ADVANCED STRATEGY GUIDE FOR DRAGON WARRIOR MONSTERS
by Yash P. Gad
For the Gameboy Color
Disclaimer:
This work is protected by international copyright laws, and may not be
reproduced in any form without express written consent from the author.
Any plagiarism, in part or whole, will constitute a violation of
copyright.
Copyright 1999-2000, Yash P. Gad
Current Versions:
Dragon Warrior Monsters @ The Cerveau Café
www.tiger-marmalade.com/~yash/entertainment/games/dwm.html
Dragon Warrior Monsters Central
members.xoom.com/dwmcentral
GameFAQs
www.gamefaqs.com
Table of Contents:
1. Acknowledgements
2. Introduction
3. Basics
4. Monster Rankings
5. Skill Breeding
6. Team Member Selection
7. Team Selection
8. Closing
The breeding, and resistance, information was obtained from the
wonderful FAQ by Alex Jackson. This FAQ is available at gamefaqs.com and
contains every breeding combination in the game, as well as some
insightful analysis.
I would also like to thank Paul Green, who is a very knowledgeable
Dragon Warrior Monsters player, for proofreading this FAQ.
After completing the game the first time, I was greatly disappointed by
how little I had actually done in the game. With the wide variety of
monsters and endless breeding combinations, I still used 3 or 4 main
monsters throughout the game. Each one was loaded up with the big
offensive spells. Upon going back, I realized that a lot more thought
could be put into making each monster. This would result in a more
strategically laid out teams that would win through skill, not brute
strength. I set out to make a FAQ that would explain the thought
process, and provide basic blueprints on how to become a better Master
Monster Trainer.
----------
| BASICS |
----------
I am assuming that if you are reading this FAQ, you have already played
through a portion of the game. To recap, you are a young adventurer
participating in a tournament of monster battles to save your kidnapped
sister. Much like Pokemon, you will gain monster allies who will make up
your party.
There are really three phases that each monster will go through:
9. Getting the monster – The monster will either just join you, or
will have to be enticed using meats. This can happen either in the
wild or during battles with other trainers.
10. Training the monster – By fighting other monsters, you can
increase the levels of your monster, making it stronger and giving
it access to stronger skills (up to 8 at a time).
11. Breeding the monster – The most fascinating part of the game
is breeding your leveled up monsters away to make even stronger
allies. This is where the bulk of the strategy comes in.
Breeding is done between males and females, and can result in different
monsters depending on which is picked first (the pedigree). Offspring
will start with half of the average stats between the parents.
There are 10 different monster families within the game: Slime, Dragon,
Beast, Bird, Plant, Bug, Devil, Zombie, Material, and Boss. Each family
has many different members, each with a unique set of skills. Before
getting to the strategy, it is good to have a grasp of who the "best"
monsters are from each family. By this, I mean the members who have the
highest growth rates in the stats, and usually possess the most potent
skills. After each name, I will list a short analysis of strengths and
skills. Keep in mind that when I say "High MP" or "Low HP", it refers to
stat growth, not the stat amount. Consequently, most of the monsters in
the rankings are necessary in the breeding combinations to obtain BOSS
family members.
SLIME
1. GoldSlime – Hands down, the best slime. High resistance to skills,
coupled with the awesome BigBang. Very high MP.
2. MetalKing – High resistance to skills and physical damage, coupled
with Hellfire. Very high MP, but low HP.
DRAGON
1. Divinegon – The strongest dragon. High everything, coupled with
BigBang
BEAST
1. KingLeo – High attack and defense, and quick to grow.
BIRD
1. RainHawk – Quick growth, many resistances, and the unstoppable
MegaMagic
PLANT
1. Watabou – Can't get till the end of the game. Very high MP, with many
odd spells such as Chance, Whistle, and Imitate
2. Rosevine – Very high MP, HP, and attack. Good mixed spells like
UltraDown
BUG
1. Armorpion – High attack, though not the greatest spell selection.
DEVIL
1. Durran – High everything, coupled with family cut attacks
2. Akubar – Very high MP, but hard to level up.
3. Jamirus – High in everything except MP, good mixed spells.
ZOMBIE
1. Servant – High everything, with a few offensive spells
2. WhiteKing -
MATERIAL
1. GoldGolem – Easily the best material. High in everything, coupled
with BigBang
BOSS
1. DarkDrium – The best monster, which you can only get by many
successive breedings. Very high in everything, and almost impervious
to damage.
