Monster Rancher 4 Raising, Battling, Ranch Management
Basics
Similar to other iterations of the series, Monster Rancher 4 has a routine where the player can schedule drills for their monster each week and do extra activities on the weekend such as tournaments.With the introduction to this game, the player can raise up to 5 monsters and begin 'Free Time'. Each monster can have drills scheduled up to 8 weeks and set tournaments on the weekend. Free Time is when the player would interact with each monster to feed, praise/scold, or give an item. After Free Time, the weekend would begin to do other activities. If tournaments are not set, the player can instead visit different towns to purchase items and speak to various people. In addition, dungeons or adventures can be explored to learn new skills, traits and find useful items.
Raising Monsters
At the start of each week, the player is set to view the schedule. You can view the monster's wellness at the lower right side of the screen. From top to bottom, it shows the following: Monster's Focus, Tiredness, Hunger, and Status.- Focus is a gauge that goes from 0 to 999, or empty to max. You want your monster to maintain high focus as often as possible to ensure high results for training. If the arrows are pointing left, then the monster's focus is rising, but if they are pointing right, the monster's focus is decreasing. Focus pointing always rotate in cycles of increasing/decreasing but can be managed as long as monster's policy is as close to normal, and tiredness/hunger/stress is well-managed.
- Tiredness is a gauge that goes from 0 to 999, or empty to max. Based on the tiredness gauge, there 5 messages that will appear under Status: Lively, OK, Tired, Worn-Out or Exhausted. You want to avoid letting monster's tiredness gauge go past OK or it will take a lifespan hit. Oily Oil and Rest can reduce a monster's tiredness.
- Hunger is a gauge that goes from 0 to 999. or empty to max. Based on the hunger gauge, there are 2 messages that will appear under Status: Hungry, or Starving . You want to avoid letting monster's hunger gauge get up to Hungry or it will take a lifespan hit. Obviously, feeding your monster will reduce hunger.
- Stress is another element, but it has a hidden value of 0 to 999, or empty to max. If your monster appears full and isn't hungry, but you see that it's losing focus, your monster is building stress. There are 2 messages that will appear under Status: Frustrated or Irritated. You want to avoid seeing wellness indicating the monster is Stressed or it will take a lifespan hit. Praising, feeding, and items can help reduce a monster's stress.
The schedule also contains two menus, Command and Data.
- Command Menu contains the following:
- Training - Begins the current week's training and Free Time
- Schedule - Change monster's schedule. Can determine how long before schedule would loop, have a schedule automatically or manually set, or rest.
- Calendar - Set up monsters to compete during the weekend. Note: Tournaments are the equivalent of 2.5 weeks of Lv. 1 drills; be sure the monster is has low tiredness before entering!
- Shrine - Visit the Shrine to appraise saucer discs or create monsters from CD/DVD & book.
- Association - Visit the Togle Association to Retire, Freeze, or Combine monsters.
- System - Save game/VS data or load game.
- Data menu contains the following:
- Monster - Shows Monster Data (stats), Customizing (skills), Traits(and elemental stats), Record.
- Breeder - Shows Breeder Data, Monsters Raised, Competitions Won, Monster Affinity.
- Book - Shows all current unlocked monsters stats, lore, and animations.
- Belongings - Shows stored items and gadgets.
Shortly after viewing your monster's training results of the week, you go into free time to interact with your monster. Depending on your current number of monsters and breeder's rank, you can have up to 10 action points to use. You would use action points to Feed, Praise/Scold, or Give an Item. As you progress in the game, it will become more important to remember giving items to your monsters to relieve stress and maintain focus for more intense training.
Monster Menu
Monster Data page will show your monster's current rank, age, breed/sub-breed, stats, monster type, adventure level, star points, bonding and wellness.
- Rank is not just for show compared to previous games. You will need to raise it at some point to continue optimizing training or else statgains will begin dropping. Below you can view a table for when your assistant will inform your monster is too strong and need to raise its rank. You will have 50 more points after reaching the stat limit before statgains will drop significantly. Example: Points after 1191 for Rank E will be 3 points at most despite high results.
