches adulthood. Once an adult it will then continue to age towards Twilight where it will die.

Why is it so important? Because a monster's stat gains are heavily affected by which stage they are in. Monster's stat gains will increase more and more until they reach the Prime status, after Prime their stat gain will decrease in each stage until they reach the Twilight status and die.

A monster's best gains are from the Prime and Sub-Prime stages (sub-prime is slightly worse but I'm being picky) while the Baby and Twilight stages are where the worse stat gains are. In Baby and Twilight even monsters with a 5 stat gain will only gain about 5 points on a light drill and about 8 points on a heavy drill. In Prime and Sub-Prime a 5 stat gain can gain 15 points from a light drill and 20 points from a heavy drill. This is the main reason you want to pay attention to your monster's life cycle, so you know when to train heavily to take advantage of the best stat gains. Monsters do not lose stats as they grow older, it only affects how many points they will get from training or errantry.

So lets start off by going through each of the stages:


Infant
All monsters begin in the Infant stage. Infant is tied for the lowest stat gains with Twilight so gaining stats to start with will be slow. If a monster does not hate milk (listed in the Monster Info) it will like it at this stage.

Childhood
Once a monster reaches Childhood it will stop liking Milk at this stage (unless it's listed as a Like) and the Monster's stats will increase slightly faster.

Adolescence 1
Adolescence is the first time you will see your monster grow. Once it reaches this stage it will physically get bigger which is the easiest way to tell your monster has reached this stage. At this point your monster will get a more significant boost to it's stat gains.

Adolescence 2
Nothing particularly interesting in this stage outside of another stat gain boost.

Prime
Now we get to the good stuff. In Prime your monster will grow again and it's stat gains will reach it's peak. Once your monster reaches Prime Colt will give you an Alert stating: "[Trainer Name], From now on, it will be a important time for [Monster Name]. Let's give it some extra care." Once a monster reaches it's Prime I'd recommend not sending it on Errantry and Battles if you can and focusing on raising stats.

Sub-Prime
From this point on your monster will start to lose stat gains. Sub-Prime is a very slight drop from Prime and you can still expect very good gains at this point.

Elder 1
Elder 1 is another stat gain drop, while not as steep as some of the later stages it will certainly be noticeable.

Elder 2
Elder 2 is a more significant stat gain loss, while still possible to raise stats it will start to become significantly slower at this point.

Old Age
Once your monster reaches Old Age it is almost at the end of it's life. It's stat gains will drop down to the same levels as Childhood.

Twilight
Twilight is the last stage of your monsters life. At this point it's stat gains will be at the same level as Infant and once it's lifespan reaches 0 it will die. I would recommend freezing your monster at this point or saving regularly if you want to try and squeeze in a last few battles.

How to tell which stage your monster is in?
Outside of the Prime notice, short of noticing when your monster grows or when stat gains have gone up there isn't a way you can tell through the game. There are third party tools and calculators which you can use to find out. But outside of using them it's all a guessing game.

How long will my monster be in each of the stages?
So we've covered what each of the stages are and what happens in each but how long will my monster stay in each of these stages? That is determined by the Life Type.

Life Types
There are 4 different life types which are Normal, Precocious, Late Bloom and Sustainable. Which pattern your monster will follow will depend on it's Sub Type. Each life type uses percentages to determine how long your monster will stay in each status. The percentages are based on your monsters total life span so for example if your monster has a 400 week life span and the life type states it will stay in a stage for 10% that is 40 weeks. Below is a life of all of the Life Types and which Sub Types will use them.

Normal
Sub Types: Arrowhead, Bajarl, Centaur, Gali, Hare, Henger, Jell, Metalner, Mocchi, Monol, Zuum

Precocious
Sub Types: Beaclon, Dragon, Ghost, Hopper, Mock, Naga, Pixie, Plant, Suezo, Tiger

Late Bloom
Sub Types: Ape, Baku, ColorPandora, Gaboo, Golem, Jill, Kato, Niton, Phoenix, Worm, Wracky, Zilla

Sustainable
Sub Types: Ducken, Durahan, Joker, Mew, Undine

Does it matter which Life Type my monster has?
All life types are completely usable and the game isn't difficult enough that I need to tell you to never use a specific life type. This information is here purely so you can understand why your monster is staying in each of the stages for as long as it does.

If you did come for recommendations generally the Late Bloom life type is disliked as it has an extremely long childhood and then falls off so quickly in old age that you can't even use it to make money in battles. But Late Bloom is excellent for drug training (I'm not touching this in the guide, this is long enough) but what I'm trying to say is each life type has it's own uses.

Nature
Nature determines a Monster's starting Nature and is a number which ranges from -100 (evil) to 100 (good). When a monster is created from a disc stone or combined it will begin at a certain nature. The value is determined by the monster itself so for example Gali starts at Nature 90 (Good) while Joker starts at Nature -90 (Evil). Nature determines how a monster will behave on the Ranch. Evil monsters will cheat on their drills and are generally harder to raise than good monsters. For your first few monsters I would recommend sticking to Good monsters. You have enough to learn without the added complexity of when you should or shouldn't scold a monster. Once you are more experienced with raising monsters I do recommend trying an evil monster, it can just be frustrating when you are starting.

Battle Specials and Techniques
In addition to how a monster will behave on the ranch, Nature also determines which battle special a monster has. Good Monsters will have Power while Evil monsters will have the Anger battle special. Nature also affects whether a monster can learn certain techniques. For example Kato can only learn the Technique Oil Flame if it is an evil monster. Most Monsters can learn both Good and Evil techniques and the techniques (generally) aren't good enough to worry about.

Changing a Monsters Nature
Monsters can be changed to Good or Evil Nature by training and with certain items. The items Sour Jelly and Sweet Jelly will change a monster's nature by just being fed to it. When raising some actions will increase or decrease a monster's nature, for example Praising a Monster after it does Great on a drill will increase it's nature while not praising it will decrease it's nature. This is a slow process however so don't start out with a pure-breed Pixie and expect it to become Good overnight.

A Monster's nature can also be changed by using Sub-Types. For example Naga is an evil monster and as a pure-breed starts at -80 nature, considering -100 is the maximum that's pretty evil. But having a good sub-type such as Tiger will increase it's nature. A Naga/Tiger starts with a Nature of 35 which is solidly in Good. This can be used if you'd like to raise an evil monster but don't want to actually deal with it, well, being evil.

What are Guts?
Guts are what your monster uses to attack in battles. In battle your Monster's guts will increase over time and will be saved in a "pool" up to 99. Using a technique will reduce your guts pool by the amount of Guts that a technique costs. If your monster does not have enough guts saved in it's pool it won't be able to use the attack. So simply the more guts you have the more your monster will be able to attack.

Guts Regen
Guts Regen is the speed that a monster regains it's guts, measured in the frames it takes to generate a single gut. Surely that is the same across all monsters to keep it simple? No each monster has it's own guts rate that is determined by it's Main Type and altered slightly by it's Sub Type.

The fastest Guts Regen is Metalner at 6 while the slowest is Dragon at 19. So that means for each 6 frames Metalner gains 1 gut while Dragon takes 19 frames to generate a single gut. So a Metalner regains Guts over 3 times as fast as a Dragon. You are probably reading this and thinking "well that means fast gut rate monsters are better than slow ones". That's where Guts Correction comes in.

Guts Correction
I know at this point you probably think that I'm just making things up but stick with me. Guts correction is pretty much the rule of the more guts you have the more damage, more accurate, less damage you take and the better at dodging you are. So if your monster has 99 guts and your opponent has 20, they will do much less damage to your monster if they attack and you will do a lot more damage if you attack them. I'll cover this again in the Battles section, but this seems like I'm just making the case worse for monsters with slow guts regen.

Well Monster Rancher 2 does some more "fun" things without the player ever knowing to weaken faster guts regen monsters. Putting it simply monsters with fast guts regen are put at a disadvantage when facing slow guts rate monsters. This disadvantage comes in the form of increased damage taken, less damage done, a drop in accuracy and increases the chance of the slow gut rate monster dodging. This only applies when a monster with higher guts regen is battling a lower guts rate monster. This helps to even the scales a bit between high and low guts regen monsters.

Guts regen is useful but it's not the most important stat in Monster Rancher 2, good techniques are always better than having a fast guts regen. In terms of gameplay it's essentially do you want to attack more often and do lower damage or attack less often and hit harder. I recommend trying monsters with both slow and fast guts regen and seeing which you like.

Guts Regen by Main Breed
Below is a list of all of the monsters with their gut rate.















Sub-Types and Guts Regen
As mentioned in the Sub Type section of this Guide a monster's sub type will affect it's Guts Regen. This can either be positively to speed up guts regen or negatively to slow it down. Lets start off by combining a Dragon and a Metalner.


Dragon/Metalner has a guts regen of 14 which is about average. Considering that it was the slowest in the game this is quite a jump. So a slow guts regen monster can have a sub-type of a fast regen monster to improve it's guts regen. While it is a significant increase it's still nowhere near a fast guts regen rate, so don't go into combinations expecting to make a Dragon with the guts regen of a Metalner. The general rule is that using a Sub-Type to improve the guts regen of your monster the most is best. This can result in some stat gains that will be very hard to increase early in the game however.

What happens if we do the reverse and have a monster with a fast guts regen with a sub type of a slow guts regen monster?


Combining Hopper's fast guts regen of 8 with Dragon's slow guts regen of 19 has drastically slowed down Hopper's guts regen to 12. While still fairly fast this is a slow guts regen rate for a Hopper. This information isn't too important to start but just something to keep in mind if you want to experiment with sub-types.

What are Techniques?
Techniques are attacks that are learnt by your monster which can be used in battles. All Monsters begin with 2 techniques which are called Basic techs.

Are all Techniques good?
The answer to this question is simply No. Most monsters will have some techniques that are not worth the lifespan to learn. These techniques will range from not doing enough damage, costing too many guts or simply not being efficient. When you first start playing it will be hard to tell which techniques are bad or good but this will improve as you raise more monsters. When we (finally) get to the Choosing your First Monster section I will include some recommended techniques to pickup. I won't be giving any "optimal" load-outs however as you don't need to worry if your monster has a "bad" technique, it is still entirely possible to beat the game with "bad" techniques. In fact sometimes you will be forced to pickup bad techs as the game won't let your monster learn the one you want without having the "bad" one first. But try to conserve your monsters lifespan and only send it to Errantry for Techniques you want rather than learning everything possible.

Where does my monster learn techniques?
Monsters can only learn techniques from Errantry, Combining or being born with them from a Disc. The techniques a monster can learn depends on it's main type. The Monster's sub-type may allow some additional techniques to be learnt called cross over techs, but the vast majority of techniques will be unique to the main type.

When a monster is combined if it's parents knew additional techniques there is a chance that some will be passed onto the child. The number of techniques the child will get depends on the parents used to create it.

