I thought that since I'm always fighting in this game (for bigger stats and more moves), I might as well divulge some of the overall strategies I've devised for various monsters in and off the court, especially after several posts I've seen asking how to get certain monsters to higher ranks. Plus, there's an excellent post below about rare monsters, and I don't want to be shown up completely! I'll put up strategies for other monsters later, but I might as well get down the ones I've spent alot of time raising...
First, some terminology for newbies:
Offensive Stats- Power, Intelligence, and Skill
Defensive Stats- Life, Defense, and Speed
One-Hit Wonder- Strategy where you get really high Power/Intelligence and Skill, and try to take the enemy monster down immediately with a powerhouse attack. Pretty effective...until the enemy lucks out and you miss. And if you haven't raised any defensive stats, you're dead meat.
Tank- Monster that works alot on Defense and Life.
Speed Demon- Duh.
Antagonizer- Strategy where you keep withering an opponent's guts away to keep them from doing anything. Effective against Tanks, but not Speed Demons.
Guts Miser- Strategy where you build up your guts really high before making any real attack attempts. Falls to Antagonizers really easily.
Desperation- Strategy where you use moves as soon as you build up guts for them, trying to get in just one hit. Often emphasizes lower-cost moves to keep trying. Downfall is lowered damage and hit rate, but useful against Antagonizers.
Combo King- Using several weaker moves with lower cost and power, combined with high guts regeneration, to keep on almost constant offense, giving the opponent little time to attack, and tearing through low-defense opponents. The only difficulty it has is against opponents with higher guts regen.
Joker- This is one of the most offense-oriented creatures in the game. It gets good boosts in all offensive stats (Power, Skill, Intelligence) with only mediocre defensive stat boosts, which should tell you something right off. The best strategy while facing most opponents is to build up to about 80 guts, and then unleash a killer combination of Death Energy, Death Cutter, and/or Death Slash, using Death Punch/Smash if the opponent is nearly gone and agile enough to dodge most of your attacks (the more times you attack, the better chance of connecting at least once). "Real" helps out alot for this last note, and it should be noted that if you get Real, FINISH THEM. If they manage to wait you out of it, you're in major trouble. As for facing a Joker, try to stay as far away from them as possible if you're a Tank (Unless it has Death Final and enough guts to use it), or at close/mid range for a Speed Demon. Its limited array of moves can be used against it in the matter, forcing to only be able to use a few, non-highly-accurate moves against speedsters, or not very damaging moves against armor freaks. Its other big problem is that aside from Death Punch/Smash, all of its moves have upper mid-level or high Guts cost, making misses expensive.
Mock- Is similar to the Joker in its offense orientation, and the One-Hit Wonder strategy works well with Twister(s). However, it's Life and Defense DO go up better, and since its moves cost more, you're going to have to have to build them in order to survive. It's advantage over the Joker is its greater variety, especially moves that cost less than the Joker's standard 28/29, which are often perfect for beginning or ending a battle. Twig Gatling works great for withering, and Leaf Cutter can easily finish off a weakened opponent. If the opponent the ratio of Your Skill:Their Speed is highly in your favor, a Life Steal can be perfect for deciding the result of the battle in one swift SUCK, draining out tons of life and about 30 Guts from the opponent. Mostly though, this creature's long life span, debatable stat gains, and lack of total effectiveness (not saying it's not a good monster, just not the best in the game) make it infinitely more suited towards finding items on Expeditions.
Zuum- For those of you who haven't gotten it through your heads yet, this is THE definition of a well-balanced monster. In its purest form, you'll have difficulty maxing out or severely weakening any one stat, and its battle strategy reflects that: It depends entirely on the opponent. Use heavy moves like Bite-Throw and Fireball against Tanks, or withering moves like Dust Cloud and Hypnosis. Against Speedsters, the accuracy of its tail-based attacks will take them down most of the time. The list goes on and on...basically, unless you've gotten sub-breed specific stats (Pixie sub-type means you should concentrate on Intelligence and Speed, Golem means Power and Defense), look at the strategies above, as well as the "weaknesses" section of other monsters to determine how best to take them down. A simple back-up strategy is to combine all strategies: Build up Guts to about 70, then attack with Diving Claw, Fire Ball, Claw Combo, or Bite-Throw. Continue with Tail Combo or Million Claws, and then hit them with some Hypnotism to keep their guts down while you regenerate. With about 600-700 in every stat, a Zuum can be the hardest-to-defeat creature in the game (like Ryu in Street Fighter). When fighting AGAINST one, your best bet is to just focus on what your monster does best- heavy hitting, sure shooting, endurance, evasion, withering, regenerating, whatever, and keep your fingers crossed. A Zuum will usually never stun you with any one stat, so if your Golem gets into a direct competition over who has the better Power, for instance, you'll come away the victor.