Monster Rank Stat Limit Rank E 1140 Rank D 1650 Rank C 2250 Rank B 2850 Rank A 3650 Rank S No Limit - Age is current monster's life. Each breed's age averages 4 years before needing to retire. Later in this guide, you can view each breed's lifespan and growth rate.
- Breed/Sub-breed displays what monster species you are currently raising. Sub-breed adjusts the monster's statgrowth, guts regen, lifespan, elemental & physical affinities, movement speed, and certain learn-able traits. Take advantage of using sub-breeds to round out a monster weakness, bolstering your strengths, or completely changing up your style!
- Stats are parameters used in battle. The higher the number/level, the more powerful or experienced your monster is in battle. You can view how each stat is used in the table below:
Stat Description POW Power - determines the strength of your monster's POW skills. It also helps reduce the amount of damage from your opponent's POW skills. LIF Life - how much health a monster has in battle. INT Intelligence - determines the strength of your monster's INT skills. It also helps reduce the amount of damage from your opponent's INT skills. ACC Accuracy - influences your monster's hit rate in battle. DEF Defense - determines how well your monster defends against an attack SPD Speed - influences the enemy's hit rate so your monster can avoid attacks - Monster Type is related to what kind of saucer disc a monster is regenerated and what kind of special attack is used during boss battles. You can learn more about special attack types later in this guide.
- Adventure Level is the monster's experience out while exploring. Raising this will help teach your monster new skills and traits. It will also raise the spirit parameter.
- Star Points determines how many tournaments your monster won at their current rank. Earning 3 total star points allows your monster to compete in the official rank tournament.
- Bonding is a gauge that determines how well your monster will listen to you in battle. If your bonding is low, your monster will not obey and act foolish pretty often. This is bad because it allows the enemy to get in a guaranteed attack that may KO. Assuming your monster's training policy is normal, having high bonding will allow your monster to obey your commands often.
- Skills are actions your monster can use in battle. Yellow skills are POW-based attacks and green skills are INT-based attacks. POW skills generally deal high life damage, while INT skills deal high guts damage and have additional effects. View the Battling Monsters section to learn more.
- Attributes are elemental traits your monster learned and can be used to give certain skills an element and change its stats
Record page will show the monster's policy, temperament, size, likes/dislikes, record of battles, and fame.
- Policy or training policy is how lenient/strict you are to your monster during drills. The more lenient you are to your monster, the easier it will live a long life and build less stress, but it will get lazy (lose focus), disobey in battle (act foolish), and ask for other items/food instead of taking what you give them. The more strict you are to your monster, the easier it will keep/build focus and obey commands, but it will get stressed easier and life a shorter life.
- Temperament or personality plays a role on two different things. One is how your monster reacts to your praising/scolding, the other is with monster synergy during adventures/battle.
- Size is a value based on how much/often you feed your monster. Changing your monster's size to fat or thin affects how well they're able to defend or dodge attacks.
- Likes/Dislikes shows the monster's favorite food/item/action. It gives a bonus to bonding and stress relief while dislike generally has the opposite effect.
- Fame is the monster's popularity. It determines how often an opponent will quit before a match a starts and makes monster affinity (AKA friendship) easier to raise.
Breeder Menu
- Breeder Data page shows your ranch name, breeder name, breeder rank, money, record of battles, and fame across the different cities.
- Monsters Raised page shows how many monsters were raised by rank and number of monster breeds regenerated.
- Competitions Won page shows all tournaments you completed for each month.
- Affinity page shows your monsters' friendship with each other. Building high affinity is important for team battles and monster combining.
