Monster Rancher (North American Version) TM 1997 Tecmo Inc.
Walkthrough, Version 1.0
Console: Sony Playstation,
By: Lisa Shock,
[email protected],
Copyright 2003, Lisa Shock
This FAQ was created for use on
http://gamefaqs.com exclusively,
anyone wanting to use this walkthrough in any other way must
obtain written permission from Lisa Shock.
Monster Rancher is a registered Trademark of Tecmo Inc.
I thank them for creating such a wonderful game!
***Important Note For UK, Australian, NZ, etc. Players!***
This walkthrough covers the North American game entitled
"Monster Rancher", released in 1997 by Tecmo. The game called
"Monster Rancher 2" in North America was released in PAL
countries (Europe, Australia, New Zealand, etc.) As "Monster
Rancher", but it is a very different game. If your game says PAL on
the upper left of the front of the case, or has Mocchis in the Market,
you need to find a guide for Monster Rancher 2, this walkthrough will
not be of help to you.
***Introduction***
Monster Rancher is a monster raising sim. As such, it is open-ended
and there is no one path to follow in playing the game. I simply
present this walkthrough as one way to have fun with the game, since
people have asked for such a guide.
***Getting Ready***
Each Monster Rancher save takes up one block on a PSX memory
card. I strongly recommend that you use at least two memory cards for
this game, since all memory cards will wear out with age. It's hard to
describe the intense feelings of loss people experience when their
memory card with saves recording hundreds of game years of play are
lost forever. I always have at least one card stored away with backup
saves on it, so I have an archive for the day when my main card
eventually stops working. If you get yourself in the habit of making
regular saves for your archive, you will save yourself a lot of trouble
later.
This game is famous for freezing up. Usually, but not always, it
occurs when the game is loading data, like when you go from town to
the ranch. Save often to avoid losing your hard work.
Some players use resetting their game as a way to avoid costly
mistakes, and failures by the monster. This is a personal choice.
Frequent saves also help you to re-set in cases where you want to do
something different in a particular week. Some players consider this
to be cheating, it's up to you really as to what to do.
I also recommend getting a notebook of some sort to take notes, and
make reminders for yourself for later. It will also be useful to you for
making a list of what monsters your CD collection makes, for future
reference.
This game involves taking the game disc in and out of your PSX a
lot, if you use the shrine to check a large collection of CDs. Please
take time and be careful as you place discs in the system and remove
them. It only takes a second to permanently scratch your game disc,
possibly making it unusable!
And, finally, take some time to read the manual that came with the
game!
***Starting The Game****
As you start the game for the first time, you will be introduced to
some of the characters you will encounter later, and your constant
companion: Holly. You will be asked to enter your name into the
game, choose wisely, you cannot change this later.
Your first order of business should be looking around, then
choosing your first monster. Don't worry too much about the type to
choose. The game has lots of types for you to try, and it's best to just
dive in, raise one and see how well you like it. The monsters do die
after a few years, so you will be choosing another one fairly soon.
There is no monster that is better than any other, they all have unique
qualities and learning to train a wide variety of types will help you
master the game more quickly.
You can get a monster two ways: you can choose one at the Market,
or you can make one from another CD at the shrine. Both ways work
and make good monsters.
Warning: the shrine is terrifically addictive! I personally have spent
hours just checking what monsters all my CDs make, so be warned!
Get your notebook out and write down what monsters your discs
make. There's nothing more frustrating than thinking you have a CD
with a monster on it, and not being able to find it!
If you use the shrine, you may be informed that a disc cannot be
used yet until you get committee permission. Don't worry about that
right now. In a while you will be able to start going through the
storyline events to unlock these monster types, right now just get a
monster!
Choose the monster's name carefully, you will not be able to change
it.
Each monster has 6 attributes, which are referred to it's stats and
expressed as numbers, and several attack moves for battle, which are
usually called techs. The attributes and techs, and to a lesser extent a
monster's appearance are what most ranchers use to choose a monster
to raise.