Centaur- If you're raising a pure-bred Centaur, you'll have troubles, but most Centaur sub-breeds are very powerful, and have a great balance of all types of moves, able to take on any strategy depending on what you raise it in, as well as the opponent's style. Yeah, just like Zuum. The big thing to remember here, though, is that almost all breeds of Centaur have very good Skill, meaning this might give you an easier time. However, unlike the Zuum it has no truly powerful intelligence-based moves. Mind Flare has decent damage and hit rate, good withering, but won't be very useful for a One-Hit Wonder strategy. Centaur also has the awesome Cross Slash and Z Smash attacks that have B or A rank in all four categories (Force, Accuracy, Withering, Sharpness), making them absolutely devastating (but it sucks if you miss, so keep that Skill up!).
Beaclon- Okay, this just isn't one of the most powerful monsters, but it's always seemed very reliable and dependable, coming through in every task I could reasonably expect of it. These things just seem to have good luck. One of their biggest weaknesses is that until they reach B-rank, or get evil, they won't get any mid-range attacks, leaving a gaping hole that a smart trainer/AI can take full advantage of. It doesn't have too many really good moves, but he has plenty of decent attacks, and only one in the bunch (Flying Press) has E-rank accuracy. All of its other moves have at least D-rank, which puts it ahead of other natural Tanks like Golem. Plus it has better Guts Regen, making it sort of like a Golem Redux. Rolling Bomb is probably one of its best moves, but you'll have to be Good-Natured to get it, and Maximal Punch is also a great standard move, its only real downside being that you'll have to use Punch and Heavy Punch 50 times each to get it. This monster works very well with the Guts Miser strategy, but gets defeated nearly every time if forced in Desperation, so clobber Antagonizer opponents quickly, or else build up its speed (Tiger sub-type, anyone?).
Zilla- Again, the Pure version is unimpressive, but the Gooji (Zilla/Tiger) is easily one of the most powerful monsters in the game, with great/good stat boosts in all areas, and the natural goodness of the Zilla's effective, not-to-expensive, and varied array of techniques combined with the Tiger sub-breed's noticeable Guts Regen boost. Tail Lashes, Zilla Rush, Knocking-Up, Bubbles, and Tidal Wave are all great in terms of balanced stats and lower-than-they-should-be guts cost. Overall, though, a Zilla should try to knock out an opponent rather than trying Antagonizer or Combo King strategies. Brutal Moves like Wave Riding can end the battle quickly, but watch out with Roll Assault or Body Press. If either misses, the Zilla takes a LONG time to get up, during which time your guts are frozen but the opponent is preparing for a major assault, and if Body Press misses, you'll get some backlash damage.
Wracky- One of the coolest monsters in the game. Super-high guts regen, long life span for getting good stats, and a completely filled-out move list where almost every move is worthwhile make this one a little killer for sure. Early on you might have alot of problems, but even in those times, a simple combination of its high guts regen and inexpensive Weapon attack mean that you could just get in the enemy's face and keep using the slow and weak but accurate and cheap move over and over, giving them hardly any chance to attack. Air Shot and Blast Shot are also useful for the Combo King strategy, and Necromancy and Trick can wither an opponent away to single-digit guts often in one hit (Note: Trick does not seem to hit nearly as often as Necromancy, making it the better choice. And death to the rumor that Nercomancy disables Grit). Spin Slash is also good for the rare NICE Wracky (who also needs high Power), but the real fun comes with Special Techs. Cursed Dance not only rules in terms of looks, but its stats (B/C/B/S) are sure to scare anyone. And who cares about 55 Guts Cost when it can pull off four of those attacks in a single battle? Head Spike and Fire Spike are also well-balanced and effective, and Explosion....just rules. I've never tried it on a Speed Demon, but I use it against Tanks quite frequently, and it's never missed yet. Just make sure to build up the Wracky's Defense to about equal its Power, and the backlash damage will mean nothing, whereas your opponent will probably be killed in one hit (or at least brought so close with all its guts removed that you can easily finish it with a weak attack like Air Shot). If you haven't raised one of these, DO IT.
