Feeding & Drill Schedules for Monster Rancher 2

Colt's Life Stage & Retirement Messages

In MR2DX Colt always gives the Prime Stage Notice.
In the 1999 version you are told only 1 time, then must gauge Prime Stage 5 by stat gains or Size Chart

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Stage based indicators:

• Stage 1-4: No messages.
• Stage 5 (Prime): One of the following:
  • #1: ... [Trainer Name], From now on, it will be a important time for [Monster Name]. Let's give it some extra care.
  • #2: ... [Trainer Name], from now on, [Monster Name]'s strength will be affected depending upon how we raise it. This is where we must use our Training Skill!
• Stage 6-10: No Messages.

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Retirement Indicators

Messages will vary slightly but the moment they occur is specific (not tied to life stage / Can occur mid-stage, though they can be offset by as much as 10 weeks if interrupted by a birthday event etc.)

• 49 weeks remaining Retirement Messages:
  #1: [Monster Name] looks very exhausted. Maybe we should consider retiring it...
  #2: Hmmm... [Monster Name] doesn't look very good these days. Maybe we should consider retiring it...

• 29 weeks remaining Retirement Messages: (May or may not receive this warning)
  #1: It doesn't look well, these days... I guess we have to consider its retirement...

• 9 weeks remaining Retirement Messages:
  #1: [Trainer Name], [Monster Name] has done enough. We should let it retire.
  #2: [Monster Name] can't go further. We better retire it soon or else we'll get into some serious trouble. Better late than never.

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Colt's Stress and Fatigue Messages

It is possible to grossly underestimate how much stress you are accruing since you are only warned about it on Week 1.
If you aren't following one of the proven raising schedule, you can use the Training Planner to validate your raising methods and make sure you're not taking unnecessary lifespan hits.

• The "stressed" or "tired" messages from Colt is an indicator that the lifespan index calculation very likely hit a point that begins reducing lifespan. (How much depends on the calculation).
• If you save frequently enough, you can Reset & Reload if you see these messages. After a reset you can try something different, such as doing a Light Drill instead of a Hard Drill (or even rest). You can wing it a bit to fit your needs based on the messages you see.
• With the No-Rest method you should not see these messages unless you do activities outside of the Feeding/Drill schedule (like scolding or refusing requests).

My Monster Likes Battle (or Dislikes it)

• After doing a tournament, you will see a screen that has 3 randomly chosen stats, and gains.
• Higher level tournaments give more Post-Battle gains than lower tournaments.
• Liking or Disliking Battle in the Monster's Preference can adjust these gains by 1 point.
  

  Monster Preference	Post Battle Gains
  Likes Battle	+1 to gains
  Dislikes Battle	-1 to gains
  No indicator	+/- 0 to gains

Death by Battle

• Taking your [maximum health value] * 3 damage or more will result in monster death.

Battle Specials and Nature

Battle specials are something that triggers during fights.

• Battle specials are initially a trait based on a monster's breed or sub-breed.
• Through combining you can begin to pass down Battle Specials of parent monsters even to monsters that don't innately have them.
• There are some exceptions of battle specials that cannot be passed down.
  • Certain Battle Specials are breed specific and will not pass down to monsters that don't include that main or sub.
  • Certain monsters are hard-coded to specifically not acquire either Anger, or Power, and will not learn this through nature adjustment, though this only applies when created directly from the Shrine.

Two battle specials are also based on a monster's current nature, and can change over time if you adjust your monster's nature from one side of the scale to the other:

Adjusting Nature while raising

• Adjustments can only be +100 or -100 from a monster's initial starting nature.
  • If your monster starts at -60 Nature, the highest it can be raised is 40, and lowest is -100.
• Raising Nature:
  • Scolding Cheats & Praising Greats.
  • Sour Jellies
  • Hero Badge (Niche use. Generally not worth wasting inventory space for a negligible amount of adjustment)
• Lowering Nature:
  • Don't Scold Cheats & Don't Praise Greats.
  • Sweet Jellies
  • Heel Badge (Niche use. Generally not worth wasting inventory space for a negligible amount of adjustment)

My monster is Skinny or Fat, what does this mean?