Here is quick reference for the attributes:
Power: how hard a monster hits with Pow based (yellow icon) techs.
Intelligence: how hard a monster hits with Int (green icon) techs.
Life: your life bar in battle has nothing to do with monster lifespan.
Skill: affects how accurately your techs attack opponents.
Speed: affects the monster's ability to dodge attacks.
Defense: ability to withstand attack, more Def is less Life lost per hit.
Offensive stats: Power, Intelligence, Skill
Defensive stats: Life, Speed, Defense
Monsters will be good at several of these attributes. You can tell
which attributes a monster will excel in by looking at its starting
numbers. The attributes that it will train more easily in, and gain
better numbers with are the ones which start out higher than the
others. No monster is great at all attributes. The key to doing well in
this game is working with the attributes to succeed on a case by case
basis. The game does not reward 'well rounded' monsters, and
attempting to have a monster with all stats the same will generally
result in less than optimal results.
You will start with 3 attacks or techs on a baby monster, 2 are basic
and one is random. Techs are either Power or Intelligence based. For
early monsters it is usually best to choose a monster which starts with
all of one type of techs, and focus on just raising that attribute, while
ignoring the attribute for which you have no techs. There are a lot of
techs for each type, far to many than can be posted here. I suggest you
check the charts at
http://monsterrancher.com if you wish to see them
all in detail.
While you are in the process of getting a monster, please note that if
you do not like it for some reason, you can have the monster taken
away so you can choose another. Simply go to the Market and choose
to have the monster taken away. Once you have decided on a monster,
and have named it, please save your game!
***Head to the Ranch***
Now it's time to head to the ranch to raise the monster. (Save here too)
There's a bug in the game which allows you to raise a monster's
loyalty by going back and forth from town to ranch over and over. I do
not recommend doing this, since it also drastically increases your
monster's stress level. Stress is one factor, along with fatigue, which
causes loss of lifespan. Your loyalty will go up on its own soon
enough, don't worry about it right now.
Once on the ranch, you will notice a different menu, and some
indicators which will help you raise your monster. If you visit the Item
Shop you will see the items you can buy, and note their prices. You
may have noticed that you have started with a fairly small sum of
money, so I don't recommend buying anything yet. You can take a
peek at the Battle schedule, and see what events are on the calendar,
and what prizes they offer. We won't be entering any battles right
away, your monster needs to become stronger and more loyal first.
You will also see options for work, training, and rest for your
monster.
There is a lot you can do in the game, but you can be limited by the
amount of cash you have at hand. There are two ways to earn money
in this game, working (small amounts of cash) and battling (large
sums of cash). Every month you will be prompted to feed your monster
(you cannot avoid this), and the food costs money so even without
doing anything fancy like training or feeding exotic items, you can see
that your cash will run out in a few years of gameplay. I prefer to
focus on raising money early in the game. This frees you up for more
fun later, and gives you a chance to dive in and raise several different
types of monsters. Therefore, this guide will now proceed in the
direction of helping you earn some cash.
***Moneymaking Basics****
The essential goal for your first three monsters will be to battle a lot;
this way they can earn you the cash you need to seriously start playing
the game towards the goals of attaining Master Rank as a breeder, and
unlocking the locked breeds. The trick is to raise these three monsters
in a staggered time line rather than waiting for one to get old/die
before starting the next one.
First Monster
Your first monster will probably wind up losing you some money in
the first year. Don't worry about this, it will earn it back for you in due
time. Your monster will need to improve its stats a bit before it can
start earning money in battles. Doing work will raise your stats, get
you a little money, and will help raise your monster's loyalty, which is
helpful in battle. There are two kinds of work: Light Work -it raises
just one stat and I will abbreviate it as "LW", and Hard Work -it raises
one stat a lot, one stat a some, and lowers another stat a little, I will
abbreviate it as "HW".
