The Monster Rancher 2 Strategy Guide
By B. Campbell
This is the Monster Rancher 2 Strategy Guide in progress. This
guide is designed to provide new and experienced ranchers alike with information
on how to get the most out of the game, while not telling the player exactly
how to play the game, step by step. If you're looking for a walkthrough,
codes, or the quickest way to get money or 'beat' the game, you won't find
them here. What you will find is a guide describing the various aspects
and intricacies of the game, and and understanding of how to raise monsters
to accomplish what you desire.
To begin with, there is no true way of 'beating' or 'winning' Monster
Rancher 2. If that is your goal, you have already lost. The
true goal of the game is to fully explore the game by finding all the hidden
items in the expeditions, obtaining all the different breeds of monsters
and all of the monster cards, and discovering all the secrets
of the various aspects of the game. This is a game that is more about
discovery and personal taste, and less about getting through it as fast
as possible and 'winning'.
There are two basic tenets that the core of MR2 strategy can be boiled
down to: Knowledge is Power and To Each His Own. These
two phrases quickly encapsulate what you need to become a true Master Rancher.
As for the first, knowing everything about the various breeds of monsters,
along with all the items, tricks, and subtleties of the game are what give
you the edge to become the best breeder you can. As for the second,
there is no 'right' way to play the game. There are no best
monsters, and there isn't a best way to go about playing. MR2 is
very deep and open-ended, allowing everyone to find a specific style of
play to suit their taste. On a more direct level, the huge variety
of monsters, each with thier own abilities, allows every player to have
a selection that fits thier own style.
Okay, enough with the introductions. Let's get down to business.
Your Monster:
You can't be a Master Rancher without a monster. There are three
main ways to obtain a monster: From the Market, from the Shrine, or by
combining two existing monsters. Each method will give you a successively
better monster. Monsters from the Market are simple, basic monsters,
and are always purebreds. They are excellent choices if you are new
to the game, as they help you to quickly see each monster's strengths and
weaknesses. They are all solid, effective monsters, guaranteed to be a good
'average' choice. The selection at the Market varies from week to week,
so check it often.
Monsters from the Shrine are slightly more complicated, but they can
be more effective as well. At the Shrine, You have two options: Disc Stone
and Slate. If you select Disc Stone, you insert any other CD
into your Playstation, and the game unlocks a monster from that CD.
Some monsters may be 'special' monsters, and locked to novice breeder.
You can only unlock them if you complete certain criteria. You will often get a mixed breed
of monster from a CD, which will combine the strengths and weaknesses
of both breeds that comprise it. There are many monsters that can
only be obtained through the Shrine off of specific CD's... these are the
coveted 'rare' monsters. If you select 'Slate', you can transfer a monster
from the first Monster Rancher over to the sequel. The results of Slating
are unpredictable; some monsters may slate over with different stats and
other abilities, and others may change breeds completely! If the monster
was powerful in the first game, chances are the slated result will be above
average as well, so there is some advantage.
Combining monsters can produce extremely powerful results if done correctly.
When two monsters are combined, not only does it combine thier strengths
and weaknesses as well, but what each monster has learned may be carried over
to the offspring. In this manner, you can create monsters that start
off with very high stats and multiple techniques. This is the manner
by which true Master Ranchers obtain thier best pets.
The Stats:
One of the first things you'll notice when you obtain a monster is
its list of stats. Each stat has an a specific bearing on the monster,
and the combination of high and low stats give your monster personality
and defines its various abilities. The stats, and the effects they have,
are as follows:
Life: In battle, this is your monster's total amount of 'hit
points'. Damaging attacks subtract from your monster's life in combat
(this is temporary, damage is healed after each battle), and once a monster
reaches 0 life, they are KO'ed and lose the battle. A high life score
also serves to slightly increase your monster's total life span.
Power: Power determines the amount of damage done by power-based
techniques in battle. A higher power will cause those techniques
to deal more damage, and will also slightly reduce damage done by enemy
technqiues that are power-based (see Weapons of War
for more info on techniques).
Power is also used on expeditions to break through certain barriers.
Intelligence: Intelligence is the yin to Power's yang.
It determines the amount of damage done by intelligence-based techniques
in battle, and reduces the damage done by enemy intelligence-based technqiues.
It also has an important effect during expeditions: the
higher a monster's intelligence, the more likely they are to be successful
when searching for items. Also, intelligence is used to break through
certain barriers on expeditions.
