Well, after raising a few online-tournament-quality monsters, and participating in years of chatroom help sessions; Strunks & I thought it might be good to start archiving some of the more advanced information we have been gathering. Of course, the basics are all part of the MRM FAQ information, key points of which were discovered by Dark Phoenix, and refined by HellRaiser83.

The basic assumptions I am making in writing this guide are:
*Readers have read the info on items values and Methods and know how to raise monsters effectively.
*Readers have played long enough to have an adequate (100,000+ g) supply of in-game money.

First, Some Nature Basics:

*Nature refers to the assessment shown in the last page of view mode while looking at your monster's information. Possible natures are: Best, Good, Neutral, Bad, Worst.

*A monster starts with an assigned nature. It is not randomly assigned, as in "Like/Dislike", it will be the same each time you shrine the same CD.

*Nature will change if you do certain things, it will stay the same if you avoid those actions.

*There are two main reasons to change Nature: to get a Tech that requires a particular nature (Your monster does not have to be at that assigned nature to use the tech in battle, it just needs it while on Errantry to get the tech.), and, to have the ‘Anger' Battle Special available in tournaments (in-game and in online tourneys). You can also, incidently, enter the Heel or Hero tournaments for cash and the Badges.

*The Heel Badge tournament can only be entered by "Bad" and "Worst" monsters, and only shows up on your calendar if your B/W monster is out in town or on the ranch when you check your schedule.

*The Hero Badge tournament can only be entered by "Good" or "Best" monsters, and only shows up on your calendar if your G/B monster is out in town or on the ranch when you check your schedule.

*Neutral monsters cannot enter either the Heel or Hero tournament, neither appears on the schedule if your monster out in town or on the ranch is "Neutral".

How To Change Nature:

*The easiest, and most reliable way to change Nature is to praise "Greats", tournament wins, and errantry successes if you want your monster to head towards Best nature. And, to not praise those events to send the monster towards Worst. Each incident of praise or no-praise moves a monster a step towards the next level. There are several steps per level, including steps down deep under Worst, and above Best. This means that a few more no-praises after getting to Worst may be needed to get some bad Techs, and a few added praises may be needed to get some good tech, even though the Nature says the monster is already at Best. (Some good Techs can be gotten at "Good" rather than "Best", and some bad Techs can be gotten at "Bad"rather than "Worst", we have not been able to gather enough reliable data to add details on every nature-based Tech. Our best advice is that if you are not able to get a Tech at a certain Nature, move it up or down a level.) Post-tourney and post-errantry are the most reliable times to have a praise/no-praise opportunity. People who choose to re-set the game can also, if patient, re-set until a Great drill is performed, thereby allowing nature to change in a shorter span of monster lifespan.

*Your response to Cheating also changes a monster's nature. Scolding a Cheat helps boost a monster towards "Best", not scolding helps move it towards "Worst". Cheating happens more if your monster has Stress, so it's not something (hopefully) that you'll have happen very often.

"Scolding only affects the monster's nature if it's applied to Cheating.

The flip side of that also applies. Giving or witholding praise after a monster does Great influneces nature as well.

As for scolding or declining to scold for ordinary failures, the that will influence Spoil and Fear but will have no effect on nature." -Dark Phoenix

*The Heel Badge and Hero Badge can help immensely with the praising/not-praising process, and your response to Cheats. The Heel Badge helps you get a monster to "Worst", the Hero Badge helps you get a monster to "Best". The badges doubles the effects of praising/not-praising and your responses to cheats. You can have both badges in your inventory, they do not cancel each other out. I personally have found the badges to be very useful. (The Sueki Suezo can be used to win the Heel Badge tourney, if you need to get one quickly. There is no shortcut to getting the Hero Badge.)

*Jellies can help move a monster's nature, but they do not directly affect nature. Dark Phoenix on the details:
"This is weird, while examining the effects of these items, I found that, contrary to popular belief, Sweet and Sour Jellies do NOT directly affect the monster's nature. Instead, I found that it influenced ANOTHER value that I didn't know existed until I started this project."

*Sweet Jellies help move a monster towards "Bad" and "Worst". Sour Jellies help move a monster towards "Good" and "Best". But, be aware that the process is slower than praising/not-praising, and responding appropriately to Cheats. I personally do not use Jellies simply because you cannot feed two items in one week, and I tend to have other feeding plans for my monsters, to manage Stress and Fatigue.

(NOTE: A Spoiled monster can be annoying because of the constant demands for items, however, this feature can be used to your advantage. I like to test-spoil a monster before I actually raise it for real, because I have found that the item a monster asks for is randomly assigned during shrining, like "Like" and "Dislike". Some of my best monsters asked for Fish (yes the food!), and one even asked for Nuts Oil! A definite bonus in any method!)