Some monsters will come with a certain skill when they are born from a Disc for example from Legend Cup:



When this Mocchi is created from a disc it will automatically know the Technique Mocchi Ray without any Errantries needed. There is no guarantee the monster you want will come with a technique but sometimes you may get lucky.

Finally the last option is to send your monster on Errantry. Errantry is a month long training session where you can't interact with your monster. In return each week it is there your monster has a chance to gain a new technique depending on which Location you send your monster to. I'll cover this more in the Errantry section.

What types of Techniques are there?
There are 5 types of Techniques:

• Basic Tech - Basic techs are well basic. They generally cheap in terms of guts to use but don't do much damage either. All monsters start with 2 of these techniques but some monsters can learn more basic techs than just what they start with. They can be learnt at any of the Errantry locations except Kawrea

• Hit Tech - Hit techs are techniques which have a higher than average change of hitting the opponent monster. In exchange they usually don't do much in terms of damage or cost more guts to use. Hit techs are usually better against monsters with high speed as the increased hit chance offsets their dodge chance. Fast monsters usually have lower Life so the loss of damage isn't as significant. Hit techs can only be learnt from the Torble Sea errantry.

• Heavy techs are usually hard hitting but inaccurate as a result. They also tend to cost more in terms of guts to use and are higher risk for higher reward. Heavy Techs do better against tank monsters with high Lif. The extra damage helps gets through their Lif while the accuracy loss isn't as important as tank monsters usually have low speed. Heavy techs can only be learnt from the Mandy Desert errantry.

• Sharp Tech - Sharpness techs are techniques with a higher critical strike chance. Critical hits increase the amount of damage the opposing monster takes but a sharp tech isn't guaranteed to crit. The downside is that these techniques are more expensive in guts and/or do low damage when they don't cause a critical. As a result sharpness techniques tend to be overpriced unless they actually cause a crit with a few exceptions. Sharp techs can only be learnt from the Papas errantry.

• Withering Tech - Withering techs are techniques which reduce the guts of the opponent monster when the technique successfully hits. They tend to cost more in terms of guts and do low damage as a result. In Monster Rancher 1 withering was extremely overpowered and has been made much less effective in Monster Rancher 2. As an extra kick in the teeth, withering has been made weaker against the AI with 2DX. In the original Monster Rancher 2 AI would only use an attack if the monster had more than 45 guts. This meant you could use Withering to keep the AI under 45 guts and it would not be able to attack. This limit has been removed in 2DX and AI monsters will now attack as long as they have the guts. Withering techs can only be learnt from the Parepare errantry.

• Special Tech - Special techs are high guts cost but high impact moves that can potentially end a battle as soon as they are used. Not all specials are the same however. Some will do high damage, some will drain life and give it to your monster, some will heal your monster and do no damage to your opponent. As a general rule the Special techs that only heal your monster are not worth using, as you are better off using those guts to attack rather than healing. Special techniques can only be learnt on the Kawrea errantry, your monster needs to be at least B rank to be able to go there.

A Breakdown of Techniques

In this section we'll have a look at some techniques and breakdown each of the stats each technique has.

To start with lets have a look at where you can view the techniques your monster has learnt in game. If you click Monster Data while on the ranch then select Monster, you will see a load of information about your current monster. The first page will be it's stats but just keep clicking the right button and eventually you will see this:



These are the techniques your monster has learnt, you can also see some stats such as Force, Hit, Sharpness etc. The information on this screen is very limited, so I will use a technique from Legend Cup which has a bit more information for the breakdown:



This is Twister Claw which is a Kato technique which we will use for the example.

Range - The Range is which slot an attack can be used in battle. The Numbers are 1-4 with 1 being the closest to the enemy monster while 4 is the furthest away. A technique can only be used while the monster is in the correct range. So in order to use Twister Claw a Kato must be in the 3rd slot.

Guts Cost - Guts cost is how many Guts are required to use this attack. In this example the number is 25 so Kato must have at least 25 guts to be able to use this attack. Once the technique is used 25 guts will be removed from Kato's guts pool regardless of whether the attack hits or misses.

Type - Type is simply which type of technique this is. In this example it is Hit but it can also be Basic, Heavy, Sharp, Withering or Special.

Errantry - Errantry is which errantry location your monster will need to be sent to to learn this technique. In this case Twister Claw is a Hit tech so it is learnt at Torble Sea.

Duration (Hit) - Duration is how long the attack takes to be completed if it successfully hits the opposing monster. Why is this important? Well if an attack hits the opposing monster will continue to regain guts while your monster will not. Techniques with longer animations will allow the opposing monster to regain more guts. This isn't always a bad thing, if a technique is still taking place the opposing monster cannot attack. This can be used to strategically stall for time while you are winning even if you know that the attack hitting won't KO. In the case of Twister Claw a hit will take 2.1 seconds to complete the animation which is pretty fast.

Duration (Miss) - Duration miss is how long the attack takes to be completed if it misses the opposing monster. Again when an attack misses the opposing monster will continue to regain guts while your monster will not. This is generally worse for misses as you won't even have hit the opposing monster. However again this can be used strategically as you can stall for time even if your attack is unlikely to hit. In the case of Twister Claw a miss will take 2.1 seconds to complete the animation which is identical to the hit. This is not always the case and often a hit or a miss is slightly shorter or longer than the other.

Force - Force simply determines how much damage a technique will do. This ranges from E at the lowest to S at the highest. The number is brackets is the exact number of force rather than just using E-S. In this case Twister Claw has a force value of 20 which is C rank this is slightly below average in terms of damage.


Hit - Hit determines how likely a technique is to hit the opposing monster. Each technique has it's own individual hit rating which is separate from a monster's skill. The higher a techniques hit stat the more likely it is to hit in battle. All techniques have a base chance to hit of 50% (before being affected by your monster's skill and your opponent's speed). So a move with a Hit stat of 0 has a 50% chance to hit. Hit rating is again ranked in grades from E to S with E reducing a techniques chance to hit while S increases the chance to hit. In Twister Claw's case it has a S hit stat at 20 which increases it chance to hit by around 15%. Below is a list of each of the ranks and how they positively or negatively affect a techniques chance to hit.


Withering - Withering determines how many guts will be lost by the opposing monster when the attack successfully hits. This ranges between E for the lowest amount of guts loss to S for the highest amount of guts loss. Withering is a lot more random and is hard to give an exact value to, so I'll keep this one simple. But generally does the numeric value of as guts damage in this field with a bit of randomness. In Twister Claw's case it has an E rank for Withering at 7 so it will take around 7 guts from the opposing monster.

Sharpness - Sharpness is the chance for the attack to critically hit. A critical hit will do 50% more damage. Again the chance is rated in grades from E to S with S increasing the chance the most. In Twister Claw's case this is D which is a 10-14% chance of causing a critical. Below is a list of each of the ranks and how much they increase the chance of a critical hit.


Special Effect - Some techniques will have special effects. This usually involves healing your monster or draining life from the opposing monster. Special Effects are mostly on Special Techniques with a few exceptions. For example ColorPandora's Kamikaze will damage the monster if it misses.

This covers all of the stats a technique has. At the start these numbers won't mean a lot and you won't be able to easily tell which technique is "good" or not. As you become more experienced in raising you will get a better idea of which techniques you want your monsters to learn.

What are Technique Prerequisites
Technique Prerequisites are essentially the games way of preventing your monster from being able to learn any technique immediately. Some techniques will have a requirement which must be met before your monster is able to learn the technique from Errantry. If your monster does not meet that requirement is can never learn that technique regardless of how many times you send a monster to Errantry.

So how do you know what a techniques prerequisites are? Well as usual Monster Rancher 2 hides that from you so you'll have to look them up on an external site.

Technique List[legendcup.com]

If you follow that link and choose the monster you'd like to raise all of the techniques a monster can learn will be displayed.

What types of Prerequisites are there?
There are 4 different types of prerequisites Breed, Nature, Tech Chain and Stats.

Breed
As I mentioned in the Main Type and Sub Type section of the guide some techniques can be learnt from a monsters Sub Type, these are cross over techniques. This means that a monster can only learn this technique if it has the correct Main Type and Sub Type combination. Even if you meet all of the other requirements your monster still will not be able to learn the technique. For example this is Fire Breath from Pixie:



In the Prerequisites section you will see that Pixie/Dragon is listed. This means that Fire Breath can only be learnt by a Pixie/Dragon monster. A Pixie/Pixie or any other Pixie will not be able to learn this technique through Errantry. The good news is that for the most part cross over techniques are not worth picking up. So you don't need to worry about only being able to use a certain Main Type and Sub Type combination because otherwise you will miss out on a monster's best technique outside of very specific edge cases.

Nature
Some techniques can only be learnt if your Monster is either a good or evil nature. If your monster is good it cannot learn an evil technique and visa versa. The technique will state which nature is required to learn it, if there is nothing in the Nature prerequisite then the technique can be learnt by either a good or evil monster as long as the other requirements are met. For example Mocchi's Petal Storm:



The Nature states Bad which means that your Mocchi will need to be evil and meet the other requirements before being able to learn the technique. However Fire Breath from earlier did not have a value in the Nature prerequisite which means that either a good or evil monster can learn it.

Tech Chains
Tech Chains are simply when a Monster needs to know a particular move and use it a certain number of times in battle before the next technique in the chain can be unlocked. Lets have a look at a skill for an example:



This is Spin Kick from Hare. In the Prerequisites section you can see that Tech Chain states Kung Fu Fist x50. That means in order for a Hare to be able to learn Spin Kick it needs to use Kung Fu Fist 50 times in battle. There is no in-game counter so you'll need to keep track of this yourself. Once the required number of uses has been reached your monster will not automatically learn the technique. It must be sent to Errantry again to actually learn the move, using the move enough times just allows it to be learnt.

Stat
Stat is the stat that your monster will need before it will be able to learn the technique. For example:



This is Ape's Grab-Throw in order to learn it Ape will need to have more than 250 Pow when being sent to Errantry.

These are all of the Prerequisites that will stop your monster from learning certain techniques. Some Techniques will have no prerequisites at all and can be learnt immediately.

Last Bits
We're almost at the end of the monster information. This section is for the last few stats that don't need enough discussion to be on their own page.

Arena
The Arena stat is your monsters movement speed when fighting in battles. It ranges in rank from A to E with A being the fastest and E being the slowest. The higher the rank the faster your monster will be able to move around the Arena. Some sub-types will change a monster's arena movement speed. This stat isn't something you need to particularly watch out for, it's just to help explain why some monsters move faster around the arena than others when battling.

Battle Specials
Some monsters will be born (or combined) with battle specials. Battle specials are effects that trigger under certain conditions during a battle. I won't cover battle specials in this guide, but look them up on Legend Cup if you do want to know more about them.

Training Bonus
Training bonus gives a small stat boost when a monster does the type of training that is in this column. For example when a Durahan does a Domino Light Drill it gains a small boost to it's Pow gains. This boost can apply to either training or errantry, but generally a training boost is better than errantry one. Which bonus you get depends on the monsters main breed to don't go out of your way to get this or anything.