Skill: Skill is the accuracy stat of a monster. The higher
a monster's skill is, the more likely it is to score hits in battle.
Skill is run past the applied technique's hit% rating, and then compared
to the enemy's speed to determine the true hit%. Skill is obviously
an important ability in battle.
Speed: Speed is the ability to dodge attacks. A high speed
will lower the opponent's hit% in battle, and allow the monster to avoid
attacks. Because damage in combat lowers a monster's life span, speed
has an indirect effect on your monster's total life span.
Defense: Defense has a similar effect as speed, but functions
is a very different way. Instead of decreasing the chance of being
hit, defense decreases the amount of damage done with each hit. A
monster with a high defense will take only negligible damage from even
the most powerful techniques, and may not take any from the less powerful
ones. As with speed, defense has an indirect effect on life span.
All of the above stats run from 0-999, with 999 being the best.
There are two other stats, both of which run from 0-100:
Loyalty: A monster's loyalty is the measure of it's devotion
to you. Loyalty has several effects. In battle, a low loyalty
will cause your monster to fool around, unable to attack and giving the
enemy a bonus to hit. During training, a high loyalty slightly improves
the chance that the monster will be successful. Also, a monster with
low loyalty may become belligerent and rebellious, running away from the
ranch or even destroying it's pen. A loyalty of 60 is good, anything
above that is exceptional.
Fame: A monster's fame fluctuates as it performs in battle.
A high fame has two effects: it increases the selling price of your monster
at the market, and increases the chances of the monster scoring a critical
hit in battle. In addition, once your monster is famous enough, it
may be invited to go on expeditions. There are also side effects
to fame... as a monster's fame increases, it may receive fan mail, for
instance.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Each monster breed has it's own set of strengths and weaknesses.
These include, but are not limited to, aptitude or inability at specific
stats, the will regeneration rate of a monster, its behavior on the ranch,
and life span. These are all important things to consider
when raising a monster.
Each breed has specific stats that it is good or bad at. For
example, Pixies have an aptitude for intelligence, while they aren't so
hot with strength. Golems excel at power and defense, but are terrible
at skill and speed. These are things to consider not only when raising
a monster, but also when choosing one to suit your style.
For example, I value skill in my monsters, so I tend to stay away from
those breeds that are bad at it, and gravitate toward those which are good
at it. The easiest way to decide what a specific monster's strengths
and weaknesses are for skills is to look at the numbers it starts with.
This is most effective with monsters from the Market, as they are 'pure',
with no randomness thrown in. Monsters from the Shrine or gained
through combining may have an abnormally high or low stat, which can
throw off this analysis. Generally, stats that start at 110-130
are average. Any that start below that are poor, and above that are
good. If a stat starts below 70, the monster is terrible at it, and
if it starts above 170, the monster is excellent at it.
There is more to stat strengths than just their starting values.
A monster who is strong at a particular stat will see increased benefits
when training that stat. A monster with an average stat may see increases
of 6-7 points during normal drills. One who trains
a stat it is particularly good at may see increases from 8-10 points, and
if the monster is exceptional, it may receive up to 12 or even 15 points
for one week of training. A poor stat, however, may only increase
by 3-5 points, or in the case of especially horrible stats, 2 or even only
1 point.
There are several other categories which can be considered under strengths
and weaknesses. Guts regeneration rate during battle is an important one.
The average guts regeneration rate can be seen by a pure Zuum in combat.
Other breeds have the same rate, but the Zuum is the benchmark. Any
monster that regenerates will slower than a pure Zuum has a disadvantage
in this area, and any that is faster has an advantage. Generally,
smarter, quicker monsters will have higher will regeneration rates, such
as Pixies, Plants, and Ghosts.
A monster's nature is also considered among advantages and disadvantages.
Monsters that are bad natured often cheat on drills, ask for favors, or even
disobey you outright. Good natured monsters are the opposite, but each nature has
its own advantages.
It is important to balance a monster's skills against its weaknesses
not only to gauge it's overall power, but also to see if that monster's
abilities mesh with your playing style. A player who prefers monsters
with a high defense probably won't like a monster like the Undine with a
low defense and high speed, no matter how good that speed rating is.
Likes and Dislikes:
All monsters have certain likes and dislikes, some according to breed and
some randomly chosen. Knowing what your monster likes and
dislikes is vital to raising it properly, as ignoring them can have effects
such as lowering the loyalty value or even shortening your monster's life
span. Every monster has specific things it likes and things it doesn't
in almost all areas of the game.