MORE INFO ABOUT MONSTER POLICY & TEMPERAMENTS
Policy has a scale to determine how lenient/strict you are based on praising/scolding your monster:
| Policy | Scale | Policy change after drills | Stress buildup at beginning of the week |
| Lenient | 75~100 | -3 Policy | No changes |
| Easy | 45~74 | -2 Policy | No changes |
| Easier | 15~44 | -1 Policy | No changes |
| Normal | -14~14 | No changes | No changes |
| Harder | -15~-44 | +1 Policy | +6~10 Stress |
| Hard | -45~-74 | +2 Policy | +11~15 Stress |
| Hardest | -75~-100 | +3 Policy | +16~20 Stress |
There are 15 different temperaments and each fit into a group below:
| Group | Termperment |
|---|---|
| GROUP A | Nervous, Not Serious, Hide Pride, Passionate, Brave |
| GROUP B | Normal, Cool, Cheerful, Serious, Nice |
| GROUP C | Hot Blooded, Lazy, Short Temper, Spoiled, Timid |
Each group determine when a drill is considered high/mid/low effort:
| Low Effort | Mid Effort | High Effort | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GROUP A | 0~59% | 60~69% | 70%+ |
| GROUP B | 0~49% | 50~59% | 60%+ |
| GROUP C | 0~39% | 40~49% | 50%+ |
And based on when you praise/scold their drill results determine the following:
| Bonding | Focus | Stress | Policy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Effort Praise | +2 | +30 | -80 | +5 |
| High Effort Scold | 0 | 0 | +150 | -15 |
| Mid Effort Praise | +1 | +15 | -80 | +5 |
| Mid Effort Scold | +1 | +30 | +80 | -5 |
| Low Effort Praise | -1 | 0 | -150 | +20 |
| Low Effort Scold | +2 | +30 | +80 | -10 |
As you can see, praising will always reduce stress and make monster more lenient, where scolding does the opposite. Be careful when scolding a monster when it's considering the effort put out being high.
Note: Multiple praises/scolds do stack. And praising/scolding a monster while it is resting uses mid effort values.
PRAISE/SCOLD STACKING
Praising and scolding multiple times does have it's own benefit of manipulating your monster's stress and policy.
Each time you praise and scold, your monster's policy will increase/decrease based on the effort they performed on the drill that week, but the amount of stress reduction/buildup is changed!
The table below lists stress multiplier to praising and scolding. This also works interchangeably with each other. Ex: A "High Effort" praise (-80 * 100%, +5 policy) followed by a scold (+150 * 50%, -15 policy) would be -5 stress and -10 Policy.
| Praise/Scold Action | Stress Multiplier |
|---|---|
| 1 | 100% |
| 2 | 50% |
| 3 | 75% |
| 4 | 100% |
| 5 | 125% |
| 6 | 150% |
| 7 | 175% |
| 8 | 200% |
| 9 | 225% |
| 10 | 250% |
Monster Size and Defense/Hit Rate
If you feed your monster fatty foods or too often, it can get chubby or fat. The opposite can happen if you only feed your monster supplements or under feed it to make it slim or thin. Monster Size has an internal value of -100 to 100 that goes up and down to fit in the given categories.
The monster's DEF and SPD stat by a small amount depending on its current size, but this will also affect the monster's fatigue or stress while training!
| Size | Form | DEF/SPD Multiplier | Fatigue Multiplier | Stress Multiplier |
| Fat | 51 ~ 100 | DEF: 110% | 2x | 1x |
| Chubby | 26 ~ 50 | DEF: 105% SPD: 95% | 1.5x | 1x |
| Normal | -25 ~ 25 | DEF: 100% | 1x | 1x |
| Slim | -26 ~ -50 | DEF: 95% SPD: 105% | 1x | 1.5x |
| Thin | -51 ~ -100 | DEF: 90% SPD: 110% | 1x | 2x |
FOOD INTEREST CATEGORY
Every monster one category of food they will "Really Like", "Like", "Dislike", "Really Dislike", and "Hate". The table below shows how it affects them when you feed them one that fits the category. Food NEVER raises stress! There's a bug in the game when your monster's hunger status over-prioritizes stress. Once hunger has been lowered, the game will show if it is currently stressed.
You can find food interests under the monster types section of this guide.
| Really Like | Like | Dislike | Really Dislike | Hate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fullness Multiplier | 1.25x | 1.125x | 0.875x | 0.75x | Refuses Food! |
| Policy Change | 2 | 1 | -2 | -4 | Refuses Food! |
ITEM INTEREST CATEGORY
Every monster one category of gift items they will "Really Like", "Like", "Dislike", "Really Dislike", and "Hate". The table below shows how it affects them when you gift them one that fits the category.