*Really all members of this family are very good
While getting the strong monsters you always wanted, you may or may not
have paid attention to what skills you were keeping, and what skills you
were discarding. The first time I went through the game, I just kept the
powerful skills, such as Gigaslash and BigBang, and didn't really bother
about what else I had. I only realized later that I lost a skill I
wanted for that particular monster, but getting it back would be a pain.
Never fear, for I will detail the thought process for planning out your
skill breeding alongside your monster breeding.
II. Rare Skills
Before starting our sample breeding strategy, it is necessary to look at
what rare skills (mostly offensive) are out there. I am listing this
first, so that we can refer to them later. I am purposely excluding the
boss monster family from this, because the specific breeding pattern
leading to a DarkDrium will accumulate most of these skills. In
addition, it is more important to see what less powerful monsters have
these good skills, because they will be more important to the skill
breeding. A description of these skills can be found elsewhere, so I
will just list the monsters that have them as inherent skills
The game is not centered on a handful of powerful offensive skills.
Sure, it is a no-brainer to pull out your +50 Darkdrium, and just
Gigaslash everyone to death. You can make the game a lot more
interesting (and much more fun) by really integrating all the different
types of skills into your party.
III. Skill Combining
A not-so-well-known aspect of the game is skill combining. This is when
two or more skills will combine to give you a powerful skill, given that
certain level and stat requirements are met. While this is good, it
overlooks the fact that all the main offensive skills can be learned
from easy to breed or easy to obtain monsters (except for BigBang, which
needs monsters that are difficult to come by). So I really won't be
addressing this aspect, except to say that it is definitely easier to
grab or breed a quick monster and introduce this skill into your
lineage, rather than breeding all the necessary combining components
into your monster.
IV. The Breeding
Now, in any breeding, you should try to plan out your combinations in
reverse order. For this example, I will use a GoldSlime(one of my
favorite characters).
Suppose I want him to have these 8 spells: Gigaslash, MultiCut,
HellBlast, BigBang, HealUsAll (from HealUs), Revive (from Vivify),
WhiteAir, and WhiteFire. Keep in mind that to get this kind of spread of
skills will require a LOT of work. The reason for this is that although
inherent skills are spread regardless of level, skills learned from
ancestors can only be passed on ONCE THEY ARE LEARNED. So to get things
like GigaSlash will take leveling up to about level 32-37, before you
can pass it on.
Let's work one step backwards now. How do I get my GoldSlime?
I can breed either:
SpotKing, KingSlime, or Metalking with a GoldGolem
Or
MetalKing with MetalKing
Now just by looking at that, you may not see any difference. But there
will be a BIG difference in the quality of GoldSlime you get. Remember,
that the offspring gets half of the average stats of the parents.
MetalKing are notorious for having very low HP. Breeding two MetalKings
will result in a GoldSlime with VERY low HP. So, we shall go with the
first one. But which combination?
Let's choose the KingSlime with a GoldGolem (I like this because it
avoids throwing in a MetalKing late in the mix). We have one of the
skills taken care of right away – BigBang (already an inherent skill of
the GoldSlime). I will break the breeding up into two parts, the
KingSlime's ancestry. and the GoldGolem's ancestry.
a)The KingSlime
We will get one of the skills we need from the KingSlime already
(Vivify), so now we need to focus on other skills. To get a KingSlime,
we can use the following breeding combinations:
SpotKing with GreatDrak, BattleRex, Divinegon, Unicorn, KingLeo,
MadCondor, Zapbird, WhipBird, Gigantes, Centasaur,
DeadNoble, or WhiteKing
Choosing the SpotKing's mate may seem like an overwhelming task. Many of
these are hard to come by (such as the Divinegon). In this case I chose
the MadCondor. The reason for this is threefold. First, the MadCondor
has the inherent ability of HealUs, which is one of the skills we need.
