Monster Rancher 2 Monster Reviews
This page contains short reviews of the monsters I've raised so far.
Instead of telling you about my specific monsters, I've tried
to make the reviews as general as possible, for two reasons.
First, you can get more out of it because it gives you hints and tips about
that type of monster, not just mine specificially, and secondly because
there may be some bias and some random chance that makes my
experience with the monster different from yours. If you'd like to add your
own review, simply use the link at the bottom of the page to email me. Please
try to follow the format I've used as closely as possible. Note: the classes
next to the names are the letter that appears on that monster's card.
PeachTreeBug (ColorPandora/Pixie); D Class:
Disadvanatges: Life, Defense. Tempremental.
Likes: This monster LOVES Potatoes, making it an extremely cheap
monster to raise. However, it is a poor worker.
This monster is an interesting one to try if you're a fan of quick,
smart monsters. It has all the advantages of a typical Pixie, however
it has a different personality and list of techniques. One major
drawback is that this monster appears to have few intelligence based attacks,
and the few my specimen did obtain where all the furthest range.
However, strength wasn't too shabby, so it could still scrap up in the
closer ranges if need be, until it could get far away enough to use it's
good tecnhniques.
On the ranch, this monster is a difficult one to raise, as along with
Pixie abilities comes the Pixie temprament. This monster isn't quite
as hard to handle as the Pixie, but it is reluctant to work, and when it
does it often doesn't do it well or at all. It constantly asks for
gifts, and runs away frequently as well. However, it is a very good
monster, and if you can get around these quirks, it might be one of your
best. Doing the double-work that focuses on speed and the one that
focuses on intelliegnce will make this monster a great fighter, once you
get a few intelligence attacks.
Draco Hoppper (Hopper/Dragon); C Class:
Advantages: power, skill, intelligence, speed.
Disadvanatges: life, defense. Slow guts regeneration.
Likes: This monster likes milk and the more expensive foods.
This is a monster with lots of potential. The fact that it is
poor at both life and defense can make it a weak target in battle, but
once you can overcome this drawback, it should really perform well for
you. Luckily, speed is high, as are skill and the damage related
stats, which makes for a more 'in your face' battle strategy, where you
get in there and give 'em all you got. You may be stuck with the
basic techniques for a while if you don't get this one by combining, however,
as it doesn't seem to be that great at learning them during training.
Still, this monster is an effective fighter.
On the ranch, this monster is a hard worker and it shows. It
will usually do whatever you ask of it, and it's stat increases become
large very quickly. It is fairly obedient, not running away or asking
for gifts often. This monster has the strange habit of often finding
'junk' and bringing it back to you. It will find things like dead
fish, old boots, and sticks. Generally, giving these items back will
make the monster happy, and they only sell for 10-50G each.
Arrow Head (Arrow Head/Arrow Head); E Class:
Advantages: Life and Defense are extremely high.
Disadvantages: All other stats are low, power being minimally
so. Slightly slow guts regeneration rate.
Likes: The Arrow Head monster loves fish for meals. It
prefers defensive and strength related work over speed or skill.
The Arrow Head monster is easily attainable at the market on certain
weeks. I had my doubts initially about this monster, as I prefer
monsters with high skill levels, but I decided to give it a shot.
Man was I impressed. If any monster goes by the motto 'slow and steady
wins the race', it's this guy. He doesn't have too much in the way
of offense... skill is terrible, as is intelligence, and strength is nothing
to brag about. However, he doesn't need to hit hard and fast, because
the law of averages works for this monster. It is so hard to do a
significant amount of damage that battles regularly end by decision, but
because noone can really do much damage percentagewise, Arrow Head keeps
winning. All he has to do is hit a few times and then sit back and
keep the advanatge. In combat, I let him build up his guts level
above 90, so he would have the best chance to hit and do more damage, before
he attacked. If he takes a few hits, that's alright, because they
won't do much. I then brought him into the fray, attacking
in moderation to keep the guts level high, and even if he only hits 1 out
of every 3 tries, he'll end up doing more damage than the opponent.
On the ranch, the Arrow Head was a very well-mannered monster.
Rarely would he fail at work totally, and he did poorly as often as he
did excellently at the jobs. In the two and a half years I raised
him, he ran away once, but caused no other major problems. A hard
worker, he also required slightly less rest than other monsters, and as
long as you fed him fish every week, his loyalty would stay high.
Deton (Tiger/Pixie); E Class
Advantages: intelligence, speed, skill, guts regeneration
Disadvantages: life, defense
Likes: This monster prefers meat.