Items NEVER raises stress! You can find item interests under the monster types section of this guide
| Really Like | Like | Dislike | Really Dislike | Hate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Policy Change | 2 | 1 | -2 | -4 | Refuses Item! |
FAVORITE FOOD/ITEM
Every monster has a favorite food or gift item that will provide them +1 point to policy. Favorite food/item be listed under the monster types section of this guide.
REST EFFECTS
Rest only affects 4 different values: Fatigue, Stress, Hunger, and Policy.
It does not affect the monster's Bonding or Form under any condition. Depending on the monster's Fatigue value, it's policy will increase a certain amount.
| Rest Action | Fatigue | Stress | Hunger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rest | -370 | -250 | ~-66 |
| Rest w/ Aroma Pot | -370 | -300 | ~-66 |
| Rest w/ Sweet Incense | -490 | -250 | ~-66 |
| Rest w/ Aroma Pot + Sweet Incense | -490 | -300 | ~-66 |
| Rest at Fatigue Intervals | Policy Buildup |
| Fatigue < 100 | +3 |
| Fatigue 100-299 | +2 |
| Fatigue 300+ | +1 |
DRILL ACTIONS
Drills can sometimes be VERY random with Fatigue/Stress/Hunger values...even if the monster's effort percentage is consistent.
Below are a best estimation of their ranges.
| Drill Level | Fatigue | Stress | Hunger | Form Reduction | Bonding |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lv. 1 Drills | ~70-100 | ~60-90 | ~110-140 | 0-1 | 0-2 |
| Lv. 2 Drills | ~120-150 | ~110-140 | ~150-180 | 1-2 | 0-2 |
| Lv. 3 Drills | ~180-240 | ~120-160 | ~225-290 | 1-2 | 0-2 |
| Lv. 4 Drills | ~180-300 | ~140-230 | ~205-332 | 2-3 | 0-2 |
TOURNAMENT FATIGUE/STRESS
Depending on whether your monster likes Battles, dislikes Battles, or think of it indifferently.
The end of each tournament will build fatigue/stress depending on which category they fall under.
You can see if your monster is affected by Battles under their Record section.
| Fatigue | Stress | Hunger | |
|---|---|---|---|
Likes Battles & Win | 229 | -60 | 100 |
Likes Battles & Loses/Retire | 300 | 20 | 100 |
| Neutral Win | 229 | 0 | 100 |
| Neutral Loss/Retire | 300 | 0 | 100 |
Dislikes Battles & Win | 229 | 20 | 100 |
| Dislikes Battles & Loses/Retire | 300 | 100 | 100 |
ADVENTURE FATIGUE
Adventures causes no detriment to monsters in anyway except for building fatigue. The table below lists how much fatigue your monster will get after leaving adventure.
You can adventure as often as you like as long as you manage their fatigue!
Fatigue | |
|---|---|
| Return to Ranch / Complete Dungeon | 150 |
| Quit Adventure / All Monsters KO'd | 500 |
KNOWN LIFESPAN HITS
This table list all penalties and how much life a monster will lose. The monster has to accumulate at least a penalty of 1 week lost to lose life. Example: 1 week of Tired Status (Fatigue 500-699) will not lose life, but two weeks of Tired Status (Fatigue 500-699) will.
You can prevent lifespan hits by reducing stress/fatigue/hunger as long as it has been reduced BEFORE the next week begins! So if a drill makes your monster frustrated or starving, it's not too late to fix it!
Monster Status | Value | Weeks Lost |
| Tired Status (Shown at 501 Fatigue) | Fatigue 300-499 | 0.2 Weeks |
| Fatigue 500-699 | 0.6 Weeks | |
| Worn-Out Status (Shown at 751 Fatigue) | Fatigue 700-899 | 1.2 Weeks |
| Exhausted Status (Shown at 901 Fatigue) | Fatigue 900+ | 2 Weeks |
| Frustrated Status (Shown at 301 Stress) | Stress 300-499 | 0.2 Weeks |
| Stress 500-699 | 0.6 Weeks | |
| Irritated Status (Shown at 601 Stress) | Stress 700-899 | 1.2 Weeks |
| Stress 900+ | 2 Weeks | |
| Hungry Status (Shown at 399 Hunger) | Hunger 101-400 | No Penalty! |
| Starving Status (Shown at 99 Hunger) | Hunger <=100 | 0.5 Weeks |
| Hunger == 0 | 0.5 Weeks + 100 Stress & Fatigue |
Focus: Health & Lifespan
Besides the Fatigue and Hunger gauge. The Focus gauge (5 red flags) is a highly reliable way to determine how your monster is feeling and what they may need to be in top shape for Drills, Tournaments, or Adventures.Whenever your monster has accumulated at least 250 points in Fatigue/Stress/Hunger, they will lose 1 focus point.