Hopper- No, Hoppers don't suck. You just probably don't know how to use them. They are MADE for the Combo King strategy- high guts regen, weak-but-accurate-and-cheap attacks with relatively long animations, it's all there. Remember, it doesn't matter if you don't knock out your opponent, or even that you get that many HITS in on them. If you get one hit in on them, and they hardly ever get a chance to attack YOU (due to you monopolizing the battle and withering their guts bit by bit), and if your Speed is so high that those few oppurtunities fail, you win every time. And then you do the snide little Hopper Laugh ("NYA!") while they swear eternal hatred towards you. And you laugh at them more.
Phoenix- Yeah, I know, "Why the hell do I need strategies to win with the fenix neway? It kiks @$$!!!!" Well, the answer is that what if your little One-Hit Wonder strategy fails due to a smarter/luckier opponent? If you don't think you have any chance of losing, your chance of failure skyrockets. Here's the deal: No one works on a Phoenix's Power. Not even the computer (The Blue Phoenix only has like 200-something Power). And while its far-ranged, intelligence-based moves can destroy the competition...you may notice that when it's computer-controlled, your Phoenix often doesn't go back into far range, and gets whomped while it tries to do puny short-range physical attacks. That's how you beat that overconfident jerk next door. Get right into the borderline between short-range and mid-range, and don't let them get out of there. Your enemy won't be able to use effective attacks, and they won't be able to back off quickly enough for you to not follow them. Don't get too close, though, or they'll push you back into far range and cream you. Meanwhile, you can trash them with your most-probably-better short and mid-range moves, and unless they've raised all defensive stats up pretty high (and I bet they haven't), you can snuff them out in no time, especially with Power-based moves.
WHOO! I gotta take a break for a bit...I'll be back later with strategies for Color Pandora, Kato, Niton, Undine, Mocchi, Durahan, and possibly a few others.
-- Nate Railsback (ChimeraMan101@aol.com ), January 26, 2000
Answers
Do a Henger and a Ghost. Please?
-- JellTrainer (lukadjukic@yahoo.com ), January 26, 2000.
I haven't raised any Hengers in MR2, so I couldn't pass on their strategies yet. But since the Ghost is pretty much the exact same creature as in MR1, I can help on it.
Ghost- This thing has Guts Regen off the scale, but poor abilities. Use the first thing to your advantage- these monsters are perfect for the Combo King strategy. Most of their abilities have lower-grade Accuracy, so raising a Ghost's Skill high is a must in order to effectively use them. If you keep using Surprise, you can easily Antagonize an opponent the whole battle. Magic Cards is probably its best Intelligence-based move, but its truly greatest moves are Uppercut and Combination, which are unusual here because a Ghost generally relies on intelligence-based attacks, but these are Power- based moves. Still, if you want to work on Power, you can really trash an opponent with Combination (55 Cost, which is near- meaningless to a Ghost, and B/B/B/E as its stats). In order to defeat enemy Ghosts (either a player's or Ofrey), keep in very close, where its weak Power-based attacks can barely scratch you. If it pushes you away, get right back in close range, and continue trashing it.
-- Nate Railsback (ChimeraMan101@aol.com ), January 26, 2000.
I found all of this information very interesting and helpful. I was raising a metalner (then my game got ruined,sigh) and having very good luck with the antagonizer strategy. He was a metalner/pixie and had such high guts regeneration and good withering attacks that I just couldn't help but win. With really good skill and defense he didn't need much int. or power to win, most other monster never got in any hits at all. Most of his attacks have A and B hit% and one even has S so with decent skill he could go far. His power doesn't go up that well which is kind of bad because all of his moves are power based but one. I really enjoyed raising the metalner and would recomend him to anyone who likes antagonizers.
-- Miss Carrie (musicality1@earthlink.net ), January 26, 2000.
Congratulations, Nate! Your page will be the first one I have chosen to put on a disk and print out. That is, if it fits on a disk....
-- Celious (lionmage@hotmail.com ), January 26, 2000.