Second, the breeding combination for a MadCondor is this:
LandOwl with a member of the Devil family
Or
A member of the Bird family with a CoilBird
In this breeding, I chose the first one. LandOwl are very easy to come,
and this also gives us the nice chance to breed in a MadKnight (a member
of the Devil family). This will introduce GigaSlash into our pool. It
really doesn't matter how you get the MadKnight, because it can be breed
immediately (if over level 10) with the LandOwl to pass the GigaSlash
skill. The third reason I wanted to choose a MadCondor is that members
of the Bird family tend to level faster than any other family. This will
make reaching the level for GigaSlash a little easier.
Now, back to the SpotKing. The SpotKing by itself offers none of the
skills we needed. However, the breeding combination for it offers good
opportunities to get those skills. The combination is:
KingSlime or MetalKing with GreatDrak, BattleRex, Divinegon,
Unicorn, KingLeo, MadCondor, Zapbird,
WhipBird, Gigantes, Centasaur,
DeadNoble, or WhiteKing
Now, it seems silly to use a KingSlime for this, so instead we will use
the MetalKing. It can be bred with any of these really, though in my
particular case I used the Unicorn I made with a Slime and WildeApe. The
MetalKing is a little harder to get, since it requires either the
breeding of 2 metabbles (which require 2 Metaly a piece) or breeding a
SpotKing or KingSlime with a MetalDrak. I personally took the Metaly
route, though most people might say it was easier to go the other way.
In any case, the MetalKing gives you the HellBlast skill. This wraps up
this half of the breeding. Now let's move to the GoldGolem
b) The GoldGolem
At first glance, this seems like the most trivial breeding, involving
just an IceMan and a LavaMan (both which are plentiful with trainers in
the wild). We are still missing the skill MultiCut, which the monster
Balzak has. To get Balzak you just breed either an IceMan or LavaMan
with a member of the Devil family. By breeding this balzak with either
an IceMan or LavaMan as the "pedigree" (first) monster, you will get
your IceMan or LavaMan back. After leveling this monster up until it
learns MultiCut, it can be bred with its counterpart to get the
GoldGolem.
V. Comments
This may seem very drawn out, but it is good to plan this way to avoid
ending up with the wrong gender, or breeding away a monster you really
needed. It will also ensure that you end up with the skills you need in
your "Super Monster"
-------------------------
| Team Member Selection |
-------------------------
Now that you have seen how to end up with the monster you want (with the
skills you want), we can move to the next task of building the team.
The obvious goal is to make the strongest, most successful team. There
are several "types" of members that you can expect to have. These can be
either focused on different areas of expertise, or can be theme
characters (which are just fun to use).
There are really two different schools of thought on this. Some people
believe that it is better to have all of the monsters on a team with
both healing and offensive spells. To some extent, this is true. In
crucial battles, it is necessary to have everyone with a healing spell,
and some kind of offense. I am offering an alternative strategy to that.
The members I have listed below are different types which can be mixed
and matched to get different teams (with different strengths and
weaknesses). I will talk more about this later. Below each member, I
have listed a few monster types that would be ideal for this type of
character. Keep in mind that the members of the Boss family will work
for any of these, and are a powerful addition to any team.
1. The Healer
This member should have all the best healing spells, evolved to either
HealAll or HealUsAll (from Heal and Heal Us, respectively). This monster
will also have some kind of spell to bring back the dead, like Revive.
It will also need something to get rid of status ailments, such as surge
(to cover everything). Lastly, you can't be just defensive, so you need
one or two heavy hitter like BigBang, MultiCut, or HellBlast (don't get
rid of all your MP by using MegaMagic if that monster is to be your main
healer) or even a GigaSlash (good for taking out one big nuisance)
Typical skills: GigaSlash, BigBang, HealAll, HealUsAll, Revive,
Surge, Ironize, and Meditate
Attack Stance: Cautious
Monsters: GoldSlimes and Metal Slime sub-family members seem
uniquely suited for this class. All are very resistant to
enemy spells and skills, and have very high MP. There low
attacks also make them better suited for this over any
other class.
2. The Handyman
This member is just helping everyone on all fronts. He will be equipped
with a healing spell, and maybe a revive. The main thing will be a bunch
of increasers, like SpeedUp or TwinHit. These will improve everyones
attacks. Also, he should have some good attacks of his own. A good
person to have megamagic, because after he builds up everyone, he can
unload what he has left. Would be nice to have gigaslash too.