The essence of doing Work well is to choose 3 stats on your
monster to raise up, and ignoring the other three. (Really, it's true. The
game does NOT reward monsters that have all stats at the same level.)
Choosing those 3 stats to raise is an important decision.
The first stat you eliminate is very easy, remember back at the
shrine, when I suggested that you choose a monster with all techs
either Pow based or Int based? Well, you can ignore raising the stat
your techs do not use, either Int or Pow. This now leaves you with one
stat you know you want to raise (Int or Pow are both Offensive types),
and two more to choose from the remaining 4.
Choosing those second two can be done fairly easily by knowing
something about the type of monster you are raising. Each breed has
abilities, or statgain patterns, meaning they will gain more points in
drills in things they do better in. To find out what your monster is
good (and not so good) in, you can see a chart at
http://monsterrancher.com in the Monster Rancher 1 Archive, FAQ
section thread entitled "Detailed Info On All 215 Breeds". Find your
monster on the left, then look in the statgain column. A monster does
very well in stats marked with an A, and worst in stats marked with an
E. Try to choose your remaining two stats to raise from ones your
monster is good at, and will therefore do better in.
If you don't want to use the chart, you can choose your stats by
simply selecting them for their offensive and defensive abilities. You
will need at least one of the defensive stats to be high. Raising Skill is
always useful, although if your monster isn't good at it, getting good
numbers in it will be difficult. Some ranchers swear by simply having
Pow/Int, Skill and Speed. Others choose by breed, in the end, it is all
your choice, and you will see how well your choice works out.
Raising the Life stat some, regardless of your 3 chosen stats is also
useful. If, you can get it over 150 in your first year, you will be better
set to enter tourneys.
Now it's time to start your first monster Working. Work raises your
monster's stress and fatigue levels, rest relieves stress and fatigue. I
usually do: HW, LW, rest, repeat. That is, if there is a HW which
benefits my monster. If not, I do LW, LW, LW, rest. Make sure to
rest, it is essential for your monster's health at this point, because you
cannot afford the items needed to allow your monster to go without it.
If you are told a monster needs to rest, do it without hesitation. If a
monster cheats or fails a drill, some people try resetting to see if the
week can be re-done, and it usually can. If you accept the cheat or
failure you will be given the option to scold or not scold your monster.
I usually alternate doing both, this way the monster doesn't become
too spoiled!
With the first monster I feed Fish exclusively. (Do not ever feed
Potatoes! They increase your monster's stress levels!) You could feed
Meat, and it does increase lifespan by one week and relieve stress,
however, with the limited budget for the first monster, feeding Meat
could make things more difficult for your finances. Keep doing this
for one year.
After one year of ranching, you should be able to enter any of the
unofficial tourneys and win easily. Start entering these, and make sure
you can win through KOing every opponent. If you win, but the
matches are close, or you lose, rest the monster after your first battle
and keep ranching.
Once you can easily KO every opponent, do NOT be tempted to
raise your rank and go into the Official tourney. If you were to do that,
the next series of tourneys might be too hard for you to win easily,
thus cutting off your cash supply. The strategy now is to take note of
every unofficial battle and participate. You can write the schedule in
your notebook, or print it out from the calendar of events at
http://monsterrancher.com. Now, you are battling almost every month,
and you will need to rest your monster one week after each battle.
This leaves you two or more free weeks per month, so now is the time
when you should start monster #2.
Second Monster
Simply freeze monster #1 in town and grab a new monster (your
choice) in the Shrine or Market. Then rotate these two monsters
between the ranch and the freezer. (Please note that when I mention
monster ages, I am referring to actual life age as shown in view mode
in the game. Date of birth for a monster that has been frozen is not
important, weeks active is what counts.) Raise monster #2 like you
raised Monster #1, but make sure it has slightly better stats. Take
Monster #2, enter it in the Official E level tourney, and hopefully win
it. If it cannot win, go back to the ranch and keep raising the stats.