The most obvious area where likes and dislikes come into play is the
monthly feeding. At it's base, the more expensive food you pick,
the more your monster will like it. This works for some of the more
basic monsters, but you'll quickly find as you raise more exotic breeds
that it often doesn't hold true. For example, the Zuum typically follows a
normal progression... hates potatoes, doesn't mind fish, loves meat.
However, the Arrow Head normally loves fish, and the ColorPandora loves
potatoes. Feeding your monster a food it doesn't like may increase fatigue
and stress, and decrease loyalty. You will need to closely observe your monster's
reactions to discover what it's tastes are.
Another part of the game affected by likes and dislikes is training.
Sometimes, when you select a specific drill, your monster registers disapproval.
If you choose the drill anyway, there is an increased chance that the monster
will do poorly, and it's loyalty may drop as well. On the other hand, monsters
occasionally will register approval when you select a drill. If you choose this
one, your monster's fatigue and stress won't increase as much as normal. These likes can
change from week to week, but each monster have a few jobs that it generally
likes or dislikes most of the time. A good rancher will be able to change
his plans if the monster doesn't want to do what he wants, and know when
to send the monster to training even if it doesn't want to.
There are many more areas where your monster's tastes affect the game.
Watch closely for your monster's reactions, and learn which ones are positive
and which are negative.
Baby Skills:
The most important thing that determines whether a monster will be
successful or not is not its stats or its strengths, but the way in which
you raise it. Especially at a young age, the way you treat your monster
is vitally important to its growth and success. Everything you do
to your monster has an impact, and certain things may have a very positive
or negative one.
At this point, all I'm going to focus on are the first few months
of a monster's career. Tips on raising monsters as they grow will
be included in many of the later segments of this guide. One of the
most important things to know in the beginning is how to properly feed
your monster. The majority of monsters should be given milk when
they are very young. Failing to do this may result in a monster who
has poor health, poor stat increases, and a short life span. Unless
milk is a food that the particular monster likes, no monster should be
given milk after it's full grown. Full grown here means the point
where the monster appears bigger on your screen, and begins to make
larger improvements in drills. Even if it's not
full grown, the maximum length of time a monster should be fed milk is
about 5 months. After that point, experiment to see what other foods
your monster likes.
Sending your monster off to train while still young is a bad idea.
When monsters are young, they don't get the full benefit from training
that they will when they are fully grown. This isn't a big deal for
drills... you need some way to pass the time. However, training costs
money and quite a bit of time. A baby monster will not receive large
stat increases in training, will fail more often, and has a reduced chance
to learn new techniques, making training as a baby a waste of time.
However, feel free to drill the monster, even though it will not receive
large increases, and battles are fine too as long as your monster's loyalty
is fairly high.
Be careful of how you treat your monster as a baby. The effects
to training style are heightened when the monster is young, so that something
as simple as scolding your monster for doing poorly on drills may have
a bigger, more lasting effect than you'd think. Make sure you know
exactly what you're doing when you treat your monster well or poorly in
it's early stages.
Know Your Stuff:
Items are an important part of Monster Rancher. Items have unique
effects, and fill holes in a player's raising. Some are used to create
special monsters, others are used as small treats for a monster, some can
be sold for large amounts of money, and so on. Some items have hidden,
negative effects, but all items should be considered when raising each
monster, as they have have a big impact on the monster's success.
In general, there are four types of items. Those that you use
on or give to your monster, those that are used when combining your monster,
those that you keep in your inventory that have a permanent, lasting effect,
and those that can only be sold for money. The first category has
by far the most number of items, and each is further broken down into several
other categories. I'll go into as much detail as possible without
giving too much away.
Monster Items: These are the items that you give to your monster.
To do this, simply to to the 'items' menu and pick 'use', then pick the
item you want to use (if the item is one of the other types and can't be
used, the game will let you know). These items have a vast array
of effects, and you can initially buy many of them at the item shop.
Some may raise your monster's loyalty slightly, others may change your
monster's stats, and others may keep your monster happy and calm.
There are many items of this type to be found in the game; some may appear
in the shop as new items as the game progresses, others can be found on
expeditions, and others may be found by your monster itself. There
is one specific type of item that will touch on, because it's effects aren't
fully laid out to the player and I think they are very important.
Drugs, medicines, and other items of this nature, are a special case.
These items often raise a stat or two, or give your monster some special
ability, such as increased training results, for a short time. However,
they have one nasty side effect: they reduce your monster's life span.