Typical Skills: SpeedUp, TwinHit, MegaMagic, Increase, Surge,
Surround, Hustle, Revive
Attack Stance: Mixed
Monsters: Monsters that are suited to this would have good stats
across the board, and especially good MP. Also, you need
a high agility, to ensure that these effects reach your
party and your opponents before the action starts. For
this, I would suggest members of the Bird family, such as
RainHawk or WhipBird.
3. The Overkill
Well, for those that don't really care about a finesse win, they just
need someone that can quickly dish it out. This person should have all
the awesome attack spells (BigBang, Multicut, MegaMagic, GigaSlash,
HellBlast). Also, a good physical attack such as QuadHits would be
useful too. Any supplemental attack spells would be good.
Typical Skills: BigBang, MultiCut, MegaMagic, GigaSlash, Hellblast,
QuadHits, Revive, WhiteFire
Attack Stance: Charge
Monsters: The ideal monster for this would have a very high attack,
coupled with average MP. This would cover both physical
and spell based attacks. My choices are from the Zombie
family, particularly the DeadNoble or Servant.
4. The Dragon
One of the theme characters. This character will have almost all of the
breath based attacks (BlazeMost, PalsyAir, SleepAir, PoisonAir,
WhiteAir, White Fire) as well as BeDragon. In addition, this dragon
character will have SuckAir, to increase breath attack effectiveness.
Like most theme characters, this monster will have StopSpell (or even
DanceShut or ThickFog)to prevent any offense other than the big bad
breath. Though for any theme character, it is good to keep like 1 or 2
spots open for an offensive (Bigbang, Multicut, GigaSlash) or defensive
(HealAll or HealUsAll) skill, since the opponents may have a counter for
your specialty.
Typical Skills: WhiteAir, WhiteFire, BeDragon, SuckAir, SleepAir,
PoisonAir, HealUsAll, StopSpell
Attack Stance: Charge/Mixed
Monsters: It seems silly to use anyone other than a member of the
Dragon family for this. Dragons increase well in all
stats, and work well with this set of skills.
5. The Dancer
Another interesting theme character. This character will have all of the
dance attacks (K.O. Dance, LifeDance, RobDance, PaniDance) and some
spell stopping attacks (StopSpell, ThickFog, or MouthShut). I would
include some theme style attacks, like HighJump, SideStep, or BigTrip.
Again, for any theme character, it is good to keep like 1 or 2 spots
open for an offensive (BigBang, Multicut, GigaSlash) or defensive
(Healall or HealUsAll)
skill, since the opponents may have a counter for your specialty.
Typical Skills: K.O. Dance, LifeDance, RobDance, SideStep, BigTrip,
PaniDance, GigaSlash, StopSpell
Attack Stance: Charge/Mixed
Monsters: There is one "dance" monster (DanceVegi), and it is fun
to have the theme complement its name. It has a high MP
and Agility growth rate (like any good dancer would).
6. The Caller
Since there are not that many different Call skills that this member
would have, this class ends up being a modified HandyMan. The Call
skills are YellHelp and whatever "evolution" of TatsuCall (Bazoo, Samsi,
Diago) you have. Good person to have MegaMagic (to unload after doing
its initial TatsuCall and maybe a few YellHelps)
Typical Skills: YellHelp, BazooCall, Chance, SpeedUp, MegaMagic
HealUsAll, Revive, TwinHit
Attack Stance: Mixed
Monsters: Only a few monster have TatsuCall as an inherent skill,
but I would be more inclined to choose one of them. This
included WhipBird, DeadNoble, and GoldGolem.
7. The Hitman
This guy is ready to lay the smack down on anything he encounters. This
member will have maybe 6 or 7 of the 10 family cut attacks. By narrowing
down the number of these he is using, he can keep a bunch of attack up
attacks like TwinHit or Chargup, or Berserker. To go with the theme, may
want a Gigaslash or Defeat.
Typical Skills: MetalCut, DevilCut, DrakSlash, CleanCut,
SmashSlime, ZombieCut, GigaSlash, TwinHit.
Attack Stance: Charge
Monsters: The ideal monsters for this class will have very high
attack growth. The two best attackers, in my opinion, are
Gigantes and Grizzly. Either would work for this.
8. The Nullifier
This monster will be there to essentially neutralize the enemy party.