Form has a direct effect on your SPD and DEF at all times. It is a sliding scale between 0% (Normal) and +/- 25% (Plump/Skinny) on both stats, though never dropping below 1 or going over 999.
The game screen only shows you a vague range of their form so without tools, it's impossible to know your exact % adjustment.
At their extremes, Form affects your stats like so:

• Max Plump (+100): -25% SPD / +25% DEF
• Max Skinny (-100): +25% SPD / -25% DEF

Fatigue values between Skinny/Plump

• A single tournament of any size will incur a lifespan hit of (LI# * 3)+1. This is a minimum -4wks of life;
  • (LI# * 3) (The Battle = 3)
  • +1 (The Current Week = 1)
• Note the LI# is not the Lifespan Index value of Stress and fatigue, Refer to the Lifespan Index Table.
• Tournaments drop stress, but you can lose additional weeks lifespan if fatigue is high enough when entering a tournament. (See Training Planner)

Battles with your monster:

• On a new game, you will likely be battling a lot to bring in money to afford either progression upgrades or saving up for a raising schedule.
• For maximizing stat gains, it's recommended to avoid battle during their Prime life-stage due to the minimum 4 week lifespan hit per tournament.
• Some events require you or your monster to be a certain rank, so If you must battle to trigger the events, try to train a few years with the No-Rest method schedule before attempting to battle. Save beforehand, and be sure you can win the bracket. If not, reset and train more.
• If you have the option, Only battle towards the Older stages, (After Prime) when gains drop off.
• Skip official rank battles when ranking up (See Jump/Skip below). If you've trained until after Prime, your monster should be ready to JUMP/SKIP battles easily.

Battle Tips: Loyalty:

• Higher loyalty will result in less foolery in battle.
  • Foolery is when a monster acts confused, loses access to their Techs (All techs become ????)
• Loyalty = (Fear/2) + (Spoil/2). ^{Fear & Spoil are hidden values.}
• You can tell if you have more Fear or Spoil based on your Style
• Keeping your style at Even will help ensure you eventually get to 100 loyalty. (Doting, for example is 0 Fear and 100 Spoil. (0/2) +(100/2) = 50 Loyalty)
• When a monster gets Foolery, the attacker gets a sizable hit% bonus against the confused monster.

Fighting:

• GUTS: The more guts you have, the more damage your techs will do and the less damage you take. This applies to opponents too.
• The attacking monster's guts generation is frozen during the attack animation, while the defending monster's guts continue to generate.
• In MR2DX Enemies can attack at any guts value. In the original game enemies will NOT attack under 45 guts so you can plan/wait/attack accordingly.
• Note your enemy's stats and pay attention to the weakest one, POW (yellow techs) or INT (green techs). While fighting, attempt to stay in the range slot of the weakest moves allowing them to barely damage you while you save up your guts for optimal attacks.

JUMP/SKIP Tournament Classes & Money Tip:

• You don't have to fight as soon as you can win the next Grade tournament. You can choose to wait until you are strong enough to win S class, and climb the ranks in fewer fights.
• Once you are "S Grade Worthy" (even if your monster is currently E class), you can be S Grade ready in just 3 fights and be ready to fight in the M4 tournaments where you can get big money!
• To JUMP/SKIP over "Class Official Tournaments", fight in a Grade 1 Grade higher than your own. Winning places you 1 Grade higher than the Grade you beat!
  Example:
  • Current Grade E → Fight in IMa Official Cup (D) bracket → Get promoted to C Grade.
  • Current Grade C → Fight in IMa Official Cup (B) bracket → Get promoted to A Grade.
  • Current Grade A → Fight in IMa Official Cup (S) bracket → Get promoted to S Grade.

Drugs and When to use them

This is a very abbreviated guide to using drugs.