This visual reference/information also works in tandem with each other, So if your monster has at least 250 Fatigue and 250 Hunger, You would see 3 out of 5 focus points available
Below is a table that lists how many focus points are lost with monsters. It's not expected that you remember how each point is lost with your monster.
If a monster has at lost at least 1 focus point, then your monster's fatigue, hunger, or stress needs to be recovered. Give the proper food, item, or praise to recover each stat appropriately.
If it is still not at 5 focus points, then one of the gauges are much higher than normal and needs more tending for recovery!
| Focus Points | Info |
|---|---|
-1 | Stress/Fatigue/Hunger gauge accumulated at least 250 points |
| -2 | One of Stress/Fatigue/Hunger gauge has accumulated at least 900 points |
| -2 | Two of Stress/Fatigue/Hunger gauge has accumulated at least 750 points |
| -2 | One of the Stress/Fatigue/Hunger gauge has accumulated 750 points and the other Two have 500+ points |
| ALL FOCUS | Stress, Fatigue and Hunger gauge has accumulated 750+ points |
Managing the Ranch
In the beginning of the game, you will be introduce to new features to manage your ranch by adding training gadgets to further strengthen monsters. Additionally, area of the Ranch can be re-arranged to your liking. As you progress in the game, the Ranch will expand to allow you to raise more monsters and use more training gadgets!
Gadgeteers
Gadgeteers are laborers that specialize in the art of making training gadgets.
A gadgeteer will visit your ranch every 4 months, on the 1st week; either February wk1, June wk1, or October wk1.
- Pollock is your usual, go-to gadgeteer If you need to appraise tablets, re-arrange your ranch, or build new training gadgets.
- Swift is a special gadgeteer that will appear later in the game when you learn about medals. After his first appearance, he will replace Pollock occasionally (every 2Yr6Mo) after his initial arrival. Be sure to plan to use your medals the next time he arrives!
The Carpenter, Ranches, Houses, & Huts
After the introduction of training gadgets, you will notice that you're limited on space and size to design the ranch as you see fit. At certain events of the game, Cesare will hire a carpenter to stop by your ranch and expand it!
Yu is the carpenter and she only appears a few times in the game. But thankfully each time you see her, you will be gifted with new homes and extra land! Take a look at the tables below to view each quality of life improvement!
| Ranch Size | Area | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Small Ranch | 4 x 4 | 5 Gadgets on field |
| Normal Ranch | 6 x 4 | 7 Gadgets on field |
| Big Ranch | 8 x 6 | 10 Gadgets on field |
| House/Hut | Space | Effect |
| Poor House | 2 x 2 | Holds 8 Training Gadgets |
| Poor Hut | 2 x 2 | Raise 1 Monster |
| Normal House | 2 x 2 | Holds 8 Training Gadgets |
| Normal Hut | 2 x 3 | Raise 3 Monsters |
| Great House | 3 x 3 | Holds 16 Training Gadgets |
| Great Hut | 3 x 4 | Raise 5 Monsters |
Ranch Layout - 1 to 3 Monsters
With too many monsters you may lack the gadgets needed to raise them decently as well as being an exercise in heavy micro-management, so this is optimized for 1 to 3 monsters.
- At the maximum Ranch size and upgrades, this is an optimal use of space.
- After placing the House, Hut and Passive items, you can fill in the "Gadget" spaces with any of your preferred gadgets.
Battling Monsters
Monster battles are action-based where it requires the monster to move between 3 different ranges (CLOSE, MID, FAR) while managing guts to perform different skills. The goal is to win by KO (knockout) or Time Out (when available).Monsters moves at different speeds, regenerate guts, and have strengths/weaknesses unique to that monster. Each monster can use an action, push, or step in/out of a range.