If used sparingly, perhaps once or twice on a monster, you won't see much
of an effect. However, if you use dozens of these items, you may
be reducing your monster's life by a year or even more. These items
are generally not worth it for the penalty they inflict; through proper
training and raising, you can get the same effects with no drawback.
Secret Seasonings: These items can only be used when combining
two monsters. They have a specific effect on the offspring of the
combination, sometimes only changing it slightly, such as a stat or two,
and sometimes changing it as drastically as creating another monster entirely.
In some cases, this is the only way to get certain monsters, and it is
often easier than trying to find specific monsters on CD's.
One item I will mention is the CD Fragment. This is an extremely
common item that you often win in battles. Each CD Fragment comes
in a color that associates it with a monster breed. The black one
is for Monol, the green one for Zuum, the rainbow one for Plant, etc.
When used in combining, if there are any chances of getting a monster of
that breed, the Fragment will tilt the odds in that breed's favor.
This is one good way to get specific monsters from combining. Also,
each CD Fragment has an added affect on the offspring, from a small
stat bonus, to increased lifespan, to special abilities in battle.
Money Items: These items are pretty self explanatory.
They are simply sold for several thousand Gold. If you can't find
any other use for an item, and it doesn't tell you that it has some effect
in the description, this is probably what it is.
Inventory Items: These are hard to find, and often called 'Rare
Items'. They are extremely powerful because they have a permanent
effect on your monster, often an effect similar to one of the monster items.
It may help calm your monster, reduce fatigue, or help your monster be
more obedient. These are truly coveted items, and having them is
a big step toward truly being a master rancher.
Overall, items are an important part of every rancher's arsenal.
Knowing what each item can do is vital to working your monsters toward the
goals you have in mind. Also, many items work differently on different
monsters, and knowing these subtleties can make a huge difference in how
successful your monsters are.
The Battlefield
Well, you don't just raise your monster for the satisfaction of having
a digital friend in your Playstation. To earn money, fame, and gain
breeder rank, you need to put your monster in the ring so it can duke it
out with other monsters. This is one of the most important parts
of the game, because the battles are what earn alot of your money, increase
your rank as a breeder, and you can sometimes even learn some secrets of
the game from them.
To begin with, battles are held in separate ranks, from S to E classes,
with S being the highest. Each monster starts at E class, and your
monster can only participate in battles of its class and the class one
higher. This means that, somehow, you'll need to raise your monster's
class. Every 3 months, an 'official cup' is held, and if your monster
wins that battle, it will be promoted to the next rank. Beware, however;
if you raise your monster's rank too quickly, you may find yourself in
a tight spot, as the enemy monsters get tougher and tougher. You
need to train your monster as you increase its rank.
The battles are set up in one of two ways. They are either round-robin
battles, where each monster fights each other monster, or elimination battles,
where monsters are paired up and the losers are eliminated from the competition.
All Official Cups are round robin tournaments. Each tournament has
a prize value, or a purse, that you can win if your monster takes first
place. There are also cash prizes for second and third place, and
there is a bonus for each monster yours defeats. In addition to the
cash prize, if your monster wins, you may receive an item as a prize.
Some of these items are very special and can only be obtained through fighting...
the Double-Edged Sword for example. Others are somewhat common, like
Disk Chips, and can be easily found on expeditions. See the Items
section above for more info. In addition to money and items, your
monster's Fame is also affected by battle. Defeat monsters, and it
goes up... lose, and it goes down. Many things affect the fame boost,
such as the level of the battle, how your monster defeated the opponents,
and so on.
When you fight, the objective is simple: Lower your enemy's life total
as far as possible. If your enemy or your monster's life total reaches
0, that monster is KO'd, and the other wins. If neither monster KO's
the other, the match is decided by who has a higher percentage of life
left. This means that just having a large life score doesn't guarantee
a win, you need to diversify your monster's abilities.
If your monster is getting beat really bad, and it looks like it might
be KO'd, a better option may be to just give up by pressing [select].
Remember, he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day!
Doing this decreases fame, but if your monster gets KO'd its lifespan
will be slightly shortened, and it may become injured or even die on the spot.
It's more exiting and brave to have your monster fight it out until the last second, but
sometimes it's better to be smart than brave.
One of the best results of battle is a stat increase afterwards.
If your monster placed 3rd or higher, it will recieve a bonus to three
stats. The bonus gets higher at higher levels (at low levels, it
may be 3-4 points, but at higher levels it can be as high as 15).
This makes battles not only a good wayto make money, but an effective
part of your training regimen.