Once you can get it to D level, see if you can start winning those
tourneys, while keeping Monster #1 at E. When you can finally have
both Monster #1 and Monster #2 winning easily at their ranks, start
rotating them between battle, rest and the freezer. Make sure to take
notes so you know if you have a frozen monster who needs to rest.
Once you have the hang of battling at all the D and E level tourneys,
start Monster #3.
Third Monster
Follow the same raising method with Monster #3, but keep going on
the ranch until the stats are higher than Monster #2. This may take 2-3
years, don't worry, now you have two monsters earning cash, so you
don't have to worry so much. Your goal is to finally have a monster at
each of the three levels, E, D, and C and battle them constantly for
several years. Your goal is to bank about 100,000g, so you will never
again need to worry about cash. If Monster #1 gets an old age warning
prior to achieving the 100,000g goal, freeze it to use in combining
later, and raise another E rank moneymaker.
Please note, in most instances it is not beneficial to allow a monster
to die. Once you get the old age warning, you are better off freezing
the monster to use in combination later, since combination monsters
start off with better stats.
***Raising Monsters Well (once you have money)***
Now that you have 100,000+g, it's time to start working on a
monster that you can be proud of! Choose a monster at the shrine or
market, or combine two of your moneymakers in the Lab. You'll need
to make the same decisions about which 3 stats to raise, like before,
and much of the ranching will be similar. However, now is when you
want to start using Meat regularly as the monster food of choice. You
will also want to start adding the feeding of Mint and Taffy to your
weekly routine. This will eliminate stress, and possibly the need for
rest in your monster, thus maximizing the number of weeks you have
available to raise the stats. Managing Stress and Fatigue is one of the
main keys to success in this game. There are many "methods"
published online, and you may wish to follow one to see how well you
can do. My personal method is published at
http://monsterrancher.com. It is time consuming, but guarantees that
you will get a monster to 999 in every stat.
Once again, you want to make sure your monster is overly strong
before entering any tournament, so it wins easily. However, this
monster should only enter Official tournaments, and any
breed-unlocking related invitational events you encounter. Also, try
and raise up the Life stat more than you did with your moneymakers.
It is useful for winning battles.
You will also probably want better attacks or techs for this monster.
Success at higher ranks almost certainly depends on having some
better than basic attacks. You can see complete charts of what techs
are available for each breed at
http://monsterrancher.com, and use
them to choose what you'd like to equip. Also note that in some
monsters, training may be the only way to raise up particular stats well
or quickly, so training, while expensive may be critical to future
success. Make sure to send a monster in week one, so it gets a feeding
before and after going, plus make sure to feed mint and taffy before
and afterwards as well. This helps manage stress and fatigue.
Exploring is a fun and exciting part of the game. It allows you
access to unique items that cannot be gotten any other way. You will
want to participate in these, but note that it is very useful to save your
game the week prior to exploring, both for reasons that the game may
freeze up while exploring, and in case you get fed up with your
monster getting lost. Items appear randomly on Expeditions, so while
websites have maps to guide you, there is no guarantee of what you
will find. Make sure that you feed your monster at least one Mint and
one Taffy, 2 each is preferred, before they leave (save after the
feeding) and once they return. This helps minimize the effects of
stress and fatigue and preserve the lifespan of your monster.
***Advancing***
Now that you have the basics, you may want to move on to
advanced play; there are breeds of monster you will have to unlock
through storyline based events, online tournaments, and creating great
monsters to slate in the Monster Rancher 2 game. Other online guides
and sites cover these topics, and the information is simply too
voluminous for one walkthrough. Here is a list of websites that can
help you with advanced play:
http://gamefaqs.com - several FAQS covering in depth gameplay!
http://monsterrancher.com - has charts covering advanced topics!
http://legendcup.com - hosts online tournaments!
http://tecmogames.com - home of Tecmo, the game's creators!