Critical hits do 1.5x life and guts damage.
Battle Effects
Before I get into the game's unique mechanics, I should touch up on battle effects since they're not explained in the English version of the game.
| Effect Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Final Guts | Chance to activate when life reaches 0. Effect: Revives with 1 percent of life |
| Team Up | Activates when team gauge builds up. Effect: Increase guts regen and 2nd monster assists in attack. 10 seconds |
| Bullish | The lower the monster's bond, the easier to activate. Effect: Monster moves forward, skills are sealed, and unable to defend against attacks. 2 seconds |
| Timidity | The lower the monster's bond, the easier to activate. Effect: Monster moves backward, skills are sealed, and unable to defend against attacks. 2 seconds |
| Palsy | Additional effect on attacks. Effect: Decreases movement speed, skill damage, and guts regeneration. 5 seconds |
| Slow | Additional effect on attacks. Effect: Decreases movement speed, skill damage, and guts regeneration. 5 seconds |
| Addled | Additional effect on attacks or chance to activate from countering square attacks. Effect: 60% chance to cause monster to become Timid/Bullish. 5 seconds |
| Curse | Additional effect on attacks. Effect: Decreases skill damage. 5 seconds |
| Poison | Additional effect on attacks. Effect: 1% over time and guts regen down. 5 seconds. Note: If Life under 100, DoT will not take effect. |
| Caution | Activates from using a dodge skill. Effect: Guarantees avoiding next attack. |
| Real | Chance to activate when opponent's life drops below 25%. Effect: Increases movement speed, skill damage, and guts regen. 5 seconds |
| Weak | Activates after Real ends. Effect: decreases movement and guts regen. Increases damage received. |
| Fury | Chance to activate after receiving critical hit. Effect: Increases skill damage, decreases defense. 10 seconds |
| Composed | Activates after hitting 2 unanswered attacks in a row. Effect: Increases movement speed, guts regen, and speed. Decreases defense. 10 seconds |
| Guard | Activates after receiving 3 attacks in a row. Effect: Power and defense increases. movement speed down.10 seconds |
| Nilvana | Activates after avoiding 3 attacks in a row. Effect: Intellect and speed Increases. guts damage received increases.10 seconds |
| Force | Force: Chance to activate from countering cross attacks. Effect: Guts regeneration 10 seconds |
| Seal | Chance to activate from countering circle attacks. Effect: enemy's current attack range is locked out. 6 seconds |
| Barrier | Activates from using a defense skill. Effect: Increases defense. 6 seconds |
| Maximize | Activates after using a monster's special skill. Effect: All stats except Life increases. |
Skill RPS and Counter System
Monster Rancher 4 puts a twist on battles by including an RPS (Rock-Paper-Scissors) on button presses that rewards the aggressor in some way if their move connects.
- Pressing square raises your skill's damage by 3%, but decreases accuracy by 3% too.
- Pressing circle raises your skill's accuracy by 3%, but also decreases damagy by 3%.
- Pressing cross (or X) keeps original damage and accuracy values. Consecutive hits increases DMG + ACC by 1%.
To counter, hold L2 and press the same button you predict the opponent will use. If correct, you will deal damage and possibly gain a 2nd effect! But if you're wrong, you're guaranteed to take the hit!
Tag System
Monster Rancher 4 is centered around playing monsters in teams of 2 or 3. To encourage the player to take advantage of this, the player can freely tag and use 'Team Up' effect over time.
If your monster takes a hit or has low guts, you should take advantage of rotating your monster out to heal some life or regenerate guts while another monster covers the front.
The 'Team Up' effect is a hidden gauge that fills over time. Depending on each of your monster's temperaments it can fill fast to use it often! or pretty slow when it's only used once or twice. Team Up is actually the one true "counter-play" to the opponent using counter; the opponent is not able to use counter when Team Up is active!