Weapons of War
Once in battle, your monster tries to defeat the opponent by using
the techniques it knows. But what are the difference between each
technique, and what do they really do?
There are 6 important parts to each technique. I will quickly
describe them here, and just give an overview, because each technique is
good in it's own way, and it's better for each player to find the techniques
and fighting style they like best.
Guts: The amount of Guts the technique uses. This is a
vitally important part of each technique, as one that takes 50 Guts may
be difficult to use in a battle where your enemy is withering it all away.
Keep a close eye on which techniques take how much guts so you can select
the ones that are useable.
Range: This is which of the four distances the technique is
in. This has an effect because each monster has a certain range it's
more effective techniques are in. Pixies, for example, aren't very
hot in the very close range, so if your monster is, you have an advantage.
If you have a great attack at very far range, you can use it at the very
beginning of battle, before your opponent has the chance to attack.
Force: This is how much damage the attack will do. This
is modified by the relevant stat (power for power techniques, intelligence
for intelligence ones), and then by your enemy's defense to determine the
amount of damage done. Damage is also modified by how much Guts your
monster has when it launches the technique... if it has lots of Guts, it
will do more damage.
Hit %: How accurate the attack is. Often, techniques with
high force have a low hit %, and vice versa.
Withering: A technique that withers your opponent will drain
away thier Guts on a successful hit. The better the withering, the
more Guts it will drain. This can be very useful, and some monsters
are so good at it that thier opponents always have a very low amount of
Guts.
Sharpness: A high Sharpness increases the chances that the technique
will score a critical hit. Even with a low force, a high sharpness
can make an attack deal alot of damage.
It's up to you to find which attacks you like best. Sometimes
it's better to just go in there with your most powerful ones and hope they
hit, and sometimes it's better to just consistently take off small amounts
of life. Each monster's combination of abilities and techniques will
determine what style of fighting is best for it.
There is one more attribute of a technique that you may notice every
once in a while. Certain technqiues have small 'eyebrow' symbols when
you examine them. Some of the 'eyebrows' look good, while some look
evil. These symbols refer to the nature of the technqiues; a good-looking
symbol means a good technqiue, an evil-looking one means a bad technique.
This refers to the nature of your monster. A good or bad technqiue can
only be learned by a monster of the same nature, so it is important to
figure out what the best nature for each particular breed is.
Battle Plan
There are two basic ways to battle in Monster Rancher 2. You
can either let your monster fight for itself, with no guidance from you,
or you can control the monster yourself. Most people prefer to control
the monster themselves, because of the unpredictable nature of the AI,
but for the feel of the game, you may want to try letting your monster
make it own choices sometimes. After all, if you're standing on the
sidelines, how much advice will some dumb monster listen to, anyway?
If you do choose to command your monster, you need to do more than
just get in there and pound on some buttons. You need to have a carefully
formulated plan that takes into account your monster's strengths and weaknesses,
it's techniques available, and the enemy's abilities. If you don't
plan out your battles, you'll find it very difficult to win consistently.
There are several different styles of battle. I'm not going to
go into too much depth on each one, because these aren't the end-all-be-all
of battle strategy, and it's best for each person to discover a best way
for them to fight. Below are some basic strategies that you can try.
Keep in mind that certain strategies work better with certain monsters
because of thier abilities.
Guts Miser: This tactic is somewhat of a 'quality, not quantity'
one. For the first few seconds of battle, don't attack. Save
up your guts, until they reach a very high level, at least 90. Then,
all of your attacks will have a bonus to hit% and damage. Whenever
you do attack, wait for your guts to refill before launching another.
This technique works pretty well with many types of monsters... those with
high guts regeneration get to launch many attacks at high power, and those
with low regeneration get the bonus of always having a few extra attacks
at thier disposal in case they need them. One big weakness of this
strategy is a monster with very low spd; if you're up against a withering
opponent, you may never get to save your guts.
All Out: This is a 'shoot first, ask questions later' tactic.
All you do is attack as much as you can, ignoring hit % or guts.
Launch two or three attacks off the bat, and as soon as your guts goes
back up a bit, launch another one or two. This tactic is best for
monsters with high skill, because they will be able to hit no matter how
much guts they have. This is a dangerous tactic to use, because once
you're low on guts, your opponent has a better chance ot hitting and you
can't retaliate, but if it works, it can make for quick, victorious battles.
One-Hit Wonder: This tactic attempts to use one attack once
to KO the opponent. The technique used is very powerful: it often
takes 30 or more guts, and has hit% and Force of at least B rating.