Problem Monsters:

*There appear to be a few breeds of monsters that have difficulty getting from one end of the Nature spectrum to another. There represent a small number of the overall breeds in the game. Included in this group are some Centaurs, most notably Celious. I personally worked on a Celious, which starts at "Best", and gave it over 35 no-praises, and just barely got it to "Neutral". This was far more than the 4-5 no-praises needed by other types to move one level down. My speculation on the situation is that there is a programming glitch in a few breeds, affecting its ability to change Nature. Basically any monster with a sub that is generally a worst or best natured monster has a chance at having a problem with nature. The following are known problem types (I will edit this post to add more as they are discovered):
Celious


Finishing Up Your Monster:

*When starting a monster, most of us plot out what Techs we want on the finished monster, the stats we'd like, and the final Form to aid the stats. Many people don't consider Battle Specials thoroughly, I personally feel that they are an important part of finishing a monster, especially for online competition. The only effect Nature has on a tourney monster is determining which Battle Specials it may display in battle.

*Anger is used by "Bad" and "Worst" monsters, Power is used by "Good" and "Best" monsters the other Battle Specials (by breed) will be used if Nature does not dictate the Special.

*Anger can win an online tourney for the right monster, and isn't worthwhile for others. Anger is triggered from being withered. It adds to Withering (+100%) and Guts Regen (+50%), and, it reduces evasion (-50%). Any monster with Withering attacks can benefit from the doubling of their effect. Monsters with very low Guts Regen don't benefit from Anger the way the speedier breeds can. (You could add some Battle Specials through use of disc chips when making a baby monster through combining. If you are set on one of those, then you're going to ignore Anger.) A good example is a pure Dragon, the guts regen is already so low, that the sacrifice of half your evasion isn't worth the small percent boost in guts regen.
Recommended monsters for Anger:
Mocchi

*Power can be hugely helpful, 100% damage gets done, if a Tech connects while it's effect, but the disadvantage of rarely being triggered more than once in a battle. The main description of Power states that it can only be triggered once in battle, however, it's been reported that Power can happen more than once a battle. I haven't seen it, but HengersRock and mepersoner have both said they've seen it twice in battle. Power is triggered when damaged with 50% or less life.

*Choose your Battle Specials as carefully as you choose your Form and Techs, and you will not be disappointed!

In closing, I'd like to say that while this information may seem intimidating to novices, it's actually very easy to implement, and can dramatically improve your online tourney monsters!

Thanks to: Strunks, HellRaiser83, Dark Phoenix, Torey Luvullo, Petit Trot and mepersoner.

You should add that Anger also improves the withering effect of your techs. I dont remember if it's by a factor 1.5 or 2. I'm a big fan of Anger since it doesn't require your monster to be near death to be triggered and can happen 3 or 4 times per battle.

"My speculation on the situation is that there is a programming glitch in a few breeds, affecting its ability to change Nature. Basically any monster with a sub that is generally a worst or best natured monster has a chance at having a problem with nature."


I don't believe it's a glitch, I'm pretty sure the programmers actually wanted some breeds to be limited to certain nature ranges, otherwise why would this be frequent with Tiger subs?
For example I raised a Frozen Gaboo that could not get to worst, even if I gave him dozens of Jellies for more than two years.
There is also a boy in Tecmo's Forum that was trying to raise an evil pure Centaur but he couldn't. While I can't be sure if he followed my advice correctly the problem you mentioned with the Celious is a big evidence that he is right.
So if you are going to make a list of monsters that have different nature paterns you can include Frozen Gaboo (for sure) and (possibly) pure Centaur.

i also have seen power twice in a battle. also, i have seen power become "activated" with more than 50% life. Usually in the latter scenario, i would be hit with an attack that would bring me below 50%. I dont know if any one else has seen this, but i would appreciate it, if someone else could/help know/prove/disprove this.

"I don't believe it's a glitch, I'm pretty sure the programmers actually wanted some breeds to be limited to certain nature ranges, otherwise why would this be frequent with Tiger subs?"

RH, it may be so, but this means that Centaurs have a tech they can never actually earn. Thus, I consider it a glitch.

Well, if even a Centaur/Joker can't get to Bad/Worst it must really be a glitch.
Although my Frozen Gaboo couldnt get to worst he got to Bad, so learning Ninja Kick was not a problem.

I don't know about Centaur/Joker. Thats kind of a best/worst scenario...Blue Terror can get to worst and best IIRC and it's a worst/best scenario...must be because of the whole all evil tech thing :p

And SS is right, sven even did it in the tournament. He was hit for 708 damage (The only attack hitting, so he went from 949 to 241) and got Power. Must be whenever their life gets under 50%, they have a chance at getting Power.

Well Lisa, not all centaurs can't get to worst. sven had to get Death Dhrust one way or another. I know Bazoo can get to worst, didn't have one problem, and he starts off as Good (30). Reaper starts off as Bad (-55) so there's not much work to making Reaper worst. It may be those that start off close to the max of worst or best, 100/-100. My Death Dragon couldn't get to good at all, and he's a -80 (almost opposite of celious, 85) and I'm sure Tricker can't get to good...-90.

In the Mocchi/Joker card text it says something like "It can never turn into a complete fiend". Wonder if it's a coincidence or an indication that this monster can't get to Worst.

Also, even if some monsters can't reach Good or Evil I don't think it means that they can't have techniques of opposite nature.

For example,even if a Death Dragon can't get to Good it can probably learn Glide Charge through combining or main switch. Of course Special Techs would really be a problem.

"Monsters with very low Guts Regen don't benefit from Anger the way the speedier breeds can."

Why?