With that we are done with Monster Information. Now lets move on to choosing your first monster.

Choosing Your First Monster
Choosing your first monster in Monster Rancher 2 is slightly daunting. There are 16 to choose from at the start of the game, how do you know which one to go with? In this section I will cover the pros and cons of each of the monster and then whether or not I recommend it for a first time rancher. All of these recommendations are purely for new players and once you have a better understanding of the game I strongly recommend trying out some monsters in the not recommended section. These monsters will usually have a factor that will make it harder for new players (low stat gains, complicated techniques, short lifespans etc) but that does not mean they are weak monsters. The best examples of this are Arrowhead, Colorpandora and Naga. All of these are extremely powerful monsters they are just difficult to raise when you first start the game.

The Options
At the start of the game the following main breed monsters will be available: Ape, Arrowhead, Colorpandora, Gaboo, Jell, Hare, Hopper, Kato, Mocchi, Monol, Naga, Pixie, Plant, Suezo, Tiger, and Zuum.

All of these monsters are also available as sub-types. In addition 6 monsters can be used as sub-types even if they haven't been unlocked. These monsters are: Baku, Dragon, Henger, Gali, Golem and Worm. This only applies to the sub-type not the main breed.

Sub Types
A quick note on the Sub Types. I will recommend sub-types for each of the monsters that are available. In Monster Rancher 2 the meta choice is to choose a sub-type which has the highest guts regen. This makes a monster more powerful in battles which is why I recommend it. This may not be the most suitable choice for a new player as it may result in an evil monster, a monster with difficult to raise stat gains or may not be unlocked yet. I will try to give a few suggestions and try to explain my reasoning to help you choose. Of course you can also completely ignore my sub-type recommendations and choose whichever one you prefer.

Techniques
The Techniques I include here are just useful techniques for each monster. Just so you have something to aim for and aren't picking up weak techniques that won't be much help. Don't feel forced to grab all of these techniques if you don't want them, just pick up the ones you like.

Int vs Pow Monsters
One last thing to consider before we get to the monsters. It is easier to raise a monster with Int/Skill/Speed than it is to raise a monster with Pow/Skill/Speed? Why? In Monster Rancher 2 there are Hard Drills. Hard Drills greatly boost a monsters stat and are important in raising your monster. However they come with a downside, they will reduce one of your a stats when your monster performs one. So for example Meditate will give a large gain to intelligence, give a small gain in skill and a loss in Defence. Leap will greatly raise Speed, give a small gain in Skill and a loss in Pow. Pull will greatly raise Pow, give a small gain to Life and reduce Speed. Now you see the problem. There is no heavy drill that will raise Pow or Spd without impacting another stat that your monster needs. Obviously this isn't a problem if you make a Lif, Pow, Ski tank. This isn't a massive issue but just be aware that raising a Pow, Spd monster will be slightly slower.

With all of that out the way lets get to the monsters:

Base Stats: Lif:4/Pow:4/Int:1/Ski:3/Spd:3/Def:4

Strengths: Excellent basic techs. Very few techs required. Above average lifespan.

Weaknesses: Slow Guts Regen, Inaccurate Techs, Evil Monster

Sub Types: Ape/Plant for the cost of 1 point of stat gain in Pow and Def, Ape gains a good nature, 20 extra weeks of life and a massive guts regen boost. Any of Ape's sub types are usable just don't go for a pure breed Ape

Recommended Techniques: Grab-Throw. Roll Assault. Swing Throw if you get to B rank.

Stats to Raise: Pow, Ski, Lif the tank build is easier with Ape's stat gains. But a Pow, Ski, Spd with some Lif dodging monster is also possible if you prefer.

Recommended?: Yes

Comments: Ape is an excellent starting monster. With some of the best basic techs in the game, good stat gains outside of Int and an above average lifespan. Ape's physical techniques are high damage and there is only 5 in total so you will only need to learn 2 maybe 3 in your Ape's lifespan. It's basic techs are good enough to use in battles before going on Errantry if you wish. On the Intelligence side it's techs are a bit more hit and miss however so don't make an Int Ape as your first monster. For it's downsides Ape has one of the slowest guts regen rates in the game and it's techniques are quite inaccurate outside of Slap. So you will want to invest in Ski to make sure they actually land. Ape can work as either a tank monster (Pow, Ski, Lif) or a Spd monster (Pow, Ski, Spd with some Life). It's stat gains are better suited for the tank version but just watch out for Withering monsters if you do choose it. As for it's nature, only a pure breed Ape is evil but all of it's sub types are decent so just use one of them. All in all Ape is a great monster to start with and is more than capable of beating the game.

Base Stats: Lif:3/Pow:3/Int:2/Ski:3/Spd:2/Def:5

Strengths: Excellent Basic Techs, Above Average Lifespan. Some really good techs.

Weaknesses: Slow Guts Regen, Lots of Techs makes finding the good ones harder, Poor Speed Gains, Most of the useful Sub-types are locked at the start of the game. Tech Chains. Begins as a (slightly) evil monster.

Sub Types: Arrowhead/Suezo is strictly best at this point but it's an evil monster.
Arrowhead/Golem has slightly faster guts but poor Ski gains, it is a good nature monster however.

Recommended Techniques: Long-Punch, Hidden Sting (not amazing by itself but combos really well with Claw Assault), Somersault, Roll Assault (If you have an evil Arrowhead), Claw Pinch.

Stats to Raise: Pow, Ski, Lif.

Recommended?: No

Comments: Arrowhead is difficult to recommend for a new rancher. It was designed as a defence monster which means it has poor gains in Spd and not amazing gains in anything but Def. This pretty much forces you to build a tank so you'll be raising Lif, Pow and Ski but even those stat gains are average. Combined with the massive amount of techs that Arrowhead has available which makes it harder to find the techs you want. All together this makes it a bit of a difficult monster to start with. It's not all doom and gloom though, Arrowhead has some excellent techniques so it's certainly capable of beating the game if you get past the rough start. Just as with Ape, be careful of Withering monsters with it's slow guts regen rate. If you are interested in raising an Arrowhead, I would recommend coming back to it later when you can afford one of the better raising methods.

Base Stats: Lif:5/Pow:2/Int:2/Ski:3/Spd:3/Def:1

Strengths: Excellent Techniques, Average Guts Regen, Above Average Lifespan

Weaknesses: Because of a bug all Colorpandora's use the Late Bloom life type, Low Stat gains outside of Life, Meh Basic Attacks.

Sub Types: Colorpandora/Pixie is strictly best but it has an evil nature, a pure-breed Colorpandora is probably better if you really want this as your first monster.

Recommended Techniques: Giant Whip, Kamikaze, Two Swings

Stats to Raise: Pow, Ski, Spd with some Life. A tank with Pow, Ski, Lif will also work.

Recommended?: No

Comments: Colorpandora is another one which is hard to recommend as a first monster. It has low stat gains it everything except life which will already make it a slow start. To make matters worse due to a bug all Colorpandora's (including sub-types) are forced to use the Late Bloom life type. So you will have low stat gains combined with a painfully long childhood which just makes starting out agonisingly slow. If you do manage to get past that hurdle Colorpandora's have some excellent techniques (Kamikaze alone will carry you though a good chunk of the game) so it is worth raising one. Just don't do it as your first monster.

Base Stats: Lif:5/Pow:4/Int:1/Ski:1/Spd:4/Def:1

Strengths: Excellent Pow, Spd, Life gains, Lots of decent techs.

Weaknesses: Inaccurate techs. Poor Skill gains. Requires a bit more game knowledge than easier monsters.

Sub Types: Gaboo/Tiger is the only Sub-Type at this point which has a Skill stat gain higher than 2.

Recommended Techniques: Long Punch, Samurai Kick, Rolling Chop, Shockwave.

Stats to Raise: Pow, Ski, Spd with some Life.

Recommended?: No

Comments: Gaboo is a fairly unique monster, it is the only monster with good Life, Spd and Pow gains. But it's Skill gains are absolutely abysmal. It has some decent techs but they tend to be inaccurate which makes the low Skill gains even more of a pain. Shockwave and Long Punch are both accurate but with only a D force rating they won't hit particularly hard. You are also pretty much forced to use Gaboo/Tiger as otherwise you are dealing with a 1 or 2 Ski rating. Gaboo is fairly easy to raise but if you don't increase it's skill enough battling with it will be an aggravating experience. This makes it require a bit more knowledge to use than easier monsters so I won't recommend it to start out. With that said Gaboo is more than capable of beating the game, so give it a try when you have got past your first few monsters.

Base Stats: Lif:3/Pow:5/Int:1/Ski:3/Spd:5/Def:1

Strengths: Excellent Pow and Spd Gains, Decent Life and Ski gains. An excellent basic tech in 1-2 Punch, Excellent Techs all around.

Weaknesses: Starts with an Int move as a basic, Lots of tech chains, All of Hare's best techs are in Slots 1 and 2, No Pow techs in slot 4. Fairly slow guts regen.

Sub Types: Hare/Tiger gives 13 guts regen for the cost of only 1 Pow stat gain. Hare/Pixie has 12 guts regen but it's evil. Hare/Plant is also worth a mention, it has 12 guts regen and gets a massive life gain from it's plant sub type. The bad news is it hinders both Hare's Pow and Spd gains. I personally would go with Hare/Plant for a new player as the additional life span is great for starting out, but if you don't like the stat gain losses go for a Hare/Tiger instead.

Recommended Techniques: Straight, HardStraight, Bang, Back Blow, High Kick

Stats to Raise: Pow, Ski, Spd with some Life.

Recommended?: Yes

Comments: Hare is the first monster in this list that I would call a glass cannon, it has excellent Pow and Spd gains with average life and poor def gains. The plan is simple boost it's Pow and Spd with it's great gains and then hit hard and dodge attacks. It's not all good news however Hare's guts regen is fairly slow and it begins with an Int move as a Basic which forces you to rely more on 1-2 Punch. This isn't really a problem as you can beat low ranking tournaments with 1-2 Punch alone. When you do start learning techs you will notice most of them will be in slots 1 and 2 with practically nothing in slot 3 or 4, so just be aware you don't have any long range options with Hare. It also has quite a few tech chains. But that's it in terms of downsides, Straight and HardStraight are excellent Hit techs and most of Hare's techs hit hard with cheap guts costs. Hare is an easy monster to understand and to see which stats you need to focus on. This combined with it's techs being excellent it is a great monster to start with.

Base Stats: Lif:2/Pow:3/Int:3/Ski:5/Spd:3/Def:1

Strengths: Excellent Guts Regen, Only bad stat gains are Lif and Def, Lots of accurate techs

Weaknesses: Takes a very long time to get going, Forced to use low damage techs until it
reaches B rank, bad basic techs.

Sub Types: Hopper/Tiger to stop it being bad natured.