Many monsters actually do have techniques like this, and they are often
in the very far range, facilitating this tactic. This can be the
most effective tactic if you have a monster powerful enough and with a
capable technique. Beware, however, because if you rely on this tactic
and it fails, the results are often very ugly.
Wither Away: This is a 'keep-away' tactic. It is best
used with monsters who have many techniques with high withering ratings.
All you do is attack your opponent with a withering attack, and keep thier
guts low, preferably below the level where they can launch attacks.
The damage inflicted is inconsequential, because if your opponent can never
attack you, the bits and pieces of damage you do while withering them will
give you a win. When combined with a high speed, this technique can
be extremely effective. This is one of the hardest strategies to pull off,
however... there aren't many monsters with great withering attacks, and it
can easily be foiled by a high speed or guts regeneration. Alternately, a
monster with very fast guts regeneration
may be able to pull this technique off with a technique or two that has a
middling to low withering. This is because, even if they only take away 10
guts from the opponent, they can recover enough to do it again before the
opponent regains that 10 guts. This tactic also requires a high skill, however,
as it's important for as mnay techniques to connect as possible.
There are several other ways of defeating your opponent, and you can
mix up the styles above as well. Try coming up with your own method
of winning, because each monster will have a specific strategy that is
best for it's abilities.
Take a Hike!
One of the most exiting parts of the game, and another way to make
some money, are expeditions. Once your monster is C class with enough
fame (some expeditions have other criteria as well), you may get asked
to go on an expedition. Here, you can find special items that are
otherwise unattainable, learn the secrets of special monsters, and discover
totally new breeds. The expeditions are important if you want to
unlock all the breeds and learn all the secrets of the game.
There are three important stats when you go on an expedition.
The most important is intellgence. A high intelligence makes it easier
for your monster to find items in the buildings. An intelligence
of 650+ should be sufficient for most places, your monster will have about
a 3 in 4 chance of sucessfully finding an item. Also, a high intelligence
will alow your monster to find things like secret passages. Life
is also important, because the more life you have, the more energy your
monster has to explore, and the longer you can do so. Eash step you
take and every time you explore a building takes away energy from your
monster, so a high Life score is neccessary to ensure you can explore and
come back. Power is important as well because there are various obstacles
scattered throughout the expeditions that block off vital areas, and your
monster needs to break through them.
When you go on an expedition for the first time, try to get used to
where all the paths go and where everything is. After you know the
layout, plan ahead of time where you want to go and how long you can stay.
Keep in mind that you need time to get back, because if your monster runs
out of energy before it reaches the base camp, it's life span is shortened!
Each step takes 1 energy point, and searching a building takes 10, so make
sure you have enough time. When searching a building, don't move
on to the next until you have found all the items. Usually, the best
item will be found last, and it may be an extremely rare and special possession.
Locked Out
Your first time playing, you'll notice that many CD's are locked, not
allowing you to get at the monster inside. In MR2, many many breeds
are locked from the outset... the number of breeds you can use at the beginning
of the game is fairly small compared to the total number available.
Of course, there are ways of unlocking them, you just have to know how.
There are two things you can do that will unlock several breeds and
get you on your way. If you see a tournament titled 'Elimination'
(this is the title, not the type of tournament), enter that, and if you
win it, you will be invited to a special IMa vs. FIMBA match. Wether
you win or lose that match, it will unlock four breeds at once for you.
Also, if you save up enough money and are of a high enough rank, Colt will
ask you if you want to upgrade the stable. Do so, and you can raise
two more breeds. Doing these two relatively simple things can open up several
new breeds to get you started.
Beyond those two things, to unlock the rest of the breeds you generally
have to get that monster in the game first (there are a few exceptions).
As you play, you will get hints about special breeds when you go raise
your rank, go into battle, or go on errantry or expeditions. Sometimes,
a new breed might just 'fall out of the sky', so to speak! Be patient,
and eventually you will be able to breed them all.
Overall, Monster Rancher 2 is a game of choices. You can choose
from many different types of monsters one that will suit your style and
tastes. you choose how you want to train an raise it to meet your
goals. The most enjoyment is gained when you find
some monsters you really like, and experiement with different raising styles,
while disovering new facets of the game. So, just pop in a CD or three,
see what you get, and go with it! There are no wrong ways to do anything!
Thanks for reading this. If you think a specific section is hard
to understand, or if there is something else you think should be added,
feel free to email me using the link below.