The specialty of this class is to remove spell, breath, and dance
ability, and make their physical attacks useless (making them sitting
ducks). The main skill nullifiers are StopSpell, MouthShut, and
DanceShut. To get rid of physical attacks, there is Radiant and
SandStorm. To lower their stats, there is Curse (which does random
things to them), Defense and SlowAll. And to just keep them from doing
ANYTHING, there is BigTrip and WarCry. Another good person to have
MegaMagic, since they can unload once the enemy is neutralized.
Typical Skills: StopSpell, MouthShut, DanceShut, Radiant,
MegaMagic, BigTrip, Curse, Defense
Attack Stance: Mixed
Monsters: Really any good, FAST, spellcaster would work. They need
to be fast to get these effects out before the enemy
attacks.
9. The Elemental Master
These monster will take 1 or 2 of the elements and will pool various
attacks from them. The reason for this, is that there is usually at
least one or two resistance groups that monster families are weak to
(besides the MegaMagic and GigaSlash ones), and it might be helpful to
have these available. The FAQ by Alex Jackson breaks down the
resistances into several main groups. Pick 1 or 2 groups, and then flesh
out the skills with enhancers (like for breath attacks).
Fire 1: BlazeMost, FireSlash, BigBang
Fire 2: Firebolt
Explosive: Explodet
Wind: Infermost, VacuSlash, MultiCut, WindBeast, Vacuum
Thunder: Zap, BoltSlash, Lightning, HellBlast
Ice: IceBolt, IceSlash
Fire Breath: WhiteFire
Ice Breath: WhiteAir
Poison: PoisonHit, PoisonAir,
Grouping things like all the Fire, or maybe 2 of the Fire and one more,
would work out well.
Attack Stance: Charge
Monsters: For an Ice Master, maybe a Blizzardy or IceMan. For a
Fire Master, maybe a Phoenix or LavaMan. For Thunder and
Wind, maybe ZapBird, WhipBird, or WindBeast. And for
Poison, a Poisongon.
Remember that after a lot of breeding, most of your final monsters will
max out their stats (or get really close), and so the stats really won't
become the deciding factor in what class that monster should be. It then
becomes a matter of preference.
------------------
| Team Selection |
------------------
Now that you have seen some of the different types of members, I will
outline what different teams can be made from combinations of these
members.
There are really infinite combinations, each which could work given the
right planning and strategy. I will add more as this type of strategy
becomes more widespread.
Team 1 – The Castle
Monster 1 – The Healer
Monster 2 – The Overkill
Monster 3 – The Hitman
I call this the castle, because it always reminds me of the
relationship between wizard (healer), knight (overkill), and archer
(hitman) in the castle siege of any good medieval legend. 2 offensive,
one good defense to back them up. This is probably the most common
team combination, at any point in the game.
Team 2 – The Circus
Monster 1 – The Dancer
Monster 2 – The Caller
Monster 3 – The Nullifier
I call this a circus because it represents the grouping of a bunch of
weird skills. The Nullifier here will block the enemy, allowing the use
of odd skills. The Caller will probably go in for the most damage with
the MegaMagic. A hard team to play (though very entertaining). Something
nice to tinker with late in the game.
Team 3 – Circle the Wagons
Monster 1 – The Healer
Monster 2 – The HandyMan
Monster 3 – The Hitman/The Overkill
Representing the obviously defensive posture of "circling the wagons",
this team relies on the offensive power of the Hitman/Overkill to win.
Although not a good team to use late in the game, this formation is
handy when starting out early in the game with one REALLY good monster
and a few mediocre ones.
Team 4 – Tag Team
Monster 1 – The Healer
Monster 2 – The Overkill
Monster 3 – The Dragon
Two great offensive powers, protected by a trusted Healer. Very strong
late in the game.
Team 5 – Earth, Wind, and Fire
Monster 1 – Ice and Wind Master
Monster 2 – Fire Master
Monster 3 – The Hitman
This team relies on the fact that the two elemental masters will be
able to really whack most enemies. The Metal Slime sub-family will be
taken out first by the Hitman, so no need to worry about those.
-----------
| Closing |
-----------
In closing, I really enjoyed making this FAQ. I hope that it will prove
useful in playing Dragon Warrior Monsters, and making the most
unstoppable monsters. Please let me know if you think any additions can
be made to it, and I will put it in and give you credit.