• Monsters with long lifespans, and/or especially monsters with long baby life stages are great candidates for drug use.
• Generally you'll use Drugs in the earlier stages of life, when the gains from the drugs would surpass the gains during the lost weeks of lifespan.
• To help determine which drug to use and if it is worth the lifespan hit:
  Paradoxine (1 dose lasts 4 weeks):
  +30 POW & +30 SKI
  -10% SPD, -10% DEF
  -18 weeks lifespan:

  Troron (1 dose lasts 4 weeks):
  +10 POW & +5 SKI
  -6 weeks lifespan

For either, You can gauge how many you want to use with the Life Stage calculator.

Life Stage Calculator

Aging Type:1 (Normal) Aging Type:2 (Precocious) Aging Type:3 (Late Bloom) Aging Type:4 (Sustainable)					Prime		Lifespan:			wks
Life Stage	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Duration	10%	10%	15%	15%	10%	5%	10%	5%	5%	15%
Weeks	50	50	75	75	50	25	50	25	25	75
Remaining	500	450	400	325	250	200	175	125	100	75

Example: Type 1 at 300 weeks has 50 weeks in stage 1. One Paradoxine subtracts 18 weeks from that stage; making Stage 1 last 32 weeks. You will have gained 120 POW & 120 SKI. Could you have achieved those stats at this stage in 18 weeks without it? If not, Paradoxine might be for you!

Paradoxine Calculator

This does not factor +/- stats from Drill/Errantry.
Activity MUST be Cheat/Success/Great to receive effect.

Enter Starting Stat Value:
Paradoxine Effects:	POW (+30/wk)	SKI (+30/wk)	SPD (-10%/wk)	DEF (-10%/wk)
Wk 1: Para #1
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4
Wk 1: Para #2
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4
Wk 1: Para #3
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4
Wk 1: Para #4
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4
Wk 1: Para #5
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4
Wk 1: Para #6
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4
Wk 1: Para #7
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4
Wk 1: Para #8
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4

Save before every training, and RESET if it fails. (The drug only works on a cheat/success/great). You are also not notified of the stat gains on the training results window, but you can determine that the monster did gain the extra stats when you look at the Monster Data screen.

Training schedule with Paradoxine during Baby stages, Feeding/Training schedule will be:

Feeding Peaches

Optimizing Prime (best gains) in single player is the most efficient way to maximize stat gains. Peaches extend the life of your monster by setting its biological clock backwards by those amount of weeks. Essentially, if you feed Peaches towards the end of Prime, your monster will get to live that many weeks of Prime again. If you use them too soon (or too late) it may place you at a life-stage where stat gains are not optimal.

• DON'T Use Peaches the second your monster hits Prime!...
• 50 weeks AFTER your monster enters Prime is the time to use a Gold Peach; Obtained from ParePare expedition
• 25 weeks AFTER Prime (or 25 weeks AFTER you fed a Gold Peach) you can use a Silver Peach; Obtained from the Elder's Cup Tournament
• You can earn peaches with a different monster, and keep the items for a future monster.
• OPTIONAL: If using Paradoxine/Troron for Baby stages, you can use Peaches to extend baby stages instead, increasing the number of training drugs you can use during this stage.

Peach Recap:

• Peaches add weeks by rewinding time, which can put you into an earlier Life Stage, allowing you to increase the time spent in a particular stage.
• Peaches in Life Stage 1 extend stage 1.
• Peaches in Life Stage 2 extend stage 2.
• Peaches in any other Life Stage can rewind time to a previous live stage, however, it cannot rewind time earlier than Life Stage 2.

Various build and format examples

If you're struggling to raise your monster well enough, save up some Gold, maybe get a Gold Peach, and be ready to dive into one of these based on your needs! The amount of gold needed is minimal if you save up, and a Gold Peach has such low requirements to obtain that I feel it is safe to include in these demonstrations.

This details which drills of a feeding/drill schedule to use and when, so you can understand how to apply the schedules to any monster in practice. There are many different lifespans and aging types, your results may come sooner or later than exampled below.

Apply the following practices regardless of what you raise:

• Of the desired stats: Raise highest aptitude stat gains in the baby/early/late stages, and the lowest aptitude stat gains in and around Prime. Ignore undesired stats.
• Save-Scumming isn't required but is recommended for Failures, and especially in and around prime stages for unwasted stat gains.
• Following proper Peach feeding timings if you have a Gold or Silver Peach to use.