Physical and Element Stats
Each monster in Monster Rancher 4 has a unique set of physical/element stats. Element stats are shown to you, but physical stats are hit. Physical stats are purely for defense and a skill could be based on one of its three types, Hit, Cut, Pierce. Assuming your monster has the same POW/INT and DEF stat as the enemy's POW/INT stat, each point of your monster's physical defenses increases/decreases by 4%.
An example would be Golem, it has a massive 5 points in Hit, it has 20% boosted defense to hit attacks compared to other monsters and that's not including his Rock Body trait! In contrast, Kirin (Zuum/???) has -5 in its physical attributes, so it will take 20% more damage.
Element stats are shown, and they affect your monsters in more ways than one! They affect your monster's offense and defense! Assuming that your monster has the same ACC stat to the enemy's SPD stat, using a skill with that shared (Innate or Lored) element gives you +/-1% of accuracy for each point above/below your enemy's element. Assuming that your monster has the same POW/INT stat to the enemy's POW/INT and DEF stat, using a skill with that shared (Innate or Lored) element gives you a +/- 4% in damage.
Example: Mocchi with +5 Wind against a monster with 0 Wind. That's +5% accuracy and +20% damage buff to PetalWhirl! But if Mocchi is fighting a monster with +10 Wind, PetalWhirl has -5% accuracy and -20% damage loss. If the enemy is using a Wind skill of any type, it would have the opposite effect.
But not all monsters are raised with the exact same stats, so physical/elemental numbers can fluctuate. Element Lores and Lore+ traits can change your monsters elements to your choosing!
Element Lore
Equipping element lores to skills allow moves to become more varied according to the monster's playstyle. Here's how each lore affects an attack when equipped:
| Element | Skill Stat Changes | Secondary Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Fire Lore | +20% LIFE, -10% GUTS, +10% CRIT, -10% ACC | Palsy |
| Thunder Lore | -10% LIFE, +10% GUTS, +20% CRIT, -10% ACC | Palsy |
| Ice Lore | +10% LIFE, +20% GUTS, -10% CRIT, -10% ACC | Palsy |
| Water Lore | -10% LIFE, -10% GUTS, +20% CRIT, +10% ACC | Slow |
| Wind Lore | +20% LIFE, -10% GUTS, -10% CRIT, +10% ACC | Slow |
| Earth Lore | -10% LIFE, +20% GUTS, -10% CRIT, +10% ACC | Slow |
| Heart Lore | -10% LIFE, +20% GUTS, -10% ACC | Addled |
| Magic Lore | -10% GUTS, +20% CRIT, -10% ACC | Curse |
Bonding, Policy, & Tomfoolery/Run Wild
Your monster can sometimes choose to disobey and act foolish your depending on its current bonding gauge, and how lenient/strict you are with its policy. Tomfoolery is when the monster will be under the Bullish/Timidity effect. Bullish/Timidity will place that monster in a really bad situation where they're forced to move forward/backward, not able to attack (due to seal on panels), and unable to defend itself (guaranteed hit) for the next 2 seconds. The last part is really really important to take advantage of if you see the enemy do it too! This allows you to use your monster's most powerful skill regardless of its accuracy! Take a look down at the chart below:
| Bonding Value | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Policy | 0 | 50 | 100 |
| Lenient | 56.00% | 19.00% | 6.00% |
| Normal | 53.00% | 13.00% | 1.00% |
| Spartan | 44.00% | 6.00% | 1.00% |
Focus & Guts Meter
Your monster's focus not only plays an important role for high results training, it also affects its guts meter in battle! By keeping your monster's focus high, you can start with an advantage to attack more often!
| Focus | Guts Meter |
|---|---|
| 1 | 30 |
| 2 | 50 |
| 3 | 50 |
| 4 | 70 |
| 5 | 99 |
Note: Focus doesn't affect Guts Meter in Vs. Mode Matches; all monsters' guts meter are set to 50.
Guts and Hit Rate
Your monster's and opponents total guts affect directly affect each other's hit rate. For every 5 guts you're above the 50 Guts baseline, your monster gets +1% hit rate while your opponent gets -1% hit rate. For every 5 guts you are below 50% guts baseline, you gain -1% hit rate whlie your opponent gets +1% hit rate. Essentially, if your monster has 99 guts compared to your opponent's 0 guts, then you have a 20% accuracy advantage.