Battle Strategies for Various Monsters, Round 4! greenspun.com : LUSENET : Monster Rancher 2 : One Thread --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm really sorry it took me so long to get around to this...not only have I not played MR2 in over a month, but I haven't even been online that much, either. For anyone who's new to this feature, the original Battle Strategies for Various Monsters post can be found in the archives under Battles, about half-way down the page, and it has all the other rounds tacked on under it. If you see terminology that you don't understand, it probably has the answer. Now, let's get down to some monster reviews! *Plant- This is the very definition of an Antagonizer strategist. In fact, in MR1, my Plant/Monol was my first monster to move beyond a one-dimensional fighting style: None of my other monsters could beat Gabarn (a nasty Magic/Naga), but my little Metallica managed to pull it off by blasting it with Toxic Pollen and Toxic Nectar constantly to keep it from getting up the guts to do anything, and keeping Gabarn distracted with a Steady Hook (called "Root Combo" in MR2) here and there whenever it had spare guts, just to eat up time. I'll say this right now: Root Combo deserves and accuracy rating of S+++, and if you somehow miss with this attack, your Plant REALLY needs more Skill. Plus, as I said before, its lengthy animation can help run out the clock on a withered opponent, and if you actually have good Power, it can be your best weapon against Speed Demons. The biggest problem a Plant can have is when it's facing a monster that it can't wither effectively, which is when you fall back on Face Drill or Plant Combo (for the Power-oriented), or Seed Gatling (for the Intelligence-oriented). Possibly its most awesome attack is Life Steal. It may have only C-rank force, but you can make up for that with high Intelligence...the main thing here is that it's a C-accuracy DRAIN move!! That's right, you can guzzle out an enemy's HP with ease with this thing, thereby easily making up for a lack of any move packing B-rank or higher force! In fact, it's worth the trouble to have a Plant be Bad long enough to get this, and then reform to Good for Seed Gatling, thereby giving you one of the handiest monsters in the game! As for beating a Plant, though, your strategy is to basically try to nail it as soon as the match starts with a good move (Plants always have high Life, and sometimes either good Defense or Speed, but never both, so take that into consideration).

*Tiger- Although Tiger is a faithful monster in the beginning, it pales in comparison to other critters once you get experienced in the game. Still, a decent Tiger can work wonders if used right...but neither a One-Hit Wonder strategy OR an Antagonizer works well here, so your best bet is to be a Combo King. Although Tiger has no S- or A-rank Force moves, most of its moves are very accurate, have at least moderate power (and Blizzard, with C Force, B Accuracy, D Withering, and S Sharpness, is nothing to laugh at). Paired with its very high Guts Regen, it can load on the damage in drawn-out fight, and as long as it has enough Speed to keep avoiding attacks, it will probably drop an opponent just before the timer runs out. If it's a first-gen monster, you're probably best off just working on Speed, Intelligence, and Skill, but if it comes from a long line of monsters, the Tiger/Golem can be an all-around powerhouse whose actually GOOD Power can cause major damage with Stab and Combination while taking full advantage of its super-accurate Charge and Roll Assault. In fact, all of its moves have better Sharpness than similar moves on other monsters (especially Ice Bomb. Care to name any other creature that can do an attack with S-rank Sharpness for 15 Guts?). Another nice thing about the Tiger as a beginning monster is that no ONE strategy is really needed for it: You can just use standard opponent-specific tactics (Hit Techs against Speedsters, Heavy techs against Tanks, Sharp Techs against high-Life opponents), or no real strategy at all to take down opponents. For dealing with a Tiger as an opponent, on the other hand, it's best to stay at dividing line between Short- and Mid-Range, since most of those moves are kind of unimpressive (all of these moves have poor Force, and poor-to-average accuracy). Unless it has Golem or Monol sub-traits, it probably doesn't have too good of Defense, (and Plant could give it high Life), so just use high-accuracy moves to pound it. Ironically, the best creature to take down a Tiger...is a Tiger (Accuracy that cancels out Speed, and lots of Sharpness to add extra power to its moves).

*Jill- Although originally underrated (since hardly anyone had raised one to spread the word), Jills have now taken their rightful place in the Monster Rancher community as one of greatest monsters available. It's one of the few creatures that can easily max out both Power AND Intelligence, and it has high Life, and good Defense to help it along (not to mention a big lifespan to build it all up), but its poor Skill and Speed DO bring it down from absolute awesomeness (is that a word?). Its below-average guts regen can be helped with a Tiger or Pixie sub-type (which also helps its Speed and Skill at the cost of some Life and Defense), though, and as for Techniques, it's a real breath of fresh air. It has a well-balanced set of good moves with only two small tech chains (Clap- Slap Combo, and Punch Combo- Jill Combo), so you can easily grab them all on a first-generation monster, and overall, they don't seem to cost as much as similar moves on other characters, due to their more "basic" nature (Jills attend to the basics in order to keep cost down. Ice Wave doesn't have a Withering rating, and just does straight-forward B damage, D Accuracy, and E Sharpness for only 19 Guts). This can really make up for that naturally-low Guts Regen. Plus, Jills also have one of those really powerful Special Techs like Jell Copter (Snowstorm has stats of B/A/B/E for only 45 cost! YEAH!). Again, Jills don't call for any really odd strategies to win with, and their balance of Power and Intelligence make them natural-born Errantry-Monster-Killers (Too bad you have to have one of those to get a Jill in the FIRST place). When facing a rare Jill opponent, look for its weaknesses right off. Did the trainer neglect its Power? If so, hang out in Mid-Range and it won't be able to do much (except Wither you). Did the trainer neglect its Intelligence? If so, keep as far away from it as you can, and you'll probably be fine. If they attended to both, then just hammer it with Heavy Techs or Wither away at it (the second strategy, combined with the Jill's low Skill, will probably keep it from landing any hits).

I'll try to get around to more before long...really!

-- Nate Railsback (ChimeraMan101@aol.com), March 20, 2000

Answers Another great review from the master of battle strategy good job Nate and I gotta agree Jills ahave finally got the recognition they deserve!

-- Rion Beyolve (twopacliveson@hotmail.com), March 20, 2000.

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So how many more breeds are yet to be covered?

-- RNA (RNA@Ribosome.nuc), March 21, 2000.

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WOW, nice job Nate.

-- Pixie Master (?@?.com), March 21, 2000.

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Yo, where have you been? Haven't seen you in a while. I thought you left the board. Whew...I'm glad you're back..

-- JellTrainer (lukadjukic@yahoo.com), March 21, 2000.

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Well, eventually I hope to train/analyze one of each of the 38 main breeds. I guess the leaves me with Pixie, Dragon, Mocchi, Monol, Ape, Arrowhead, Baku, Naga, Ducken, Gaboo (Ick), Golem, Hare, Henger, Jell, Mew, Undine, and Worm to review. *Sigh*

-- Nate Railsback (ChimeraMan101@aol.com), March 21, 2000.

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Thanks for more great info! I really enjoy reading your strategies, they are useful in more ways than one. Good advice for battle and an idea of what each monster is good at.

-- Miss Carrie (musicality1@earthlink.net), March 22, 2000

-- J (nemesis_7777@yahoo.com), April 13, 2000