Acually a monster can use any stratagy to attack with.
I raised a wracky with a high intellegance and skill. Using blast shot, trick, and weapon throw I beat my way up to A rank. I had the beginning 90 or so life and about 120 defense on the little tyke the whole time up until A class. A wracky has a ton of power based attacks but its power isn't gained in a great quantaty (you could always use paradoxin, Thx RNA). On the converse, i raised a wracky using mainly power work. It also made it to a decent rank, but the high chance to hit and high damage of the upper level intellegance based attacks brought up some problems.
Your monsters change with the way you choose to raise them. I've raised zuums to have all defense and life, and yet I've raised others to be speedy little guys that pebble away at an opponents life with weak attacks. Working only on defense qualaties (speed, defense, life, intellegance) you can win. A monster can also win solely on its ability to knock out an enemy before its able to connect with more than an attack or two. I'm sure we've all see golems with maxed power, but maxed power and skill (not working other stats) makes a one-hit-wonder like no other. The same can be done with a zilla. Using its roll attack you'll kill in a single blow, and miss rarely if at all. (with the golem I used Fist-Shot to kill as the game started).
You have a good stratagy and understanding of monsters, but you raise them as you want to.
Someone above wanted a henger stratagy, well here is mine.
My henger from MR1 was maxed in power, speed, and skill. The MR2 hengers are not speedy and more of balenced tanks. I learned this after raising two of them (A pure henger and a black henger).
My pure henger was raised trying to get it's speed up as high as I could so I'd be a dodgin menance. This worked, 600 speed and other stats gained likewise from battle; I was left with a well rounded monster that was able to deal some decent damage to all enemies it fought. My black henger was raised with defense, life, skill and power. He would get in and fight to the death. The black henger did better than my pure, (ignoring the fact that there was a monol sub). Some monsters do work as better (insert class name here) monsters than others, but you are given a lot of leeway to change your monsters to fir your own ideas and hopes.
As you can see I've raised a lot of monsters just to see how they acted with specific stats maxed. My first ghost had its power, skill, and int maxed out; this made the perfect one hit wonder. I could use magic cards or dove bombing to kill off an enemy before they got into a dangerous zone. I also had my power (about 600) so I could use a ghosts charge attack to hold them off until I could get to a safer range.
Every monster in the game has its flaws, a pure zilla has no speed and slow guts regeneration, a ghost has little defense and life, a wracky has low skill and defense. Every monster is made to have some attributes better than others, this makes your fight interesting. If every monster gained equally in all stats you'd just choose which one looked the best or had the best attacks (meaning there would be a lot of zilla users).
Remember, no monster is better than another. Each monster is good against a different one, a pixie will ream a baku and a baku will slaughter a worm (well, in many cases).
In monster rancher 2 it would be great to have 3 or 4 monsters to choose for battles, that way you could have a speeder to kill a golem and a powerhouse to kill a joker.
Ahh well, thats about it. Just raise your monster as you want, you can't mess up if you try.
-- Filmore Davis (verio_1999@yahoo.com ), January 26, 2000.
This is something new. I believe you are the first to give an in- depth review of all(or most) of the mainbreeds and their battling strengths/weaknesses. I've only read a few of those and they seem pretty accurate, even if they are partly opinion based.
I'll have to keep this thread in my books so that I can use it as a reference later. Keep those reviews coming...
-- RNA (RNA@Ribosome.nuc ), January 27, 2000.
Note to Filmore Davis: The pure Wracky I raised (actually, it was changed into a Wracky/??? with a gameshark, but it's whatever a monster is at birth that determines stats) had surprisingly high Defense gains, as well as Life. It ended up with 600+ Life and Defense, and 990 Speed, making it the best defensive monster I have.
-- Nate Railsback (ChimeraMan101@aol.com ), January 27, 2000.
