I'm a loyal MR1 fan, and recently picked up MR2. Overall, it's a worthy sequel, but a few key things really take away from it. OK. In MR1, before I discovered the sickness of SKI+SPD+(POW or INT), I played mainly defensive monsters (Monol, Golem etc with DEF+LIF+(POW or INT)) and it worked quite well. They would pound on me for a while, not doing much damage, and when my will got to 99 I'd start wailing and eventually connect and destroy them. My point is, in MR1, the stats all had value. You could basically pick (almost) any three, and depending on the 3 adjust your tactics accordingly. Not so (seemingly) in MR2. Defense seems to be almost USELESS! My last monster was a Monol/Monol (and boy was he BAD, more on that later), he had approx 350 Def, and he would still get torn up in D CLASS by monsters with like 160 Pow. WHAT THE HELL??? The sickness of SKI+SPD+(INT or POW) was bad enough in MR1 (can you say Henger, boys and girls) without it being amplified in MR2, along with the last usefulness of DEF&LIF taken away. So basically if you have a monster with high DEF or LIF, you are screwed. It may help a little but you will still get totally crushed. They messed up big time with this. Now, if you can't hit and kill early, give up. Oh, did I mention will draining? What, now every attack drains will? DEF is even further out the window, since even if they didn't totally crush you with damage despite your high DEF, they will drain all your will anyway, so you won't be able to do anything. And high DEF monsters usually recover will slowly. Only chance a Monol has is blowing through all his will as fast as possible with like, Sound Wave, and hoping he can get a KO. Utter crap... Next. What the hell is with the lifespans. My Monol/Monol was 2 yrs 6 months and died of old age, and I was totally nice to it. I always got 5+ year lifespans in MR1 with ANY monster, now it's like 3 is the limit (which is what Colt said.) I'm all for adding a little challenge, but what the hell is the point of raising monsters if they just die at 2 1/2 - 3 years? Now, it's basically like you have to have golden peaches (or the MR2 equivalent) to get anywhere in the game. This may add challenge to the overall game, but it takes away from the fun of raising monsters. Also seems like the 'evil nature' is much more prominent now, i.e. my pure Monol. My first monster was a Zuum/Hare, compared to my other 2 he was a freaking dream, got him to class A and froze him. My Monol would always cheat, and died in class C at 2yr 6 months (could have made class B but died 2 months before the tourney, right after another tourney. Maybe at least he will make a ghost and contribute something more than the 20K he earned.) Current monster is a Mocchi/Jell, last class E tourney I tried to fight I hit Oakleyman 8 times in a row, and he hit me only once, in the last few seconds, and won. And my Pow&Def totally outclassed his. Utter crap again... Oh well, this is what they give us so what can we do. Work around the imperfections and try to win anyway. I'm currently trying to get megabucks to improve my house and pen to maximum, maybe that will help a bit. Anyway, feel free to tell me I'm totally wrong. And enjoy. :)

-- Bill (WebGuy4418@aol.com), February 02, 2000 Answers DEF is no longer the sole determining factor for lessing damage in MR2. In MR2, DEF helps, but it must be paired with a high POW or INT. If your monster has high POW but low INT, it'll take more damage from INT based attacks, regardless of DEF. The reverse also applies. For a true "tank" monster, your monster must have a high POW and INT as well as a high DEF.

-- Dark Phoenix (Arax7@aol.com), February 02, 2000.

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Well, I won't rip on you, but I'll throw in my opinion. MR2 is much more challenging than MR1 because of the lifespan of your critters, but it also has alot more nifty features and monsters. It does have Golden Peaches and (NEW) Silver Peaches (in the Elders tournament). the real value to monster raising in this game is in the Combining. When you go to combine, only combine when the Lab idiot (whatever his name is) tells you the combination will be good or will work out. This will give you a much better monster than you started with. It's these second and third generation monsters that you'll have the most fun with (I've found many of them live longer, too, if you didn't use drugs on their 'parents'). Listen, it sounds like you're not dismissing the game, so give it some time, get used to the changes, and have FUN! Oh, and I did try maxxing out a Beaclon on DEF and it seemed pretty useless once I passed 'C' class, so I agree with you on that note. Welcome to the MR2 club, and enjoy exploring the game!!

-- Mike H. (BlackPeke@webtv.net), February 02, 2000.

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Dark Phoenix: Ah, thanks. Yes it will be so easy raising a high DEF INT AND POW considering I have a whole 3 years (a damn eternity) to raise them! (end sarcasm) Not trying to be snippy, but I think for now I will stick to kill-or-be-killed mentality. Been playing my Mocchi/Jell, seems to have high SKI, low INT AND POW (great!), low SPD, must have high DEF and LIF, I wouldn't know since I will never train those due to their apparent uselessness. I've been training its SKI and POW, its only decent move is Roll Attack or something, and Oakleyman still wipes the floor with it most of the time. 9 months old and can't beat class E, how frigging pathetic. Totally lucked out getting that Zuum/Hare as my first monster (off of Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing), only decent one I've had so far. Right now I am just trying out different monsters, trying to learn the game, and maybe make some money, but thats a little hard when you lose at class E. Sigh...

-- Bill (WebGuy4418@aol.com), February 02, 2000.