This monster truly has some potential. Just raising one from
a CD alone can easily give you an A-class monster, and having one from
a combination could do even better. The only weak point of this monster
is it's early life, as it is much better at intelligence than strength,
and Tigers generally start with strength based attacks. However,
after a few training sessions on intelligence and skill, the monster should
pick up a few intelligence attacks and be well on its way. This monster
benefits from the Tiger breed's good selection of intelligence attacks,
and the combination of great skill, intelligence, and speed makes this
one nearly untouchable at the higher levels. A really top-notch monster,
as long as you raise it well in it's early years, where it's most vulnerable,
you will have an extremely good monster. I found that using the double-work
for both intelligence and speed to be the best choice for raising this
monster, as long as you don't stress it out too much. It would often
gain 18-20 points of intelligence from a single week's work. The
typical pixie temperament was largely absent in this monster, making it
good all-around.
Tyrant (Golem/Dragon); B Class
Advantages: power, life, defense
Disdvantages: speed, intelligence, guts regeneration.
Most attacks have a low chance to hit.
Likes: This monster likes meat and tablets, and loves battle.
It also likes Colita.
This is a pure brawn monster. There is no finesse or subtlety
here, you just raise him to fight, and put him in the ring with everything
he's got. This monster has an immense amount of power, and combined
with a high life total and defense, can really put some hurt on your opponents.
The only difficult part of raising a Tyrant (and golems in general) is
getting it to hit the opponent. Most Golems have a very low skill
potential, but the dragon in this monster serves to cancel that out, and
give the Tyrant a decent amount of skill potential, enough to make those
B and C to-hit attacks worthwhile. This is also a monster that you
must send to training to learn new attacks, because the ones it starts
with are terrible.
On an up note, this monster found lots of goodies during it's stay
on my ranch. It found a few flowers for Colita, and kept finding
'shiny stones' that I could sell for 750G. It's an extremely well-mannered
monster, rarely getting stressed out and almsot always finishing it's drills.
Overall, a great monster if you just want one to toss in the ring.
Durahan (Durahan/Durahan); C Class
Advantages: power, skill, defense. Slightly fast guts
regeneration
Disadvantages: int, spd
Likes: Durahan likes the more expensive foods, and loves to
fight.
Often, special monsters are a letdown. You have to go through
some tedious and complicated proccess to get this monster which might look
cool, but really isn't different from any of the others. Well, not
so in the case of Durahan! Yeah, it looks cool, but it's a great
monster to boot!
To begin with, Durahan starts with two good attacks, and they are in
a good range combination as well. As you raise Durahan, it's strengths
combine to form a formidable fighting machine; lots of power, lots of skill,
great defense, and decent life to boot. Add to that a wide variety
of attacks, useful in many situations, and you not only have a strong monster,
but a flexible one as well. In the hands of the right trainer, this
monster can achieve more than you'd think.
Along with it's deadly combat abilities, Durahan is a great monster
on the ranch. It learns new techniques very easily, and rarely fails
drills. Durahan is really a great monster, as long as you don't plan
on going on any expeditions.
Brown Mask (Gali/Worm);
Advantages: Life, power, int. Very loyal.
Disadvantages: speed, defense.
Likes: Jelly Cup, Potato. Hates Meat and Tablet, and doesn't
particularly like battles.
The Brown mask has alot of potential as a fighter, with it's high power
and intelligence, combined with the Gali's impressive arsenal of attacks.
However, enough though it also has high life and decent skill, the fact
that it is poor in both speed and defense leave something to be desired
in the higher levels of competition. Once you reach A or S class,
you had better kill your opponent quick, because letting them get an attack
in could be devastating. As a fighter, the Brown Mask is good enough
to rise to B or A class and stay there to generate good cash flow, but
isn't really suited for much beyond that.
However, it has the perfect blend of skills for expeditions.
It is extremely easy to get life and power in the 300-400 range, which
is perfectly sufficient for expeditioning, and intelligence zooms up by
14's and 15's for each drill, reaching 700 and higher with ease.
With careful raising and good scheduling, this monster can go on several
trips, and stay long enough and explore far enough to bring you back anything
that you're looking for. No building is out of reach for the Brown
mask, and it has enough time to search for any item you'd like. So,
while it may not bring you through the Major 4, the Brown Mask should easily
find you dozens of treasures during its lifetime.
Zilla (Zilla/Zilla); B Class
Advantages: Life, Power, and to a lesser degree, defense
Disadvantages: Intelligence, speed, skill. Very spoiled
and tiresome. Slow guts regeneration
Likes: Milk, Fish. This monster likes to be overindulged.