Recommended Techniques: Flick, Rapid Flick, Jump Blows, 2 Jump Blows.

Stats to Raise: Pow, Ski, Spd with some Life.

Recommended?: No

Comments: Hopper is a hard monster to recommend for the first time rancher. Looking at it you probably think it has fine stat gains and a good guts regen so what's wrong with it? Hopper is built differently from most other monsters and not in a good way. Hopper seems designed to win by running down the clock, not by knocking out the opposing monster. This means you rely on chip damage and dodging to win battles by waiting the 60 second timeout. However if you get unlucky and are hit by an opposing monster it is very hard to do enough damage to catch up as most of it's attacks have long animations and low force. Hopper is just a very frustrating monster to raise with because of this. With bad basics you are forced to pickup Jump Blow and 2 Jump Blows for damage which are D and C ranked force respectively. Until you reach B rank nothing above a C rank in force is available. Which means your Hopper hits like a wet noodle unless you put an unholy amount of work into it's Pow stat. It's not like Hopper is Hare with a 5 Pow gain so this will be an uphill struggle. Once you reach B rank you can grab 3 Jump Blows and Hopper Combo to actually do some damage but the struggle is getting there. Hopper is one of the harder monsters to raise for a new player, while it's not as hard as Monol, I still would not recommend it.

Base Stats: Lif:3/Pow:2/Int:4/Ski:4/Spd:2/Def:4

Strengths: Lots of good techniques, Can be either a Pow or Int monster, Good life span

Weaknesses: Only has Int attacks in slot 3 and 4, a bit more complicated because of how many moves it can learn, poor Pow gains outside of certain sub-types.

Sub Types: Jell/Tiger is the easiest version if you'd like to do a Int Jell, Jell/Pixie is the best guts rate but is evil. For Pow Jell/Hare, Jell/Naga and Jell/Golem are the only sub types with 3 Pow gain. Jell/Naga is bad natured, Jell/Golem has a 2 Spd gain which makes Jell/Hare the best of this bunch.

Recommended Techniques: Int Jell: Beam Gun, Beam Cannon, Cannon and Jell Copter. Pow Jell: Pierce, Two Whips, Jell Cube, Three Cubes, Jell Top, Spiked Top. Jell Press is good but it has a really long animation time.

Stats to Raise: Pow/Ski/Spd or Int/Ski/Spd with some Lif or a tank with Lif/Pow/Ski or Lif/Int/Ski are all very good. It just depends if you want a tank or a dodging monster. Pow is easier to start out with if you are wondering whether to do Pow or Int.

Recommended?: Yes

Comments: Jell simply is a monster with a lot of good techs. With an average guts regen and Jell is a monster which can excel as either Pow or Int attacker. While Pow will be easier to use and would be my recommendation for starting out it's not extremely difficult to make Int work. On downsides Jell has a poor Spd and Pow stat gains and relies on Sub-Types to make it a bit more workable, thankfully Jell has lots of options. It's a bit more complicated that other monsters I recommend due to it's large number of techs. Just start out with either a Pow or Int Jell (not both) and choose a sub-type which will help boost Jell's stat gains and it should serve you well as a first monster.

Base Stats: Lif:2/Pow:1/Int:5/Ski:3/Spd:5/Def:2

Strengths: Twister Claw, Long Lifespan, Excellent Spd and Int gains

Weaknesses: Starts with an 2 Pow basics, Slow guts regen, Bad natured.

Sub Types: Kato/Tiger - Takes a bit of a lifespan hit but the good nature and guts regen is worth it

Recommended Techniques: Twister Claw

Stats to Raise: Int and Spd with some Life and Ski. Pow Kato is infinitely more fun in my opinion but don't do it as your first monster.

Recommended?: Yes if you want easy mode.

Comments: We're finally here. The speed-runner's monster of choice Kato. Why is it the speed-runners choice? Twister Claw. With a massive hit chance, o.k damage and even a chance to crit. Twister Claw alone carries Kato into being the easiest monster to raise and beat the game with. Why? All monsters will need a fair amount of skill, just purely because most techs won't be accurate and missing forever is not a good way to win battles. You don't need skill when you have a S rank Hit move. So you just raise Int and Spd as much as possible (with 5 gains in both) and obliterate any unfortunate monster you face with Twister Claw. Don't get me wrong you still need some skill but no where near as much as other monsters. You don't even need to waste your monsters lifespan on learning any other techs. If you purely want to beat the game in the easiest way possible this is my recommendation. I personally find it a bit boring as you are just using one tech but don't let me stop you from curb-stomping the AI if you want to.

Base Stats: Lif:3/Pow:3/Int:3/Ski:4/Spd:4/Def:4

Strengths: Balanced stat gains. Average guts regen. The easiest monster to raise. Above average lifespan.

Weaknesses: Some of the worse techs in the game

Sub Types: Mocchi/Tiger is a very slightly worse alternative which is better for new players. Mocchi/Pixie if you want the best guts regen but it is evil.

Recommended Techniques: Thrust, 1-2 Thrust, Press

Stats to Raise: Pow, Ski, Spd with some Life.

Recommended?: Yes

Comments: Mocchi is (in my personal opinion) the easiest monster to raise. It was designed as the beginners monster and all of it's stats can be raised fairly easy. That combined with a fairly quick guts rate makes it a great monster to start with. So why does it say up there some of the worse techs in the game and why am I recommending it? Because your first monster is unlikely to get far enough in the game that the bad techs will start causing issues. With it's good stat gains and guts it can absolutely make money by beating the lower tournaments and won't have much trouble in doing so. It will only start having trouble when it gets to the high rank tournaments which you probably won't see many of on your first monster. Just make sure you focus on Pow, Ski, Spd and a bit of Lif and don't be tempted by it's stat gains to raise everything equally. Then pickup a few of the usable techs and beat lower ranked tournaments to make money for your future monsters. This makes Mocchi a great monster to start learning with but I don't recommend trying to beat the game with one.

Quick side note with an explanation, so what's wrong with it's techs? Remember how back in the main type section I said that Mocchi was a jack of all trades? That applies to it's techs as well. Which means they do a bit of everything, so the devs increased the guts cost of all of the techs making them horribly inefficient. This combined with the fact that they don't do anything well just makes them very weak.

Base Stats: Lif:2/Pow:3/Int:3/Ski:2/Spd:1/Def:5

Strengths: Great techs

Weaknesses: Abysmal stat gains. Lowest lifespan in the game. Extremely slow guts regen. Most of it's good techs need a B rank to unlock.

Sub Types: Monol/Tiger if you are really forcing me to choose the best of a bad bunch.

Recommended Techniques: Needle Stabs. Spike Stabs. Flattening-L and Flattening-X have really long animation times but you can grab them if you want.

Stats to Raise: Pow, Skil, Lif.

Recommended?: Please Don't Do It

Comments: Please no, please don't choose Monol as your first monster. You are now probably reading this thinking that I really hate Monols. I don't I promise, they have some great techs and can be really fun. Just don't raise one as your first monster. With the shortest life span in the game and some of the lowest stat gains outside of Def, raising one is painful. You will finally get it's stats up to a good level and then it's going die (that sounds really harsh I know). This combined with it's extremely slow guts regen just makes a monster that isn't fun to battle and is a slow crawl to raise stats for. Monol does have some amazing techniques however it's just really hindered by that guts regen. If I haven't put you off raising one I would at least recommend waiting until you can afford a decent raising method to give one a try. But if anyone recommends you a Monol as your first monster they have a special place in hell waiting for them.

Base Stats: Lif:3/Pow:4/Int:1/Ski:4/Spd:2/Def:3

Strengths: Some of the best techs in the game, Good Pow and Skill gains. Decent Guts regen which is even better with sub-types.

Weaknesses: Very low lifespan, Spd gains are low outside of sub-types. Not great Basic techs. Int techs are a bit meh.

Sub Types: Naga/Tiger has good Guts regen and is good natured but takes a bit of a hit to it's stat gains. Naga/Plant gets a massive boost in it's life span but the 2 Spd gain is painful. Naga/Pixie and Naga/??? (Time Noise) are strictly best because of the guts regen but both are bad natured.

Recommended Techniques: Stab, Pierce, Tail Assault, Drill Attack, Turn Assault

Stats to Raise: Either a dodging monster using Pow, Ski, Spd with some Life or a tank with Pow/Ski/Lif.

Recommended?: No

Comments: Naga is the other monster that is available at the start which has a very short lifespan. So why is it not in the Please Don't Do It section with Monol? Naga has some decent stat gains and some incredible techniques that makes it a lot easier than Monol. In fact Naga is fairly unique in that every single one of it's Pow techs range from good (Stab) to straight up overpowered (Turn Assault). This combined with it's decent guts regen makes Naga a very strong monster. The only thing that holds it back is it's very short life span which is the only reason I don't recommend it. Once you have a bit more experience as a rancher go for a Naga it will absolutely destroy the AI.

Base Stats: Lif:1/Pow:2/Int:5/Ski:4/Spd:4/Def:1

Strengths: Extremely fast guts regen, easy to raise.

Weaknesses: Starts as an evil monster so for a first monster you'll want a good sub-type, fairly weak techs, lifespan on the lower side. Lots of tech chains. Starts with 2 pow attacks. No Int techs in Slot 1 and you'll have to wait until B rank for slot 2.

Sub Types: Pixie/Plant. Good guts regen, good nature, makes Lif actually possible to build and all for the cost of 1 Spd and 1 Int gain.

Recommended Techniques: Bolt, Lightning, Flame

Stats to Raise: Int, Ski, Spd with some Life.

Recommended?: Yes

Comments: As mentioned early in this guide, Pixie is a glass cannon. Glass cannons are great for new players because you know exactly what to do. Use it's great gains to build Spd, Int and Ski with some life. Then dodge everything while hitting back with Int moves, simple and works well. Pixie's main downsides are that is starts out bad natured and that most of Pixie's techs are fairly weak. Pixie suffers from the same problem as Plant, it was overpowered in Monster Rancher 1 so it gets nerfed fairly hard in Monster Rancher 2. As a result most of it's techs just aren't amazing, it's not quite as bad as Mocchi or anything and it has some ok techs. The good news is that you only need a few techs to do well with Pixie which is great. Bolt isn't amazing but it's a chain for Lightning, Lightning is a decent hit tech and Flame is an ok but inaccurate heavy tech. If you get to rank B, Bang is a fun special tech but I'm assuming a lot for your first monster. Pixie is a good monster to start with as long as you don't go for an evil natured one. It's easy to understand what to do with decent stat gains and you can pick up it's decent techs and go far against the AI.

Base Stats: Lif:5/Pow:1/Int:3/Ski:3/Spd:2/Def:1

Strengths: Incredible Guts regen, Excellent Withering techs, Long life span.

Weaknesses: Low stat gains outside of Lif. Withering techs are hard to use in Monster Rancher 2. Low damage techs.