*Kato- Sorry to sound biased, but this is my favorite monster (theme- wise) in the game, and I really love it. Its Baddy attacks are famous/infamous (Oil Fire, Oil Flame, Oil Spray, Smoke Breath), and its Twister Claw and Tornado Claw have carried several trainers through all by themselves with their C-rank Force and S-rank Accuracy combined with the Kato's naturally high Intelligence, Skill, and Speed. Sadly, its awesome power-based ninja claw techniques often go to waste, and aside from looking cool, Jumping Claw, Turn Claws, Rolling Claw, and Phantom Claw are quite powerful/useful. Giving the Kato Joker or Dragon sub-traits can help towards this, but unless you're trying to make a fully-mastered monster (And most trainers are just trying to get up a rank or so), stick to its afore-mentioned strong points. With the intelligence-based moves I've mentioned, it has a great variety in terms of what range it can work at and what kind of styles it can use (Oil Spray and Smoke Breath are powerful Withering moves, Oil Fire and Oil Flame can toast most tanks, and Twister and Tornado claw can swipe away the quickest of critters). Mysteriously, despite having stats that closely resemble other speedsters like Pixie and Tiger, its Guts Regen isn't as high as theirs, but the overall power/variety of its moves makes up for this. It also has several cross-over moves, like Bolt (Tiger), Lick (Suezo), and Licking (Mocchi). While Lick and Licking have the exact same official power stats, Licking costs less and seems generally more effective. If you're really having problems making it up the ranks, a Kato just might be the perfect monster for you. As for beating it...well, the problem here is that if the other trainer has gotten all of its available intelligence-based moves, there is no "safe" range. However, there is no combination of Kato that gets good Life, so Hit techs with at least D-rank force are your most effective weapons against these things. Jokers tend to have the advantage here, so take their lead- strike first, and strike well.
*Color Pandora- The main problem that many people have while raising it is that none of its forms get very good Power gains (although it can do alright there), and most of its moves are Power-based. However, if you utilize the Antagonizer strategy with Cracker and Megacracker, you can do fairly well. Also good for fun is using Tail Whip repeatedly, knocking off about 5-15 Guts per hit, and only taking 10 of your own to do so (and Color Pandora at least has high guts regen). It's best overall to train this monster defensively- build up its Life as high as you can get it while also getting Defense and Speed up to good levels (choosing Speed over Defense if you have to), and also do alot of Skill work to ensure effectiveness. However, just because it has mostly power-based moves (and yes, it's important to get at least enough Power to deal some damage against low-defense opponents), don't ignore intelligence. Shotgun and Megashotgun are just as powerful as the famous Kato techniques Twister Claw and Tornado Claw, and Pandora has higher Guts Regen to use them! Furthermore, its Good tech, Delta Attack, is VERY powerful, and its Evil tech, Vital Ritual, can completely zap an opponent, draining away half their HP and about 30-40 Guts if it connects, instantly putting the battle in your favor. Don't try to use its Heavy techs (Giant Whip and Giant Wheel), since they never really seem to hit. If you really need to damage a slow, tough opponent with Power-based moves, try Spiral Rush or the dramatic Meteor Drive. Basically, Color Pandoras have one of the best collection of moves in the game, and if you can just start them out with good stats and/or work those stats up, you'll have a dynamite, adorable, and entertaining monster. As for defeating one, your best strategy is to stay at close range for speedsters (prompting either an innacurate Giant Whip or a Face Attack that can be shrugged off), or just go for a Desperation strategy with tanks.
*Niton- Initially, this may seem like one of the worst monsters in the game, due to the aweful standard set by Pirrateau, but after working with one it's quickly proven to be quite capable. The biggest problem here is that you have to work on its moves enough to get advanced versions of its techs, which are truly much more effective. In sort of a reverse of the Kato, the Niton's concentration on Life/Defense rather than Speed does NOT mean it has poor Guts Regen, and in fact that trait is better than average, meaning that an Antagonizer strategy can work quite well with these creatures. All of its techs (especially Niton Ink) have good withering, and overall this creature has a move to fit every strategy. Unfortunately, it only has one chain each of Heavy, Withering, Hit, and Special techs, so unless it's worked on a great deal, it won't be able to match up to the often immediately- successful Durahan, for instance. If fighting against it, either use very hard-hitting techs or wither it into submission.
-- Nate Railsback (ChimeraMan101@aol.com ), January 28, 2000.
This must take you a long time, Nate. However, it is nice to see that you outline the pros and cons of each purebreed. Some people will usually just outline either the pros or the cons while disregarding the other.
-- RNA (RNA@Ribosome.nuc ), January 30, 2000.