Monster Rancher 2 has many 'secret' monsters that require you to go
through some arduous process to be able to raise them. The Zilla
is one of the tougher ones to get, requiring some luck and a very good
monster to begin with. Once you do get the Zilla, the huge whale-monster
you see in the intro and the higher ranks of the battles, it's not only
a gigantic monster but also a gigantic letdown. The Zilla's basic
techniques leave alot to be desired, especially considering its terrible
Skill. While its other techniques do get somewhat better, and some
are actually very very good, it's pathtic skill combined with a slow guts
regeneration make it a very hard monster to raise and advance through the
ranks. As if that weren't enough, it's one of the most spoiled monsters
in the game, asking for extra food and other favors very often.
While it is a very cool monster to have, with an amusing on-screen
personality, the Zilla is a poor monster to raise as first-generation.
Using a second-generation or later Zilla may be the best option for the
purebreed. Prefreably, one of the parents will be a monster with
extremely high skill, as this stat is extremely important to monsters with
low guts regeneration, and the Zilla is so terrible at it. Overall,
this monster is nothing to look forward to, and has more of a coolness
factor than anything else.
Pink Zilla (Zilla/Pixie); A Class
Advantages: Life, power, intelligence, speed
Disadvantages: spoiled rotten.
Likes: Milk, Fish, play. Likes to overindulge itself.
The Pink Zilla picks up where the Zilla left off. A very nice
combination of two breeds' abilities, the Pixie sub breed helps to cancel
out the Zilla's naturally horrid defense and slow guts regeneration.
It also gives this Zilla an added boost to intelligence and speed, and
in fact, this monster doesn't have any stat that it's poor at. It
is very easy to raise each stat evenly, though defense and skill are somewhat
harder to raise than power and speed. The only problem with this
monster is that it asks for so many favors that it gets irritating.
It constantly asks for more food each month, and asks to play with you
at the most inoppurtune times.
The ability of this monster can't be overlooked, however.
This is one monster that can truly obtain the stats seen in the S class
and Major 4 monsters, especially if used as a second generation mix of
a successful Zilla and Pixie. If it were accessable, it would be
an excellent monster for beginners, but, understandably, this powerful
monster is locked off from players until they can obtain the Zilla in the
game. Once you obtain the Zilla, you would be wise to breed this
monster ASAP, as it will serve you well and return everything you put into
it.
Bossy (Ape/Gali); D Class
From Andrew Lee
Advantages: Power, Defense, Life
Disadvantages: Intelligence, sometimes Skill/Speed, slow guts
regeneration
Likes: Milk, Meat. Dislikes fish
Bossy is surprisingly a hard working monster compared to its precursor,
the apes from Monster Rancher 1. The initial nature of most apes are either
good, or best, making them diligent workers who rarely cheat on their drills.
It also opens up the path to attaining "good" oriented techniques. Its
tastes are milk and meat, making it a slightly expensive monster. It also
asks for expensive fattening gifts such as meat piles or plain meat, so
you may want to consider holding off on the treats. Its techniques are
mainly power oriented, with most of the intelligence attacks being withering
techniques (albeit very draining ones though!). Its initial techniques
are
excellent compared to most monsters, namely the thwack move, boasting
a C Force rating and a B Hit rating. Once Swing Throw is gained, the Ape
can take on most monsters who lack decent speed. The best strategy during
battle might be to conserve guts as the Ape family sometimes possess low/moderate
skill levels. The bane to the Ape monster though is monsters who
utilize strong withering techniques, much of which you will find in the
later levels. This fact gives the ape family a disadvantage in the higher
rankings. This ape can be a decent expedition monster as its high life,
power, and moderate intelligence, give it the time it needs to fetch
important items. The bottom line, apes are good starting creatures
who pave the way for the "greats" by earning money and finding items.
Worm (Worm/Worm);
Advantages: Life (slightly), Power (slightly)
Disadvantages: Speed
Likes: Jelly Cup, Tablet, Battle.
The worm's card states that it is average in everything. While
this is not neccessarily true, the worm is a very, very customizable monster,
able to be shaped into whatever desired in the hands of a skilled trainer.
Its natural predispostition for life and power make it a good monster for
a beginning Rancher, even though its speed leaves a little to be desired.
The rest of its stats are truly average, and it is able to earn 10-12 points
in each during its peak training period. This makes the worm very
versatile... if you want one with strong defense, it can be arranged.
Lots of skill and life is no problem. Even with its weakness in that
area, you can raise speed to a respectable level.
Combine this versatility with a wide array of effective techniques,
both intelligence and power based. The worm has few really 'bad'
techniques, and even its basic techs can be useful, though ones gained
later are more desirable. The worm's best range will be determined
by how you raise it... a focus on defense and power will make it more comfortable
close up, while more itelligence and speed will make it better far away.