Sub Types: Plant/Pixie is strictly best but is bad natured as usual, Plant/Tiger has slightly worse guts but is easier to raise.

Recommended Techniques: Seed Gun, Seed Gatling, Toxic Pollen and Toxin Nectar are your withering options choose whichever one you prefer. Life Steal.

Stats to Raise: Int, Ski, Spd with some Life or a tank with Int, Skil, Lif whichever you prefer.

Recommended?: No

Comments: Plant is in the same proverbial boat as Pixie, it was extremely overpowered in Monster Rancher 1 so it's techs have been neutered in Monster Rancher 2. Unlike Pixie however Plant is much harder to raise and requires a bit more knowledge to be able to do well in battle. Plant has great Lif gains, average Int and Ski and poor gains in Pow, Spd and Def. While it has a long lifespan to let you build those stats up this generally makes Plant slow starting out. It's techs are frankly complicated, with no tech having a Force above C rank it is not a monster that hits hard. If you go into playing a Plant thinking you are going to hit hard and nuke monsters down, you're going to have a bad time. As a result Plant plays more strategically and requires some player knowledge to know which attacks to use and when. Most of it's attacks have Withering in some form but with how withering has been nerfed from Monster Rancher 1 Plant is no longer the obscenely powerful monster it was. Withering has also been nerfed in 2DX, so Plant has lost it's niche of being able to soft lock the AI into not being able to attack. Once you have a better understanding of how the game works Plant can be a fun monster to raise for a change of pace, just not as your first monster.

Base Stats: Lif:2/Pow:3/Int:5/Ski:4/Spd:2/Def:2

Strengths: Above average Guts regen. Good attacking stat gains. Great techs. Can run either Pow or Int. No Tech Chains.

Weaknesses: Bad Nature, Poor Spd and Lif gains without certain sub types. Starts with one Pow and one Int basic tech.

Sub Types: Suezo/Tiger can be built as either Pow or Int but it's guts regen is slightly worse than the other suggestions. Suezo/Plant can be used for Int, you'll need to raise it as a tank because of it's speed gains but gains a nice chunk of life span. Suezo/Pixie is also excellent but evil nature as usual.

Recommended Techniques: Pow: Tongue Slap (very inaccurate but A rank force), Bite, Teleport (Low damage but very accurate), Chewing (if you get to B rank) Int: Eye Beam, Telekinesis (if you want a hit tech), Telepathy (if you want more damage) grab them depending on what you need.

Stats to Raise: Int or Pow, Ski, Spd with some Life. Both Pow and Int Suezo are very viable just choose one and don't do both at the same time.

Recommended?: Yes

Comments: Suezo is a great monster. Above average guts regen, decent stats gain and great techs are all an excellent combination. Suezo can be ran as either a Int or Pow attacker, although it's stat gains are generally higher on the Int side. The only down sides are it starting with a bad nature and it's low Spd and Lif gains without sub-types. You'll likely be using sub-types to get rid of the bad nature so this shouldn't be too much of an issue. For it's techs Suezo doesn't have a lot of them but the few it has are great. Tail Assault and Spit are decent basics and either can be used if you want to battle before going to errantry. With the added bonus of no tech chains. Suezo is just great overall, just raise either it's Pow or Int with Ski, Spd and some Lif and a Suezo will go far. Just don't try and do Pow and Int at the same time or do the thing the AI does with Suezo where they have a lot of Int and Ski but no Spd or Lif.

Base Stats: Lif:2/Pow:2/Int:4/Ski:5/Spd:4/Def:1

Strengths: Excellent Int, Skil and Spd gains. Fast guts regen. Good techs. Starts as a good natured monster.

Weaknesses: Below Average life span. Bad basic techs. Starts with 2 Pow basic techs.

Sub Types: Tiger/Tiger is good natured with good guts regen so is perfectly usable. Tiger/Plant is also an option if you want a bit more lifespan. Tiger/Pixie has the best guts regen but is bad natured. Tiger/Hare is your best option if you want to start with a Pow Tiger.

Recommended Techniques: Int: Ice Bomb, Blizzard (a bit high guts cost but usable). Roar is also a good Special tech if you get to B rank. Pow: Combination (Will be most of Tiger's damage until you have Stab), One-Two (Decent but not amazing but you'll most likely have to grab this before you get Combination), Roll Assault has an excellent Hit rating but doesn't do much damage. Stab (An excellent Special tech once you hit B rank).

Stats to Raise: Int or Pow, Ski, Spd with some Life.

Recommended?: Yes

Comments: Tiger is a bit more complicated than it appears at first glace. Looking at it's stat gains you're likely expecting a Pixie like glass cannon, but Tiger is a bit different. Tiger's gimmick is that it's attacks have a lower Force rating but have a high critical hit chance to make up for it. So while you may get a crit and see some really nice damage numbers. At the same time you might get unlucky and do lower damage than what other monsters are capable of. This combined with some of Tiger's best techs being Pow rather than Int makes it a bit harder to raise as a first monster. That's not to say that Int Tiger is unusable, Ice Bomb is an absolutely amazing tech. It's just that you'll be relying on Ice Bomb and maybe Blizzard for all of your Tiger's damage. This makes it a bit of a one hit wonder and if you want to play one of those you may as well go the easy route with Kato. It's Pow techs are a bit more varied and but it is a bit reliant on it's Special tech Stab. So if you do go for a Pow Tiger you will want to get to B rank and pick it up. But with only a Pow gain of 2, raising Pow will be slow unless you choose certain sub-types. All in all this makes Tiger fairly complicated and not as easy as Pixie, Kato or even Mocchi. I will still recommend it as it's stat gains are still decent and it has some great techs. Just bare in mind that Tiger is a bit more complex than you might expect.

Base Stats: Lif:3/Pow:3/Int:2/Ski:4/Spd:3/Def:3

Strengths: Average guts regen, Some decent techs. Good natured monster.

Weaknesses: Lots of techs. Int Zuum has no techs above C in Hit. Lots of tech chains. Poor basic attacks. No high stat gains. Many average to below average techs.

Sub Types: Zuum/Tiger has a good nature and decent stat gains in everything except Def. Zuum/Plant gives a life span boost but it really hurts Zuum's Pow and Int gains.

Recommended Techniques: MillionClaws. Claw Combo. Tail Lash. Tail Lashes. Charge. Fire Charge. Bite and it's tech chains are fun if you like gambling with lower hit chances.

Stats to Raise: Pow, Ski, Spd with some Life or Lif/Pow/Ski if you want a tank.

Recommended?: Yes

Comments: Zuum is another monster that is a bit of a jack of all trades. It has usable stat gains in everything except Int and these can all be improved using sub types. It's techs range from decent to below average, although it has a bit of Mocchi syndrome where they do a bit of everything. The Mocchi comparison doesn't end there. Zuum is easy to raise with it's stat gains but because of how average it's techs are, it doesn't have any that can win you tournaments by itself like Twister Claw with Kato. This makes it a bit harder to win battles with like Mocchi. Unlike Mocchi however it's techs are actually good enough to beat the game with, it just won't be as easy as some of the other options. If this hasn't put you off if you focus on Pow, Ski, Spd with a bit of life or go for a tank with Lif/Pow/Ski and pickup some of the decent techs Zuum can serve well as a first monster. Just like Mocchi don't be tempted to raise all of it's stats evenly. Finally Zuum also has some decent Int moves but it's very all or nothing so not recommended for a first monster.

Choosing Your Monster: Summarised
If you don't want to read through the walls of text in the Monster sections here is everything summarised:

Easy Mode

Recommended

Not Recommended

Please Don't Do It

Hopefully this has helped you pick your first monster. Now lets go and grab it from the Shrine.

Once the "tutorial" has been completed you'll be placed in the Town on this screen:



Choose the Shrine option to grab you first monster.

Creating a Monster from the Shrine
Finally all of the reading is done and it's time to get your monster. Monsters can be obtained from the Market if you want a pure breed Mocchi, Suezo or Arrowhead or you can use the Shrine.



The Shrine is where monsters can be generated using Disc Stones (CDs) or Slates (saves from Monster Rancher 1).

Disc Stone

In the original Monster Rancher 2 game the Disc Stone option required having the physical CD you wanted to create a monster from. With 2DX you only need to know the artist and title to be able to use the CD, which makes obtaining monsters a lot easier. To find out which Artist and Title to use I recommend using Legend Cup's CD list:

CD List[legendcup.com]

Select the Main Type and then Sub Type using the drop-down menus and a list of CDs which will produce the monster will be displayed. For example I want a Hare/Tiger so I input that using the drop-downs and get the following results:



For the example I will use the first CD in the list, but feel free to use whichever one you want. The Title is DSU and the Artist is Alex G so I input that in the Disc Stone menu (you can just enter either the Title or Artist but I find this easiest):



Then click the Search button to get a list of results:



Click on the CD in the results screen and then Generate to start the process. After a short light show your monster will appear:



This process can be used to produce any monster you have unlocked. If you attempt to generate a monster which has a main or sub type (see the bottom of this section for a slight exception) you haven't unlocked yet you will see this message:



Once you unlock the monster the message will no longer appear and you can create it from a disc stone.

Remember how I said that you can only unlock monsters which have a sub-type you've unlocked? There is a slight exception to this rule which I imagine is a bug but if you want to make a monster with these sub-types it might be useful . The 6 sub-breeds are Baku, Dragon, Henger, Gali, Golem, Worm. These monsters can all be used to produce monsters as sub-types despite being locked. This does not apply to the main-type, attempting to produce any of these monsters as a main-breed will still show the not authorised message.

I won't cover how to unlock monsters in this guide as there is another guide with that information in:

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2677436703

Slates
Slates allows you to import Monsters from Monster Rancher 1 saves. The base stats the monster you get depends on how powerful it was in Monster Rancher 1.

Once you have your monster Choose the Ranch option to get started raising it. I'll include a description of the other options in Town now. Just skip to Raising Monsters if you want to skip it.

Market



The Market is where you can obtain (3 specific) monsters depending on the season. In the original Monster Rancher 2 game monsters could only be obtained from CDs, so the Market was the backup in-case you didn't have a CD to use. With 2DX the Shrine can be used by just knowing the name of the CD so I'd recommend getting monsters from there. If you would like to use the Market you can always get a Moochi or Zuum and seasonally a third monster will be available. The options are Suezo (Spring), Arrowhead (Summer), Hare (Fall) and Gaboo (Winter). The game begins in Spring so Suezo will be available on your first visit.

You can also sell monsters here using the Sell option. The price depends on how rare the monster is and which rank it has reached. Frankly the price offered is insultingly low (6400G for a rare S rank monster is the highest) so never sell your monsters, always freeze them to combine.

Lab



The Lab is where monsters are stored and can be combined into other monsters. In Monster Rancher 2 you can only have a single monster with you at a time but up to 20 monsters can be frozen. Frozen monsters will stay exactly the same from when they are frozen until they are revived and will not lose lifespan.