INT Monster (Lazy No Rest)

Training an INT attacker

Training an INT based monster is one of the easiest and straight forward raising patterns due to Drill synergy. This build aims to raise INT/SKI/SPD and supplement a bit of LIF. This allows an incredibly high chance to Dodge while being able to land almost every attack with force. You won't need much LIF, though it's recommended to raise it enough to be able to soak an unlucky hit.

The following assumes your Monsters have at least average aptitudes for INT/SKI/SPD and preferably at least one of these above average.

1. Using DX Lazy No Rest or PS1 Any Monster schedules, Use one of two Hard Drills: Meditate (or Leap whichever has the highest stat gain), and Shoot for Light Drills, until INT is about 700 (or SPD is about 500)
2. Once ~700 INT (or ~500 SPD) is reached, Swap Hard Drills (From Meditate to Leap, or vice-versa), and continue to do Shoot for Light Drills.
3. Meditate's secondary stat is SKI and Leap's secondary stat is INT so these Hard Drills support each other well and usually you'll get close to max stats, or very close, before Prime.
   • Note about Form: No-Rest method naturally makes your monster Skinny. You will likely not need to raise SPD above 760 (PS1) or 800 (DX) since maximum Skinny form (-100) increases effective SPD by 25%.
4. Weigh your monster's stat gains, if LIF gains are low and SKI gains are high, You may decide to use Run for Stages 4 through 7's Light Drills to fill out at least enough LIF to soak any unlucky hits.

^{Fresh off the shrine.}

^{Lazy No-Rest with Meditate and Shoot.>
Also save-scummed Errantry to get Twister Claw once it was 15%}

^{Switched to LIF when Prime hit @ 2.5yrs.}

^{Optional Silver Peach (+25 wks) after Prime; Continued LIF drills.}

^{Cost to Raise: 63,500 G. Maximum Skinny (+25% SPD) and effectively 999 SPD.
Clawful is still E grade but has 219 wks left (+75 wks if using Gold Peach).
This is up to 6 years remaining to do whatever else is needed.}

Other Considerations

• If you're able to qualify for a desirable tech from Errantry, learn it as soon as possible, preferably while still in stage 1 or 2. You can often acquire it with under 50% chance since each week of errantry is a roll for the tech.
• If you plan on battling early, or LIF gains are C, B, or A You can also consider alternating Shoot and Run. If LIF gains are E or D you should wait until adolescence or Prime to raise LIF.
• A monster's Aging type will determine how quickly you reach Prime. Precocious monsters will likely need to switch gears earlier for secondary stats like LIF, especially if it's a low Stat Gain value. Take advantage of the highest possible results from the lowest stat gain values for their breed during this time.
• For Precocious monsters, If your other stats aren't maxed out before swapping to LIF as the Light Drill, you can switch back to them in the later stages (or on the second pass through Prime stages when using Peaches) if needed since they gains should still be reasonable.
• Switching Hard Drills from Meditate to Leap (Or from Leap to Meditate) should be done around 675 if INT and SPD gains are A since you will likely be getting near capped gains from these drills in the mid-stages even without Greats.
• It's OK if stats aren't drilled to 999. You'll get bonus Stats from tournaments. More bonus from higher tournaments.

POW Monster (Lazy No Rest)

Training a POW monster without Paradoxine or Troron

Training a POW based monster takes a little bit of patience and a bit more time as you may have to regain dropped stats from previous Hard Drills. The following assumes your Monsters have at least average aptitudes for POW/LIF/SKI with preferably one of these above average, and following proper Peaching rules (Feed Gold Peach 50 weeks after Prime, or Silver peach 25 weeks after Prime or Gold Peach).