*Durahan- This monster seems to have dethroned the Phoenix as everyone's favorite monster, so it's about time an in-depth examination was given. This can be a VERY powerful monster if used right, with its only potential weakness being the lack of Withering moves (which are not likely to be missed). Its other problem is that in order to get a well-balanced line of attacks, the Durahan will have to float up and down through Good, Bad, and Neutral natures, and it seems like every species of it has a few techs that are very difficult to learn. Still, when combined with a good sub-type like Tiger or Phoenix (yep, it's the only monster that can get Phoenix sub- traits!), this creature's natural weakness of poor speed disappears, and its Guts Regen goes up alongside its Skill and Intelligence. The Ruby Knight (Durahan/???) is also super-powerful. ANYWAY, as far as its moves go, there's a definate tendency towards Heavy techs. Twister Slash, Triple Slash, and Rolling Slash all have about the same stats, so only one is really needed (and since Twister Slash is the least expensive by far, it gets my vote). Lightning (for those Intelligence-oriented armors out there) is also very effective, and even Power-based Durahans may want to use it alot to gain Thunderbolt (S-rank damage at only 32 guts cost, and it seems to have better accuracy than the "E" accredited it). Slash Combo is powerful and cool-looking, but it rarely connects, and Kick Combo is near-useless except to get the mighty Punch Combo (B/A/C/E, 45 cost! But it requires a Bad Nature). V Slash, Flash Slash, Dash Slash, and Swing are all well-balanced moves useful in any situation. The Durahan also tends to have Hit Techs that can do some real damage, like Blast Shot and Million Stabs. Charge and Gust Slash are useful for minor but very-accurate damage, but Air Shot is too expensive to be very useful. Out of the Sharp Techs Jumping Stab is useful and easy to get, but Sword Throw really sucks. Finally, we have Death Bringer...true, it can deal obscene damage, and wither away an opponent's guts like no other move in the Durahan's repertoire, but the VERY poor accuracy combined with the unavoidable backlash damage (that comes BEFORE the move is executed, not after, like most backlash attacks) and the 50 cost don't make for an overall good attack. The Durahan doesn't require a great deal of strategy overall, (other than using Hit Techs against Speed Demons and Heavy Techs on Tanks), which is great for inexperienced players, but being a muscle- head has its drawbacks. An Antagonizer can eat Durahans for lunch simply by zapping their guts right off the bat, and then remaining in Short-Range (for speedsters) or Long-Range (for the Defense-oriented) until its time for another dose of Withering, which the Durahan's naturally-low Speed and Guts Regen will have a great deal of difficulty dealing with. Also, if the enemy Durahan is totally centered around Power at the cost of Intelligence, keep as far away from them as you can, where their only good move will be Rolling Slash. If they concentrated on Intelligence at the cost of Power, keep in the border between Short- and Mid-Range, where they won't be able to do much of anything.
Gali- By now, most people are acquainted with the relationship between Joker and Gali. The two even have similar stat gains, and are overall offense-oriented. However, the Gali comes out on top in the equation due to its vastly superior variety of moves, with which you can choose to concentrate on either Power or Intelligence and leave the other behind, unlike Joker, which needs to be able to use both types of moves in order to be a good contender. And what moves the Gali HAS! If you can develop Fire Wall and Blaze Wall into Napalm (B damage, A accuracy, only 38 cost!), you'll have a powerful short-range magic move. Red Wisp can compete with the best Withering moves, and Whirlwind-Typhoon-Hurricane can dish out big damage with comparitively little cost and decent accuracy. On the other hand, Gali's Power-based moves can also work very well. Spirit Blow, Heavy Blow, and Hashing Mask are all very useful, but relatively expensive. Giant Blow is the virtually the same as Napalm, but Power- based. Ultimately, the Gali does tend to work the same as a Joker, though- potent moves that require lots of Guts to use, so you better have the Skill to make sure that they hit. Unlike the Joker, though, if the Gali is faced with an Antagonizer, he can "scale down" his attacks back to their basic forms (Fire Wall, Back Blow, Whirlwind) and counterattack before the next round of Withering comes in. Plus, there is no real range where a Gali is at a disadvantage, as long as its move list is filled out...which is itself the disadvantage. While the Joker requires very little work to get all (6) of its powerful moves, the Gali needs extensive practice to get its most powerful attacks. Plus, it shares one of the Joker's weaknesses: No real natively good defensive stats. While it does have overall higher defensive stat gains (and more time to get them) than the Joker, you'll still need to find a good sub-type and concentrate on its strengths (fortunately, you have many more to choose from than the Joker, as well). Still, against most Galis, you should use the same strategy as against the Joker- hit them hard, fast, and often. Try to KO THEM before they kill YOU.