Combine
Combining costs 500G allows you to turn two monsters into a single one. The new monster will always begin as a baby regardless of the age of it's parents. The combined monster will inherit some stats from it's parents as well as a number of techniques. The stats and the number of techniques depends on the monsters which were used to create it, with higher stats and more techniques increasing the base stats gained or techniques learnt. The more techniques a monster knows the fewer number of times it needs to be sent on Errantry. This is why I recommend freezing monsters rather than allowing them to die or selling them to the Market.

The monster which will be created depends on the parent monsters used, so for example if you are combining a Pixie and a Suezo.




The numbers in the Result section state the percentage chance that the monster will be. In this example there is a 38% chance it will be a Pink Eye (Suezo/Pixie), a 32% chance a Vanity (Pixie/Suezo) and a 15% chance for either a full Pixie (Pixie/Pixie) or Suezo (Suezo/Suezo). Which monster is placed in the Monster 1 spot will affect the percentages. In the above example Suezo was monster 1, if Pixie is Monster 1:



The chance of getting each monster has drastically changed, with the chance for a Vanity now being 55%. So whichever monster you want to be your main type should be placed in the Monster 1 slot to increase the chances.

As these are percentages there is always a chance that you could get one of the combinations you don't expect or don't want. It is also possible to get a monster which has a low percentage chance by repeatedly trying the same combination until you get lucky. But this could take a long time depending on how lucky or unlucky you are. Regardless I recommend saving before combining just to be on the safe side.

So what happens when you combine two monsters who don't have a shared sub-type? For example lets combine an Ape and a Mocchi.



As there is no Ape/Mocchi or Mocchi/Ape monster the child will either be an Ape or a Mocchi with a 50% chance for either. The child will inherit some stats and techniques from it's parents as well.

Once the two monsters have been selected there is also the option to add an item as a secret seasoning. This is mostly used to unlock other monsters but you can add Disc Chips and other items to increase base stats or grant certain battle specials.

For your first few monsters the base stats increase will likely only be minor but we're mostly interested in techniques.

There is a science behind combining which involves the stat orders of the parents and baby. This is likely why the base stat increases will be minor as Dadge will state "This one is all up to you" which means none of the stat orders match. For starting out don't worry about it and I won't even attempt to explain this in a beginner's guide as it would be far too confusing. Once you are comfortable with the basics I recommend reading the combining article on Legend Cup for more information.

Freeze
Freezing a monster does not cost anything and will (quite literally) place your monster in a block of ice. Once frozen the monster will be stored in the Lab in one of the 20 freezer slots and the monster will stay the exact same as when it was frozen. This is mostly used to stop monsters who are about to die from well dying. But you may have a monster who is frozen which you bring out for battles to make money for example.

Revive
Revive allows you to bring a frozen monster out of the freezer. Again it doesn't cost anything but you cannot have another monster with you if you want to revive. So make sure you freeze the other monster first if you have one.

Delete
Delete allows you to permanently get rid of a monster that you have Frozen. Once you delete a monster it cannot be reverted and it will be removed from the Revive list.

Job




Job is a feature which has been ported from Monster Farm 2 which wasn't in the English release of Monster Rancher 2. Job allows you to complete a mini-game to obtain (a small amount) of money. You need a monster first and then need to click Do the Job until you get the Materials, save and return to the Title.

On the Title there will be a new button called Job:



Clicking Job will open a new screen with a mini-game.





This is a maths game where you need to press the arrow keys depending on the numbers on screen. If the number on the left is larger press the left arrow, if the number on the right is larger press the right arrow. If the numbers are equal press the down arrow and if the numbers added together equal 10 press the up arrow. Once you complete the game you can return to your save and use Report Job to earn some money depending on how high your score was. I don't recommend doing the mini-game as the money you earn is extremely low.

Raising Monsters
You've successfully chosen your monster and now it is waiting to be fed. Surely that is the end of reading giant blocks of text and maths? Unfortunately no as this is Monster Rancher 2, so lets get started with raising.

Feeding your Monster
On the first week of each Month you will be asked what you would like to feed your monster. You only need to feed your monster once a month. So which are you going to be feeding your monster? Lets start by listing how each food will affect your monster when fed to it, broken down between like, neutral or dislike.

Potato

Milk

Fish

Cup Jelly

Meat

Tablet

As you can see from the tables Potato and Milk do not have good stress reduction numbers (or any for potato, never feed your monster potato) so you'll be feeding your monster the next cheapest either Fish or Cup Jelly. Once you have more money you will be feeding your monster tablets but if you try that now you'll run out of money very quickly. So for now we'll be sticking with Fish and Cup Jelly. You've probably noticed that the tables are broken down into Like, Neutral and Dislike. When a monster is created it's likes and dislikes are randomised. It will like, be neutral to and dislike certain foods as a result, depending on how much your monster likes the food will affect the stress reduction from it. You ideally want to feed your monster a food it likes for the maximum stress reduction. So how do you know which food your monster likes? All monsters have natural preferences which depend on the Main Type of your monster, these can be changed by the randomised likes and dislikes but they can be useful so you at least know if there is a food your monster will likely dislike.

Fish Natural Preferences

Cup Jelly Natural Preferences

Tablet Natural Preferences

If you find your monster in the above tables you can see if it will like Fish or Cup Jelly. However as I said earlier the randomised likes and dislikes can change the natural preference. So as a backup, If you highlight either Fish or Cup Jelly your monster will react depending on how much it likes it. If it makes a happy reaction it likes it, if it makes a sad reaction it hates it and if it makes no reaction it is neutral to it. Ideally feed whichever one it likes but if it doesn't like either of them feed whichever one they are neutral to. You can also check if your monster likes a food in Monster Data. On the final page your monsters likes or dislikes will be shown. Sometimes you will get lucky and you'll see Fish or Cup Jelly there.


Fish or Cup Jelly are required for the raising method so only feed your monster that. Don't be tempted by Tablets for now or you'll run out of money. Why always Fish/Cup Jelly or Tablets? They give the amount of stress reduction you need for the raising methods. What is Stress? We'll get to that later.

The Ranch
So you've fed your monster and now it's happily bouncing around your ranch. So what do you do now? Well I'll start by going through all of the options that you see on screen.



Training
Training is what your monster will be spending most of it's time doing. When you select it there will be two options Drill and Errantry. Errantly I will cover in a later section so I will focus on drills for now. Drills allow your monster to boost it's stats, there are 6 light drills and 4 heavy drills. Once a drill is selected your monster will spend the week training, so make sure you feed your monsters any items you want to give it before starting a drill. The light drills are Domino which gives a small Pow gain, Shoot which gives a small Ski gain, Study which gives a small Int gain, Dodge which gives a small Spd gain, Run which gives a small Lif gain and Def which gives a small Def gain. If the training method states Light Drill it means do any of these drills. The Heavy drills are Pull which greatly increases Pow, gives a small increase to Lif and lowers the monsters Spd stat. Mediate greatly increases Int, gives a small increase to Ski and lowers Def. Leap greatly increases Spd, gives a small increase to Int and lowers Pow. Swim greatly increases Def, gives a small increase to Lif and lowers Int. If a training method states Heavy Drill it means do any of these drills. All drills will increase a monsters Fatigue and Stress, we'll discuss why that's important soon.

Rest
Rest allows your monster to sleep for the week which lowers it's Stress and Fatigue. As with drills once the option is selected your week will end so make sure you do whatever you need to do first. If a training method states Rest it means this option.

Battle
Battle will display a calendar with all of the tournaments which are available. I'll cover this in the Battles section of the guide.

Item
Item is where you feed items on your monster or buy items from the Shop. The Use option will open your inventory and allow you to choose an item to give to your monster. Only 1 item can be given to your monster each week, if you attempt to feed it another they will reject it. Shop allows you to buy a selection of items, if a training method asks for an item like Mango, Mint Leaf, Nuts Oil etc this is where you buy them from. The Shop also allows you to sell items, some Tournaments will give an item to the winner which can be sold here.

Date
In the top left of the screen the current date will be displayed. The game begins in Week 1, April in the year 1000. Most actions will increase the week by 1 and there are 4 weeks in each month. The date is most important for battles which only occur on a certain date each year but it is also important for Errantry and Expeditions.

Money
Money is how much money you currently have, there is no bank or anything so any money you earn will appear here. At the start of the game you begin with 5000G, with the cheapest raising method costing 4200g a year, you don't have much. You can earn money by competing in Battles and selling items you gain from Battles or Expeditions.

Monster Data
The Monster Data allows you to see information about your current monster, trainer data and cards. Trainer Data and Cards aren't as important but Monster is very useful. From it's current stats to it's techniques to what it likes and dislikes. This is a useful button to check from time to time.

This is all of the important bits on the ranch screen. Lets move on to the other important information on this screen. Loyalty and Style.

Loyalty
Loyalty is how much your monster likes you. It is a combination of a monster's Fear and Spoil. Fear and Spoil both have a maximum of 50 and they are added together to determine your monster's loyalty. The maximum loyalty is 100 which means that Fear and Spoil are both at 50. Fear and Spoil will go up naturally as you raise a monster so you generally don't have to worry too much. Certain actions will cause Fear and Spoil to go up or down, however generally Spoil is easier to raise than Fear. For example Scolding your monster will increase Fear while Praising your monster when it does Great on a drill will increase Spoil. Certain items can increase Fear such as Gemini Pots which increase Fear passively or Smoked Snake which increases Fear and reduces Spoil when fed to your Monster.

Why is Loyalty important? It is used in battles, if your monster has low loyalty it may go into Foolery. Foolery makes your monster not listen to your instructions for a few seconds. Worse of all it massively lowers it's evasion and makes it easier for your opponent to hit your monster. So make sure you get your Loyalty high enough before entering a tournament. At about 30 loyalty the chance of Foolery occurring is about 25% at 50 Loyalty it has about a 12% chance of occurring and at 90 and higher it has a 0% chance of occurring.

Fear and Spoil are hidden from the player and can only be seen using external programs. You can estimate the values using your monster's Loyalty however.

Style
Style indicates the balance between Spoil and Fear that your monster currently has. It has no effect on your monsters life span, stat gains or any other metric except Spoil and Fear. Each style is the difference in numbers between Spoil and Fear here is each of the styles and what it means below:

What are Raising Methods?
Raising Methods are the most efficient way to raise your monsters stats. Each raising method will give you a month of actions to perform. Feeding items, training with drills and (at least with the beginner methods) resting your monster. These actions are performed the exact same month after month unless your monster goes on Errantry or enters a Tournament.

Do I have to use the training methods?
Strictly speaking no, but not following these suggestions will slow your monster's stat gains down considerably or kill your monster through stress.