As a result of being so versatile, the worm makes good breeding stock.
Because you can customize it however you want, you can raise the stats
you'd like to be high in the offspring when combining with another specific
monster.
So, if you can get over the worm's initial appearance, and a somewhat
weak youth, you won't be disappointed.
Tiger (Tiger/Tiger);
Advantages: Speed, Skill, Intelligence, Guts Regeneration
Disadvantages: Life, Defense
Likes: Fish, Meat, Play
The Tiger is an excellent monster for any beginning rancher.
Its natural ability in skill, and its quick guts regeneration, make it
a great monster in battle. Though very well-mannered, the tiger is
slightly spoiled to the effect that it will ask for favors somewhat often,
though it is easy to keep the monster's style near even. Having a
high intelligence and a wide selection of great intelligence-based techniques
also adds to the tiger's effectiveness in battle.
On the ranch, the tiger is only slightly spoiled, but extremely loyal.
It will often bring you little objects that it finds, much like Hoppers
do. Usually, it is best to simply give the item back.
There really isn't much to say about the tiger. It is a very
solid, effective monster for beginning trainers and masters alike.
While the purebreed may not be suitable for things like expeditions, the
various crossbreeds can easily fill any gaps left in the tigers strengths.
Ripper (Naga/Pixie); D class
From: Jeff Jones aka Bazula Leopard
Advantages: Horrible nature makes for exciting battles, high Power,
Int, Skill and Speed, average Def, great Will regeneration
Disadvantages: Horrible nature means lots of attitude on the Ranch,
low Life and shortish lifespan
Likes: Battle, Play. Mine loved Tablets
Dislikes: Run drills, Endure drills
Ripper is probably the best Naga, but has serious limitations. Its
nature starts out at Worst, but generally has good stats. Skill is
far and away its best attribute, with all others strung out behind at
various intervals. Keep its nature at Worst or Bad by keeping a Heel
Badge on the ranch -- Sweet Jelly will do the same thing but its
already short lifespan will be even worse*. If you don't punish it for
cheating early in life, it will quickly settle into the routine and
stop cheating. It absolutely loves battle, so take it a lot. Given
half a chance and maybe a Golden Peach, it could be an S-class
monster. Nagas are generally dumb, but don't worry -- they have a
great multitude of Int attacks, including a Life Drain move.
[*Note: Jellies have not been proven to affect lifespan]
KnightMocchi (Mocchi/Durahan); B class
From Jeff Jones aka Bazula Leopard
Advantages: Very high Power, Skill, Defense; great Speed; good Int
and Life
Disadvantages: Looks (debatable), nature, weak Mocchi attacks
Likes: Battle, Play, Drills, Milk
Dislikes: Punishment, Potato
KnightMocchi is a wonderful monster and well worth all it takes to
get it. My KM, Julto, was my first to win the S class but failed to
get me through the Major 4. Attacks aren't all that hot simply
because it's a Mocchi, but a well-timed Press will usually win the
battle. His nature is bad, but of course that can be changed.
Concentrate on Power, then on Skill and Defense.
Tiamat (Dragon/Pixie); D class
From Jeff Jones aka Bazula Leopard
Advantages: Great in every stat, looks (if you're into that)
Disadvantages: Short lifespan, huge attitude problem, looks (if you're not into that)
Likes: Sleep
Dislikes: Work, Battle
I lusted after this monster for a while, but raising it is a tedious
chore and it simply isn't as good looking as I anticipated. Sure,
Tiamat is powerful. Yes, her Int is unbelievably good, and all other
stats are just a step below, but I was so pissed at it after 2 years
that I simply froze it and is still sitting there.
Skipper (Hopper/Tiger);
From: Ricardo Bernardino
Advantages: skill, speed, power(slightly),guts recharges fast.
Disadvantages: life, defense.
Likes: Skipper loves to play and battle and only a few like meat.
This little dude is really energetic, it loves play and somtimes brings
back sticks it gets from digging underground. It will often ask for olive oil, but
don't give it too much or else it will keep asking for it. It starts of with really
high skill and speed (for an e-class monster) it has an average power and its guts
recharges quickly so it can hit lots of times in a row. It has a combination of
both Tiger and Hoppers speed and skill. Unfortunatly, its life and defense start
off low, around 20 and 30, but you can get tons of life and defence by doing drills
and errantrys. It's a really hard worker and almost never fails its drills. It's
also a really good fighter if you train it well, I have easilly defeated golems and
only ever lost 1 battle! Its a great begining monster with great abilities and if
you tain it well, it will become almost unbeatable.