*Jill- I agree with many that the Jill is one of the most underrated monsters in the game, possibly because it's so hard to obtain. It has pretty long lifespan, the ability to easily max out either Power or Intelligence and then get far in the other, and VERY easy-to-get moves (Its only Tech Chains are Clap Attack: Slap Combo and Punch Combo: Jill Combo). Furthermore, all of its moves have a lower Guts Cost than comparitive moves on other monsters, which makes up for its naturally low Guts Regen quite well (plus, if you give it a Pixie or Tiger sub-type, that weakness tends to dissapear). Snowstorm is one of the best moves in the game, too (B Force, A Accuracy, B Withering, but only E Sharpness with 45, not 50, Guts Cost). Basically, a Jill can just aim for its enemies' weaknesses (Cold Breath and Ice Spikes against speedsters, Punch Combo and Ice Wave against Tanks) with a Combo King strategy and its naturally even split between Power and Intelligence, and have several easy victories. Its main problems, however, are Speed and Skill (Unless you have Tiger or Pixie sub- types, then it becomes Defense and Life), so a Speed Demon Antagonizer can take a Jill down HARD. Fortunately for the Jill, it's one of the few monsters that doesn't seem to suffer much during a Desperation strategy, which you'll need to get out of these battles with your Win-Loss record intact.
*Metalner- Think Ghost with actually GOOD abilities. Yeah, it's that powerful...except that it's NOT Power-ful, which is a severe problem as all but one of its moves (more on that one later) are Power- Based. With its near-obscene Guts Regen, high Skill, and weak Power/Intelligence, it's a naturally-born Antagonizer. In addition to most of its moves having C-rank Withering, they also almost all have C-rank Sharpness, which can help out its poor Power immensely. In fact, if you can just create a Metalner with decent Power, you will practically OWN every tournament. And unlike other Antagonizers like Plant, it has a few very potent moves like UFO Attack and Burning Palms to occasionally make up for that Power deficit. It has the additional distinction of being a Defense-based (rather than Speed or Life-based) Antagonizer, which, combined with its Skill, screws over just about any combination of monster if that Power is good (Tanks can do damage, but they can't ever get enough will to do so, and Speed Demons can get the Guts, but can't dish out too good of damage, often. You'll need something like a Kato or Phoenix to be able to take down this thing in the "good Power" scenario). Fortunately, there ARE no Metalner computer opponents in the game, and only a master trainer can get its Power up to the point where it becomes devastating. Final Note: While Metalner Ray requires about 300+ Intelligence to stand a good chance of getting, and is therefore probably not worth it in a serious Metalner, it IS worth getting just once so you can witness the trippy-awesome animation. Plus, an A- rank Withering move on this creature is NASTY.
-- Nate Railsback (ChimeraMan101@aol.com ), February 09, 2000.
*Plant- This is the very definition of an Antagonizer strategist. In fact, in MR1, my Plant/Monol was my first monster to move beyond a one-dimensional fighting style: None of my other monsters could beat Gabarn (a nasty Magic/Naga), but my little Metallica managed to pull it off by blasting it with Toxic Pollen and Toxic Nectar constantly to keep it from getting up the guts to do anything, and keeping Gabarn distracted with a Steady Hook (called "Root Combo" in MR2) here and there whenever it had spare guts, just to eat up time. I'll say this right now: Root Combo deserves and accuracy rating of S+++, and if you somehow miss with this attack, your Plant REALLY needs more Skill. Plus, as I said before, its lengthy animation can help run out the clock on a withered opponent, and if you actually have good Power, it can be your best weapon against Speed Demons. The biggest problem a Plant can have is when it's facing a monster that it can't wither effectively, which is when you fall back on Face Drill or Plant Combo (for the Power-oriented), or Seed Gatling (for the Intelligence-oriented). Possibly its most awesome attack is Life Steal. It may have only C-rank force, but you can make up for that with high Intelligence...the main thing here is that it's a C- accuracy DRAIN move!! That's right, you can guzzle out an enemy's HP with ease with this thing, thereby easily making up for a lack of any move packing B-rank or higher force! In fact, it's worth the trouble to have a Plant be Bad long enough to get this, and then reform to Good for Seed Gatling, thereby giving you one of the handiest monsters in the game! As for beating a Plant, though, your strategy is to basically try to nail it as soon as the match starts with a good move (Plants always have high Life, and sometimes either good Defense or Speed, but never both, so take that into consideration).