Beginner's Method
At the start of the game you won't have much money or any of the items that you need to use any of the better raising methods so for now you will be using:


Start the month off by feeding your monster Fish or Cup Jelly (whichever it likes more) do light drills for 3 weeks then on the 4th week feed the monster a Mint Leaf and rest it. This is why I don't recommend raising any stats which are lower than 3 gains, as at the start it's going to be a slow process to raise stats. This method costs 4200g per year so with your starting amount of 5000g you don't have long before you need to start earning money. As soon as you can I recommend picking up some Gemini Pots, I will cover how to get these later in the guide. If you choose not to use Gemini Pots this will be your raising method for the entire game.

Intermediate's Method
In order to use this method you will need between 1 and 3 Gemini Pots. The amount you need depends on which food you are feeding to your monster. If your monster is Neutral (no reaction when giving food) to Fish you need 3 or neutral to Cup Jelly you need 1. Do not do this method without the Gemini Pots or your monster will lose lifespan. This method costs 4920G a year so make sure you can afford it before you start.


No Rest Method
The No Rest Method is the holy grail of raising stats. It will give you to best stat gains while also not killing your monster early through stress. You must have enough Gemini Pots and feed all of the items stated in the method for this to work. This method costs 15600G per year so make sure you can afford it before you start. The method I'm recommending does not use Magic Bananas. If you want to look up that one feel free to but I'm going to keep it simple here. You will need between 3-8 Gemini Pots for this method and you must NOT scold or break promises to your monster.


How Many Gemini Pots?
How many Gemini Pots you need depends on if your monster likes, is neutral or hates Tablets.


So why are we following these methods? Because it gives the best possible gains without causing too much Stress or Fatigue for your monster. The next section will cover why this is important.

Lets put a Raising Method into action, in this example I'll use a Pixie/Plant with the beginner's raising method. Lets start by looking at the method again:


My Pixie Likes Cup Jelly, so at the start of the month I will feed her that. Then I need to decide which drills my Pixie should run. To do that I'll have a look at her stat gains:


As I mentioned earlier in the guide, when a monster is outside of it's prime it is best to focus on stats the monster has high gains in. In Pixie's case Int and Skill are the highest with Lif and Spd not too far behind. For your first few monsters I would recommend raising their 3 main stats fairly equally to start with, even if they are not the highest stat gain. Your first few monsters will need to battle fairly early to make money and a Pixie with all Int and Ski with no Spd or Lif will be extremely frustrating to battle with.

So let's put our plan back into the raising method.


This is the complete raising method for my Pixie, I would recommend switching one of the drills out for a Run every now and then to increase Pixie's Lif but this will be repeated each month. If you send your monster on Errantry, on the week it returns ignore the training method, instead feed it a Nuts Oil and allow it to rest. Then return to the raising method for week 2.

Stress
Stress is a stat that builds up when a monster performs Drills, goes on Errantry, is scolded, you refuse to give items your monster asks for and when you break promises to your monster. Why is it so important? Because if this stat builds up too much your monster will lose lifespan. If you've played this game before and your monster has died much earlier than it was supposed to this is likely the reason why. Stress by itself isn't the only stat that causes life span to be lost however, there is also Fatigue.

Fatigue
Fatigue is a stat that builds up when a monster performs Drills, goes on Errantry, goes on Expeditions and Battles in Tournaments. As with stress if this stat goes too high your monster will lose lifespan.

How does Stress and Fatigue impact Life Span?
Monster Rancher 2 adds the Stress and Fatigue values together using a formula, this is called the Lifespan Index. Then if the combined value reaches a break-point it will deduct live span from your monster.

How do I see my monster's Stress and Fatigue values?
You can't at least not without 3rd party programs. The game keeps them hidden from you which prevents you from easily being able to tell the values. If you would like to see the values (and many more) I recommend using the Advance Viewer. This is a 3rd party program that runs along side Monster Rancher 2 and grabs very useful data about your monster. This is not required and is arguably cheating so don't feel forced to use it. Here is a link if you are interested:

Advance Viewer[github.com]

How is the Lifespan Index Calculated?
The formula the game uses is:

((Stress * 2) + Fatigue)

Stress is doubled then added to your Monster's Fatigue. This calculation is performed each week and if a certain number is hit your monster will lose additional lifespan. So what numbers do you need to hit and what impact do they have?


Your monster will lose 1 week of lifespan for each week it is on the Ranch. If the Lifespan Index reaches any of these numbers an additional week/s of life will be taken according to the value in the table. As the calculation happens weekly the Lifespan loss can quickly add up.

How do you reduce Stress and Fatigue?
This is where the items come in from the Raising Methods. Nuts Oil reduces Fatigue, Mint Leaf reduces Stress, Gemini Pots remove 1 Stress for each pot at the start of the month and Artemis Statues reduce Fatigue by 1 for each statue at the start of the month. Resting also reduces both Fatigue and Stress. This is why it's important to feed your monster the items and rest. As they will stop the Stress and Fatigue numbers getting high enough to trigger the break-point and lose your monster life.

How do you know if a breakpoint has been reached?
If a break-point has been reached Colt will say in a message at the start of the week:



If you see this message immediately feed your monster a Mint Leaf and allow it to rest for the week. This will stop the index going higher and causing your monster to lose additional weeks of life.

The main reason I don't recommend Evil monsters is because they will cheat on drills. When a monster cheats on a drill or fails a drill you will be asked if you want to Scold it.

The Good
Scolding increases a monster's Fear which is the harder loyalty stat to increase, it also lowers Spoil. If you Scold a monster that cheats on a Drill it will also increase it's nature.

The Bad
Scolding increases a monster's Stress and as you know from the Stress section that's bad. If you are using a raising method this can push your monster into a life index and cause a loss of lifespan.

Should you do it?
The simple answer is No. The Fear increase is not worth the potential loss in lifespan. If you want to build Fear loyalty use Gemini Pots. If you are absolutely sure you won't hit a life index and you really need the loyalty/nature increase you can but I don't recommend it.

What is Errantry?
Errantry is a month long training session that your Monster will be sent to. While your monster is at Errantry you will not be able to interact with it (so no giving it items) and it will spend the month doing training drills. There are 4 stages that the monster can attempt, if it fails a stage it must reattempt it. Succeeding a stage has a chance to teach your monster a new technique but you can only learn 1 technique each time it goes to Errantry. If it completes all 4 stages your Monster will fight a wild monster which a Bounty on it. If your monster defeats the run away monster you will receive some G depending on how powerful the monster was, if you lose you get nothing.

Errantry Special Offers
Each month there is a chance you will get a letter which will offer Errantry at a discount. Unlike training Errantry costs money to to sent to, the price is 2000G which at the start of the game is just under half your starting money. The special offer will reduce the cost of Errantry to 1000G for that month, so it's worth waiting for to receive that letter, at least at the start of the game.

You should always send your Monster to Errantry at the start of the month on the 1st week. Your Monster will receive a Stress and Fatigue reduction when it eats and (assuming you are using the training method) will have rested on Week 4. So it should have none or very low Stress and Fatigue, this is important as Errantry increases Stress and Fatigue by a lot.

Choosing your Location
Once you choose the Errantry option you will be asked to pick a location. There are 5 locations but for Kawrea your monster will need to be at least B rank.


You will also need to choose which monster you want to fight. There is no guarantee you will get the monster you pick but try to go for a Rank that your monster is able to defeat.

Which Location should I choose?
When choosing a location you should focus more on what Techniques you want to learn rather than the stats you will gain. So for example if you have a Pixie you may send it to Mandy to learn Flame. Yes the Pow gains are not useful at all, but the technique is more important than the stats. So how to you know which technique you are going to learn?

So you've chosen the location you want to go to, know which technique you want. How do you know that your monster will get the technique that you want it to get? I recommend using the Errantry Calculator on Legend Cup:

Technique Calculator[legendcup.com]

Go to the Errantry Calculator section and enter your monster's stats as they are at the moment. For this example I'll use a Pixie with 400 Int. I want the Flame technique from Mandy so I input my stats and scroll down to the Mandy section and:



Great I have a 100% chance of learning Flame, that means that if I choose Mandy my Pixie will return with the technique I want.

So now lets change it slightly, again I have a Pixie and want to learn Flame. But this time it only has 300 Int rather than 400:



My Pixie's chance of learning Flame is now down to 36% why is that? Well Pixie meets the minimum requirements (250 Int) but does not have enough Int to reach the guaranteed chance of learning the tech (400 Int). While it is still possible for my Pixie to learn Flame I might need to load a save a few times until my Pixie gets lucky with the 36% chance. Loyalty will increase the chance of learning the move however. So if you don't have enough stats but have Loyalty you may still have a high chance of learning the Tech you want. This is just something to be aware of, you may have the stats to be able to learn the move, but it may not be high enough to guarantee it. You can either wait until you guarantee it or save scum a few times to learn it.

Now lets have a look at another example. I'm raising a Pow Tiger and I want to learn Combination. I raise it's Pow to 450 so I guarantee that I can learn it, then I put the number into the calculator and I see this:



My Tiger has enough Pow to learn Combination and there are no tech chains or anything to stop me. Why does my Tiger have a 100% chance to learn One-Two and a 0% to learn Combination? Monster Rancher 2 has it's own priorities on Techniques. Sometimes the game will force your monster to learn one technique before you are able to learn another. This is what I mentioned about "Bad" techs in the techniques section. Sometimes you will be forced to pick up some techniques because of the game's priorities. So try to avoid sending you monster to lots of Errantries to learn lots of techniques, but sometimes you will be forced to learn a technique you don't want. This is absolutely fine and will not stop your monster from doing well.

I mentioned earlier that Errantry costs 2000G or 1000G on a sale month. But Errantry costs something even more valuable than G, your monsters Lifespan.

Lifespan Cost
Each time your monster is sent to Errantry it will lose at minimum 7 weeks of Lifespan. 4 from the weeks that it spent on Errantry and then 3 extra weeks from the high Stress and Fatigue that Errantry causes. If your monster is KOed in the battle against the wild monster it will lose 6 additional weeks for a total of 13 weeks of Lifespan lost. This is why I recommend only going to Errantry to get the techniques you want and not picking up everything. Your monster's Lifespan is finite and you don't want to waste it on techniques that will have a minimal or no impact in Battle.

Returning from Errantry
When your monster returns from Errantry ignore the usual raising method. Instead feed your monster a Nuts Oil and allow it to rest for the week. Then from the second week on follow the usual raising method.

Enemy Monsters are mini bosses that you may encounter while going to an Errantry. This will replace the battle at the end of the Errantry with a wild monster. There is a 20% chance that one of 3 monsters will appear at each Location but they will only appear if your monster is above B rank. Encountering the monster (regardless of whether you win or lose) will unlock the monster card. When this card is unlocked you will be able to create the Enemy Monster at the shrine. Enemy Monsters are often very good and can be fun to try as they will often behave differently from the main breed in Stat Gains and Guts Regen. How powerful they are varies from a good alternative (Punisher Naga/???) to overpowered Kamui (Tiger/???). So they are worth unlocking once you get better at raising monsters.