1. Using the DX Lazy No Rest or PS1 Any Monster schedules, Use Pull as the Hard Drill. Use Run or Shoot (whichever has the highest stat gain) for the Light Drill.
2. If you can qualify for a desirable tech from Errantry, try to acquire it in stage 1 or 2, or wait until late stages.
3. While continuing Lazy No Rest, Switch to Shoot as your Light Drill at Stage 2, or no later than Stage 3 if it was not your light drill when you started.
4. At around 900+ POW or if you reach Prime you have a decision to make: Raise SPD or not?
5. Focusing SPD: Switch to 4 Light Drills per week during Prime and Sub-Prime Weeks, doing all Dodge drills.
6. Once SPD reaches 500 or your desired limit, continue all Light Drills to raise any other stats needed, like SKI and LIF.

^{Fresh off the shrine.}

^{Lazy No-Rest with Pull and Shoot.
Sent to Errantry to get a Heavy Tech.}

^{Switched to all Dodge (SPD) during Prime.}

^{Optional Gold Peach (+50 wks) after Prime;
Continued SPD drills through Second Prime.}

^{After SPD reached 700, Switched to SKI and LIF}

^{Cost to Raise: 78,000 G. Maximum Skinny (+25% SPD) and effectively 853 SPD.
It's is still E grade but has 247 wks left (+25 wks if using Silver Peach).
This is up to 5.6 years remaining to do whatever else is needed.}

Other Considerations

Not Focusing SPD? It may be easier to raise DEF depending on the monster, but DEF is the weakest of the stats. The plus side is it continues to raise LIF.

• Choosing DEF: continue Lazy No-Rest but with Swim as the Hard Drill.
• You can keep committing to Shoot, or alternate Shoot and Dodge depending on what you're comfortable with

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• Optional: Spend stage 1 feeding Mangos & Mint Leaves if you're low on cash and stick to just best stat gain Light Drills.
• Optional: Use Magic Bananas and Nuts Oil to raise loyalty only doing the highest stat gain Light Drills. This will require save scumming for the 10 Magic Bananas you feed but will get you to 100 Loyalty in about 13 to 15 weeks.
• It's OK if stats aren't drilled to 999. You'll get bonus Stats from tournaments. More bonus from higher tournaments.

Expedition Monster (Lazy No Rest)

^{This Expedition monster was fed Gold and Silver peach at this point
and has 315 weeks of Lifespan to farm expeditions with!}

Training an Expedition Monster

You'll want to be able to do this with as little interruption as possible as to avoid accidental lifespan hits from losing track of weeks. Try to have at least 60,000 G saved up before beginning, which gives you about 4 years of No-Rest in a row (give or take with item sales).

1. Using DX Lazy No Rest or PS1 Any Monster schedules, Do Meditate as your Hard Drill, and alternate Study/Run for Light Drills until INT is about 700.
   • If your monster has E or D in LIF gains, Use Meditate and Study for the first life stage or two. Around stage 3 begin alternating Study/Run for the Light Drill (or only Run) as needed.
2. Once ~700 INT is reached, Replace Meditate with Pull as your Hard Drill, and continue to alternate Study/Run for Light Drills until POW (350+) and LIF (max 700) are in a comfortable spot for you.
   • Depending on Gains or 900 INT: Only Pull and Run after switching from INT (or alternate Run/Shoot if you need to reach 300 SKI)
3. Fight in D official, then fight in C official. (Freeze your monster between officials if you want to save a bit of lifespan)
4. Optionally Use a Star Prune if you need to reach 50 Fame.
5. Optionally use Light Drills to top off any remaining stats you might want in INT/LIF/POW/SKI.
6. Optionally Gold+Silver Peach and your monster is Expedition ready!

^{Depending on your chosen monster's gains you may need to adjust the drills slightly. However, this schedule should help you get close enough without being too specific for exact monsters. The goal is to try to land on as close to "Optimized Expedition Stats" with as little extra topping off as possible.}

999 stats Examples -- ** Spoilers if you're new to the game! **
These monsters and items won't be available to you immediately but can still be helpful to understand game mechanics that can be applied to new players)

Teawch's Maxxed Monsters step by step tutorials/guides on YouTube.
The below example monsters are detailed out to raise from infancy to Max stats.