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I was like you once, Bill. A frustrated newcomer to MR2 who was used to playing MR1. All I can say is (without writing a darned book) to browse this board and partake of the wisdom here. If you still have trouble look at the raising methods in these threads: How do you ppl do it......... (there's two of this title, check the older one)

raising method by azn-beast- new and improved- lol

And if you have a lot of $$$$ and are ambitious, try this thread:

RNA's advanced training method for optimum results, revised.

Hopefully, soon you'll be raising monsters that'll live 6 years or more and'll take you all the way to the M4. Good luck.

-- Dark Phoenix (Arax7@aol.com), February 02, 2000.

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and , oh yes, I share your feeling about Oakleyman. He's so cheap. I HATE him.

-- Dark Phoenix (Arax7@aol.com), February 02, 2000.

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I felt the same way you did when I started this game. I loved Monster Rancher and beat it relatively easily compared to MR2. You could raise your monster quickly, use lot's of drugs and win the major four without too much trouble. In MR2, there is a lot more strategy involved. At the beginning of my game, my monster all died at three or so years old and I was getting really frustrated. Then I came to this board and got a lot of good advice. Now my pixies even live to be at least five years and I know that I could do even better. There are many small things you can do to make your monsters live longer.

1. Don't let your monster get tired, rest it on the second seems well notice. When they are young, do three light trains then rest every month. You can modify it depending on how much money and how old your monster is.

2. Don't let your monster get stressed. At the end of every month you don't fight, give him a mint leaf. Especially if you scold him or work him hard.

3. Errantries are only good for learning techs, not for building stats. If you don't learn a tech, reset and try again. Don't send them to errantries until they are about a year old, they really drain life. Limit the number of errantries they go on in their life. Combine two monsters with a lot of techs to start with a monster with a wide range of techs.

4. Don't use drugs. Drugs reduce lifespan and really aren't worth it. There has been some research into certain drug that are benificial if used at certain times. Look in the archives for more info on those.

5. Every monster has their own strengths and weaknesses. Train in the ones that go up the best and combine monsters with the same high stats. This will give you better starting stats with combined monsters.

6. Getting K.O.ed in battle really reduces lifespan. The more damage you take, the less life you will have. Avoid fighting until your monster is old enough and strong enough to beat whoever you come up against.

These are just barely scraping the surface of strategy in MR2. For more in depth info, check out the archives below and just keep playing. I think I enjoy MR2's variety of monster the most and there are a lot of different monsters to find. Have fun!

P.S. If you want good information for unlocking all of those different breeds, Check out the rare monsters thead in the older messages half of the board. Look for "How to unlock all 38 monster types". If you would rather find out on your own, just don't look.

-- Miss Carrie (musicality1@earthlink.net), February 02, 2000.

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the on;y way to do this series is backwards. my forst monster made it to b class easy.oh, and one thing you need to remember. DON'T MAKE THEM FIGHT EARLY ON YOU IDIOT! YOUR BASICALLY BOTH ASKING FOR YOUR MONSTER TO GET K.O.ED AND YOUR AS GOOD AS HOLDING THE SCYTHE TO THEIR NECKS! no wonder they die in 3 years!

-- legendary master moo (homer@usaserve.net), February 03, 2000.

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Moo: Uh huh. My Mocchi/Jell fought in countless battles (50+ or so?) and never got KO'ed, cause I know how to fight. And I also know which classes they can handle and which ones they can't. Battles were the primary means of raising his stats, he's about 4 1/2 now, I froze him cause he started doing a bit poorer than usual, and he was basically a money monster anyway (he earned me 101,250K I believe.) Right now I'm trying a Hopper/Mocchi, using peoples suggestions of 'infinite drills', I don't see how anyone gets maxxed stats with drills, generally I will get 5-10 points, or slightly more if they happen to do great. Maybe I will need a 2nd or 3rd gen monster to do well, but we'll see. All of mine have been directly off cd's thus far.

-- Bill (WebGuy4418@aol.com), February 03, 2000.

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Patience. It sounds like you fighting with your monsters while they're still babies. Unlike MR1, MR2 stat gains are not constant, but follow a curve according to the stage of life your monster's in. Just wait out the childhood and after a while, the stat gains will start to fly.

-- Dark Phoenix (Arax7@aol.com), February 03, 2000.

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THis thread is a bit old, and I doubt Bill is still around, but... For what it's worth, I once tried an Arrowhead straight from the Market. This was early on in the game, right after I bought the US version (so I did have a little experience with MF2). This monster has amazing Lif and Def, decent pow, but is terrible at eveyrthing else. I was able to easily get him up the ranks just by being defensive, as Bill says he did in MR1. It is a harder battle tactic, requiring a very careful manipulation of where you and the enemy are, but it's entirely possible. This Arrowhead was among the first monsters I raised, and it easily hit 4 years of age and I believe made B class.

SO yes, defense is possible. You do need to watch out for withering moves, and you need at least one high hit% tech. Try it!

-- B Campbell (apparatus@@juno.com), March 18, 2000.

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and it's not as hopeless as mike made it sound. really, since i'm training a monster in int/pow whichever is better for his own attacks anyway, if i want to rely on def instead of spd, i just have to raise the other one a little more than i would have in mr1. typical of a decent def monster for me is ~300 lif/~750pow or int/~250int or pow/750 def. this lets you live thru at least one and often two hits, even at s level. after that, it's up to you...

-- torey luvullo (dst10000@compuserve.com), March 18, 2000.

-- torey luvullo (dst10000@compuserve.com), April 13, 2000