You've trained your monster's stats, sent it to Errantry and now you are ready to start battling. So you click on the Battle button and you get this:



So how does it work? In Monster Rancher 2 Tournaments happen on a certain Week on a certain Month each year. So for example the New Year Cup happens on the 4th Week of January each year. But it only occurs on that week, so if you want to enter you will need to wait until the 4th Week of January. This is the case for all Tournaments except the Official Cups which are held every 3 Months on a schedule. So what does the letter on the Tournament mean? That is the rank which I will explain in the next section.

Ranks determine how powerful the monsters that will be at a tournament are. All monsters begin at Rank E, an E rank monster will only be able to compete in Rank E and Rank D tournaments. In order to compete in higher ranking tournaments your monster must win the Official Cup tournaments which are held every 3 months. Winning the Official Tournament will raise your monsters Rank and allow it to complete in higher ranking tournaments. Winning the E rank Official Tournament will allow your monster to fight in D or C rank tournaments. Winning the D rank Official Tournament will let your monster compete in C and B rank tournaments and so on. The goal of the game is to reach S rank which will unlock 4 additional Tournaments which you need to beat to enter a final 1v1 tournament.

For your first monster I recommend starting with an unofficial E rank tournament when you are ready. You don't have to follow Colt's advice and enter on the first week the official tournament is available. It is better to win with a monster which is prepared than lose with a monster that is not. You don't gain anything for not winning a tournament outside of a small amount of G. Once you can beat unofficial E rank tournaments comfortably beat the official E rank tournaments and try some D rank unofficial tournaments to earn some money. When you feel you are beating those consistently, win the official tournament and move to C rank tournaments to repeat the process. This will help you to make some money and have a rough estimate of how powerful each Rank is.

F Rank Tournaments
I'm sure you've noticed some blue coloured tournaments which are marked F. One of the classic new player mistakes is to assume that these are easy tournaments which are lower than E rank. F rank is Free for All, which means monsters of any Rank can enter. The monsters in these tournaments are around B to A rank so do not enter these with a new monster.

Entering Lower Rank Tournaments
Once you beat an Official Tournament if you attempt to enter a tournament which has a rank you've beaten, you'll receive a warning message from Colt. So for example if I beat the E rank official tournament then try to enter an E rank tournament. All this warning does it tell you that if you enter your monster's fame will decrease. Fame is a stat which increases by winning tournaments. It unlocks Expeditions but also increases your monsters chance to critically hit with techs. For each point in Fame your monsters chance to crit increases by 0.1% up to a maximum of 10% at 100. So while you can enter lower rank tournaments if you are desperate for cash, I would recommend against it.

So you've entered the tournament and now you are staring at this screen wondering what is about to happen:



This screen lists all of the competitors in the tournament. In the tournament you will face against all of the monsters that are listed here once. Then the total wins of each monster will be tallied up and whoever has the most wins is the winner of the tournament. If there is a tie in the number of wins a tie breaker battle will take place. This is the case for most tournaments but there are a few exceptions. After each battle your monster will be healed to full health for the next fight.

Withdraw will forfeit the next battle but leave you in the tournament while Drop Out will forfeit every battle. You don't want to use these really, just wait until your monster can win against all of the opponents.

Information can be used to get some hints from Colt but it is generally not too useful.

Choosing Battle will result in Colt asking if you want to give advice in Battle. If you choose No the AI will control your monster for the battle. This is not a good idea as the AI will make very questionable decisions so I always recommend fighting yourself. Choosing Yes will open a screen where the stats of your monster and your opponents are listed.



Useful information is Spd which determines how likely the opponent is to dodge, Ski which is how likely the opponent is going to hit you and Pow/Int to see if the monster is a Pow or Int attacker. Once you are ready click to start the battle:



At the start of the battle both yours and your opponents monster will begin with 50 guts which will slowly increase. The techniques your monster knows will appear in the 4 bars depending on which Range it can be used in. The Number next to the technique tells you how many guts you need to use it, this is also the case for your opponents monster. The Percentage is the chance that the technique you have selected will hit the opposing monster.

Move around the arena using the left and right buttons and click Technique to use an attack. If both yours and your opponents monster are in the first range and close to each other as possible a pair of boxing gloves will appear:



You can now use the Dispel button to force both yours and your opponents monster back. The AI is also capable of doing this.

As I mentioned in the Guts section having more guts will improve your monster through Guts Correction. At this point it's very tempting to fire off your attacks and do some damage but don't. Allow the opposing monster to attack while you build some guts. Then while your monster has a high guts total and your opponent has wasted theirs, attack back to do a lot of extra damage. This is the best method to beat the AI.

The Battle will end when 60 seconds has passed or if one of the monsters has been K.O. If 60 seconds has passed a comparison of life will be shown and whichever monster has the highest percentage will be the winner.



Once all of the battles have been completed the Tournament will be over and the winner will be announced.

This section has some more tips for battling that don't quite fit in the basics section.

Safe Zones
When battling against the AI watch out for safe zones. These are ranges where your opponents monster either has no techniques they can use or weak techniques. For example Nats the Hare in Rank E has no attacks in the 1, 2 and 4 ranges. So you can sit in those ranges and not have to worry about the AI attacking you. This will only last so long as the AI will move to attack but it's useful if you need to waste some time. This can also be useful against certain monsters, for example Milliam a D rank Pixie has very little Pow. So you can sit in range 1 or 2 with it's Pow basic techs. If it does attack it won't do much damage as Pixie's basics are terrible.

Foolery
Sometimes the AI monsters will be affected by Foolery. When this happens their dodge chance will be reduced drastically. So try to use your most powerful but inaccurate tech when you notice the opponent in Foolery.

Time Wasting
If you know you are winning but won't be able to get a K.O you may want to consider wasting time. Wasting time is simply using attacks which you know can't K.O, but if you are attacking your opponent cannot. This is especially useful if you have attacks with very long animation times. Ape's Thwack has a 6 second animation time on a hit for example so that's 6 seconds where your opponent can't attack.

Unlike Errantry entering Tournaments is completely free however just like Errantry they will reduce your monsters lifespan.

Lifespan Cost of Battles
Each tournament you enter with a monster will reduce your monsters lifespan by at least 4 weeks. If a lifespan index has been triggered this can result in even more lifespan being lost but assuming you don't reach one no further lifespan will be lost.

Should I enter tournaments?
Tournaments are essential to progression, you need G to be able to unlock other monsters and improve your raising methods. So don't avoid entering tournaments to try and preserve your monsters lifespan. The more money you get the better you can raise monsters later.

This is a list of some important tournaments which may be useful to gain money or obtain useful items at the start of the game.

Fair warning, this method is extremely cheesy and involves earning money with a super monster off a disc.

So to start this off you're going to want to wait until the week a tournament you want to enter has arrived. On that week go to Town, then the Lab and Freeze your Monster.

Then go to the Shrine and enter:

Title: Zorn
Artist: Zorn

Select the only option and generate the monster and have a look at it's stats:



At this point you are probably very cross and me and wondering why I just made you read this guide when you could just win with this?

It lives for 1 week. Yes you read that right. You can generate this monster as many times as you want but it will only live for 1 week each time.

Anyway back on track, this monster can be used to beat any F, E or D rank tournament. Why only these ranks? You need to win the official tournament to enter higher ranking battles and a monster that only lives 1 week can never do that. It will enter foolery a lot as it has no loyalty but that doesn't matter as it has 999 life and def. Simply go back to your ranch enter whichever tournament you want and destroy it with your super powerful monster.

It will die next week however, but you need monsters to die to unlock other monsters so it's not the end of the world.

Your first few monsters will mostly involve trying to understand all of Monster Rancher 2 mechanics. As the game doesn't give you any goals or hints on what you should do (for better or worse) I'll give some recommendations on what to aim with for the first few monsters. This is only a rough guide and don't worry if you don't achieve any of these goals. As long as you make some money, unlock some monsters or understand the mechanics a bit better you are progressing.

First Monster

• The first week that the Official Tournament is available Colt will send you an alert. I don't recommend fighting the official tournament instead wait and build some stats by Training.
  
• After training until you are ready (and going to errantry if your monster needs to) save and then battle in a Unofficial E rank tournament. This will give you some experience with battling and earn you some G.
  
• Once you are comfortably beating the E rank unofficial tournaments enter the official E rank tournament. Beat that and move up to D rank. Go to Errantry as you need to for techs.
  
• Enter unofficial D rank tournaments. Beat those until you are able to win comfortably while saving up G at the same time. I recommend beating the Artemis Cup and keeping as many Gemini Cups as you can.
  
• Once you are ready Beat the D rank Official Tournament. C rank tournaments will have a purse of around 3000g. If your monster is starting to become old by this point, freezing it, raising a new monster and then unfreezing your monster for tournaments is a good idea. Just make sure to rest your batting monster after the tournament. This will help you to preserve lifespan while still making some G.
  
• If your monster still has some lifespan left, beat the C rank official tournament to move up to B rank. Continue to farm B rank unofficial tournaments for money.
  
• At this point I would expect the lifespan of your monster to nearly be up. Freeze your monster before it passes away and move on to your next monster.
  
• If you managed to save up some G and grabbed some Gemini Cups move on to the Moneymaker. If not just repeat this process with a new monster.

The Moneymaker

• Hopefully you now have some G and have managed to collect at least 3 Gemini Pots. If you have enough for the Intermediate's Method I recommend using that for some extra stat gains. If not continue to use the Beginners Method.
  
• Train your Monster and go on Errantry to learn techniques as needed.
  
• When you are ready enter the D rank Official Tournament. Yes you can completely skip the E rank Official Tournament and I recommend you do to save your monsters lifespan.
  
• After beating the D rank Official Tournament your monster will be C rank. Continue raising stats and going to Errantry for techniques.
  
• Once you are ready enter the C rank Official Tournament and win to be promoted to B rank.
  
• Continue raising stats and start entering B and A rank unofficial tournaments. B and A rank tournaments have a decent prize purse with some nice items to sell. Use your monster to farm these tournaments to obtain a nice amount of G.
  
• As your monster starts getting older, consider using the freezer to only bring the monster for battles to conserve it's lifespan.
  
• This method should give you enough G to be able to use the No Rest method. Use the cheesy method to obtain as many Gemini Pots as you need.
  
• At this point you should have enough G and Gemini Pots for the No Rest method. If you don't just repeat the Moneymaker with a new monster until you have some G saved up. Once you have the no rest method going keep focusing on 3 stats and make a monster that can beat the S rank. With the gains from the No Rest method this won't be too difficult. If you've reached this point you shouldn't need this guide anymore. This guide barely scratches the surface of this game and there are a lot of things that I don't discuss in this guide to avoid it being even longer. If you are interested in learning more I recommend the guides over on Legend Cup.
  

Big thank you to Legend Cup for all of the information and hosting some very useful tools.

Thank you everyone who read this, if there are any sections you would like me to add let me know.