*Tiger- Although Tiger is a faithful monster in the beginning, it pales in comparison to other critters once you get experienced in the game. Still, a decent Tiger can work wonders if used right...but neither a One-Hit Wonder strategy OR an Antagonizer works well here, so your best bet is to be a Combo King. Although Tiger has no S- or A-rank Force moves, most of its moves are very accurate, have at least moderate power (and Blizzard, with C Force, B Accuracy, D Withering, and S Sharpness, is nothing to laugh at). Paired with its very high Guts Regen, it can load on the damage in drawn-out fight, and as long as it has enough Speed to keep avoiding attacks, it will probably drop an opponent just before the timer runs out. If it's a first-gen monster, you're probably best off just working on Speed, Intelligence, and Skill, but if it comes from a long line of monsters, the Tiger/Golem can be an all-around powerhouse whose actually GOOD Power can cause major damage with Stab and Combination while taking full advantage of its super-accurate Charge and Roll Assault. In fact, all of its moves have better Sharpness than similar moves on other monsters (especially Ice Bomb. Care to name any other creature that can do an attack with S-rank Sharpness for 15 Guts?). Another nice thing about the Tiger as a beginning monster is that no ONE strategy is really needed for it: You can just use standard opponent-specific tactics (Hit Techs against Speedsters, Heavy techs against Tanks, Sharp Techs against high-Life opponents), or no real strategy at all to take down opponents. For dealing with a Tiger as an opponent, on the other hand, it's best to stay at dividing line between Short- and Mid-Range, since most of those moves are kind of unimpressive (all of these moves have poor Force, and poor-to-average accuracy). Unless it has Golem or Monol sub-traits, it probably doesn't have too good of Defense, (and Plant could give it high Life), so just use high-accuracy moves to pound it. Ironically, the best creature to take down a Tiger...is a Tiger (Accuracy that cancels out Speed, and lots of Sharpness to add extra power to its moves).
*Jill- Although originally underrated (since hardly anyone had raised one to spread the word), Jills have now taken their rightful place in the Monster Rancher community as one of greatest monsters available. It's one of the few creatures that can easily max out both Power AND Intelligence, and it has high Life, and good Defense to help it along (not to mention a big lifespan to build it all up), but its poor Skill and Speed DO bring it down from absolute awesomeness (is that a word?). Its below-average guts regen can be helped with a Tiger or Pixie sub-type (which also helps its Speed and Skill at the cost of some Life and Defense), though, and as for Techniques, it's a real breath of fresh air. It has a well-balanced set of good moves with only two small tech chains (Clap- Slap Combo, and Punch Combo- Jill Combo), so you can easily grab them all on a first-generation monster, and overall, they don't seem to cost as much as similar moves on other characters, due to their more "basic" nature (Jills attend to the basics in order to keep cost down. Ice Wave doesn't have a Withering rating, and just does straight-forward B damage, D Accuracy, and E Sharpness for only 19 Guts). This can really make up for that naturally-low Guts Regen. Plus, Jills also have one of those really powerful Special Techs like Jell Copter (Snowstorm has stats of B/A/B/E for only 45 cost! YEAH!). Again, Jills don't call for any really odd strategies to win with, and their balance of Power and Intelligence make them natural-born Errantry-Monster-Killers (Too bad you have to have one of those to get a Jill in the FIRST place). When facing a rare Jill opponent, look for its weaknesses right off. Did the trainer neglect its Power? If so, hang out in Mid-Range and it won't be able to do much (except Wither you). Did the trainer neglect its Intelligence? If so, keep as far away from it as you can, and you'll probably be fine. If they attended to both, then just hammer it with Heavy Techs or Wither away at it (the second strategy, combined with the Jill's low Skill, will probably keep it from landing any hits).
-- Nate Railsback (ChimeraMan101@aol.com), April 16, 2000